Travelling Eastern Europe

grandchamps

Hey,

I am just wondering if anyone can help me with a quick query. Am looking to travel to some cities in Eastern Europe in a few months. No set route let but places like Krakow, Bratislava, Budapest, Zagreb etc.

I wasn't thinking of buying the interrailing ticket as for the places I am going I was thinking that it might just be cheaper to buy single tickets when needed.

I was just wondering if anyone had a website where it is possible to get an idea of what single fare tickets would cost? Then I would be able to compare prices? Ive tried a few but maybe just been going wrong so far.

Thanks.

Prefect_1998

just back from doing a bit of a mini tour of

croatia
hungary
slovakia
czech replublic


i used busses and trains with no interrail ticket, bought on the fly as needed, i am only back a week so have the fares still stuck in my head.. and if you need a ticket from bratislava to budapest i can give you my return ticket as i did not use it.:D

MadsL

The man in seat sixty-one knows everything there is to know about travelling the world by train. Hell, he can get you to Australia by train.
http://www.seat61.com/

Other than that, buy the Thomas Cook Timetable for Europe, train lovers bible...

spurious

Here's the Polish trains site - they have their version of an English version, but if you have even rudimentary Polish it's easy find your way round.

Be aware that some of the slow trains are very slow indeed.

grandchamps

Cheers for the info guys.

Might just take ya up on the ticket, ha!! How much would you say was the most expensive trip that you made over there?

MadsL

You can also buy regional railpasses for various parts of Central Europe (what most people call Eastern Europe )

http://www.ricksteves.com/rail/easterneurope.cfm#east

The German and Austrian rail site are excellent for European train travel as they have a full English version.

http://www.oebb.at/en/

http://www.bahn.com/i/view/GBR/en/index.shtml

I made the trip from Prague to Zagreb a few years ago (then rented a car to get up to Sarajevo for New Year) - I really, really recommend Zagreb; it reminds me of Prague back when I lived there in the 90s, faded elegance. I much prefer it to Prague these days. One tip for Zagreb is for one of the best (friendliest) hostels I ever stayed in is http://www.hobobearhostel.com/home/ - a free beer in your hand before you have taken your bag off your shoulder, and an introduction to everyone, including their awesome Labrador dog.

There is an excellent service Prague > Vienna > Zagreb, which includes the possibility of a sleeper service.

Here's a link showing a few options from the English language Czech trains site: Linky

Buying tickets for this is almost impossible online, and I cannot remember what we paid, but I think it was in the region of €200 for a return with sleeper Prague to Zagreb. I would probably take a slower route next time; the sleeper is fabulously equipped (even an onboard shower) but changing trains in Vienna at 6am is a pain.

A slower train with a rail pass for instance would allow you time to visit some of the following:

Praha ->
České Budějovice (wonderful town - home of Budvar beer) ->
Summerau (tiny Austrian village) ->
Linz (third largest Austrian city) ->
Villach (pretty-ish border town) ->
Zagreb