I'm looking at the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland shows in late July, early August.
What's the best way to get from city to city....EurRail?

I would love to hear from the veterans of Stones travel !!

Thanks.

try low cost carrieres e.g.

www.ryanair.com
www.skyeurope.com
www.airberlin.com

or for train: www.db.de look for euro-night train offers

robert from austria

Trains are fast, reliable and easy city center to city center. Best way in Central Europe. Flying is adding a lot of time and money to get to/from airports and security etc. No use in flying unless there is a distance. And remember Ryanair always dump you fat away from the center, not at the main airports. But if the train takes more than 4-5 hours then budget flying might be an option.

Bjornulf

Avoid Ryanair like a dose of the clap if you have any amount of luggage...

Gazza Wrote:
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> Avoid Ryanair like a dose of the clap if you have
> any amount of luggage...

I've never flown them, but I was thinking of so doing in the relatively near future. Can you expand on this, what are their downsides ?

Also remember the airline rule with the big ones. Less than 24 hrs stop is not a stop.
Buy a ticket to the at best place, then stop for less than 24 hrs for another concert.
I am doing it with Frankfurt & Munich for instance... I have a Franfurt ticket with Lufthansa, then stopping in Munich "on the way back". It was much cheaper than a Munich ticket with a Frankfurt stop,
You really have to look around at the routes for this type of tickets. And don't buy them through the airline in most cases.
But as mentioned, it's hard to beat airlines like Ryanair if you have the time to go through the pain.


TE
Oslo

Start in Paris and take the train. Do a loop trip. Best way to meet some nice young ladies. Bring along a few bottles of wine and some sandwiches + the ipod. Find out were the hot babes are sitting and move near them. Start up a conversation and you have it "Made in the Shade" I don't like flyin' around (unless it's really far , say London to Athens or something cause planes ALWAYS suck. Security these days, Luggage restrictions, everybodies in a sh*t mood. The train is nice and fast (and casual) and dumps you off right in the center of town.Check out Tripadvisor.com for excellent hotel info in every town. Yeah, get a train pass if you live in the states. No need to rush these things....

Ryanair gets you from one out of the way airport to another out of the way airport that pretends to call itself a big city. Witness Brussels, ergo Charleloi, which is actually 60 kms from Brussels and the bus takes you 90 mins to get there. If someone will pick you up it's ok but not so nice if you are by yourself.
Also consider luggage. Anything over 15 kgs and Ryanair socks you bigtime with extra weight charges.
They also have the worst mannered cabin crew. That's probably because they make less than street cleaners and work slave hours.
The world of deregulation has made a lot of sense and forced big airlines to cut their prices to reasonable levels. But it has also made a few fly-by-night outfits into millionaires who use great come-ons through web marketing to lure you into what sounds like a 'can't be true' deal.
If you plan your trip well and fly with next to no luggage then you can probably do it. Is it worth it for a North American coming to Europe to try? Highly doubtful. Stick with either long-established carriers (Lufthansa, KLM, Air France, British Airways, BMI, SAS) or buy a Eurorail Pass and take the train. The most amazing things happen on a train! Usually good!
Come to Europe and enjoy yourself. Just plan, plan, plan. Enjoy the concerts!

1. example

Flight with Air Berlin to Berlin (concert), Berlin-Düsseldorf (friends to stay) with German Wings (Cologne concert) and back to Zurich with Air Berlin. EUR 92.00 (incl. taxes) for 3 flights (EUR 1.00 fare). Much (!!) cheaper than train tickets.

2. example

Flight with Air Niki(Air Berlin) Zurich-Vienna, next day train to Brno (concert), return with train to Vienna (concert, meeting friends), shuttle bus to Bratislava and flight with Ryan Air to Bergamo, shuttle bus to Milan (concert), train to Zurich. About EUR 165 (incl.) plus maybe few euros luggage cost (Ryan Air), but I don't go to a wedding party.

I do avoid by now any low cost airlines as they tent to be the same price as the big ones. I fly from Barcelona to Madrid with Spanair for 56 Euro which is a company owned by Lufthansa, then to Paris with Easyjet because that was the cheapest go. (Avoid MAdrid - Bruxelles direct that's much more expensive) Further I have a car for the Bruxelles /Paris time. From Paris to Bergen which is a hazzle to find the right flight I go know with SAS for 150 Euro via Oslo. (I checked a thousand times and suddenly that price showed,before it was well over 1000 Euro) from Oslo I go by boat to Copenhagen as I will leave out Horsens. For two people one night in a cabin it was 160 Euros.
You can get pretty organized, but you have to spend time in front of the labtop. But by any chance for foreigners and if you bring time: GO BY TRAIN it's the most reliable transport and very cheap for those from outside Europe

I have a huge question, I do not get into Prague until 8 PM June 15, and BRNO is June 16...any ideas??? Should I change my flight plans?How far are the two cities apart??

Then after that is Vienna, and Athens. I reall think I want to do the Eurorail rather than flights...does Eurorail cover Athens. I am sure it must do Prague to Vienna.

Ryanair is far superior other companies when it comes to ticket prices. But you'll arrive some hour outside the city centers and have to buy train or bus tickets ca 10-12 euros each direction.
And there's no free drinks, you have to pay for every sandwich on the flight. And the luggage limit is 15 kg.
But there's never problems with delays (my experience).

If I can, I always try to fly Ryanair.

kahoosier, check out www.ricksteves.com for very detailed info about all European train passes. Like I said above go on www.tripadvisor.com to check out all things having to do with hotels - from one star to five star. Tons of reviews written by actual travelers. (come to think of it it might be traveladvisor.com if tripadvisor doesn't work). Prague and Brno aren't too far apart. Go in the morning of 6/16, get a hotel,you'll be free by 1 or 2 pm at the latest. Vienna's close. Athen? that's gonna take some time. Have only gone through Italy / Ferry / Greece. I think you can take the Eastern route through the old Yugoslavia down to Greece.Not 100% sure.If you can it will be slow (but Serbia and Croatia have some super hot chicks that are very sweet - it's unbelievable). Good luck, don't forget the wine....

Vienna to Athens. About 32 to 40 hours. 3 to 4 changes of train.

Fastest...one only 2 changes. 32 hours.

Wien Westbahnhof 23.06.06 20:03 D 347
Beograd 24.06.06 06:27
Beograd 07:00 D 411
Thessaloniki 21:27
Thessaloniki 22:40 IR 605 InterRegio
Athenes 25.06.06 05:22

Stopover in Belgrad ist not possible, you will be to late in Athens....

take not only one bottle of wine with you..........

Vienna to Athens with train - a horror trip.
Cheap airlines are definitely the way to go, imo.
Fly from the airport of Bratislava (50km from Vienna, bus ticket from Vienna to the airport included) with SkyEurope and be there in a couple of hours and much cheaper.


Belgrade-Bucharest-Budapest-Brno

Ryanair is the best and cheapest budget airliner in Europe if they go where you want to go, and if you buy the ticket early when it is cheap like 10-20 pounds. Nobody can beat that. I use them a lot but I have never luggage. In fact Ryanair don't want luggage. They allow 10 kg carry-on so that is ok. Stanstead is always busy but just close your eyes and move on and ad a couple of hours to your travel time. Saving 50 euro or more on every flight makes a lot of money eventually. Air Berlin is great too. But you have to understand that if they can't fly for some reason they will give your 20 pounds ticket money back and they will leave you at the airport so make sure you have time to re-arange or take another flight. Also Ryanair are always on time normally unlike the big airliners who spend 1 hour making the plane ready between flights, while Ryanair is ready for takeoff 10 minutes after arrival. Open seating and the plane ready as they land. Nobody is more efficient. And if you save 50 pounds on the flight then you can always spend 5 pounds on a muffin and wine because that is all you need to pay if you really need that stuff on the flight.

Bjornulf

kahoosier, prague and brno are about 2hrs drive time apart. It should not be a problem to get to brno even in the night if you want to be at concert site early.
Bus is much quicker and actually cheaper way to get from Prague to Brno but traveling by train is more comfortable on the other hand.