Budapest to Prague: Overnight Train

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Hi,

I came across this website from the Tripadvisor forum and going through the tips and tricks, I find it really useful. :-)

I am sure this topic has been posted somewhere but somehow I cannot get to book the tickets via MAV. We are 4 people (family) travelling from Budapest (Keleti?) to Prague on the night of 23rd August (so I guess I am well within the 60 day threshold for booking). We would like to have a couchette/sleeping compartment (2x2) for us. However MAV shows no availability (already!) for the dates. I cross-checked with German Railways yesterday (easy since I am sitting in Germany :-)) and they said both are available and the couchettes cost ~€480 while 2x2 sleeping compartments would set us back by ~€550. This appears to me to be too expensive compared to the prices I have read here and also on other forums.

I would be grateful for any tips on how best to book the tickets on MAV (only one-way, no return) and also on a heads-up regarding whether the German rail prices are in the right range (in that case I can book from here). Thanks a lot for your help. :-)

Cheers!

However MAV shows no availability (already!) for the dates.

The issue seems to be not in the fact that all the discounted tickets are already sold out, but technical nuance - with EuroNight "Metropol" train (Budapest-Prague-Berlin) on leg between Budapest and Prague run two groups of carriages (Budapest-Berlin with arr. to Prague at 4am and Budapest-Prague, which in the middle of the night makes a couple hour stopover in Pardubice and get reattached to other train with arr. to Prague at 6am), thus de-facto while starting from Budapest with the same train you can arrive to Prague at two different times. As result nowadays choosing Budapest-Prague via MAV website doesn't seems to work for either options

I cross-checked with German Railways yesterday (easy since I am sitting in Germany :-)) and they said both are available and the couchettes cost ~€480 while 2x2 sleeping compartments would set us back by ~€550. This appears to me to be too expensive compared to the prices I have read here and also on other forums.

DB quoted you a full fare price, that is why the sum is over the moon. Even today via DB website you can actually get 'Saving-Night' discounted ticket for 59 euro couchette (the only nuance is that in order to buy from DB the arr. station needs to be in Germany, but you simply get off earlier in Prague)  -->


Or same thing via MAV website (this time you can just take Czech station after Prague and again get off a bit earlier)

Thanks a lot for the detailed clarification. I went for the German rail booking option (to Dresden). Looking forward to the trip.

Cheers!

Hi.
In further details to tUt's explanation, what can I do?

I have tried to book overnight train from Budapest to Prague on couchette for 4 person for 10 Dec 2015 using the tutorial guide.

Departing station: Budapest Keleti

Arriving station: Praha hl.n. / Praha-Holešovice

However, it says "No offer available for the journey with these conditions. For the list of available offers click here"

Alternatively I tried changing my search to seat (2nd class & 1st class), and there are options for me to choose but they are all day trains.

My question is, have they discontinued the night trains? And how can I purchase the overnight trains?

My question is, have they discontinued the night trains? And how can I purchase the overnight trains?

No, overnight train (Budapest-Prague-Berlin, "Metropol") is still running (and will be running next year). This problem with ticket purchase is old - Hungarian Railways (MAV) somehow don't won't to fix their module, so it will be possible to enter "Budapest" & "Prague" and get what you want.
Solution might be simply purchase ticket not to Prague, but one of the next stations on trains route (e.g. Usti nad Labem, Decin, Dresden) something like this -->


and then either get off earlier (in Prague) or indeed travel till the next station (Usti or Decin) & then come back to Prague (might make sense in case you don't want to get off in Prague at 4am)