Travelling to Germany, Czech Republic and Austria

Hello,

I have 12 days to travel to the 3 countries above and was recommended to take the following route for the places i wanted to see

NYC - Berlin-Prague-Austria-Munich.

From a travelling perspective (ie train, plane), does that make much sense or can you recommend a better route?

Thanks in advance!

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Route is OK. A classical tourist route by train. These relations are often not served by planes at all, the travel time by train (2-4,5 hours) is too short for an economical flight service.

my suggestion

Berlin 4 days

Prague 2/3 days

Vienna 3/2 days

Salzburg 1/2 days

Munich 2/1 days

You can buy just 2 tickets: Berlin - Vienna and Vienna to Munich Airport.

Both are international train tickets, which are valid 2 months and allow stopovers en route. You can buy these tickets when in Berlin and Vienna (no advantage if buying in advance). Seat reservation is not compulsory in these countries.

DB timetable

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/e

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Thanks for your advise.

So you are saying that i should spend 4 days in Berlin, 2 to 3 days in Prague, 2 to 3 days in Vienna, 1 to 2 days in Salzburg, and 1 to 2 days in Munich?

You mentioned that I need to buy 2 tickets Berlin-vienna and vienna to Munich... To clarify, how would i go to Prague from Berlin... Would i be able to use those 2 tickets?

Thanks so much. This is extremely helpful

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2/3 = 2 or 3 days - you have sadly only 12 alltogether

The 2 tickets Berlin - Vienna and Vienna - Munich Airport cover your whole route. The other places are directly en route, e.g. Prague on the route between Berlin and Vienna. And as stopovers are allowed ...

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Great, sounds like a plan.

Thanks again for your help with this!

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I,m from brasil and im going to munich 2 days, Kitzbuhel 2 days, insbruck 1 day, salzburg 2 days, vienna 3 days, budapeste 4 days and prague 4 days in march.

I bought the tickets that abalada tell me from munich to kitzbuhel, then i need the others tickets. Im travelling with 3 peoples toguether. Witch is the best ticket?

Where can i buy it?

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Hello dittosparkle,

Where are you from?

You are travel alone?

we are travel in the same data for the same places you go. If you want i have many points of interest recomended

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Hi Rosane, I%26#39;m from New York. If possible, what are the must see%26#39;s that you are going to in Berlin, Prague, Austria, or Munich. I haven%26#39;t done much planning yet... Thank you!

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Castles within 50-75 km of Munich

We are renting a car in Germany one day but are limited to 200 km in the car- are there any interesting castles that are 50-70 km from Munich?

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The Bavarian Palace website has a map and detailed information for all of the Palaces, Castles, Fortresses and Royal Residences in Bavaria. …bayern.de/englisch/palace/index.htm

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In the sense of castles = palaces this is no problem.

The Residence in Munich, Nymphenburg Castle in Munich, Herrenchiemsee.

See the link given in the 1st answer (which shows however only the state owned castles).

If it comes to the classical hilltop medieval castles this is not so easy inside this range (partly through the lack of appropriate hills)

Burg Trausnitz in Landshut

http://www.burgtrausnitz.de

landshut.de/landshut_english/…

Burghausen - the longest castle in Europe (~ 110 km from Munich)

burghausen.de/content/…0

Neuschwanstein Castle (a 19th century palace in the style of a medieval castle) (~ 130 km from Munich)

http://www.neuschwanstein.de/

You can visit all mentioned above castles as well by public transport. Travel time to Burghausen or Hohenschwangau (for Neuschwanstein) is 2-2,5 hours.

A good deal is the Bavaria Ticket (EUR 27,00). Valid one day for 2-5 persons and covering all local trains and nearly all other local public transport in Bavaria. E.g. the bus from Füssen to Hohenschwangau is also covered. Or the buses in Landshut. Two restrictions

a) only local trains (but this plays for this routes no role)

b) validity on weekdays

Mo-Fr 9am - 3am next day

(Sa or Su midnight till 3am next day)

DB timetable

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/e

From: Munich

To: Landshut

To: Burghausen(Oberbay)

To: Hohenschwangau

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Removed on: 9:19 pm, August 16, 2009

Dresden side trips

We will be visiting Dreseden at the end of April and are thinking of three side trips. Meissen, Moritzberg and Gorlitz. They look like they would take a day apiece. Does that souund correct? Also, any recommendations for hotels? We seem to be having difficulty finding rooms for 4 people.

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Meissen and Mortizburg are inside the VVO area, the local public transport network of the Dresden area.

A must ot Moritzburg is of course the Lößnitzgrundbahn train

vvo-online.de/download/shop/erlebnis_histori…

To Görlitz you can use the Saxyon-Ticket.

%26gt; We seem to be having difficulty finding rooms for 4 people.

Such rooms are not that common in Europe. At

http://www.hotel.de/homepage.aspx?lng=EN

you can search e.g. for the roomtype %26quot;Family room%26quot; (interestingly in German it is at this place %26quot;4 persons or more%26quot;).

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S Bahn - U Bahn

I am looking forward to going to Berlin for the first time in two weeks time. I keep reading on forums about certain hotels being next to the S Bahn or the U Bahn stations... what is the difference between these train lines?

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Hi,

U-Bahn is a subway while S-Bahn is a local railway. You can use both with the same ticket. U-Bahn operates only in the city (mainly in the western part) while S-Bahn also goes to some destinations in Brandenburg (like Potsdam). In the East there are also some trams.

S-Bahn:

…cocolog-nifty.com/diary/…sbahn_berlin.JPG

U-Bahn:

trampicturebook.de/tram/…ubahnberlin.htm

You could check:

http://www.s-bahn-berlin.de/englisch/

http://bvg.de/index.php/en/Bvg/Start

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Great, thanks for that info!

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Staying outside of Munich during Okoberfest

About a month ago someone posted some good cities to stay in outside of Munich that were on rail lines. I%26#39;ve been searching but can%26#39;t find that post. Does anyone remember any of the cities? Thank you so much.

Heidel

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Any city outside of Munich close to it is on a rail line.

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MVV (Munich region local public transport network) schematic rail map

mvv-muenchen.de/web4archiv/objects/download/…

same as topographic map

mvv-muenchen.de/web4archiv/…vlp07land.pdf

railroad map Bavaria

bayerntakt.de/media/…Gesamtnetz07.pdf

red/orange = at least hourly service

Esp. interesting (from their size, distance to Munich, but also quite attractive) are Augsburg, Landshut and Rosenheim.

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I liked Freising which has both train and s-bahn connections to Munich. There is also a dedicated bus line (635) between the Munich airport and the Freising train station.

http://www.freising.de/

Regards, Gary

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Augsburg would be my first choice. Excellent rail service into Munich with an average time of about 30 minutes. I used to just show up and book a room through the tourist office. However, the last time I stayed in Augsburg during Oktoberfest (2 years ago), the tourist office had a bit of trouble finding a room. It seems that people have caught on to Augsburg%26#39;s utility. Augsburg is still a good choice, but I would book ahead, nowadays.

If you have a rail pass, even Nuremberg is an option. It is about a two hour journey by fast train. My trip last year, I stayed in Nuremberg since I was to travel on to Berlin and wanted to cut some time off that journey. Nuremberg was celebrating the Altstadt festival, which is a mini-Oktoberfest with no carnival rides but plenty of excellent food and local beer. Room prices at the Ibis near the rail station were about 55 Euros (no breakfast). I took the precaution of buying seat reservations, since I didn%26#39;t want the possibility of having to stand for two hours. But on a weekday, they proved to be unnecessary.

I%26#39;ve never overnighted in Ingolstadt, but it looks like it would have good rail service into Munich. I%26#39;d look into it if I couldn%26#39;t find a suitable hotel in Augsburg.

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Removed on: 3:16 am, August 17, 2009

1 hour or less enuf plane transfer time at munich airport?

We have 1 hour or less to change lufthansa plane inbound from the us at the munich airport fro a 10:10am lufthansa flight to lisbon.

Is 30-60 minutes enough time to clear security around 10am on a sunday ? ( If it was Frankfurt, our experience is that you need 1.5- to two hours or you will miss your plane.)

If we miss our flight where do we go to get listed for the next available flight?

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In the last 5 years, we have flown into MUC three times as our destination and clearing Passport Control/Customs took less than 20 minutes. The wait for luggage was a lot longer.

In your case you are an in-transit passenger so you should be able to stay within the secure area, not have to go through Passport control and just be able to go directly to the gate for the next flight. Somewhere along the walkways to Passport Control there should be a separate walkway labeled %26#39;In-Transit Passengers%26#39; [ in German = %26#39;In-Durchfahrt Passagiere%26#39; ]. Ask a flight attendant or gate agent upon arrival how to do this. They should also be able to tell you the gate number for the next flight.

munich-airport.de/EN/…index.html

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Assuming it%26#39;s a single fare to Lisbon(i.e. you didn%26#39;t buy your own ticket from MUC to Lisbon), the airlines is responsible for the connection. If your flight is on time, there shouldn%26#39;t be a problem. If you do miss the connection, go to the big Lufthansa office in the main transit hall and they will rebook you.

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I agree with DougB - you will be pleasantly surprised at how easy and efficient the transfer process is in the new Munich terminal (which Lufthansa uses).

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Interesting flight arrangement-- Lufthansa direct flight to Lisbon currently leaves at 11:10, not 10:10. You may wish to check and see if you really are on Lufthansa or a code share. It could make a difference.

There are two terminals at Munich and they are fairly widely separated, although there is a shuttle running between departure gates every 15 minutes. I think that the direct flights from the US are Lufthansa, United and US Air (Terminal 2) and Delta (Terminal 1). So, if you are on Lufthansa, (or United, their normal code-share) you will arrive and depart from Terminal 2. T2 is a VERY modern terminal. Very open, very bright, lots of room. Check with the gate agent and determine the gate the Lisbon flight is using-- or check any one of the many displays in the area. Gates %26quot;H%26quot; (example, H01 through H48) are on the upper level, Gates G are lower level. The terminal is long but there are moving walkways so it is easy to get around. If you have more time than expected on your hands, there are numerous free coffee, tea and newspaper stands throughout the terminal (Thank you Lufthansa).

There are also several snackbars in the secure area.

If you miss the flight to Lisbon, there are 3 or 4 Lufthansa service center desks, about one every 500 feet , on both the G and H levels (secure side-- no need to exit security) that should be able to help you.

You should find this airport much more attractive and efficient than Frankfurt. Due to the Security lines that you mentioned, we have stopped using Frankfurt as a destination airport and now use Munich.

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I would agree with EdUSA about FRA.

The last time we departed from FRA, the airline unloaded all the luggage and set it on the ground beside the plane. We then had to go down on the ramp and identify our luggage before they would reload it. Any item not ‘claimed’ was left.

Delta flies to 5 different cities in Germany and code shares to 4 other cities. This is the most of any USA airline. It is to the point were we plan our travels so as to avoid CDG and FRA.

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Dougb328--- add LHR London Heathrow to your list of airports to be avoided if at all possible. One trip to the the massive lines and chaos called %26quot;Flight Connections%26quot; is more than enough--trust me!

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Removed on: 5:22 am, August 27, 2009

Germany in 7-9 days

Hi

My boyfriend and I are going to be in Germany this time next year for around 7-9 days. A while away, I know but I like to be prepared. We will most likely be flying into Frankfurt and from there will make our way to Stuttgart where we have relatives. We would also like to travel to Hanover and Berlin, but would like to see some of the smaller towns also. Do you think this is possible to do in this time and if so, what is the best way to get around? I was thinking train but not so sure. Our longest stay will probably be in Stuttgart. Is it possible to do day trips from here to see other sights?

Thanks in advance.

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%26gt;Do you think this is possible to do in this time and if so, what is the best way to get around? I was thinking train but not so sure

Why not? You seem to concentrate on bigger cities, where you definitely do not need a car. If you decide on an excursion into the countryside you can always rent a car for a day or two. Driving for longer distances just to get from city to city is both tiring and unnecessary. You can look into flying from Stuttgart to Berlin (Air Berlin or HLX fly these route) - it can be cheaper than train tickets of booked long enough in advance.

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You may be able to fly to Stuttgart for the same price as Frankfurt if flying Lufthansa. Otherwise it takes a little over an hour by train.

There are many excellent places for day trips from Stuttgart. Germany%26#39;s largest perfectly preserved Baroque palace in Ludwigsburg with visitable rooms, four museums, extensive gardens, and two smaller associated palaces is 15 minutes from Stuttgart by S-bahn. The excellent well preserved medieval old town center of Esslingen is also a 15 minute S-bahn journey. The old college town of Tuebingen is a nice place to visit, as would be also the small nice towns of Besigheim and Laufen. Schwaebisch Hall and nearby walled Comburg monastery are good, as well as Schwaebisch Gmuend, or Ulm with its record height cathedral tower. These all can be done by train, and any town at the end of the six S-bahn lines is worth a visit of a few hours, such as the astronomer Keppler%26#39;s hometown of Weil der Stadt or the poet Schiller%26#39;s hometown of Marbach.

If a car is used there are numerous pleasant towns near Stuttgart to visit. The fairy tale-like castles of Lichtenstein and Hohenzollern (Hechingen) are excellent, as are the two excellently preserved medieval monasteries of Bebenhausen and world heritage Maulbronn.

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Thanks! That is some really handy info. After Germany we are planning to travel to Salzburg, then Switzerland (not sure where yet) and Paris. Do you think that flying is the quickest and cheapest way to get to Salzburg? We aren%26#39;t sure what order we will be visiting the German cities in but will probably end up in Berlin.

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%26gt;Do you think that flying is the quickest and cheapest way to get to Salzburg?

From where? From Stuttgart? Again, definitely not. Salzburg is not a major airport, and besides Ryanair flights from/to UK and I think Paris-Beauvais there are no affordable flight services to Salzburg, nor would they make sense. Stuttgart-Salzburg is about 3 1/2-4 h by train

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There are no flights Stuttgart to Salzburg. Of the places you mention visiting, if from Stuttgart the following inexpensive airlines:

Hannover- dba, HLX, Condor, Hapagfly

Berlin- Germanwings, LTU, dba, Hapag-Lloyd Express, Hapagfly

Paris- Germanwings, Hapag-Lloyd Express

I frequently fly Germanwings- www.germanwings.com . They frequently have %26quot;free%26quot; flights where you only have to pay taxes and fees. I suggest that you go to their website and sign up for their ticket advisories so that you can take advantage of these extra cheap flights.

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Thanks. Unfortunately we will have to fly into Frankfurt as we are flying from Australia to Singapore to Frankfurt. I was thinking of taking the following route.

Frankfurt - Berlin (plane), Berlin - Hanover (train as they don%26#39;t seem very far apart), Hanover - Stuttgart (plane), Stuttgart - Salzburg (train).

Another thought it to also do Vienna but I don%26#39;t know if that is doing too much.

As we will be leaving Europe via Frankfurt, our final flight will be from Paris to Frankfurt so I am guessing it is fairly easy to find flights between these two cities.

Do you know how far in advance they release flights? I know that International ones for January next year will be released early March.

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For Berlin - Hannover and Stuttgart - Salzburg there is no real alternative to the trains.

I would also use the trains for Frankfurt - Berlin and Hannover to Stuttgart. City centre to city centre the time differences are not that big compared to flying. And flying is only cheap if you book with budget airlines well in advance.

A good deal would be a German Rail Twin Pass 2nd class for 4 days in 1 month. AUD 236 pp.

Berlin - Hannover + Stuttgart - Salzburg is together on normal p2p tickets EUR 118 pp ~ AUD 194 pp.

Salzburg Hbf is covered by a German Rail Pass despite being in Austria (by a few meters).

And compared to the flights you have full flexibility. You don%26#39;t have to reserve anything in advance. You can choose your travel dates. And if you miss a train you can just take the next one.

Currently there are 18 flights daily between Paris and Frankfurt. Either by Lufthansa or Air France. That means not the route to expect great bargains.

However this year the LGV-EST highspeed line will go into service.

hochgeschwindigkeitszuege.com/france/linienn…

Means 3:45 instead of 6:15 travel time Paris - Frankfurt. Flight time is 1:25. Plus check-in, transfer to/from the airports, baggage collection.

There will still be some flights for logistical and strategic regions. Mainly to offer connection flights. And as connecting flight they will offered also rather cheap. But as single flights such routes can be really expensive, if the airlines think they cannot attract normal passengers anyway. Only the ones who don%26#39;t know better or the ones for whom 1 hour or 30 min less travel time is important - and who are ready to pay for this. Something the airlines will happily take care for.

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Thank you so much. This information is fantastic. So you are pretty much saying that a 4 day german rail pass will cover everywhere we want to go in Germany as well as Salzburg? I just noticed on the website that it also covers Basel in Switzerland, which is great because we are going there too.

Now we just need to figure out how to get from Switzerland to Paris.

Do you think the German Rail pass is better value than the Eurail pass? They seem to be a lot more expensive.

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%26gt; So you are pretty much saying that a 4 day german rail pass will cover everywhere we want to go in Germany as well as Salzburg?

Yes.

%26gt; I just noticed on the website that it also covers Basel in Switzerland, which is great because we are going there too.

But only to Basel Bad. Bf. not to Basel SBB.

If you stay in Basel you can change already at Basel Bad. Bf. to the tram network.

%26gt; Now we just need to figure out how to get from Switzerland to Paris.

French railways have some good offers if you buy in advance

http://www.sncf-voyages.com

%26gt; Do you think the German Rail pass is better value than the Eurail pass? They seem to be a lot more expensive.

Yes. Eurail Passes (apart from the Youth ones) are only available as 1st class passes. German Rail Passes as 2nd and 1st class passes. And 2nd class is totally sufficient. Also you can buy 4/5/6/7/8/9/10 days in 1 month German Rail Passes, thus you have more options than with the Eurail Flexipasses.

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Removed on: 12:19 pm, August 27, 2009