The Lemon Fool

Cutting a long story short, we've occasionally looked at using the train to visit friends near Vienna (we live in Wiltshire) rather than fly. Its quite difficult to work out the costs, despite the help of sites like www.seat61.com. Ive tried asking the suggested ticket providers listed on that page but they never get back to me. The prices that I do garner are usually seriously more than the flight price, but that isn't the entire requirement anyway - the journey would be part of our holiday/break.

Anyway, I have just seen an ad online for Interrail passes. Basically a interrail pass that would suitably cover such a trip would be £154 for an "adult" which is certainly cheaper than the normal fares I have come across and in fact quite reasonable compared to flying, considering I can start and finish at a local rail station to me.

one thouht - do interrail p[asses cover the tube for presumably connections from eg paddington to st pancras ?

Other than that - what else am I missing out oin my calculations here? seat reservations? would they cost extra, or is it just a case of making sure they are booked?

cheers!

didds

didds wrote:...one thouht - do interrail p[asses cover the tube for presumably connections from eg paddington to st pancras ?...

The previously mentioned http://www.seat61.com/InterRail-pass-guide.htm#Country suggests not in the United Kingdom section near the footer.

didds wrote:one thouht - do interrail p[asses cover the tube for presumably connections from eg paddington to st pancras ?

If not, the underground take contactless now, so it'll be whatever a single is these days. As long as you've both got a contactless card, you're laughing.

didds wrote:Cutting a long story short, we've occasionally looked at using the train to visit friends near Vienna (we live in Wiltshire) rather than fly. Its quite difficult to work out the costs, despite the help of sites like http://www.seat61.com. Ive tried asking the suggested ticket providers listed on that page but they never get back to me. The prices that I do garner are usually seriously more than the flight price, but that isn't the entire requirement anyway - the journey would be part of our holiday/break.

Anyway, I have just seen an ad online for Interrail passes. Basically a interrail pass that would suitably cover such a trip would be £154 for an "adult" which is certainly cheaper than the normal fares I have come across and in fact quite reasonable compared to flying, considering I can start and finish at a local rail station to me.

one thouht - do interrail p[asses cover the tube for presumably connections from eg paddington to st pancras ?

Other than that - what else am I missing out oin my calculations here? seat reservations? would they cost extra, or is it just a case of making sure they are booked?

cheers!

didds

We did Schliersee in Bavaria by train a few years back and didn't seem to be able to get the advertised discount price from Brussels to Schliersee. It was only after over half an hour on the phone with the man from Deutsche Bahn that it suddenly became clear that if we got tickets all the way through the discount didn't apply because of the last bit out of Munich. So we had Eurostar tickets, DB Brussels to Munich tickets and Munich to Schliersee tickets. All returns.

I will say, if I did it again I would look to change at Lile and go south on the French trains as the route from Brussels seems to be in cuttings over 50% of the time, which makes the sight seeing a bit bad. Apparently the run south from Lile on the TGV has better views.

Slarti

Have you found a good option for Vienna yet?

I tried and failed to book a rather similar journey (Budapest) a couple of years ago. Given that I failed (and that you already know about seat61), I don't have any useful advice.

Use Belgian Railways site. e.g.

https://www.b-europe.com/EN/Booking/Tic ... n#Outbound

Cost outward €110.9 13 hors 19 minutes. Change at Brussels and Frankfurt

Cost return inbound €152.90 14 h 7 mins.

Total €263.89

I use D-Bahn quite frequently for travelling within Europe.

You will frequently find that if a train starts outside of Germany and then you just transit Germany and end up outside again, that the price is hgher.

On Friday helped someone book a ticket from Vienna to Brussels for travel in May.

The 2nd class single price comes up as 99.90 Euro for the 06:50 from Vienna to Brussels via Frankfurt. (For the specific train)
However, if you do a split ticket at Regensburg the total works out at 68.00Euro. (29.00 from Vienna to Regensburg and 39.00 from Regensburg to Brussels Midi)

Same train, same connection at Frankfurt. Just remember to change the ticket you present to the ticket inspector after the two minute stop at Regensburg.

Rather surprisingly the 10:50 from Vienna with change at Frankfurt works out cheaper for the whole ticket to Brussels rather than a split ticket.

Markab01