Train deal? I wish to travel from Fussen, Germany to Florence, Rome Venice Vienna and on to Munich next July?

Question

What would be the option? If you can also tell me about travelling time between each of those cities, that would obviously be an added bonus, thanks.

Answer 1

It's actually a little bit early to answer the question. Most of the European rail companies change their timetables on the second week of December. Only rough estimates on travel time can be made, therefore.

Füssen to Florence/Firence

Although only 590 kilometers / 366 miles, it will be an all-day-trip, since it is still difficult to cross the alps. You can take a bus to Reutte/Tirol, from their by train with changes at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Innnsbruck, Brennero, and Bologna, or you hit the way back into Munich, and take express trains with only one change involved at Bolzano/Bozen or use a direct night train connection from Munich.

Florence/Fiorence to Rome/Roma Termini:

Being a section of the Italian Eurostar system, the travel time will take between 1:36 and 1:44 hours for the distance of 286 kms / 178 miles. Three to four direct trains are departing within one hour.

Roma - Venice/Venetia

Hourly departing Eurostar direct trains take between 4:22 and 4:30 hours for the 537 kilometer / 334 mile distance.

Venetia - Vienna/Wien

The 602 kilometers / 374 miles take between 7:00 and 8:16 hours. Two direct trains, starting 8:46am and 2:44 pm as of now, are available, among other connections requiring train changes. Optional a direct night train could be used, leaving Venetia at 8:30pm and arriving Vienna 8:30am, as of today.

Wien - Munich/München

Travel time takes between 4:09 hours on a direct train and 4:48 hours, when train changes are involved at Salzburg.

Presently there are two direct trains operating this 443 kilometer / 269 mile distance, departing 8:22am and 4:22pm, amoung various connections with change at Salzburg. A night connection is also available, presently departing Vienna at 11:45pm and arriving at Munich 6:15am.

I would however recommend to use a train to Salzburg in the morning, spend the day in that wonderful city, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salzburg and catch an evening train for Munich.

Answer 2

Ticket come available about 3 months before travel.

Often the discount prices are also not known before that date.

And of course, all train companies change their prices every now and again, mostly not at the same date either.

You can get an idea by going to the websites of the different train companies and search for prices about 3 months from now.

The German site will show prices when available, with the discounts with 'from' prices.

That site is a good one to find travel times anyhow:

http://www.bahn.de/p/view/international/...

An other one that you will need to find prices is the Italian one, it used to be this one, but at this time I can not get it to work:

http://www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html

It looks like a pretty straight forward journey, so you should be able to work it out between the two websites, but if not, try:

http://www.raileurope.com/us/rail/fares_...

They may not search for cheap fares, but it will give you a standard fare to compare other ways of travel.

If you live in Germany, go to a major station and ask at the ticket desk, or e-mail the contact, you can find it in the link above, to help you sort out your travel details.

And remember to add how many people and their ages, as Germany may still have extra reduction if you travel with several people together.