Amsterdam - Berlin - Prague - Vienna - Budapest

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Hello everyone

I'm a first time traveller looking to go to europe in early May 2013, I'm from Australia. A friend and I have been looking at our travel plans and have so far decided to go from Amsterdam down to Budapest with two - three days in each city. We initially looked at some flights for travel, then thought the Busabout, until we stumbled across the eurail website, which is still cheaper than Busabout and probably twice as fast. However, after reading the information from this website and realising that estimation of the tickets from city to city, we might be better off booking each train trip individually, or even breaking it up into two or more stops to save money. Having read some reviews about eurail and the extras others have had to pay for reservations, it appears exceedingly expensive for certain trips, especially those that thought the eurail 5 country ticket meant getting on and off where ever they wanted then being stung with extra fees on the day, one person mentioned paying up to 50euros, which is more than some tickets.

Anyway, it will be myself and a friend, both over the age 26 and with probably a 20kg bag each (we also have a tour from London to Paris to Amsterdam beforehand, hence all the luggage). Based on some of the websites I looked at for each country, it appears to early for me to book anything at the moment. But I was wondering if I could get some help with estimated costs, as I'm having some trouble navigating my way around some of the websites, despite the english translations. Any information would be much appreciated!

Kind regards

Kai

Based on some of the websites I looked at for each country, it appears to early for me to book anything at the moment.

Yep, in regards to your itinerary it's more about 92-60 days (depending on connection) in advance ticket sale, so you won't be able to purchase tickets for May up till February-March. Though nothing to worry about here, it's a standard practice with almost all the railways companies in Europe

But I was wondering if I could get some help with estimated costs

Well, there is a relatively easy way to find out estimated costs - you simply look for dates around two month in advance from now (like mid January). Cheapest options are usually special discounted point-to-point tickets, which are sold in limited number per departure, it's a sort of promo fares (usually something like 19, 29, 39, 49 etc. euro). But let's look at each leg:
Amsterdam-Berlin: daytime direct InterCity trains (roughly 6 hours journey) start from 39 euro. And there is also a overnight CNL train which start from 43 euro (seats), 59 euro (couchette) and 104 euro (sleeper). You can see timetables and purchase tickets via official German Railways (DB) website. If you can't/don't want to purchase your tickets in advance, then it's also possible to travel relatively cheap (comparing to full standard fare 110 euro) with tickets bought before departure, but it might involve some tricks and train changes
Berlin-Prague: again German Railways website is your helper here, but this time discounted tickets start from 29 euro (usually sold out later than cheap Amsterdam-Berlin ones)
Prague-Vienna: same idea - discounted promo fare tickets, but this time from Czech Railways website eShop, start from only 19 euro per person. With Prague-Vienna journey you again can omit buying discounted tickets in advance, but again then you'll have to do some tricks in order not to pay full fare (60 euro)
Vienna-Budapest: and again discounted tickets is your choice #1, start from 19 euro and can be bought via Austrian Railways website. A guide on how to do it - http://europetrainsguide.com/Advice/How-to-Buy-Train-Tickets/Austria-OeBB.html
As you can see, smartly and on time purchased tickets can actually allow you to spend only around 100 euro per person (app.130 AUD) for the whole itinerary (4 journeys), which is actually a good price for such type of travel plans. Also, if it's more convenient for you (like cheaper rates to fly out from), it's possible to switch a bit the plan and do Amsterdam-Berlin-Prague-Budapest-Vienna

So, as of now, we advise you to take a look at all the mentioned websites, check all the fares etc. and if you have any further questions, we will be glad to help

p.s. due to shorter distances in case of the last three legs (Berlin-Prague, Prague-Vienna and Vienna-Budapest) you can also rely on rather cheap buses, it can cut your travel expenses even more. With Amsterdam-Berlin you also can catch not very expensive bus, but it's less convenient since the distance (-->travel time) is already essential, so train is much more comfortable

Hi everyone, thanks tUt for the information very much appreciated.

Some great tips for prices and the websites were very useful, some are still very difficult to navigate around though, some difficulty on my end with the spelling of some the names of the cities. But it's working out well.

My friend and I are also looking perhaps travelling to Krakow, we looked at it before but thought it may be too far away. But looking at train prices from Prague we thought it could be okay. However, it appears that the trains are overnight only? As are most of the bus timetables running at night til early morning. However, my friend and I would prefer to travel during the day (say 9-10am departure) and arrive early evening to still enjoy some sites in Krakow. As I can't imagine we would sleep well to enjoy Krakow the next day if it were by train.
We were perhaps thinking going from Prague to Krakow then from Krakow to Budapest? Possibly by train by the looks of it. Otherwise it might be back to Prague then down to Vienna to budapest, but we can only fly out of Vienna so it means having to back track again to Vienna. Exploring a few possibilities depending on time etc.

some difficulty on my end with the spelling of some the names of the cities

Well, we can help here. In most cases it's enough just to enter regular common city name into search box on website of railways companies, but to be totally perfect it's better to enter specific stations, then you'll definitely get what you are looking for. So, in Amsterdam you need central station, it will appear as Amsterdam Centraal, while in Berlin it's called Berlin Hbf (+also tief might be added). With Prague central station is called Praha Hl.st. (=Prague Main station), so this will be your potential arrival station when coming from Berlin and departure station towards Budapest/Krakow. Krakow central station is called Krakow Glowny, in Budapest most of the international trains (including ones from Krakow and to Vienna) arrive/depart to/from Budapest-Keleti station, while in Vienna it's a bit more tricky, since when coming from Budapest you have basically two equal option, first is Wien Meidling and second is Wien Westbahnhof (in case you come from Prague most of the trains will only go through Vienna-Meidling)

However, it appears that the trains are overnight only?

At the moment yes, direct rail connection is by everyday overnight train only

However, my friend and I would prefer to travel during the day (say 9-10am departure) and arrive early evening to still enjoy some sites in Krakow

It can be done rather easily with only one (not very difficult) train change, plus you can do it really cheap, which is also a nice factor. So, in order to travel Prague-Krakow during the day you have two options: a) you can catch direct daytime train Prague-Warsaw (in the new timetable it will dep.11:29am) and take it not till Warsaw, but till Katowice. From Katowice it's only 2 hours till Krakow and trains run almost every, so it won't be a problem just make a change in Katowice. The best part is that you can get ticket Prague-Katowice for only 19 euro, while Katowice-Krakow start from <4 euro. Option b) is to catch domestic Czech train from Prague to town called Cesky Tesin (see google maps), the thing is that it is located right across the border from Polish town Cieszyn, so idea is that you arrive to Czech part of the town, then a short walk/taxi to Polish part (distance between stations <2 km) and catch direct bus to Krakow. In total you can pay for Prague-Cesky Tesin-Cieszyn-Krakow just around 20 euro

...then from Krakow to Budapest?

This journey at the moment is probably the most complicated in terms of making it cheap and comfortable at the same time, because Polish Railways don't sell (at least as of now) discounted tickets for this connection online via their website, while once you get to Krakow cheap tickets will be almost definitely sold out, so you can either just pay the full standard fare (80 euro for one-way ticket + from 9,4/14 euro for couchtte/sleeper reservation), or rely on other means of transportation (for example there is a low-cost airline serving Krakow-Budapest route - RyanAir or direct afternoon-evening bus), or do some train ticket tricks to bring full standard fare price down.

...but we can only fly out of Vienna so it means having to back track again to Vienna. Exploring a few possibilities depending on time etc.

Well, if you fly out from Vienna, then it definitely makes sense to visit Budapest first, since it will save you an extra trip. Tickets Budapest-Vienna start from 13 euro and can be bought via official Hungarian Railways website, a guide on how to do it - http://europetrainsguide.com/Advice/How-to-Buy-Train-Tickets/Hungary-MAV.html