My friend and I are planning a short trip in May this year, taking in a few different cities. We are restricted as to time and also budget. Current plan is to go to Prague and then on to Venice, but we%26#39;re not sure how yet.
I looked at flights last week and only found Czech Airlines, with very expensive flights. Today I look again and I find an operator named SkyEurope, who seem much cheaper, but who I%26#39;ve never heard of before.
As far as trains go, I%26#39;ve found the overnight 15hr service, which looks fine as far as price and timings go (also means we don%26#39;t have to pay a night%26#39;s accommodation somewhere), but can%26#39;t figure out how to buy tickets - am based in the UK and the Trenitalia website at least won%26#39;t recognise my address.
Any advice you could give - or opinions on whether flying or train have any advantages over each other - would be great, thanks.
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I LOVE Sky Europe! I traveled from Vienna to Venice via Sky Europe last year. They are reliable and I would highly suggest them.
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I second that - Sky Europe are a very good airline.
HOWEVER - nothing beats arriving in Venice by train. It is one of the world%26#39;s great travel experiences and should not be missed for anything. The airport is a bit of a way out of the city and you will have to get a lengthy bus/boat ride.
The tickets you can buy in Prague as soon as you get there from the main station (Hlavni Nazdrazi) - I don%26#39;t know where you got the prices from, but it will probably even be cheaper that way, and you shouldn%26#39;t have any problems. Get a couchette (lehatkovy vuz), which is much more comfortable than sitting up all the way - I don%26#39;t think that train has any sleeping cars anyway from Prague to Venice. Make sure you specify Venezia Santa Lucia, NOT Venezia Mestre !!
You can%26#39;t buy the tickets on-line, so don%26#39;t even try!
Hope this helps!
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That%26#39;s excellent, thanks. I think we%26#39;d prefer to take the train because it%26#39;s a bit more of an experience (and also we%26#39;re going to be doing a lot of flying already in the space of a week).
As regards prices, I was a little worried because when looking on the trenitalia website I found the Prague-Venice route in the %26#39;smartprice%26#39; offers area - although to get the actual prices I was going through the main website booking section. Do you know if 73 euros seems about the right price for a single in a 6-bed couchette carriage?
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If you can get it at that price, and you can do it on-line, go for it - that sounds more than reasonable. The usual price is about 100 Euros, not including couchette supplement. If you can afford the few extra euros, I would push the boat out a bit and get a 4-berth, purely for a bit of extra comfort, but the Austrian couchettes are always spotless so I wouldn%26#39;t worry about that too much.
If it is light, and you are awake, the journey through the Alps is fabulous a couple of hours before you reach Venice, and then when you reach Venice it is mindblowing as it is like going to a different world - when you step out from the station right on to the Grand Canal you just have to pinch yourself to make sure you are awake.
Just a tip while you are in Venice - try not to follow the tourist trails too much - get yourselves completely lost on purpose and try and find your way back to St. Mark%26#39;s Square (San Marco) - there are signs everywhere to point you in the right direction. That way you won%26#39;t be shuffling behind millions of other people and you will see corners of the city you wouldn%26#39;t otherwise see, and you will find places to eat that are much more reasonable than on the main tourist routes.
After Brno, it is my favourite city in Europe.
When I was a child we used to do journeys like that all over Europe as a whole family from England, couchettes all the way - it used to be possible to reserve and buy tickets at pretty much any regional station, sadly things have gone backwards since then...
I even once booked tickets from Oxford station all the way to Bucharest in the deep dark days of Ceaucescu rule (no computers)!
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Yeah, I%26#39;m not really succeeding with the booking online thing. Is there anywhere I can look that will tell me for sure what the prices will actually be if we wait until we get to Prague to buy tickets? I just want to know what extra cost I%26#39;d be incurring.
And thanks for the advice - my friend is a New Zealander and so is relying on me I think to know what to see and where to go in Europe, but I%26#39;ve never been to any of these cities before (and speak no czech and my italian is limited to buongiorno) so should be fun... definitely going to do our best to see as much as possible though!
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I doubt you would be incurring any extra cost. I had a look at trenitalia - it seems quite straightforward - you need to register as a user, though. The only drawback appears to be that you can%26#39;t pick the tickets up in Prague and you have to have them delivered. I would be interested to know if it worked.
Go for the C4 couchette - it is worth it for the couple of extra Euros.
It would be very odd if the prices changed considerably between now and May - train price inflation here seems to be quite stable, and prices are not subject to silly conditions as you get in the UK, for example, and it would be equally odd if it sold out - they have two whole couchette carriages on this route and I can%26#39;t see the whole lot being snapped up.
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From what I can see, trenitalia won%26#39;t deliver the tickets unless you can give them an Italian address to deliver to. Never mind, I%26#39;ll assume for the moment that we can buy them for a reasonable price when we get there, and perhaps try other ways to buy them later. Thanks for all the advice, I%26#39;ll let you know how it goes!
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I buy my tickets through raileurope.com They will deliver the tickets via mail to any address. I personally would still go with Sky Europe. I don%26#39;t know how much vacation time you have, but I rather have 15 hours IN Venice, rather than in a train. That%26#39;s just me. I would just think it over a bit, that%26#39;s all.
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Buffalo - you can buy your tickets through raileurope if you wish, but you will be paying anything up to 100% markup for the privilege!
And as for spending an extra 15 hours in Venice, you would do just that if you went by train as it travels through the night and it arrives right in the centre of the city. If you fly, you spend several unnecessary hours getting to and from airports going through ever more silly security checks ,etc, etc, wasting a whole day in doing so. Plus Skyeurope, good airline as it is, flies to Treviso, not Venice, and you won%26#39;t arrive in Venice until early afternoon, if you are lucky.
Meanwhile, the train traveller will have arrived six hours earlier, well rested and with the fantastic experience of arriving in Venice by train behind them, and having saved on a hotel room for the night.
It%26#39;s a no-brainer :)
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Yeah, that was my thinking too. We do lose a possible evening in Prague, but we have less time to spend in Venice anyway and the possibility of getting there early in the morning for a full day of things to do is tempting.
Also, raileurope%26#39;s website won%26#39;t actually find the train I want - direct, overnight, departing Prague at 17.11. Instead it suggests I should leave at 09.16 and change twice. Nope, don%26#39;t think so.
Trenitalia%26#39;s website seems to list a few UK travel agents who are authorised to sell their tickets - I might just try giving a couple of them a call to see how much they%26#39;d charge.
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