lostandfound
Traveller
2 comments
Posted 13 years ago
Hi,
We came across your forum whilst looking for guide prices on rail fare from Bruges to Munich and we were wondering if you could offer some advice to two first time travellers please?
We are both 26+ and are looking to travel from England to South East Asia without flying. The first leg is therefore across Europe (with Helsinki being the final destination) and we were just wondering whether it would be worth buying a 10 days in 22 pass for around £320 each or whether we could get the fares a lot cheaper if we were to buy single tickets along the way?
We're departing England by ferry from Hull and arriving in Zeebrugge/Bruges on 12 Sep 2014. From there, our preferred route would be by train to Munich, Prague, Krakow, Warsaw, Riga, Tallinn and then ferry across to Helsinki, spending 1-3 days in each city. Having checked the interrail site, we can see that Latvia and Estonia are not included and therefore we would have to buy separate tickets for travel from Warsaw onwards, which shouldn’t be too expensive, so our question is whether it is possible to get from Bruges to Warsaw, via Munich, Prague and Krakow for less than £320 per person?
From our initial research, the biggest stumbling block appears to be getting from Bruges to Munich as there are no direct trains, so we'd have to go either via Brussels and Koln or Brussels and Rotterdam, but from Munich, it appears as though we should be able to find direct trains from there on.
Any advice would be extremely appreciated!
Many thanks,
Shaun and Anne.
Robert_Antonio
Traveller
53 comments
Hi,
I made a similar trip to China and southeast Asia last year and this year we plan a trip to Finland through Baltic states (of course by train :) ) , so ask me what you want.
I think that most complicated problem on your way are visa. Chinese embassy generally requires a air or train ticket to Chinese territory, but it's not possible to obtain such train ticket in Europe. Some embassies are happy only with the itinerary of your journey in China, but I definitely recommend to obtain your visa in Britain, because the Chinese visa procedure in Russia or central Asia is an incredibly bureaucratic marathon.
Russian embassies require tickets too, but you can buy them at Russian Railways e-shop ([u]http://pass.rzd.ru[/u]) or at various agencies selling Russian tickets in Europe.
The IR is good for tourist crossing, but if you want only to travel quickly over Western Europe, normal tickets would be better.
[b]Brugges–Cologne[/b]
Take a normal train to Brussels, they're quite cheap. From Brussels to Cologne take a Thalys train, the e-ticket price begin at €19 when bought in advance.
[b]Cologne–Munich[/b]
Tickets begin at €79 in ICE or €59 in IC train when bought in advance at [ux]https://rail.shop/bahn[/ux] . If you really want to save money, use Regional expresses, which takes about 9 hours with many train changes, but you can use a regional network ticket Quer-durchs–Land-Ticket (also available at [ux]https://rail.shop/bahn[/ux] e-shop) for €48 for two people. I think that if you depart from Hull early morning, you can get to Munich the same day evening, even with regional trains from Cologne.
[b]Munich–Prague[/b]
Two direct trains from Munich to Prague are considered by German Railways as regional transport, so you can use a Bayern-Ticket (one-day network ticket for all regional trains in Bavaria), it costs €29 for group up to 5 people. At Czech territory buy at conductor a normal group ticket (2 people are group in Czech tariff) to Prague.
[b]Prague–Warszaw[/b]
For daytime train you can buy the ticket at Czech Railways e-shop [u]http://cd.cz/eshop[/u] for €19. Night train is more expensive, about €60 with couchette reservation.
[b]Alternative[/b]: If you have fixed itinerary, buy at Czech e-shop also domestic tickets Domažlice–Prague and Prague–Bohumín. They're bound to specific day but not to specific train, and they are considerably cheaper than normal paper tickets.
[b]Warszaw–Vilnius[/b]
A Vilnius-Special ticket, available at Warszawa station, costs €26.60.
[b]Vilnius–Tallinn[/b]
Train fare in Baltic states is very cheap, however there are only few passenger trains. From Vilnius to Riga you have to spend a night in Daugavpils, from Riga to Tallinn you have to use slow local trains with 6–hour change at border station Valga.
It's question for you, if you want to visit all cities you mentioned or only travel over Europe as fast and cheap as possible.
lostandfound
Traveller
2 comments
Robert,
Thanks very much for your comprehensive response, you’ve helped massively!
We are aware of the visa issues in China and Russia and so we’re going to make sure we’re fully prepared before we leave England! Out of curiosity, what route did you take across Russia and Asia? We were thinking of the train from Helsinki to St. Petersburg, then onto Moscow. From there, we were going to take the Trans-Siberian to Beijing, possibly stopping in Ulaanbaatar for a night or two.
In terms of the travel across Europe, we’re hoping to see those cities mentioned along the way and we weren’t looking to rush as such, but we have a budget to adhere to so we can’t stay in places for too long! I would say in total, we would be spending around 2 weeks from leaving Hull to arriving in Helsinki.
From your calculations, it looks If we plan our journey beforehand and book all the trains in advance, it seems as though the travel costs would be nearly half the price of an IR pass, so I think we will go with that option. Would you say that is a wise choice?
Thanks again,
Shaun
Robert_Antonio
Traveller
53 comments
Hello Shaun,
in my opinion, IR is tailored for travellers making short hops between sites, but using plane for long transfers. If you want to make one long overland trip and you know enough discounts provided by railway companies, you'll hardly ever need IR.
For your journey the only tickets you have to book in advance are Thalys Bruxelles–Cologne, IC/ICE Cologne–Munich and daytime train Prague–Warszaw. All other tickets you can buy on spot, i.e. you won't get a better price if you buy them in advance. On the other side, journeys in Russia I recommend to book in advance, because Russian long-distance trains are quickly sold out even several days before departure. And you get rid of complicated procedures at Russian railway cash desks.
The trip we made last year was through Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan to Urumqi. I chose this way because it allowed us to make more stops on the way, than the one-week journey in Trans-Siberian express. I wrote a reportage, but only in Czech.
Robert
lostandfound
Traveller
2 comments
Thanks for all your help Robert, it's much appreciated!
I'll check the link out too.
Shaun
nltrainer
Traveller
1416 comments
for the trainticketB-MUc you have 2 options:
1.book online via [ux]https://rail.shop/bahn[/ux] - look for the sparpreis (only 2 trains-to fro Cologne or frankfurt-both on luxury ICE), this is from Brussel, as there the german trains start. Can book from 3 month advance-59, maybe 49€/single p.p. should be do-able.
2.book same via b-rail.be/europe-the Belgian railways, as their tickets are valid from ABS=any Belgian station (but NO break/stopover is allowed !).
3.there is a cheaper way-on Sat+sun only.
Trains in BE are not very expensive-just pay for normal ticket, buy extra ticket for across border into germany (from Welkenraedt), now you MUST use the slower Regional trains. OR-on sat, take very early train+Pay to Liege only-buy a EUREGIO-ticket =15,50 (on weekends valid for 2 people!) and use that for local trains to Aachen-then buy Weekend-next.
Check on [ux]https://rail.shop/bahn[/ux] for NUR NAHverkehr=only slower trains, On sat or sun and use the WOCHENENDTicket @39€, valid for up to 5 people, a whole day, for as much/far as you can. it will be a long day with many changes, but not very exhausting-the trains are quite nice, often doubledeck. In fact you can now also do that on weekdays-with the Quer-durchs-land ticket, but that cost more and is only valid after 9.00. AND W-E is also valid in Muc on local citybus/tram etc and QdL not.