First off, how long is this trip?  With flights to and from Europe, you probably don’t want to take too many flights within Europe if this trip is anything short of 5 weeks — your memories will be of airport departure lounges.  I find the hurry-up and wait and hassles of air travel to be much more stressful than the train. 

You’ve got an awful lot of time involved in getting between these far-flung places no matter how you travel.  Any flight takes nearly 5 hours by the time you add getting to/from the airports, check-in time and security time to a flight.  A flight in the middle of the day pretty much shoots the whole day for sight-seeing. 

I would look for a cheap flight from London to Berlin, train to Prague, train to Budapest (unless you can find a really, really cheap flight), flight to Zurich, train to Venice (maybe overnight?), train to Rome, flight to Barcelona, flight to London.

 I doubt a railpass will pay for isself, but you can uses www.railsaver.com to see.

From Prague to Budapest, the cheapest and quite comfortable way is a bus. The price is only 450 czech crowns, which is cca 18 euros, per person. Tickets can be bought in the booth marked “student agency” at Prague Florenc bus station (metro lines B and C, station Florenc). The bus departs from the same place daily at 6:30 and 16:00, arrives to Budapest some 7 hrs later (same or faster than train). The whole journey is on highways and there is a steward on board, offering free hot drinks, newspapers, movies, etc. on board.

If you have Eurail or some other kind of global rail pass, I suggest you use the trains between almost all other destinations (except London-Berlin, Rome-Barcelona and maybe Barcelona-London, for these it is better to fly – check out budget airlines flying from London Luton or London Stansted, might be a lot cheaper than those from Heathrow, but the transport to Stansted or Luton may add a lot to the price. But since I guess you’re staying in London, it doesn’t matter that much.)

WARNING, since you will travel in December:
ALL EUROPEAN RAILROAD TIMETABLES CHANGE THE NIGHT DEC 13/DEC 14, from December 14 a new (2009) rail timetable is valid, which may be hard to get in advance.

Until Dec 13, for example, there is a very comfortable night train between Budapest and Zurich (EuroNight No. 466 “Wiener Walzer”, leaving Budapest Keleti station daily at 18:05 and arriving to Zurich main station at 6:20 the next morning).

If you don’t purchase a railpass, try to look for “sparnight” offers. These must be usually booked well in advance, but offer an unbeatable price for long distance night trains (starting from 29 euros). That’s a limited offer of sleepers on an each particular train running through German-speaking regions and their neighbors (incl. Hungary and Italy, by the way).
The train must be direct (no changing).

the trip will be about 2-3 weeks.

we’re thinking about taking global railpass for 15 days for travelling from berlin until we reach barcelona and find separate transport to reach czech and depart from there. Is it worth taking a global railpass or we should take separate tickets to reduce our budget?

oh, and we’ve added paris to our list so it will be london-paris-berlin-etc

thanks in advance.

If we buy global railpass, it is not possible to travel from rome-barcelona by flight or u’re suggesting it because it is much covenient in term of travelling time?

we will consider taking bus from prague to budapest since it sounds cheap []

do you think the change in timetable will distort our timetable hugely?

thanks

Try using www.railsaver.com Follow the “I have a good idea of my itinerary” path and click “I prefer using railpasses (to point to point tickets) ‘only when it saves money.’”  it will give you a recommendation on which, if any, railpass(es) or combination of pass and point to point is best.

Are you talking about a 15 consecutive day railpass or a flexipass for 15 days of rail travel in a 2 month period. 

Just because it’s time-saving. Of course, you may also take the train. Eurostar Italia No. 9442 from Roma Termini (dep. 14:30), arriving to Milano Centrale at 19:00. Change there to Euronight TrenHotel No. 372 “Salvador Dali” departing Milano Centrale at 19:47 (in winter, runs only 3 times a week) and arrive to Barcelona Franca at 9:01 the next morning. (These times are valid in this year’s timetable.)

Both of these trains require special supplements to the basic fare (basic fare being covered by your Railpass). I don’t know the precise price for these supplements, but they alone might well be nearly as high as some lowcost airline ticket. The first train is a high speed one, the second is a luxurious hotel train AND a high-speed one.


It may seem I am doing an unpaid advertisement here for the Student Agency bus operator, but I use them all the time and am very very satisfied by their standards. Much higher than anything else in this corner of the world, yet cheaper. You won’t be disappointed.


Most probably not. Usually, most of the trains are moved just a couple of minutes back or forth, or not moved at all, but some are cancelled and some new are introduced each year. But the German Railways should have all the new timetables for all EU countries incorporated into their search engine at www.bahn.de so check before you depart.

Take a train London-Paris, an overnight train Paris-Berlin, then one of the many daytime trains between Berlin and Prague. You may use your railpass to get from Berlin to Prague as well, but since Eurail is not valid in CZ, you will have to buy a segment ticket from Bad Schandau Gr. to Prague. (Bad Schandau Gr. is the borderpoint between Germany and Czech rep. on that route. Until the borderpoint, your Eurail is still valid. After, you will use this segment ticket. It can be bought at any German train station and is not very expensive.)

Is it compulsory to pay for seat reservation after we have bought the global youth pass? Does it require the exact date that we want to travel? I don’t understand why we have to make a reservation after buying the global pass.

For most trains you don’t need a reservation. For night trains, you do because there are a limited number of beds, and some specialty trains require reservations too. 90% of the trains you’ll be on, you can just hop on and off without a second thought if you have a global pass. Exceptions are Italy (where I think all trains require reservations) and I believe Spain may have been the same way but I don’t remember.
 
 

 

I agree that “most trains” don’t require reservations, but it takes a fair amount of effort to find and take the ones that don’t.  Further, the trains at “peak” times usually do require reservations — and those are often the most convenient times for a tourist as well as the business traveler.  A “standard search” at bahn.de frequently shows only trains that require reservations — even though there are slower trains that don’t.
 
Many Italian trains don’t require reservations, but a “standard search” at bahn.de for Rome to Florence shows only the two trains every hour that require reservations.  It’s about 1 1/2 hours on these trains, while it’s 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours on the less frequent trains that don’t require reservations.  Further, Italian trains that don’t require reservations are often very crowded so any that allow reservations are often listed as “reservation recommended.” 

Really? I know it’s a “good idea” to get a reservation if you’re going to be travelling a while on a popular route just so you have a seat, but the only trains I can recall having to reserve for were sleepers and one ICE ride.

Since our sponsors no longer have a list like this that I can find (on any of their websites), I’ll post this link to Rick Steves:
http://www.ricksteve…

General rule is that it’s not compulsory. But there are trains requiring a compulsory seat reservation. Usually they are indicated in the train timetable with a symbol of a R letter in a square. Anyway it is strongly reccommended to buy a seat reservation for most long distance trains, especially in rush hour or high season. Yes, it requires a certain date, since the seat reservation is bought to the exact train (exact date and time of the journey). But usually it is sufficient to buy the reservations just a couple of hours before departure.



The total train fare comprises of these three components:
1] the basic fare according to kilometrage and class
2] if applicable, supplements for high-quality or high-speed trains (TGV, ICE, Cisalpino, Eurostar, Pendolino tilting trains, in some countries Eurocity/Intercity as well)
3] if required or desired, seat/couchette/bed tickets. Seat ticket guarantees you a chair on the train. You don’t have to buy it if that train is not “R in a square” (compulsory seat reservation), but if you don’t have it, you may be asked to give way to a person who owns a reservation for your seat. In rush hours, you may end up standing in a corridor – or sitting in the dining car the whole journey. Beds and couchettes cannot be used without a bed or couchette ticket.

The global passes ONLY cover the 1] point, basic second class fare. That’s why.

hi, If I to travel around December this year, is it essential to book the train tickets now? can you suggest the best possible time to book the tickets? thanks.

I don’t think you can buy reservations more than 2 months in advance. The cheapest/best way is to buy your reservations at the train station a day or two before departure (3 or 4 days for overnight trains) — or if you want to save line-waiting time and a trip to the station buy all your reservations at once when you know your exact schedule. Don’t buy reservations before you get to Europe unless you absolutely must take a specific train on the day you arrive in Europe — with shipping, handling and inflated prices you’ll pay more than twice as much if you buy before you get to Europe.