klemen_m
Traveller
36 comments
Posted 11 years ago
Hi,
I cannot find any information about the validity of Interrail One Country Passes. Is it from the 1st day of the month to the last day of the month or could it be from 15th April to 15th May for example? Also is it possible to buy 2 One Country Passes at the same time (seems reasonable, but would like to make SURE anyway) for let's say 2 neighbouring countries?
Thank you! :)
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Hi!
The validitiy period is the same as with One Month Global Passes; for example 15 July till 14 August or 21 January till 20 February.
You can buy several OC passes as well, also for neighbouring countries and then take a through international train without an extra ticket needed (except for a potential reservation).
Flo 8)
klemen_m
Traveller
36 comments
Thank you Flo! Thinking of going interrailing again next year :)
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Great! Which countries do you think of visiting?
klemen_m
Traveller
36 comments
Something cheaper than this summer, probably some countries in the Eastern (or Central) Europe. Thinking of Poland (Krakow, Warsaw) at the moment plus some other cities, not sure in the moment. I would definitely love to visit Scandinavian countries, but since we are trying to narrow down the budget to a minimum this yeas ... maybe once in a future. Still have a lot of time to plan though.
When will the timetable changes take place? Some time in December (around 15th?), right?
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Well, I think there are plenty of interesting places in Poland as well. Sadly I havent been there yet, apart from a short stay in Warsaw (will be there again in about two weeks).
The island of Hel is definitely worth the visit (many long distance (night) trains are extended there in the summer season), Tricity/Troijmasto; Grudziadz,...Wroclaw...might be interesting for you as well.
Maybe also have a look at CZ and SK; depending on how much you want to visit there it might be sufficient to go with regular tickets there.
New schedules are valid from 15 December, yes.
klemen_m
Traveller
36 comments
Was thinking of Wroclaw and Gdansk as well and Hel is really just a blink away. I'll be going with my girlfriend and she's already been in SK and CZ so we won't be going there this year. Thank you for all the info again!
klemen_m
Traveller
36 comments
A few questions:
- Is it possible to travel from Budapest to Krakow WITHOUT going trough Czech Republic as I was making a plan with 3 InterRail One Country Passes (Hungary, Slovakia, Poland).
- Is it worth taking a Slovakia One Country Pass (the cheapest one for 53€) if we will just be travelling trough it to get to Poland.
Thank you!
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Hi!
There are trains across the SK <> PL border at Skalité - Zwardón, however the onward trains from Zwardón are all operated by Koleje Slaskie who do not accept international tickets.
There are no other passenger services across the SK <> PL border.
You could take a bus from Poprad Tatry to Zakopane and maybe combine it with hiking in the Tatras but as you mentioned you dont want to stay in Slovakia so not really an option...
A return ticket Budapest - Krakow is 99,40€...you could use it for the direct night train, probably the most convenient option.
However it might be cheaper to buy a return Budapest - Bratislava (17,50€), then a domestic ticket to Zilina (10€) and international ticket to Zebrzydowice (border) ( 16,60€).
Totals 70€ for the return...
Budapest - Szob (border) is 7,60€, Cadca (border) - Zebrzydowice (border) is 10,40€.
Totals 89€ (including OC Pass Slovakia) for the return...
I did not check for regular fares through CZ...hm.
Budapest - Breclav return 48,60€
Breclav - Bohumin return 20€
Bohumin - Zebrzydowice (border) return 3,60€
Totals 72,20€
Flo 8)
klemen_m
Traveller
36 comments
First of all thank you for all this information flo!
If we buy a return ticket from Budapest to Krakow (for 99,40€) it is around the same price as if we buy 2 One Country Tickets for Slovakia and Czech Republic (106€ in total) and it would be without too much hassle. But the thing is, owning 4 One Country Passes would be confusing a little bit too.
One more question: Is it possible to take a night train, that crosses borders, with 2 One Country Passes? Although I'm not even sure I wanna use night trains as this year's Jesenice - Munchen (from Zagreb; think that train was Lisinski) was really uncomfortable :)
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Yeah, it is no problem to use day or night cross-border trains as long as every part of the route is covered by your OC passes.
Did you need a reservation on last years trip on Lisinski?
klemen_m
Traveller
36 comments
We had reservations for 2 seats but they were so uncomfortable, plus the train was 40 minutes late and therefore we spent nearly 4 hours waiting for a train in total. It was in the middle of the night and there were absolutely no bars opened nearby, so we just sat and slept on the benches at the station.
klemen_m
Traveller
36 comments
If we buy OC Passes for Hungary and Poland, we'd have to buy regular tickets from Vac to Zebrzydowice, right? Where could I check prices for this path?
EDIT:
[quote]However it might be cheaper to buy a return Budapest - Bratislava (17,50€), then a domestic ticket to Zilina (10€) and international ticket to Zebrzydowice (border) ( 16,60€).[/quote]
This really seems to be the cheapest option.
Maribor - Budapest (return) = 49€
Budapest - Zebrzydowice (return) = 70€
Poland One Country Pass (3 or 4 travel days) = 53 or 64€
Can we just buy those return tickets (Budapest - Bratislava) at the station on Bratislava and do you need to have a FIXED date for the return?
Thank you in advance!
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
The ticket Szob (border) (Vac is not the border station) - Zebrzydowice (border) would be valid one month; you can make stopovers along the route if you want and can take whichever train you want and can travel on whichever day you want as well.
Same applies for the Budapest - Bratislava return ticket.
You can play around with this tool: [u]http://jizdenka.idos.cz/IT.aspx[/u] This is the fare calculator of Czech Railways, for domestic fares of other countries you have to look on the relevant websites but for international tickets it is quite a handy tool. However you have to be careful, for instance it does not allow you to calculate a through ticket Budapest - Krakow via Breclav, to do so you have to split at Breclav (border).
klemen_m
Traveller
36 comments
Thank you very much for all the info flo!
anonymous
Traveller
2469 comments
Budapest - Zebrzydowice can be done cheaper than 70€. There are two options:
1. there are two trains:
EC 130 VARSOVIA (dep. Budapest Keleti pu 07:25, arr. Katowice (PL) 14:37, arr. Warsaw Central 17:47)
EN 476 METROPOL (dep. Budapest Keleti pu 20:05, arr. Katowice 04:11, arr. Warsaw Central 07:33, arr. Krakow 06:40)
If you ask (in BUDAPEST) for a SparDay/SparNight offer for those trains, one-way ticket will cost you 29€, two-way is 58€ (no reductions). The offer is limited (sometimes the 29€ tickets are sold out so they offer 39€ or 49€). In Poland tickets are practically unavailable, but in Budapest sometimes you can buy them even a few hours before departure. You have to buy SparDay/SparNight for an indicated day and train (the ticket is not flexible and non-returnable).
Note, that the train to Krakow has only sleeping cars and couchettes, so the price will be higher (39€ or 49€ one-way). The cars to Kraków are attached in Budapest to the train Budapest-Warsaw, and they are separated from the train during the stay in Bohumin (Czech Rep.).So cheaper option is to take a seat acommodation in the train Budapest-Warsaw, and then get off the train in Katowice and catch a standard train to Kraków (more than 20 trains per day, the journey is about 2 hrs)
2. The second option is even more cheap, but it's a little bit more complicated. In Budapest you can buy a return ticket to Bratislava (as for as I remember it is 17,50€). Than you enter one of the trains mentioned in option 1. In Bratislava, you don't leave the train, but only look for a Slovak conductor and he will sell you the ticket to Breclav in Czech Republic (it's about 6,40€ one-way). In Breclav you look for a Czech conductor and he will sell you the ticket to Bohumin (the last stop in Czech Rep) or Zebrzydowice (Gr). That ticket will cost you about 15€ one-way for 2 persons! (in Czech Rep they have excellent reductions for group travelers and return travels, and group is 2 people or more). Than, from Zebrzydowice, you will use your OC Pass. Using this option, the whole trip Budapest-Zebrzydowice and return will be about 45€ per person :D . It's like that because you buy tickets from the border to the border avoiding the expensive international tickets (only in Hungary you can't buy a ticket at the board of the train).
Note that for a Czech route (Breclav-Bohumin) you will have to pay in CZK, not EUR (15€ is about 430CZK). I always could pay with credit/debit card so no CZK needed, but I can't guarantee that it's always like this.