Direct or change over with a short sightseeing? Would prefer the second option
Well, easiest destination for a stopover probably Ostrava, you can google and see yourself whether it can be of interest to you, also an interesting experience might be going from Prague to Cesky Tesin and then walking to Polish part of the town (it's split between two countries). In both cases, imho, it's possible to manage in the format "early morning dep. from Prague-stopover-late evening arr. to Krakow". Or, you can even travel something like Prague-Brno-Krakow, but Brno deserves more than a couple hours. Anyhow, suggestion for you would be just take a look at attractions of your interest in eastern part of Czech Republic, it's more or less easy to make a stop anywhere in the region.
If I buy from www.cd.cz/eshop should I buy early for cheaper tickets (how many days in advance) or should I buy when in Prague?
Ticket purchase in advance will allow you to get relatively cheap (20 euro) discounted ticket Prague-Krakow (although it won't be a direct train), while standard fare here is 43,4 euro. In case of stopover ticketing options will depend on where you want to make it, but in general in advance ticket purchase can get you cheaper domestic Czech ticket as well.
Also take into consideration that besides CD (Czech Railways) route from Prague to Krakow (with change to bus closer to the border) served by private rail company -
Leo Express 2. Krakow - Budapest: Sleeper train
This seems to be the difficult one. Some sugest to start with a bus to Kosice and the sleeper trasin to Budapest.
There are no sleeper train from Kosice to Budapest (only daytime)
Are there any direct trains without change over?
Yes, direct overnight carriages Krakow-Budapest run everyday. And also there is a bus option: "new" player (
Lux Express) on the market and "old" one -
EuroLines Buying from Polish railways. Would it be cheaper to buy 60 days before? Can I get the ticket delivered to my hotel (airbnb) long before? Should I just buy in Krakow 3days before?
Unlike bus tickets on this route (which can be easily bought via bus companies websites), buying train tickets for the overnight Krakow-Budapest is tricky, since Polish Railways (PKP) still don't sell such tickets online, thus you can purchase discounted ones (couchettes from 39 euro, sleeper from 54 euro) only in Poland via PKP ticket counters. 3 days in advance all the discounted tickets will be sold out, while full standard fare one-way ticket here is enormously expensive (85 euro + another 10/16 for couchette/sleeper reservation). Thus perhaps here it makes sense simply use cheap afternoon bus (e.g. 15:00-22:00) and spend a night already in Budapest
3. Budapest - Bratislava
Buying Hungarian MAV, shoul I buy before for cheaper or buy in Budapest?
Some suggest that Return would be cheaper ticket than one way?
Everything is very easy here - no need to purchase anything in advance, since ticket fare is the same no matter when you buy. And yes, return ticket here is indeed cheaper than one-way, but ticket cashiers in Budapest know it, so they usually by default sell you return. Also, in case you have time, you might think about traveling with few hours stopover (e.g. Budapest to Esztergom (nice town to spend couple hours), then cross the Danube bridge and catch a Slovak train from Sturovo to Bratislava)
4. Bratislava - Cesky Krumlov
Should I buy www.slovakrail.sk/ ? How long before or buy in Bratislava
Well, here you have number of options in regards to route you can to take. Simply one will be Bratislava-Prague and then Prague-Cesky Krumlov, in this case in advance purchase assures cheaper tickets, since discounted tickets Bratislava-Prague start from only 15 euro, while Prague to Cesky Krumlov bought via CD (Czech Railways) website start from 189 CZK (or, as faster alternative, you can also take a direct bus, e.g.
Student Agency). At the same time you can also travel omitting Prague (either through southern Czech Republic or even via Austria)
5. Cesky Krumlov - Prague
If I buy from www.cd.cz/eshop should I buy early for cheaper tickets (how many days in advance) or should I buy when in Cesky Krumlov / Prague?
As was noted above, your options here is either direct bus or train with change in Ceske Budejovice. Standard train ticket for Cesky Krumlov-Prague costs 275 CZK, but even for tomorrow you can get online tickets as cheap as 199 CZK
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