Cassie
If you are headed to Europe and planning on visiting multiple locals, finding transportation options can vary between easy to impossible, especially the more east you go. Above is one of many drafts of the spreadsheet I created trying to keep all the routes in order. I searched many, many sites and thought others could make use of them as well. Here are some of the websites I have found while searching for prices and routes on my upcoming trip.
Rome2Rio
All over
General website I have used before. This one is good for getting an idea of your options. I used it a lot in planning our Italy trip last year.
Seat61
All over
Really great site for information on how to connect in Europe (and elsewhere). Mostly does major cities but has some smaller ones as well. This site is how I found many of official train and bus sites found below. I have used it for many trips dating back to when I lived in Finland. I forgot about it for the longest time. Now I have it Pinned so as never to lose it again.
Bahn
Germany and more
This is a German website but can be used for more than just Germany. By selecting USA as your country, the site is fully done in English so it perfectly easy to understand. This site will give you times and pricing for train transportation in Germany and so far it has worked for my searches in Austria. It will also give you times for other countries, but will not have the pricing unfortunately. It doesn’t work for every country in Europe but will for most.
Balkan Viator
Eastern and Central Europe
This site was a God-send. After feeling almost helpless in my search for timetables in several countries (Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia), I came across this site. It is still new and a bit glitchy at times but has been invaluable in my search for connections. I have already noticed several improvements over the last two months I have been using it, so hopefully it will get better and better. Currently the site will give you information for bus, taxi and ride-sharing. I have only used the bus search.
As with other sites, it does have an English option in the top right corner, just select the British flag.
Pro: Find connections you never thought you would. Con: you may have to have to use google maps and get creative. I found that sometimes I would put in a city pair and it would come back with no connections. I would then search the origin against a city farther out. That would bring back a connection and if I looked at the details, I would find the destination I had originally wanted listed. I am hoping this will improve over time.
Originally the site did not list prices but my most recent search actually brought back some prices (and a purchase option). I am not purchasing ahead of my trip so I can not tell you how well the purchase option works. But I loved having a price to go off of. You can even change the currency in the top right corner!
CD
Czech Republic
I used this site to find times and fare from Brno to Bratislava.
Because of that I know it works for trains going out of the Czech Republic. It does not work if you are just looking between non-czech cities however like Bahn does. When first going to the website it will be in Czech. Just select the EN at the upper right of the screen (I suggest doing this over allowing Google to translate for you). So far I haven’t had any translation issue.
Mav-Start
Hungary
Similar to CD above but for Hungary.
I used this to find Budapest to Timisoara, Romania. It will come up in Hungarian. Again just adjust to EN.
BusTicket4.me
Montenegro
This time the English is selected by choosing the British flag in the top middle of the screen.
Similar to CD and Mav-Start but it seems more robust.
Other Helpful Sites
This list could get very long and as I find really good sites I will update it. Below are a few other sites I have used but for very specific routes.
Simeonidis Tours – Thessaloniki, Greece to Skopje, Macedonia
Wandertooth.com – Timisoara, Romania to Belgrade, Serbia. Actually a blog post. But I did start following the site when I found this. Prior to finding it I could not find ANYTHING on how to make this connection.
