UK
citizens no longer need a visa to visit Slovakia.
Page last
updated:
10 June 2010. Train times valid from 13 June to 11
December 2010.
To Slovakia by train...
Above:
The Bratislava skyline, with castle and cathedral...
It's no problem to reach Bratislava by train from the UK.
Take Eurostar & a connecting Thalys train to Cologne, then the
overnight sleeper to Vienna and an onward train to Bratislava. This page explains how to plan, book & make such a trip.
Travel
from London to Brussels by
Eurostar,
leaving London St Pancras at 12:57 (11:57 on
Sundays), arriving in
Brussels Midi at 16:03
(15:03 on Sundays).
Travel from Brussels to Cologne by high-speed
Thalys
train, leaving Brussels
Midi at 16:28 and arriving in
Cologne Hauptbahnhof at 18:15. You've time for
a meal in Cologne.
Travel from Cologne to Vienna by daily EuroNight sleeper train, leaving
Cologne Hauptbahnhof at 20:05 and arriving at Vienna Westbahnhof at 09:04
next morning.
This modern Austrian sleeper train has a sleeping-car
(1 & 2 berth compartments, including two deluxe
compartments with 1, 2 or 3 berths & private shower & toilet), couchette
cars (4 & 6 berth compartments) &
seats. The train travels along the
famous Rhine Valley between Koblenz and Frankfurt, so
if you are in a sleeper and your compartment happens
to be on the left-hand side of the train, switch off
the lights and watch the Rhine pass by, mountains and
castles lit by moonlight, while sipping a glass of
Riesling. Wonderful!
Click for
more pictures & information about this EuroNight train.
You
arrive at Vienna Westbahnhof, so take a tram or taxi to
the Südbahnhof (Ostbahn). Tram 18 runs from the Westbahnhof
to the
Südbahnhof, the fare is 1.80 euros. You'll
find the tram stop across the road directly in front of
the Westbahnhof. You can buy tickets from any
Austrian Railways ticket machine inside the Westbahnhof or at any U-bahn
(underground) station, as the same 1.80 euros ticket for Vienna
central area transport is equally valid on either U-bahn,
suburban train or tram.
Click
here for a Vienna U-bahn map, although the U-bahn
does not links these stations directly.
Direct trains link Vienna Südbahnhof
(Ostbahn) with Bratislava
every hour, taking 1 hour 10 minutes There's one leaving at
10:25 arriving in
Bratislava Hlavna (main station) at 11:25.
Alternatively, you can also
travel from Vienna to Bratislava by Danube hydrofoil,
which runs once a day April-October, allowing day trips
or longer stays. See www.lod.sk
for times and fares.
Train times Bratislava
► London
Travel
from Bratislava to Vienna, leaving
Bratislava (Hlavna) at 17:01 and arriving Vienna Südbahnhof
(Ostbahn) at 17:59. Take tram 18 to the Westbahnhof.
The tram stop is well signed from the Ostbahn and
arrives directly outside the Westbahnhof.
Travel from
Vienna to Cologne by daily EuroNight sleeper train, leaving Vienna
Westbahnhof at 19:54 and arriving at Cologne at 08:42 next morning.
This modern Austrian sleeper train has a sleeping-car (1
& 2 berth sleepers with washbasin plus two 1, 2 or 3
berth deluxe sleepers with private shower & toilet), couchettes
(4-berth & 6-berth) & ordinary seats. The
train runs along the Rhine Valley in the morning, past
castles and the legendary Lorelei Rock.
Click for
more pictures & information about this EuroNight train.
Travel from Cologne to Brussels by high speed
Thalys
train, leaving Cologne at 10:45 and arriving
Brussels Midi
12:32.
Travel
from Brussels to London by
Eurostar.
On Mondays-Fridays,
leave Brussels
Midi at 14:29 and arrive London St Pancras at
15:26. On Saturdays & Sundays, leave Brussels
Midi at 13:59 and arrive London St Pancras at
15:03.
Introducing the Austrian Railways EuroNight train from Cologne to
Vienna...
This was originally a German Railways' City Night Line train, but
on 13 December 2009 it became an
Austrian Railways (ÖBB) 'EuroNight' sleeper train,
with sleeping-car, couchettes & seats. The
sleeping-car has compact 1 & 2 bed
compartments with washbasin, plus two deluxe
compartments with 1, 2 or 3 beds
plus private shower & toilet. The
sleeper berths come fully made up with sheets and
duvets, and all sleeper passengers get mineral
water in the evening and a light breakfast served
in their compartment next morning. Towels & toiletries are
provided, including shampoo and shower gel in the
deluxe sleepers. In the more economical
couchettes, you can book a couchette in a cheaper
6-berth compartment or a less-crowded 4-berth
compartment. Each couchette is provided with
sheet, blanket and pillow, and couchette passengers get
a small bottle of mineral water and a light
breakfast in the morning with tea or coffee. When waiting for
the northbound sleeper train at Vienna
Westbahnhof, if you have a sleeper ticket (as
opposed to couchette or seat ticket), you can use
the first class ÖBB Club Lounge, with
complimentary drinks.
More pictures & information about this EuroNight train.
1 or 2 bed sleeper:
The most comfortable option. Standard
sleepers have a washbasin, deluxe sleepers a private shower & toilet.
4 & 6-berth couchettes:
The economy option, ideal for families. Couchettes are basic padded
bunks with rug & pillow. This is a 6-berth
couchette.
Above: The
Austrian sleeping-car or 'schlafwagen'.
Sleeper & couchette
passengers receive a complimentary light breakfast
with tea or coffee in the morning.
The easiest way to book train tickets from London to
Bratislava
is at
www.raileurope.co.uk,
because all the trains can be booked as a single
transaction on one UK-based website. If you don't live
in the UK, or want to book 4-berth couchettes (which
for some reason raileurope.co.uk can't do) book using
www.eurostar.com &
www.oebb.at
instead, see the next section. Bookings open 90 days
before departure, you can't book before reservations open.
Before starting to book, I recommend noting down each
specific train you want to book using the train times
recommended above, and the date of departure.
Obviously, remember that your date of travel from Cologne
back to Brussels will be the day after your departure
from Vienna!
Step 1, go to
www.raileurope.co.uk,
but resist the temptation to enter 'London' & 'Bratislava' as this won't find you the cheapest fares.
Instead, first enter 'Cologne' & 'Vienna' and your dates
of travel, look for the direct overnight train from Cologne
to Vienna, book the type of seat, couchette or sleeper you
want, do the same for the return journey, add these tickets
to your basket and click 'continue shopping'. Thanks
to the vagaries of the French reservation system,
www.raileurope.co.uk
won't book 4-berth couchettes only 6-berth ones, so if you
want 4-berth couchettes simply
book using
www.oebb.at instead, see the next section.
Step 2, still at
www.raileurope.co.uk,
now book the train from Brussels to Cologne & back, using
the train times above as your guide. Add this ticket
to your basket and click 'continue shopping'.
Step 3, still at
www.raileurope.co.uk,
now book the Eurostar from London to Brussels & back, using
the train times above as a guide. By all means take an
earlier Eurostar outwards, or a later one back, if it has
cheaper seats available or if you'd like to stop off in
Brussels. Add this ticket to your basket and proceed
to payment stage.
Tickets can be sent to any UK address (£1.95 fee) and
normally arrive within a couple of days.
There's a 2% credit card fee, so use a debit card if you
can. Only UK credit cards are accepted.
Step 4, you can buy a Vienna-Bratislava open ticket at
www.raileurope.co.uk
for £15 each way, but it's just as easy (and a fraction
cheaper) to buy it at the station in Vienna, for 14 euros. No
reservation is necessary, you just buy a ticket and hop on.
You can buy tickets to Bratislava at any of the red ÖBB
ticket machines using your credit card or banknotes, you
in fact end up with a day return but it's the same price as
a one-way.
Booking tip: It's worth comparing prices for the Cologne-Vienna
EuroNight train at both
www.raileurope.co.uk
&
www.oebb.at (see the section below)
as they can differ. It's also worth checking prices
from London to Cologne & back at
www.eurostar.com, as sometimes this is cheaper than
www.raileurope.co.uk.
Cologne is shown as 'Koln' on the Eurostar site.
Booking tip: You can also try the German
Railways website
www.bahn.de for booking your London-Cologne tickets, as they
offer 'London Spezial' fares from London to Cologne from
just 49 euros each way. However, you'll only
find these fares on journeys which involve the two or three
German ICE trains between Brussels & Cologne, not on
those involving Thalys. In the outward direction that
means leaving London much earlier (around 08:27/08:57) and
spending some time in Cologne, in the return direction it
means spending the morning in Cologne and leaving Cologne at
14:43 arriving London at 19:03.
This method involves two websites, so do a dry run on both
sites to check prices and availability before booking for
real. Anyone from any country can use
www.eurostar.com &
www.oebb.at,
not just UK residents.
Bookings open 90 days before departure, you can't book
before reservations open. Before starting to book, I
recommend noting down each specific train you want to book
using the train times recommended above, and the date of
departure. Obviously, remember that your date of
travel from Cologne back to Brussels will be the day
after your departure from Vienna to Cologne!
Step 1,
go to either
www.eurostar.com or
www.raileurope.co.uk
and book a ticket from London to Cologne
(shown as Koln on the Eurostar website) using the
train times on this page as a guide. It's
a good idea to try both websites, as one can be cheaper than the other. Tickets
can be posted to any UK address or collected at St Pancras
on departure.
Booking tip: If you don't see any sensibly-priced
London-Cologne through fares, try using
www.raileurope.co.uk
to book in two stages, first London-Brussels & back, then
Brussels-Cologne & back, as this can be cheaper.
Booking tip: You can also try the German
Railways website
www.bahn.de for booking your London-Cologne tickets, as they
offer 'London Spezial' fares from London to Cologne from
just 49 euros each way. However, you'll only
find these fares on journeys which involve the two or three
German ICE trains between Brussels & Cologne, not on
those involving Thalys. In the outward direction that
means leaving London much earlier (around 08:27/08:57) and
spending some time in Cologne, in the return direction it
means spending the morning in Cologne and leaving Cologne at
14:43 arriving London at 19:03.
Step 2,
go to the Austrian railways website
www.oebb.at,
and click 'Englisch' at top right. Now click
'Online-Ticket' top left. Now look for the bottom left
'EURO-Night' square and click it. On the enquiry form,
enter departure station as 'Cologne' and arrival station as
'Vienna', your age and dates of travel. Click 'search
for offers'.
On the results page, you'll see a long list of possible
fares. Ignore the 'flexible' open tickets at the top.
Instead, look down the list of fares shown as 'valid on a
specific train' until you see one for 'Ticket to Wien
Westbahnhof TRAIN EN 421 from 20:05 to 09:04, for the type
of seat, couchette or sleeper that you want. Select
it, don't bother reading about their 'thrift tip'. You pay by credit card and print out your own
tickets. Easy! The prices shown on
www.oebb.at
are in euros, and are the total cost for all passengers
selected, not per person.
Step 3, you can easily buy a Vienna-Bratislava ticket at the station
when you get to Vienna for 14 euros, as no advance reservation is
necessary, you just buy a ticket and hop on. You can
buy tickets to Bratislava at any of the red ÖBB ticket
machines using your credit card or banknotes, you actually
end up with a day return but it's the same price as a
one-way. Or to
save time at the station you can
buy a ticket online at www.oebb.at,
the Austrian Railways website, printing out your ticket in
.PDF format. Alternatively, you can buy
Vienna-Bratislava tickets at
www.raileurope.co.uk
from £15 one-way, £30 return, tickets sent to any UK
address.
You can book the
Eurostar, Thalys and EuroNight train by phone with a
number of UK agencies, including
Deutsche
Bahn's UK office on 08718 80 80 66 (lines open
09:00-20:00 Mon-Fri, 09:00-13:00 Sat & Sun, no booking
fee, 2% credit card charge), or
www.europeanrail.com on 020 7619 1083 (lines open
08:30-18:00 Mon-Fri, 09:00-13:00 Saturdays, £35 booking fee).
Click here for a list of agencies and more information
on how to book.
Travel from
London to Paris by Eurostar, leaving
London St Pancras at 16:02 (15:32 at weekends), arriving Paris Gare du Nord at
19:17 (18:47 at weekends).
It's then a
10 minute walk
from the Gare du Nord to the Gare de l'Est. By
all means take an earlier Eurostar if you'd like to spend
some time in Paris, or if it has cheaper seats available.
Travel from Paris to Munich
overnight by the City Night Line sleeper train
'Cassiopeia', leaving
Paris Gare de l'Est at 20:20 and arriving in Munich at
07:16 next morning. This train runs daily in
summer, but only 4 times a week in winter. It runs
on Mondays, Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays until 18 March 2010, then daily for the summer until
8 November 2010, then on Mondays, Fridays, Saturdays &
Sundays again until March 2011.
It has sleeping-cars (1, 2 & 3 bed compartments,
standard with washbasin or deluxe with shower),
4 & 6-berth couchettes & ordinary seats, see the photos & information
below.
Click for
more pictures & information about this train.
Travel
from Munich to Vienna by
air-conditioned Austrian
RailJet train
with restaurant car, leaving Munich Hbf at 09:27 and
arriving in
Vienna Westbahnhof at 13:40.
You
arrive at Vienna Westbahnhof, so take a tram or taxi to
the Südbahnhof (Ostbahn). Tram 18 runs from the Westbahnhof
to the
Südbahnhof, the fare is 1.80 euros. You'll
find the tram stop across the road directly in front of
the Westbahnhof. You can buy tickets from any
Austrian Railways ticket machine inside the Westbahnhof or at any U-bahn
(underground) station, as the same 1.80 euros ticket for Vienna
central area transport is equally valid on either U-bahn,
suburban train or tram.
Click
here for a Vienna U-bahn map, although the U-bahn
does not links these stations directly.
Travel
from Vienna to Bratislava, leaving
Vienna Südbahnhof
at 15:25 and arriving in
Bratislava at 16:37. This train service is now hourly. You
can also travel from Vienna to Bratislava by Danube
hydrofoil once a day April-October. Visit www.lod.sk
for times and fares.
Train times Bratislava ► London
Travel from
Bratislava to Vienna, leaving Bratislava Hlavna at 13:51 on a direct train for Vienna Südbahnhof arriving at
14:57. Take
local transport to the Westbahnhof.
Travel from Vienna to Munich by
air-conditioned Austrian
RailJet train, leaving Vienna
Westbahnhof at
16:20 and arriving in Munich at 20:34. The train has
a restaurant car & bar.
Travel from Munich to Paris by
the City Night Line sleeper train 'Cassiopeia', leaving
Munich at 22:43 and arriving at Paris Gare de l'Est
09:23 next morning. This train runs daily in
summer, but only 4 times a week in winter. It runs
on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays until 17
March 2010, then daily until 7 November 2010, then on
Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays again until
March 2011. The trains has ordinary seats, couchettes
(4 & 6-bunk) and
sleeping-cars (1, 2 or 3-bed rooms, deluxe with shower or standard
with washbasin).
Click for more pictures
& information about this train.
Walk from the Gare de l'Est to the Gare du Nord.
Travel
from Paris to London by
Eurostar, leaving Paris Nord at
11:13 and arriving London St Pancras at 12:29.
A ticket from Vienna to Bratislava can easily be bought at
the station when you get to Vienna. No advance
reservation is necessary, you just buy a ticket and hop on.
You can also buy a Vienna-Bratislava open ticket for £12
each way online at
www.raileurope.co.uk.
The Thomas Cook European Timetable
The
Thomas Cook European timetable
has train & ferry times for every country in Europe plus currency
& climate
information. Published since 1873, it costs £13.99.
It's essential for any serious traveller
and an inspiration for armchair travellers. Still
not convinced you need one? More information
on what the Thomas Cook Timetable contains. You can
buy the latest monthly edition online at
www.thomascooktimetables.com with worldwide delivery or
buy it in person from any UK branch of Thomas Cook (ask at the
bureau de change), or from W H Smiths in Victoria or Kings
Cross stations in London.
Or
buy the twice-yearly independent traveller's edition with
laminated cover from Amazon.co.uk:
Summer 2010 edition (June to December 2010)
The Thomas Cook Rail Map of
Europe is the best and most comprehensive
map of train routes right across Europe, from Portugal in the
west to Istanbul, Moscow & Ukraine in the east, from Finland
in the north to Sicily & Crete in the south. High speed
&
scenic routes are highlighted. Highly recommended!
Buy online
at
www.amazon.co.uk
(worldwide delivery).
See an extract from
the map.
You
should take a good guidebook. I think that the Lonely
Planets and the Rough Guides are about the best out there
for the independent
traveller. Both guides have everything you need - plenty
of background historical and cultural information, and lots
of
practical information. You won't regret buying one of
these guides..!
Find a hotel in
Bratislava or anywhere in
Europe...
It's
easy to book hotels online to go with your train tickets.
Just use the search box below. This links to
www.hotelscombined.com, a free search tool
which checks all the main hotel booking sites (Expedia, Travelocity, LateRooms, Opodo, Venere,
Asiarooms and many
others) to find just about the widest range of hotels with the cheapest rates on the net. Set
up in 2005, it's an amazing system and probably the best place
to start for booking any hotel online in any country,
worldwide.
If you're on a tight budget,
don't forget the hostels. For a dorm bed or an
ultra-cheap private room in backpacker hostels in most
European cities use
www.hostelbookers.com.
Travel insurance & health card...
Get travel insurance..
Never travel without insurance from a
reliable travel insurer, with at least £1m or preferably £5m medical cover. It should also cover loss of
cash (up to a limit) and belongings, and cancellation. An annual
multi-trip policy is usually cheaper than several single-trip
policies even for just 2 or 3 trips
a year (I have an annual policy myself). Here are some suggested insurers.
Seat61 gets a small commission if you buy through these
links.
If you live in the UK, get quotes from
Columbus Direct or
Go Travel Insurance, or go to
Confused.com to run a price comparison on a whole range of
travel insurance providers for your dates of travel, seeing
their policy's features at a glance.
Don't expect travel insurance to bail you out of every missed
connection, but European international rail conditions of
carriage (known as the 'CIV') contain consumer protection
provisions that entitle you to travel forward by the next
available train if you miss a connection because of a delay to
the first train, irrespective of who operates which train, and
even if your ticket is in theory train-specific and
non-changeable.
Feedback from using
insurance for rail & ferry travel is always welcome.
If you're a
UK citizen travelling in Europe, you should apply for a free
European Health Insurance Card, which entitles you to free or
reduced rate health care if you become ill or get injured in
many European countries, under a reciprocal arrangement with
the NHS. This replaced the old E111 forms
as from January 2006. The EHIC card is available from
www.ehic.org.uk. It doesn't remove the need for
travel insurance, though.
Get a pre-paid euro currency MasterCard from Caxton FX...
You can save money on ATM charges and exchange rates using a
Caxton FX euro currency MasterCard, or indeed the
multi-currency 'Global Traveller' MasterCard.
Find out about these cards & sign up here.
Get an international SIM card...
Mobile phones can cost a fortune to use abroad, and if you're
not careful you can return home to find some huge bills
waiting for you. I've known people run up over £1,000 in
data charges just by leaving their iPhone connected during a
simple trip to Europe. However, if you
buy a global SIM card for your mobile phone from a company
such as
www.Go-Sim.com you can slash the cost by up to 85% and
limit any damage to the amount you have pre-paid. Go-Sim
cuts call costs in 175 countries worldwide,
and you can receive incoming calls and texts for free in 75 countries. It's pay-as-you-go, so no nasty bills
when you get home. It also allows cheap data access for laptops
& PDAs. A Go-Sim account and any credit on it doesn't
expire if it's not used between trips, unlike some
others, so a Go-Sim phone number becomes your 'global phone
number' for life.
If you live in the UK, get quotes from
If you live in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland or the
EU, see
If you live in the USA or Canada, see
