European Rail Travel - Help on Best Train Routing

My family of five (2 adults, 3 children ages 15, 13 and 7) will be spending 2 weeks Christmas vacation in Europe. We will be flying in and out of Amsterdam (to/from USA). We plan to visit the following cities: Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague and Brussels.

Can someone suggest a good train route for this? We would like to take at least one overnight train ride as my kids would like to experience sleeping on a train. Thanks.

Amsterdam-Brussels is about two hours, so definitely not an overnight trip!

There seems to be no viable overnight option for Amsterdam-Berlin (unless you take a huge detour), but Amsterdam-Prague is doable (via Munich). I haven't checked overnight trips from Brussels.

Easiest thing is to check it out yourself at www.bahn.de - just enter the various city pairs, with departure times in the evening, and see what it comes up with (and if any of the suggested itineraries require changes look closely at the times - you don't want to be changing trains at 3 am!)

There is map of all relevant overnight train routes in DB's Citynightline brochure (http://www.bahn.de/citynightline/view/mdb/citynightline/city_night_line_neu/service/MDB96417-10.pdf). In short:
- There are no overnight trains to/from Brussels (but there are many from Köln, across the border in Germany - most of which continue to/from Amsterdam)
- There is a direct overnight train from Amsterdam to Prague, via Köln and Berlin.
- You could also use this train for Amsterdam-Berlin (or Brussels-Köln-Berlin), but it does not have a great arrival/departure time in Berlin, and if going Köln-Berlin or vice versa it would be a pretty short night on the sleeper.

Personally, I would suggest:
- Amsterdam to Brussels by Thalys (only a couple of hours)
- Brussels to Berlin by Thalys/ICE (takes about 7 hours. Or, you could go on to Paris by Thalys, and take the Paris-Berlin Citynightline sleeper)
- Berlin to Prague by Eurocity (includes a very scenic run along the Elbe between Dresden and Prague - but beware there are engineering works here the week after Christmas).
- Prague back to Amsterdam, by Citynightline sleeper all the way.

Or, of course, the other way round.

You can book the Thalys on the Thalys website (or nshispeed.nl). You should be able to book all the other trains on bahn.de, and they should be available as self-print, online tickets (note that, unlike airlines, you do actually need to have the print-out with you). (However, note that if you want a daytime ticket Prague-Berlin, it is not available as a self-print, and you have to order it by post. Berlin-Prague is available a self-print though). Like airlines, the prices generally go up the closer it gets to departure... You may already find that availability on the Citynightline sleepers is getting limited, in the run-up to Christmas.

The Thalys from Amsterdam to Brussels stops at Schiphol airport, so you can book your journey starting from there, if you don't want to go into Amsterdam at the start of the trip. The Citynightline sleeper goes to Amsterdam Centraal, and does not pass through Schiphol, but there are frequent connections between Amsterdam Centraal or Utrecht (the last/first stop on the Citynightline outside of Amsterdam) and Schiphol. Note there is a risk of the Citynightline arriving a couple of hours late (if there is particularly bad weather, etc) so don't plan any tight flight connections immediately after it.

Thanks both for the replies. Very helpful info. ^

There seems to be no viable overnight option for Amsterdam-Berlin (unless you take a huge detour), but Amsterdam-Prague is doable (via Munich).

Did something happen to Amsterdam-Berlin-Prague on CNL?

Did something happen to Amsterdam-Berlin-Prague on CNL?

Good question! It wasn't showing for the (random) day I looked at. Found it now, for today, with a note saying "fährt nicht täglich" ("does not run every day"), so maybe my random day was one of the days when it's not running?

Good question! It wasn't showing for the (random) day I looked at. Found it now, for today, with a note saying "fährt nicht täglich" ("does not run every day"), so maybe my random day was one of the days when it's not running?

Hmm. The Citynightline brochure (http://www.bahn.de/citynightline/view/mdb/citynightline/city_night_line_neu/info/MDB97419-brosch__re_de_web.pdf) shows it as "täglich" - but there are some days when it is retimed due to engineering works, etc (and it starts/terminates in Dresden the week after Christmas due to engineering work between Dresden and Prague). So, maybe that's why it didn't show up properly the day you looked.

Of course, you could also take the Amsterdam-Munich CNL, and then take the ALX train (or DB ExpressBus) to Prague - but I wouldn't recommend that routing if it can be avoided...

Personally, I would suggest:

- Prague back to Amsterdam, by Citynightline sleeper all the way.



For some reason, I can't find a direct Prague to Amsterdam on the citynightline.de website for travel on Dec 28 (to arrive Amsterdam Centraal on Dec 29) without lots of changes (one of which looks like a bus ride). Can you point me to the right direction? Thanks.

For some reason, I can't find a direct Prague to Amsterdam on the citynightline.de website for travel on Dec 28 (to arrive Amsterdam Centraal on Dec 29) without lots of changes (one of which looks like a bus ride). Can you point me to the right direction? Thanks.

The post before yours explains this... there is engineering work that week, so the trains aren't running.

For some reason, I can't find a direct Prague to Amsterdam on the citynightline.de website for travel on Dec 28 (to arrive Amsterdam Centraal on Dec 29) without lots of changes (one of which looks like a bus ride). Can you point me to the right direction? Thanks.


- Berlin to Prague by Eurocity (includes a very scenic run along the Elbe between Dresden and Prague - but beware there are engineering works here the week after Christmas).
- Prague back to Amsterdam, by Citynightline sleeper all the way.


Sorry, as Aviatrix has said, you're trying to do this route the week there are engineering works on the line north of Prague.

If you just put "Prague" to "Amsterdam" into the bahn.de journey planner, the best connection it will give you (with 1 change) is:
Dep Prague 16:36, Bus 1162, arr Munich 21:15
Dep Munich 22:47, CNL418, arr Amsterdam 08:56*

However, if you put "Dresden" into the 'Via' box (under 'Advanced Search Options'), it will then give you the original route of the Prague-Amsterdam CNL, with the rail-replacement bus:
Dep Prague 17:20, R616, arr Usti Nad Labem 18:42 (note this departure from Prague is an hour earlier than the CNL would normally leave)
Dep Usti Nad Labem 18:50, Bus SEV, arr Dresden 20:05 (note that although it may seem like a tight connection between the train and the bus, the 'Bus SEV' is a rail replacement service, and so should wait for all the train passengers)
Dep Dresden 21:15, CNL456, arr Amsterdam 09:59*

If I was doing this journey (and I couldn't change dates to before/after the engineering works) I would probably take the route via Dresden, but leave Prague several hours earlier, and spend the afternoon exploring Dresden (just to avoid any worries about any unexpected delays due to the engineering works).

Note that bahn.de probably won't sell you any of these journeys as just one ticket (as it will only sell a journey that both starts and ends outside of Germany if it's on a direct CNL train). However:

If you want the Express Bus option via Munich, bahn.de should sell you Prague-Munich as one ticket, and then Munich-Amsterdam as another ticket.
If you want the option via Dresden, you can buy Dresden-Amsterdam on bahn.de, and then get the Prague-Dresden ticket at the station in Prague (it should be pretty cheap even bought on day of departure, and there shouldn't be any need for a reservation on R616).