Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Self Planned Three Weeks Trip to Europe - Bookings - Intercity Transport

So far, I have posted three parts of the whole planning process. The links for all these part are as follows:-

Part 1 - http://harshad-datar.blogspot.in/2018/03/self-planned-three-weeks-trip-to-europe.html

Part 2 - http://harshad-datar.blogspot.in/2018/03/self-planned-three-weeks-trip-to-europe_21.html

Part 3 - http://harshad-datar.blogspot.in/2018/04/self-planned-three-weeks-trip-to-europe.html

In these parts, planning, Air Ticket booking and booking of accommodation have been covered. In this current blog I would discuss the booking of Intercity transport between cities being visited. Most of our intercity travel is going to be using the public transport. However, twice or three times, we are going to drive taking car on hire.

All cities in Europe are well connected through all three mediums, Air, Rail and Road. It may so happen,  in very few cases, where there is no rail connection (we encountered such situation while looking for options between Prague and Budapest) but that is an exception.

There are large number of websites  in the cyber space who provide booking services. Some are specialist for a particular mode but generally most of them provide information about all available options and help one book any of the mode.

And the choice is nearly unlimited, particularly between major destinations. It will be possible to chose the mode  and time of your choice. Needless to say, Air travel is generally the costliest. Interestingly, we found that sometimes between some destinations, bus travel was cheaper and faster than train (because of one or two changes during train trips).

It would be a thrill to travel on high speed DB (German railway trains), ICE, TGV or similar trains. There are other independent services which run intercity in Germany (one such service is Loco more)
Buses are also aplenty and multiple companies offer services. I am told their bus services are also very comfortable.

Here is the screen shot of one such service


 This task of booking for travel between cities in Europe is a easy one. One can pick up mode as per his / her liking, departure requirements and also cost. See below to realize that we did this whole booking ourselves very easily.
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Intercity Depart Number
From AT To At
Paris (Bercy Seine) 1600     Ghent, Dampoort 2005  Connection 803
BUS

Ghent, Dampoort 0555 Amsterdam Sloterdijk 0930 Connection N814
BUS
Amsterdam Centraal 1632    Köln Hbf 2022       ICE 159
Train
Road Trip Cologne  Koblanz Car Hire
Road Trip Koblanz Frankfurt Car Hire
Frankfurt (Main) Süd station Train 0829 Berlin Ostbahnhof (train) 1316  Connection LOC  1818/K213
(train) Loco More
Road Trip Berlin  Dresden
Dresden Hbf 1122 Praha hl.n. 1335  EC173
Train
Praha, ÚAN Florenc 0700 Budapest, Népliget aut.áll 1430 ELB8801
Euroline
Bus
Budapest, Hungary - TERMINAL 2A 0620 Mumbai 0005/12 May Air France Flight
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With this blog post, the series on Self Planned travel to Europe is complete. We are making a longish trip. One can make a shorter trip. Go ahead, pack and travel. The Education travel gives is priceless.

4 comments:

  1. Sir your blog post shows your passion for Travel and judicious use of money and time is appreciable.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well researched article and it clearly shows the enthusiasm for the trip , A small request from me is kindly do write an article even on packing as it is so confusing with We people that what to leave behind when we are going somewhere out .. so how and what shall be packed ..

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good Suggestion. I will certainly do that.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Awesome post. I have ever seen this kind of post. Thank you for this post.

    ReplyDelete