I would not buy the train tickets before you get to Europe if you can possibly avoid it. The tickets you’ve mentioned are international tickets which usually can’t be purchased from one of the national rail system websites. You will probably pay twice as much as you’ll pay in Europe if you buy them from a railpass website. They charge a premium for both tickets and reservations plus you usually pay a handling fees for reservations plus shipping charges.

I would try to buy these tickets 3 days to a week in advance. You should be able to buy them at any major train station in Europe. You might find the Prague-Krakow ticket slightly cheaper if you bought it in Prague than if you bought it somewhere in Western Europe.

You should buy the airline tickets in advance — sooner is usually better. Often, there’s a limited number of really cheap seats. When these sell out the price goes up.

quote:we are taking an overnight train from Florence to Prague

Such a train does not exist. You can take a night train to Munich or Vienna from Florence.

For these trains you can get cheap SparNight tickets. As these are limited in number it makes sense to book in advance.
The SparNight tickets start from EUR 29,- seated. I would recommend a sleeper economy double where the SparNight ticket is EUR 69,- (journey + accommodation + reservation per person).
You can check the availability and buy the tickets online at[url=‘http://www.nachtzugreise.de’]www.nachtzugreise.de[/url] (in German only). Otherwise you have to call the DB night train booking center
+49 1805 14 15 14

From Munich to Prague there is also a night train – but no SparNight tickets for this one. Cheaper is it to use a day time connection with local trains. This is no disadvantage on this route – the local trains (RE, VBG, RB, OS, R) are here faster than the classical far distance trains (D, IC/EC, ICE).
You can buy in Munich a Bavaria Ticket (EUR 24,00). This ticket is valid one day for all local trains in Bavaria for 2-5 persons travelling together. On weekdays however only past 9am. With this ticket you travel to the Bavarian/Czech border and there you buy a ticket for the rest from the Czech conductor (~ EUR 8,- pp). Get some Czech Koronys to pay the ticket for already in Munich.

[url=‘http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en’]DB timetable[/url]
From: Florence (Italian: Firenze)
To: Munich (German: München)
To: Prague (Czech: Praha)

Thanks for the advice, everyone. I realized that it would be a long journey and that we would probably have to stop in Vienna but I didn’t know we could go to Munich as well. So if we take an overnight train to Munich from Florence, can we take a train that morning from Munich to the Czech border? I think that’s what you’re saying, abalada. I’ll also check on the DB website…also, does a website exist in English in which we can reserve the night train? My college semester of German wasn’t much help on the website you recommended! Thanks again for the help.

Ok, folks. I need some help! I went to Die Bahn website to reserve an overnight train from Florence to Prague (the route specifically was Florence to Munich, overnight; then Munich to Prague). Die Bahn wouldn’t let me just reserve the tickets, I had to purchase them. It didn’t give me a price though, just said that the service center would calcultate the cheapest price for the tickets. Well, I got the tickets today and it comes to a grand total of 298 Euros. This is for a 2-person couchette and all the train fares for that trip. This is far too expensive for us, and I need some advice on the next step. Has anyone dealt w/Die Bahn before and do you know if I can either change my reservation or cancel it? Any advice would be appreciate. Thanks!

If you don’t a get better response, repost this as a new thread with a more specific subject.

First off, 298 euros isn’t out of line for what would be a fairly long distance train ride and fairly "luxurious" accomodations for 2 people. 2 berth compartments seem to be priced to compare with a well located, nice hotel room in a major city + the cost of the train ride.

However, for your problem. 1) tell your credit card company there’s a problem and file necessary disputed charge stuff. 2) look around the terms and conditions on the De Bahn site to see what it says about refunds, changing reservations, etc. Hopefully there’s a way out since you didn’t know how much money you were committing to — or your credit card company may back you up for that reason.

Good luck. I was unsuccessful in getting a refund for a sleeper that was booked for the wrong day — mostly because I didn’t notice the error in time.

Hi guys.. i’ve been reading some of the postings but am still confused. I want to get from munich to prague, from what i’ve read so far, taking a local train to the czech border, then from there take a train to prague. Is this the fastest and cheapest way? And is it risky not to buy these tickets in advance, even if they’re overnight trains? Me and my friends don’t intend to buy the rail pass, does it affect the price of the tickets?
Really appreciate if someone can help. Really lost.

I’d just buy a ticket from Munich to Prague at the Munich rail station. Since it’s not a night train, you can probably buy it right before train time without any problem, but a day in advance is better if the train requires a reservation or for weekends or peak tourist season. This will certainly be the easiest way.

Abalada’s post descibes how to take advantage of the specials the German Rail system runs for local trains. That will be cheaper than just buying an international ticket from Munich to Prague. You can buy those tickets at the rail station in Munich.

> taking a local train to the czech border, then from there take a train to prague.
There are also direct local trains from Munich to Prague. Running in Germany as a RegionalExpress (RE) train and in the Czech Republic as R (express) train. But one and the same train.

Munich Hbf dep. 06:44 16:44
Praha hl.n. arr. 12:45 22:45

On weekdays (Mo-Fr) you cannot use the Bavaria Ticket for the first connection as it is only valid past 9am.
You could of course buy a normal ticket (EUR 49,- pp).

There are other connections where you have to change once or more.
With the exception of the crossing Bayrisch Eisenstein/Zelezna Ruda however not directly at the border.
If you take the route via Marktredwitz – Cheb: this one is operated by the Vogtlandbahn (VBG trains). There are no conductors on these train, you would have to buy the ticket for last stop / border till Cheb in advance. (There are ticket machines on board of these trains, but they accept only the Geldkarte (a card you get with a German bank account). No other cards. No cash.)

> Is this the fastest and cheapest way?
Yes

> And is it risky not to buy these tickets in advance, even if they’re overnight trains?
Here you are mixing up a few things.
There is only one night train, labelled as a D train in the timetable. This one does not fall into the category of local trains.
The fast connections by local trains are only day time connections.
It makes absolutly no sense to buy a ticket for these train in advance. Seat reservation is not possible on local trains.

> Me and my friends don’t intend to buy the rail pass, does it affect the price of the tickets?
No. Why?
These are normal tickets available to everybody at anytime.
"Me and my friends" = sounds like 3 or more people
Here the combination of the Bavaria Ticket plus domestic Czech tickets will be the best option by far as the Bavaria Ticket is valid for 2-5 persons travelling together. E.g. with 3 persons Munich to Prague (EUR 24,- + 3 x ~ EUR 8,00).
You can buy the Bavaria Ticket from any ticket machine in Munich. I.e. also the ones at U-Bahn or tram stops, as this ticket covers also all local public transport in Munich.

#waterdeep

A normal single day time ticket Florence to Munich with EC train is EUR 91,80 pp.
A normal single ticket for a local train Munich to Prague is EUR 49,00 pp.
= 140,80 × 2 = 281,60

Thus 298,00 Euro incl. couchettes for 2 persons sounds pretty realistic.
You would have done better sticking closer to my advices (e.g. calling the night train booking center).

Before the validity of the ticket it’s fairly easy to return them.
You have to fill in a[url=‘http://www.bahn.de/p/view/mdb/content/pdf/r3/2.pdf’]form[/url] (German/English) and send this with the tickets back to DB. Best to choose some kind of proofable shipping method for this.
You’ll get your money back on your credit card account minus some processing fee (EUR 15,- ?).

Some special deals – like e.g. the SparNight tickets – are however not refundable. But as it looks from the price, SparNight tickets were no more available for your travel date.

hi.. thanks alot for the info so far. can i oso ask how often do these local trains leave?? abalada was talking abt the Bavarian ticket which will bring me to the Czech border. on weekdays the Bavarian ticket is not valid for the first connection: does that mean that it is only valid for connections after 9am? sorry to be asking these basic questions. thanks alot again for the help so far. cheers..

From other posts by abalada, I think the Bavaria ticket is only good after 9:00 on weekdays.

Use http://reiseauskunft…
for rail schedules. At the bottom left there’s a pull down for "means of transporation" — change that to "only local trains."
Assuming you’re looking at Munich-Praha, looks like there are a couple of local trains between 9:00 and noon.

oldlady pretty much answered this already

The Bavaria Ticket is on weekdays valid only past 9am.
Exceptions are public holidays if they fall on a weekday.
Basically: a special deal not valid during the morning rush hour on work days

For connections to Prague from Munich you use at best as means of transport the selection "without ICE/IC/EC".
These direct trains run as RE train in Germany (local train) and as R train in the Czech Republic (a express, not a local train – and will thus not listed if you select only local trains). Even if this is physically one and the same train. Just the locos will be changed.
Interestingly the train is running faster when labelled RE (local train) in Bavaria than as a R (express) train in the Czech Republic – but this has technical and landscape reasons.

hi folks.. thanks for the info.. looks like the bavaria ticket option is the cheapest and easiest by far. i know that i can get the bavaria ticket at any major train station in Munich, but what about when i reach the Czech border? Do i have to get off the train to get the tickets to Prague? Or can i get it on the train itself? cheers..

You can buy the ticket from the Czech conductor in the train as soon he has entered the train. This will cost a service fee but is still the cheapest option. You’ll have to pay him in Czech Korunys, thus get some beforehand in Munich.

With the exception of Bayerisch Eisenstein/Zelezna Ruda the train doesn’t stop at the border. Thus leaving the train won’t work.
If you do it before the border you could as well buy the ticket beforehand in Munich. But if you buy a ticket across the border this will be issued to the international train tariff (TCV) – which is approx. 4 times higher than the Czech domestic tariff. And you cannot travel to the next station past the border without any ticket.

Hello all! Wow…it’s been awhile since I checked out this post and it’s great to see all the helpful info! To give an update…I was able to cancel the Die Bahn reservation…abalada, my husband and I then followed your instructions and booked the much more affordable Sparnight tickets. We’ll then use the local trains to get to Prague. Does anyone have any advice regarding night trains from Prague to Krakow? We haven’t looked into that too deeply, figuring that we can just buy that ticket when we get there. Leaving May 17th…I’m so excited!

Hi,
I have some questions about traveling to europe this summer, if anyone can help I would really appreciate it. First, I am buying a eurail pass for 10 days in 5 countries (within 2 months). My first train ride I will need to get from Munich to Florence. I know that there is an overnight train that does this, I just dont how to use my railpass to do this…do I just show up that night with my pass in Munich and expect to get on the train? Or do I reserve it now? Also, my friend and I are later on going to need to get from Berlin to Prague…will we take the train to the Chech border and then buy a new ticket there? and then we will be leaving Prague a few days later and going to Regensburg Germany. Can anyone help?
Thanks,
Edog

quote:
I will need to get from Munich to Florence. I know that there is an overnight train that does this, I just dont how to use my railpass to do this…do I just show up that night with my pass in Munich and expect to get on the train? Or do I reserve it now?

This will depend on your travel day. Either book when arriving in Munich or by phone 49 1805 141514.

quote:
Also, my friend and I are later on going to need to get from Berlin to Prague…will we take the train to the Chech border and then buy a new ticket there? and then we will be leaving Prague a few days later and going to Regensburg Germany.

The train does not stop at the border. You can buy a ticket from the German/Czech border to Prague already at a railway station in Berlin.

quote:
and then we will be leaving Prague a few days later and going to Regensburg Germany.

If you know your travel day already buy one Bavaria Ticket for this day in Munich (EUR 26,00 at the counter, the machines mostly issue the tickets only for the day of purchase). This ticket is valid one day on all local trains (S-Bahn, RB, RE, IRE) in Bavaria. And all local public transort in Regensburg (e.g. buses). It is valid for 2-5 persons travelling together. On weekdays only past 9am – but you won’t be that early at the border anyway. This ticket can only be bought in Bavaria – not in Berlin and not in Prague.
In Prague you buy a ticket from there to the Czech/Bavarian border (~ EUR 8,- pp) and from the border on you travel on the Bavaria.
There are 2 direct trains daily from Prague to Regensburg and a number more connections with changes.