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Raileurope.com: See Europe by train
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Old 06-24-2005, 06:06 AM   #1
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Any ideas on how to travel between Eastern and Western Europe, i.e., this is a section of my itinery:

Rome-Athens $164 (plane) --not bad

Athens-Budapest $367 (plane) --too much money (I couldn't figure out how much train travel would be.. I think I have to split it up city to city, recommendations?)

Budapest-Prague $96 (train) --not bad

Prague-(Frankfurt)-Amsterdam $245 (train) --a little much (I belive the plane was twice expensive)

So my bigest complaint is Athens to Budapest, that just seems like too much money to be traveling in Eastern Europe. I'm considering leaving Athens out of the itinery because it's my biggest travel expense right now, but I really want to go. So please offer me some wisdom sages. Thanks.
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Old 06-24-2005, 06:12 AM   #2
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which airlines are you using? have you tried
easyjet
skyeurope
wizzair

cut back considerably by using eurolines buses
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Old 06-24-2005, 06:35 AM   #3
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Have you looked at Ryanair?
They have really good deals!

Also check out other european airlines and shop around for a bit. Sometimes local airlines from the given country will have better rates.

Bast of luck!
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Old 06-24-2005, 07:52 AM   #4
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Thanks. I managed to get the price down to 160€, but I'll have to leave the day before or day after i wanted. I like skyeurope and wizzair, but ryanair and easyjet are too limited in their choices. They don't even have Athens listed.
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Old 06-24-2005, 10:41 AM   #5
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easyjet you can fly to athens from either london or berlin to athens. As berlin is a major easyjet connection if it saves you the buck you could do a connection to budapest from berlin but i dont know what dates you are wanting to fly so cant be of much more help sorry
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Old 06-24-2005, 11:32 AM   #6
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The train would take 30 hours, but you could split it up and visit Skopje (Macedonia) and Belgrade (Serbia) on the way.
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Old 06-26-2005, 04:14 AM   #7
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The train fare from Buda to Prague seems a bit high to me, and train fares throughout eastern Europe are generally pretty low, so I think that would be your best bet from Athens, though it would take quite a long time. It's a bit hard to find fares for eastern trains, but you can get a general idea from a guide book (Let's Go and Lonely Planet usually are pretty accurate.) Like ajb suggested, you'd be best to break the journey up, and it'll be easier to figure out the fares.
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Old 06-27-2005, 01:53 AM   #8
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Someone asks for the exact dates I was planning on traveling. Anyone know any other websites than already listed that may have a better price for Rome to Athens on July 20 or 21. Someone mention the train ticket was expensive. I am getting my prices from raileurope.com, is there another way?


Italy-Rome (July 17 – 20)
-Florence-Rome $62 (train) 1 hour 37 minutes (5:53-7:30)

Greece-Athens (July 21– July 24)
-Rome-Athens $184 (plane-yahoo) 2 hours 5 minutes (9:20pm-12:25am)

Hungary-Budapest (July 23 – 27)
-Athens-Budapest 183€ (plane-openjet) 1 hours 10 minutes (7:20pm-8:30pm) July23
-Athens-Budapest 166€ (plane-wizz) 1 hours 10 minutes (7:20pm-8:30pm) July23
-Athens-Budapest 99€ (plane-skyEurope) 1 hours 10 minutes (5:00am-6:10pm) July25


Czech Republic-Prague (July 28– July 31)
-Budapest-Prague $96 (train) 9 hours 47 minutes (7:50pm-5:37am)

The Netherlands-Amsterdam (August 1 morning – 4 afternoon)
-Prague-(Frankfurt)-Amsterdam $245 (train) 13 hours (9:52pm-6:21am, 7:00am-10:52am)
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Old 06-27-2005, 04:47 AM   #9
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I don't know, that fare Buda-Prague still sounds high to me. I wonder if the fares you're being quoted are first class? Or sleepers? That could bump up the prices, of course. Anyway, as I suggested, a good way to compare prices is to check out a current travel guide (you can just take a peek while you're at the local library or bookstore) and see what they say. Unfortunately all my well-thumbed guide books are currently in a box somewhere between Lithuania and Germany, so I can't check for you, but my books are at least a year old anyway, so better to pick up a more recent edition. We've found them to be usually reasonably accurate.
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Old 06-27-2005, 07:58 AM   #10
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I looked in my guidebook (Let's Go 2005), and it says 11700FT or about $54. But I don't know if that includes a sleeper and reservation. Is raileurope.com generally overpriced? I had planed on booking all my point to points online before I left. But, i.e., for this trip raileurope.com says it's $84 without reservation or $96 with reservation (or $117 with a sleeperand reservation). What do you guys recommend(?), because I'd prefer not having to worry about travel plans once I start traveling. That way I can maximize the cities I visit. Is there another option for booking trains that is cheaper.
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Old 06-27-2005, 11:25 AM   #11
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ok i got a return on the eurolines bus from budapest to prague for 9000 forints which is about £28. You can book the train from nyugati or keleti train stations if you want to get the train if you are under 26 you get 50% discount remember to take your passport with you when you want to book either a train or a bus journey
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Old 06-28-2005, 01:46 AM   #12
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That's a long bus ride, I'll take the train. You're saying that I get a 50% discount from the prices quoted on raileurope.com? And you are saying that I should go to the train stations in budapest to make the reservation, but is there no way to do it before hand? I'm in France right now, would it be possible to go to a train station here and reserve all the legs of my trip via train?
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Old 06-28-2005, 08:51 AM   #13
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well im not too sure if you can reserve your trips like that for every leg of the journey because every country is run by different train companies, i lived in budapest last year and we just used to walk in and get our discount
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