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curiouser
Traveller
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Posted 14 years ago

[b]Hi everyone/anyone [/b] :P ,

I have three days to go around Europe in January of next year, and I was hoping to visit Prague, which is like a long-time dream of mine. I'll be starting off from Amsterdam (as I have to attend to some business in NL), so that is naturally my starting point.

I was thinking of maximising my travel time by taking the CNL night trains in these instances, and I am of the (maybe misguided) view that it may be cheaper than booking a hotel. I will just lug my bag around, or leave it at a left baggage/locker area at the train station.

Here's what I have in mind:
Day 0 - Amsterdam Centraal to Hamburg
Day 1 - Hamburg
Day 2 - Berlin (I don't think CNL travels to Berlin from Hamburg, so I might take a different train.)
Day 3 - Prague
Day 4 - Prague to Amsterdam Centraal (eventually going to Schiphol)

With that, here are my questions:

1 - Is it indeed cheaper to go by CNL rather than take some other train then book a hotel?
2 - Can I board the Amsterdam Centraal to Prague CNL from Berlin?
3 - Should I get a train pass, or is it better for me to buy individual tickets?

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! :P

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Peter
Traveller
9333 comments

replied 14 years ago

Hi ...

If you want to stay flexible I definitely recommend you for example the 5 days in 10 InterRail Global Pass: [ux]https://rail.shop/interrail[/ux]
But you might get special offers of the national rail companies if you have fix travel dates. But book them early (the best right now) as they are definitely limited.

I personally really enjoy the CNL night trains as they are safe, cheap and comfortable.

For you journey you will only need it once on the route [b]Prague back to Amsterdam[/b]: [u]https://rail.cc/en/prague-amsterdam-train/f2546[/u]
All other journeys are short distance and not worth using the night train.

Have a look at the train schedules: [u]https://rail.cc/en/search-interrail-route[/u]

And good news: on all your journeys you won't have to pay any supplements!

[b]Amsterdam-Prague[/b]: 5 hours of travel time with free IC trains (1 change in Osnabrück)
[b]Hamburg-Berlin[/b]: 1:30h - free ICE train (avoid peak times like early in the morning or in the afternoon where you will have a lot of business travelers on this route. the best is to leave for example Hamburg around 1100-1300h
[b]Berlin-Prague[/b]: [u]https://rail.cc/en/berlin-prague-train/f3361[/u]

Peter :)