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Ways to reduce your travel costs :
to Vienna : If you come from Germany, Switzerland or Italy to Vienna or , you can use a special night train ticket offer: from Cologne, Hamburg, Berlin, Zuerich, Milano and Rome there is one train per night, which offers limited seats for 29 euro. I think, that they do take bikes for 10 euro plus, but be sure to check that, before you buy the ticket, because you can not exchange it or give it back. On the otherhand, buy the ticket as soon as possible, because there are only limited places, and specially for friday and sunday they are gone soon. Two weeks in advance is a good bet, only one week in advance is already risky. There is also one nighttrain from Denmark, but it does not reach Vienna, it stops in munich. Find here all nighttrains reaching Vienna and here a list of all trains passing germany. The german railways is generally a good source for connections all over europe. If you come from the east, it is often cheaper to take a bus to bratislava. Then it is only one hour by train to Vienna, or 4 to 5 by bike. At the trainstaion, preferably Petrzalka, you buy the special Bratislava - Vienna - return ticket for 7 euro and 1 euro for the bike (certainly it is still slovac crowns, but i do not know the prize in crowns). You can also very easily bike it in some hours - find the biketrail on the southern side of the danube or take the big street the few km to the border station and then follow the street - not the biketrail, it takes a big detour - until hainburg. You cross the town, going straight all the time, without leaving the mail road, and after leaving the town you will find a big bridge crossing the danube. From there on you can trust the biketrail. It belongs to one of Europes most frequently used, so you should be able to find the signs. It goes straight on for hours, kind of boring, but if you have the time to take a break, you can enjoy a walk in the nature park with one of the last big Danube Bank Forests or go for a swim in one of the lakes, which you will find close to vienna. in Germany There are three nice tickets available from the german railways: The nighttrain ticket for 29 euro, see above. Another ticket for long trips, which is 29 euro (+ 8 for the bike) from where you want start to where you want to arrive - but you have to book at least 3 days in advance and you have to use the connection, they will give you. The third can be for free. It is called weekend-ticket (de: wochenendticket) and costs 28 euros. As the name says, it is valid only on weekends, all over germany in the slow trains (de: nahverkehr) for one day for 5 persons. for each bike you pay 3 euro. It is such a good offer, that many pepole take it, although they are only 2 persons, or even travel alone. So i always go to the trainstaion and ask on the platform or in the train, if people are going with the weekend ticket and if they have a free place for me. (de: Haben Sie ein Wochenendticket ? Koennen Sie mich mitnehmen ?) So i only pay the 3 euro for my bike, if i travel with it. If you look for connections, make sure to look for only local transport at the means on transport field on the website (de: nur Nahverkehr). Another possebility is to find drivers via internet. But you have to be lucky to find someone, who can take you bike, too. Here are some links : http://www.hitchhikers.de/ - german http://www.uni-stuttgart.de/mfg/ - also german http://www.ucmore.com/search/show_category.aspx?id=DM20000522100459187 - large collection, but i did not test them. In the Czech Republic Info about times and prices of trains and busses is on www.idos.cz (also in english) About train: If you are travelling a long distance by train on your own, it might pay back to buy a Karta Z. They are a 100 kc, valid for one year and about 40 % discount. Travelling by train is always cheaper with more people (at least 2) About bus: Sometimes you can take your bike on the bus, try to ask the driver in a nice way :-) If you know more ways of cheap travelling, do not hesitate to contact us at biketour@riseup.net.
Last updated 24 June 2004 |
