Whats the best place to buy European Train Tickets?

[teccuk]

Hi guys.

I am travelling from Prague to Dubrovnik, hopefully via Vienna and Zagreb (although Rijeka and Lubjana look nicer, the train times to Split are terrible) and then Split. Then ferry to Dubrovnik. Over a week in September.

RailEurope is coming up with some very high prices, and strange prices which make me think i could get them cheaper elsewhere. I know Ffestiniog travel book european tickets. Worth a shot?

Does anyone have any better suggestions? Might it be worth just buying at the ticket office?

DB doesn't seem to sell tickets for these routes.

If anyone has a better suggestion on itinery i'm all ears.

Praha to Wien 24/09/12
10:42 arr 15:22

Wien to Zagreb 26/09/12
10:29 arr 19:37

Zagreb to Split 27/09/12
14:04 arr 20:37

Thanks!

[doktorhonig]

First question: Where are you from and where are you now?

I've travelled quite a lot of times on the route Wien-Brno-Praha-Dresden-Berlin, and I've once taken a train to Zagreb as well, so I might have some information.

First thing: Usually, companies sell you international tickets only if you book at least a tiny part in the country where they are from.
e.g. if you book a ticket at db.de from "Dresden Hbf" to "Wien Meidling" on that particular day and start at 8:08 you end up taking the exact train you mentioned from Prague to Vienna and pay 29 € for it. The ride from Dresden to the border is rather short, and there are sometimes people with tickets that haven't been scanned and stamped by DB. But still, it may happen that they do not accept the ticket, especially if it also hasn't been stamped by the Czech train staff between the German border and Prague.

If you'd like to try to order tickets from the oebb website: https://ticket.oebb.at/bin/jticket.pl?& ... =1&LANG=EN

However, it became a bit more complicated since I used it the last time. The ÖBB will only sell you a ticket from Prague to Vienna, if it is the return ticket. Maybe they have some strange agreement with the CD. This information may be a bit disappointing at first. Actually I was a bit shocked, because booking trains to Germany is very simple, no matter on which website and no matter if you actually take a Czech train.

If you'd like to check out the czech train website, it's https://www.cd.cz/eshop/default.aspx.

Concerning the ride from Vienna to Zagreb: The train you selected goes quite far to the west (Villach) and then you change to another train to Zagreb, result: 9 hours travel time. There's a direct connection which takes 6 hours, but it leaves Vienna at 7:02, which might be a bit early. Another problem is, that the oebb-website doesn't show tickets from Vienna to Zagreb, it says that there are only business tickets for that connection.

As an alternative, especially if money is an issue, I would suggest taking a bus, e.g. the WestBus.
The network is relatively small, but it includes Prague, Vienna and Zagreb. Booking is dead simple and the ride from Prague to Vienna costs 19€ and takes only 4 hours. The ride from Vienna to Zagreb costs 29 € and takes 5 hours.

I don't have any infos about going to Split or Dubrovnik though.

P.S.: If you need some further information on Vienna, just ask.

[teccuk]

Hey thanks for the tips!

I'm in the UK and from the UK.

A shame about OBB I get the same errors: "No Online Tickets can be created from Czech Republic to Austria." from Praha and then "Only BUSINESStickets can be issued for this service" for the leg to Zagreb.

The discount on the CZ site is HUGE. £15 each as opposed to £60 odd. Thank you... now let's see if they will send them to me, or if i can pick them up at least.
Edit: Just need to print off the PDF! Thanks, you've saved me €100!!!

It is a bit early, but also the route via Villach is meant to be very nice, and its a lesuire journey after all

Thanks for your help, i will use the CZ site for the prague section.

[Ameecher]

The DB page is quite good in my experience, certainly better than any UK based agent.

[teccuk]

The DB page is quite good in my experience, certainly better than any UK based agent.

You can't buy tickets outside of Germany though :/

[doktorhonig]

If you really want to travel via Villach, you can get a national ticket from Vienna to Villach here:
National Tickets (try to spot the difference between the urls...)
It's 19 Bucks or 29 for first class.

Unfortunately, the train from Villach to Zagreb has the same business-only-problem. Maybe try the Croatian or Slovenian website?

EDIT: Select "Wien Meidling" for departure, not "Wien Westbahnhof".

[andysine]

I recently visited Hungary and Croatia. Zagreb was an amazing city, though I wasn't as taken with Rijeka. I travelled from Budapest to Zagreb by train and bought the ticket on the day for a reasonable price, I think! There is a fast, tilting train to Split from Zagreb which takes about 6.30h, and a slower train which takes nearer 9. A return for me on the day for one fast and one slow (overnight) cost about 250 Kuna, or around £25. I liked booking my tickets on the day as it gave me flexibility and I kind of enjoyed just winging it

[doktorhonig]

If you would like to go to the Rijeka region, I'd suggest you try Opatija instead. I haven't been there, but I think it's more beautiful. The Austrian emperor went there on vacation as well. The train station unfortunately is a bit far away from the centre.

[teccuk]

I recently visited Hungary and Croatia. Zagreb was an amazing city, though I wasn't as taken with Rijeka. I travelled from Budapest to Zagreb by train and bought the ticket on the day for a reasonable price, I think! There is a fast, tilting train to Split from Zagreb which takes about 6.30h, and a slower train which takes nearer 9. A return for me on the day for one fast and one slow (overnight) cost about 250 Kuna, or around £25. I liked booking my tickets on the day as it gave me flexibility and I kind of enjoyed just winging it

Thank you that's really brilliant advice. I think I prefer to wing it to. Takes the pressure off as well. I'm so used to uk rail prices where turn up and go means £100's of pounds.

Thanks both.

Will report how I do.

[Ameecher]

Ha, I was going to catch the train from Zagreb to Split back in 2010, had a choice of two days to travel, chose the later day, rocked up at Zagreb station and was sent by bus all the way to Split. Turns out there had been a really quite horrific crash involving one of the tilting MU the previous day, the day that I had chosen not to travel. If I had I would have been on that train. Funny old world.
I didn't realise this until a couple of days later, all I remember was being really quite hungover on a non-air conditioned bus for 10 hours with one stop en-route to the coast. God what an awful bus journey!

[Dave]

Summer 2009 surely?

[Ameecher]

Yeah that one. Summer 2010 was in nz. So well travelled that I forget these things!

[doktorhonig]

Thank you that's really brilliant advice. I think I prefer to wing it to. Takes the pressure off as well. I'm so used to uk rail prices where turn up and go means £100's of pounds.

I'd still get an advance ticket from Vienna to Villach (or even "Faak am See", which is the last station in Austria on the second train), since it saves you 30 €.

[andysine]

...Turns out there had been a really quite horrific crash involving one of the tilting MU the previous day, the day that I had chosen not to travel...

Yeah, I found out when I got back that 2 of their 8 tilting trains have been written off already!

I got an overnight bus from Rijeka to Split. Urgh! Possibly one of the worst journeys I've ever made. I thought it would take the motorway and I'd be able to get some sleep, but it took the coast road and stopped every 40 minutes to let people on or off.

[teccuk]

Right. Ffestiniog Travel quoted £140 each for Vienna to Zagreb and Zagreb to Split. So i'm going to turn and go.

Wish me luck...

[doktorhonig]

Which route are you going to take now?

[teccuk]

I dunno, i was gonna turn up at Vienna Hbf and ask for "swie bellitten fur zagreb, bitter" ... no literally i was.

[doktorhonig]

Ok, two hints for your approach:
1) There's no Hbf in Vienna, it's still under construction. Depending on the train you take you will most likely start your journey in "Wien Meidling"
2) "Wien Meidling" is right next to the station "U6 Philadelphiabrücke" and not next to "U4 Meidling Hauptstraße". You wouldn't be the first one to mix these two up.

[teccuk]

Well everything went fine.

The journey across Croatia was brilliant. The horrid DMU was replaced with a big old loco with only two carriages half way through.

Thanks for all your advice.