Help with train or air travel within Europe
So, is it possible to get just one train ticket from Rome to Krakow round trip? The Eurail site is confusing. It wants me to buy a pass for 3 or more countries for 4 days of travel, but that's not what I want. Would it be cheaper to take a plane? What's a good site to check for that. In other words- Sarah wants to figure out how to get to Poland for Christmas (December 20th to January 5th) and is confused (and cheap/broke). Any help?

I have used Rail Europe before now but when crossing country boundaries the site tends to include only the popular routes and hence can't give you the connections. But I managed to find a route via Prague involving five trains and taking 36 hours, including a 7 hour wait overnight in Salzburg: Rome, Trento, Innsbruck, Salzburg, Prague, Krakow The cost would be about 240 euros in each way. A quicker and cheaper option would be to fly to Prague (44 euros) and then either fly to Krakow (81 euros) or take the train to Krakow (51 euros) (one-way prices). So flying is half the price of the train. I think the main problem with trains is that each country operates its own trains independently and you would need to travel through four countries. Have you thought about hiring a car? It's only a 15 hour drive.

:lol: Wow- what craziness. Personally, I would rather have unified transportation than a unified currency- who cares if I have to change my money when I get there, as long as I can get there. But I'm not the one who gets consulted about these things, so it's not important what I think. The car thing might work, except for the fact that I don't have a driver's license yet- a problem that may be fixed before the summer's over. But problem number 2 is that I'm still only 21 and car places are generally reluctant to rent cars to young people, at least in the US. Plus, I don't know if I want to put my fledgling driving skills to the test in a 15 hour European trip- though it would be awesome to be able to stop and look around when I felt like it. Are you allowed to rent a car in one country and take it to another? I guess I have a while to go before I need to get stressed out about this.

Perhaps I can just invent a teleportation device. That would solve my financial problems and my transportation problems. :-D

A teleporter may not solve your financial problems because they cost quite a lot to build. There is a simpler train route via Vienna and Bratislava which has the advantage of overnight journeys from Rome to Vienna and from Bratislava to Krakow, with a full day site-seeing in either Vienna or Bratislava. A travel pass would make it a comparable cost to flying. I found http://www.raileurope.com/ much more helpful than http://www.raileurope.co.uk/. The UK site just said it couldn't give me the details that I wanted. One other thing about Rail Europe. They have a limited supply of tickets and so they sometimes tell you that the train is fully booked even when it is nearly empty. ETA: Trenitalia gives you much more information about trains from Rome to Vienna, and faster ones than I found on Rail Europe. It's beginning to look as though the train is feasible. And for a Slovakia train schedule, try http://kvc2.zsr.sk/EN/.

By the way, for most countries and rental agencies you need a) an international drivers license and b) you need to have one year of driving experience.

Flying is probably your best bet :) It's something like 960 miles from Rome to Krakow, which is a long distance by train, and as you encounter four different countries along the way, a train journey would involve lots of changes.

Hi Sarah dear, I have been so busy and didn't see this thread until now. I also think that flying would be cheaper than train in Europe. I will check for you a bit later. I know there is bus also but I don't think it'd be comfortable.