Hey, Firstly I am new and I am going to be visiting Prague soon but I will also want to visit other towns as well and I was thinking of visiting either Dresden or Vienna. Does it take long to get there and are there any changes involved as I don't want to get confused if I can;t understand some of the language etc. Also if possible is there a website where I can book tickets from. Thanks Rees
It is not a problem to buy ticket just few minutes before the train leaves. There is no possibility to book ticket via internet. You can find schedules here: www.idos.cz Ask more about traveling by train in Czech rep.
Hi Rees and welcome to the boards! Please visit our Czech Republic Trains and Czech Republic Public Transport Schedules pages to find the answers to some of your questions. If you are going to be in Prague first, you'll have plenty of time to buy your international train tickets at the train station in Prague on the day of your travel or, if you want, a few days in advance. No need to buy them online. You can also search these boards to find several discussions on the topic of reserving/purchasing train tickets online. Hope you enjoy your travels! Dana
Train is here the best choice for traveling, station is here almost in every village, idos.cz have in right bottom corner also english, so isn't hard to find something, spend nice time here, I am going this summer into the US, so I believe I will not be confused there too.
A couple of points - I used this site to plan a train trip to Bratislava the last time I was in Prague and just bought the tickets at the train station the day of the trip. There were some differences between the times listed on the websites and the actual times the trains were leaving (perhaps it was my misunderstanding of the timetables,but I don't think so). At any rate, buying the tickets at the station was painless and the ticket agent was very helpful - had a very pleasant trip. Don't count on trains as a major mode of transportation in the US - I have ridden a train here exactly twice in the past forty years - except for densely populated areas of the northeast, trains just don't go where you want to - they are used mostly for freight. Buses are an option, but still not very good - best bet is probably to rent a car. We are an extremely car-centric nation.
Lol, that's not very often! I can't quite picture a train in Florida. I lived in the U.S. for seven years and took the train only once when I was visiting the East Coast. Trains and train stations in Texas and California have been turned into historical attractions for children and old rail tracks have been torn up and turned into bike and walking paths. Here in the Czech Republic, trains go almost everywhere, even to small villages. Rees, taking the train to get to Dresden and Vienna is probably the best way of getting to both places. It's an easy trip and pretty quick, too.
here is our little train station in Tampa built in 1912, it has less than 70,000 passengers a year checked the site to see about a train to our sister city about 15 miles away (St. Petersburg) - it gave me a bus schedule - no trains
I took the train from Detroit to Chicago. It was slow because of the freight traffic near Chicago, but cheap.... so I didn't mind.
Your info are very interesting for me...I knew something about the poor utilization of trains in USA, but I was not sure of it ... Like in CZ here in Italy the trains arrive almost everywhere and often the train is the best way to get somewhere: it's always cheaper and often it's quicker than car. I think the lack of development of US railways may depend on the large distances that promoted air connections: in Europe town and villages are very near and the density of population is very high, these conditions favor train connections.
Yes, I am going to US and I needed to get from D.C. to Miami and Plane is for one half cheaper than Bus or Train, it is impossible in Czech rep. (Czechia), but here are also not so big distances and planes are good only for bussinesmen.
You're right, usually in Europe air fares are too expensive, except for low-cost airlines: last month I've gone from Italy to London (round-trip ticket) with 70€
true - for long distances, planes rule. by comparison, here is a picture of the airport (about 4 years old, we - I work at the airport - have made additions since then)
Well done Glenn! I'd like to have it in my garden too! Do you have some hours for it next weekend? :wink:
If any of you would like to see more Tampa International Airport go to www.tampaairport.com select "About TPA" then "Photo Gallery"
In my part of the US, a lot of people use the train. I live only 1 1/2 hours from Chicago. Many people in these parts work in Chicago but live any where from 100 miles from it. They take the train daily to work and back. However, like Glenn, I too have only ridden a train twice in my life. Both times were recreational. Took the kids to Chicago and thought the train ride would be fun for them. It sucked though, we won't do it again. :wink: Not enough freedom to go where we want when we want.
It is as Glenn said: You are an extremely car-centric nation. But no wonder, when petrol is twice cheaper then in Europe (and you are still complaining about its price :?: ) But I can imagine how traveling by train can be complicated, when area of USA is about 120 times greater (greater?) than area of Czech rep. and you have just about same number of stations (i do not know exact numbers, but you can look here: http://idos.cz/data/C1/Sabcd.htm and here http://www.amtrak.com/html/stations_A.html) and its similar in other european countries. So just be happy you pay (only) $3 per gallon when here we pay about 31 Kč (cca $1,5) per liter (almost $6 per gallon), so you should highly esteem excise tax policy in the US.
Well, I drive a Prius Hybrid so I don't fuss much. Gas costs me about $25 a month for all my driving (I live very close to work and my part of town has everything I need).
