Vienna-Budapest-Krakow-Prague HELP

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Hi, first of all, thank you very, very much. I've been fretting over this for so long, and I know there's tons of threads and resources already but I tried sieving through them and it's quite a lot to take in.

Basically my trip is a flight into Vienna on the 10th of September and flight from Prague on the 21st. It's a little tight, but I'm planning to bus to Budapest via Orangeways on the 12th (1800 bus), train overnight into Krakow on the 16-17th and the train overnight into Prague on the 19-20th. My most important consideration is cost; comfort isn't that much of a big deal to me but cost is because I'm actually starting college after this and really want to save. I was intending to bus all the way then found out about SparNight which seems like an awesome deal.

From what I've read, there's SparNight offers for Budapest-Krakow and Krakow-Prague, but I can't for some reason book anything on the MAV website. Following the guide, I can get to step 2 fine and see the timetable, but I can't get any prices at all after customizing my seat and D.O.B no matter what type of seat I choose. Is it because I'm too late and they are all booked up, or because I'm intending to purchase a one-way ticket instead of a return ticket?

Thank you for helping, I really, really appreciate this. It's pretty much the first time I'm going overseas on my own and I'm getting a little flustered by the planning. Thanks!

Following the guide, I can get to step 2 fine and see the timetable, but I can't get any prices at all after customizing my seat and D.O.B no matter what type of seat I choose. Is it because I'm too late and they are all booked up, or because I'm intending to purchase a one-way ticket instead of a return ticket?

The answer is because it's too early MAV website allows to book such SparNight tickets starting 90 days in advance, so as of today last date of sale is Sept.11. Also remember that there is no seating carriages on route Budapest-Krakow, so it's only couchette (from 39 euro) or sleeper (from 45 euro). Seating carriage (from 29 euro) you can get only till Katowice (on Budapest-Warsaw carriages, which travel with Krakow ones till Katowice). So if you check a bit earlier dates, then you should be able to see and even can try go step by step till the last purchase page

Things with Krakow-Prague are a bit more complicated, since first of all there is no discounted tickets sold for this route (there is only one direct overnight train), discounted 19 euro tickets to Prague are available only for daytime Warsaw-Prague train, which again can be caught in Katowice. As result, in case you don't want to pay full fare for traveling with direct overnight train, you'll need to do some tricks. For instance: a) when in Poland buy international ticket from Krakow till the first Czech station (Bohumin), which will be 20 euro, while before that buy online via Czech Railways eShop ticket Bohumin-Prague for the same train (330 CZK), thus you won't even need to get off train in Bohumin, but just show different tickets before and after. You can save even more with 'breaking' tickets Krakow-last Polish station with Polish domestic tariff, international cross border ticket and finally Bohumin-Prague with Czech domestic, but that's complicates the picture even more; b) even cheaper option, but a bit more tricky is buy in advance, might sound weird, but from Slovak Railways (!) website SparNight ticket from Zilina to Prague (couchette starts from 27 euro) for train #440 'Excelsior', then just take evening bus from Krakow to town called Cieczyn (check google maps), arrive there, cross the border by foot to Czech part of the town (Cesky Tesin) and board your #440 train (at 22:38) with the SparNight ticket you already have

I'm planning to bus to Budapest via Orangeways on the 12th (1800 bus)...

Well, Orangeways isn't very reliable company, so as a suggestion maybe it will be a good idea to use a different one, like Hungarian Eurolines, especially since it's even cheaper (from 2900 HUF)

Wow, thanks!! You have been a great great help, it's a relief to know that I'm too early instead of too late.

Regarding the Krakow-Prague route, is it pretty much guaranteed to get a ticket from Krakow until Bohumin? As you can tell I'm the sort who frets about this kind of thing aheh, would really suck to be there and realise I can't get into Prague. That said, I'd really love to go with the cheapest option which doesn't seem THAT complicated, however -

cross the border by foot to Czech part of the town (Cesky Tesin) and board your #440 train (at 22:38) with the SparNight ticket you already have

I'm just wondering, how do I cross the border on foot? Pardon me, because I'm not even from UK or Europe, I'm not sure how border controls work over there. Is there some sort of customs clearance or something?

...is it pretty much guaranteed to get a ticket from Krakow until Bohumin?

Well, couchette and sleepers might get sold out during high-season (while your date are already a bit after), but with seating carriage there is nothing to worry about regarding availability.

I'd really love to go with the cheapest option which doesn't seem THAT complicated

People different, so we kind of always feel that it is better to inform in advance about option being not really straight forward (--> one ticket one train type), since some consider any train changes or/and buying more than one ticket for a single ride to be a bit complicated

...how do I cross the border on foot? Pardon me, because I'm not even from UK or Europe, I'm not sure how border controls work over there. Is there some sort of customs clearance or something?

Crossing border by foot is more like a figure of speech in this case, since both Poland and Czech Republic are in schengen area, so all the border and custom controls are abandoned, thus you can travel free and in many instances you won't even notice that you crossed the border, especially in cases like Cieszyn-Cesky Tesin (meaning when it's basically one town). So your task will be just to walk from one side of the town to the other (in that case it's like 2 km), nothing extraordinary regarding border crossing

Hi again, thanks for all the great help! Yea, I understand what you mean by the straightforward matter. Don't get me wrong though, I really appreciate your help. I'd just like to check, though, regarding the various options -

Regarding the first option, if I get a seating carriage for the first Krakow-Bohumin portion and I book a couchette from Bohumin to Prague do I just go to the couchette after I reach Bohumin? Or does this mean I have to stay in the same carriage? I am sorry if this seems a little dumb, I have literally taken only 1 train trip in my entire life so I'm not really sure if it works like air travel where we are allocated our seats. It just seems strange that I don't have to get off at all, do I just take my luggage at Bohumin and move to the new carriage for the Bohumin to Prague portion?

Regarding the last option, if I book from Zilina to Prague, how do I get from Cesky Tesin to Zilina, or did you mean book a ticket from Cesky Tesin to Prague?

I realised as well that the Czech Railways shop also doesn't allow me to book so early in advance, so unfortunately I might have more questions when the time eventually comes...I'm so sorry about that!!

...if I get a seating carriage for the first Krakow-Bohumin portion and I book a couchette from Bohumin to Prague do I just go to the couchette after I reach Bohumin?

Yes, as simple as that.
If to say roughly, then with train travel in Europe (particularly in cases like yours)  potentially you need to have two types travel documents: a) 'ticket' itself, which is issued for a specific route and b) 'seat/bed reservation', which is issued for a specific train departure and seat. In some cases trains doesn't require am obligatory seat reservation, so just need to have the ticket part and you are free to board the train and take any unoccupied seat. But when you want to travel in couchette or sleeper carriage, then bed reservation is always obligatory.
But coming back to your case, you can even have two different tickets (like international Krakow-Bohumin and domestic Bohumin-Prague) combined with one bed reservation Krakow-Prague, what will allow you to take your bed right after Krakow and not to wait till Bohumin, the only thing you'll need is to give both tickets and reservation to the conductor from the very beginning.

...how do I get from Cesky Tesin to Zilina

You don't. It might sound a bit illogical, but you skip leg Zilina-C.Tesin and use the ticket only for part C.Tesin-Prague, meaning you board the train later. In any way passenger having ticket and reservation for a specific route can use it on the length of the whole route or only on part doesn't matter.

I realised as well that the Czech Railways shop also doesn't allow me to book so early in advance, so unfortunately I might have more questions when the time eventually comes

No problem, we are always ready to help

Hi! I'm terribly sorry for reviving an old thread, but I kind of need help again now that I'm actually ready to book the tickets. I realised that the Slovak railways website requires an ID number for booking of tickets online with max 10 digits, do I have to enter a Slovak ID? Terribly sorry if this is a stupid question but I'm really not sure what I'm supposed to do. Thanks!

I realised that the Slovak railways website requires an ID number for booking of tickets online with max 10 digits, do I have to enter a Slovak ID?

No, you need to enter your ID (meaning passport) number. Don't worry it's not just about Slovak EU ID number (which most of the locals use)