Prague Rail Pass-please help?
 

Quick Question...I am trying to figure out how to incorporate Prague into my 15 day trip in September...flying into London on the 31st (Aug) and wanting to go to Paris and Prague...I know, I know...Prague is out of the way...somewhere in Italy would be nice as well, if I had time. My question is about the Czech pass that you can purchase on top of a Eurorail pass. It's for travel form the Czech border? I am missing something...how would you get to the border? Sorry if this is a dumb question...just VERY inexperienced with Europe, and advice would be greatly appreciated. Thinking about taking a flight from Luton to Paris for 90USD (As opposed to 170USD for the chunnel) then I'm open from there...just need to be back in London on the 14th.
THANK YOU, THANK YOU....been online for 4 hours now trying to figure this out ......

How do you get to the border? On a train!

You don't actually have to get off at the border - you just get on a train that crosses the border. Border crossings are charging points for rail travel. If you travel between Country A and Country B and you have a railpass for A but not for B then you use your railpass for travel to the border and buy a ticket for travel from the border to your final destination. If you have railpasses for both countries then you don't have to do anything - you just get on the train with your two passes.

If time is short you could always fly to Prague instead of taking a train... there should be some cheap deals to be had.

As for flying vs the train between London and Paris - depends what your starting point is. If you want to go Paris immediately after arriving on a long-haul flight (i.e., without going into London), AND you can get a flight from your long-haul arrival airport (LHR or LGW), then flying makes a lot of sense. If your starting point is Central London then the train makes more sense.

The web site for Czech Rail is: http://www.cd.cz/static/eng/ You can drill down to see prices and link to other sites. I would suggest the Deutsche Bahn web site as having good overall info, including service to Prague... http://www.bahn.de/-S:PtVORd:d90iY9N...l_guests.shtml

my guess is the simplest way to do it is to throw away your rail pass, fly london to prague, prague to brussels (paris has no cheap service) and then train to paris.

easyjet flies from gatwick to prague and it can be cheap

brussels air from prague to brussels www.flysn.com is more but isn't ridiculous.

but under almost any condition, if you really want to do it, the easiest thing to do is fly from london to prague and then if you want pick up a train back to paris.

Bump - I am planning our travel for next year. Germany is of interest to us. We'll probably be flying US to Berlin (which I definitely want to see). I was looking at a map - and saw that Prague was close to Berlin. So I am trying to figure out how to include it in a trip in terms of train travel. After Prague - I'm thinking about going to Munich - and then to Frankfurt for the trip home.

Anyway - I went to the Eurail site - and also got very confused about the Czech rail pass which started "at the border". If I bought a single country (Germany) pass - and a Czech rail pass - would this cover the travel mentioned above? For some reason - although the Czech Republic is next to Germany - you can't get a "bordering countries" pass which covers both countries. Also - is there a better web site to use to buy train tickets? Robyn

You can buy a Germany Railpass and a Prague Excursion pass for the travel you described from Berlin to Prague to Munich and Frankfurt. Your German railpass would cover the cost of the ticket from Berlin to the German/Czech border, and your Prague Excursion covers the ticket from the Czech border to Prague.

As an alternative, you should also look at getting a Eurail Select pass with three countries. Even if you are just using Germany and Czech Republic, it may end up being cheaper than buying separate passes for each country (you'd have to select a third country for your pass - but that might be useful anyway as it gives some flexibility if you want to to an excursion to say Austria or Amsterdam or something). Without knowing more specifics on your trip (whether you're under 26, looking for first or second class, etc) I can't say definitively which option will be cheaper.

Thanks for your reply. For some reason - the Czech Republic doesn't seem to be included as part of a 3 country trip on my website.

But at least I know I can combine the Germany pass with the Czech Republic pass and be covered. By the way - my husband may qualify for a senior discount - and we may qualify for a discount based on 2 people traveling together. Also - we want to travel first class. I'll have to run the numbers and see which option makes the most sense for us. Robyn

Hmm... looks like you're correct on this - perhaps things have changed since the last time I used a railpass. I am sure I traveled on a selectpass including the Czech Rep a few years ago, but it no longer seems to be an option.

Anyway - at least you can combine the Prague Excursion with the German pass!

The Czech Rail System has two multi-country passes
A Czech-Austria Pass = any four days in two months $220 First Class
the above is discounted to about $185 per person for two or more pass
buyers.

B Eastern European Pass allows First Class travel on five days in one month
in any of the following countries Austria,Poland, Czech Rep, Slovakia and
Hungary , cost was about $255 ( or $180 for second class) I believe
it goes down to $225 for two or more pax.

We used B around Easter to visit Prague, Vienna, Salzburg and Budapest and found it much easier, more relaxing and almost quicker than flying (considering transit and airport wait times)
No need to pre-reserve trains plus in Austria you get use the decent OBB.
First Class lounges.

Tickets were bought on the Rail-Europe website and I believe MUST be bought outside of the countries with the tickets issused in your name.

mike