That dream Interrail holiday just got a little easier with new, cheap trains connecting Prague, Vienna, and Budapest.
City-hopping around Europe provides a true embarrassment of riches; one can be admiring the charming azulejos of Lisbon one week, and strolling around Copenhagen‘s colourful Nyhavn the next. And now, it’s just got a lot cheaper to explore a triumvirate of Europe’s grandest, most gorgeous cities, as Czech train company RegioJet has launched new routes that connect Prague with Vienna and Budapest – with tickets starting from as little as £8!
Once you’ve stopped weeping about comparing these prices to British rail fares, you can jump all aboard these cheap trains for a (post-pandemic) holiday. RegioJet’s new routes connect Vienna and Budapest – in a shade under three hours, with prices starting from €9 (£8.27 at today’s rate) – and Budapest with Prague, a seven-hour trip that you’ll be able to book from €16 (a little under £15). So, you can begin in the coffee houses of Vienna, bathe in the spas of Budapest, and stroll across Prague’s Charles Bridge for a travel cost of under £25. Alternatively, you can make it a round trip on the newly-reopened Prague-Vienna route, where tickets can be had for as little as €12.
Rail travel in Europe is becoming increasingly popular, driven by a determination to avoid air travel, and a greater awareness of one’s carbon footprint. Indeed, RegioJet boss Radim Jančura cited this as one driver of the new routes, telling Euro News that the “young generation, they would like to be more ecological. So it means they will prefer to travel by train, if the traveling time is four to six hours.” You’ll get a certain level of comfort on the trains, too – with touch screens built into seats, and a food service provided.
Also fuelling Europe’s rail boom are night train services, with the attraction of waking up in a new city proving an enticing opportunity for travellers on a budget. RegioJet are just one part of this (with night trains from Prague to Slovenia’s capital Ljubljana and Croatian seaside town Rijeka on offer), whilst Sweden’s government is planning to link Malmo and Cologne with a fleet of new night services that could connect to London. So, if you’d like to see Europe whilst reducing your burden upon the environment, maybe it’s time to ride the rails?