By Train, Bratislava

If you travel to Bratislava from Vienna by train, your ticket allows you free use of public transport within Bratislava on your day of arrival. Tram 13 from the station takes you to the old town. If you buy your tram ticket from a machine make sure validate it on thetram before the ticket inspector gets you.

We visited Bratislava on a day trip from Vienna. To get there we travelled on the U bahn to Praterstern then changed to the S-bahn to the Sudbahnhof. Exited the station, went left, crossed the road and entered the station. We bought tickets from the red ticket machines for 14 Euros return. Trains left at 20 past the hour and took 1 hour 10 minutes to Bratislava making it an easy day trip.

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I've had a lot of experience riding the train in countries where I don't speak the language. Usually, a clearly written arrow diagram showing where I want to go and when I want to go there with dates, combined with a bit of hand waving or a few words of whatever language I and the sales agent both happen to know a bit of suffices to buy the needed ticket. All that's required is a little cooperation and patience on both sides. In the Bratislava train station, however, cooperativeness and patience seemed to be very scarce commodities. I was rebuffed by agent after agent, each of whom simply refused to even try to work with me to complete the transaction. None could or would try to communicate in another language, not even German (Austria in only an hour away) . With persistence and the help of a person in the vacation office down the hall who spoke a bit of English, I did eventually obtain a ticket, but an hour was wasted trying to accomplish what should have taken five minutes. My advice: bring a friend who speaks Slovakian or take a dose of antacid before you go.

After we had decided that we DID in fact need passports to go to Bratislava we bought our tickets from the ticket office in Wien Suedbahnhoff for just 14E return.

En route the train stopped just outside Bratislava for police to board and check passports - and to tell P to take her feet off the seats! They also boarded on the return journey too.

On the way back, at around 11.30pm we just wanted to sleep but there was a very spoilt child of about 5 years old with a plastic sword and a very loud and annoying voice being doted on by 3 adult relatives who could see we were trying to sleep but made no attempt to shut the horrid child up. I guessed they didn't understand English because me and P were discussing what should be done with the little monster!

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There are trains from Bratislava Petrzalka (south of the Danube) and from Bratislava Hl. (north of Bratislava), both arrive in Vienna Suedbahnhof (at themoment under construction).
http://www.oebb.at/pv/en/Servicebox/Train_schedule/index.jsp?S=bratislava&REQ0JourneyDate=22.09.2008×el=depart&start=1&ld=oebbℑ.x=48ℑ.y=22&Z=vienna&time=11%3A55
Buses from Mlynské Nivy busstation (walking distance from the center),
arrive in Vienna Erdbergerstr. 200a busterminal or Vienna Suedtirolerplatz.
http://www.gratislava.at/

Bratislava has two main stations. The Central Railway Station (Hlavná Stanica) is about a kilometer north of the old town. This is the main station, serving all the international destinations, like Vienna, Budapest and Prague. But there is another station, south of the Danube, which has regular connections to Vienna also. Make sure you know which one your train leaves from.

There are several trains from Vienna to Bratislava. Most of the trains leave at Wien Südbahnhof and arrive in Bratislava hl.st. In the morning there are trains leaving at 8.37am, 9.28am, 10.28am and many more. It is about 1 hour. There is a ticket for 14€ which is valid for both ways and at the same time for all buses in Bratislava. The ticket is availiable at the vending machine at Vienna South railway station (Wien Südbahnhof). When you arrive in Bratislava try to find the tourist information which is inside the main building around a corner. Ask for a map and a guide called "Bratislava and surrounding guide" which is for free. In front of the station leaves bus number 93. Get off at the second station which is next to Grassalkovich Place. The place is the perfect point for starting a city walking tour. All sights are gettable on foot, most of them not by car!

I needed to reserve the carriage of a bicycle on the EC 174 , leaving Bratislava at 8:13 and hitting Prague, Dresden and Hamburg on the later course. I needed the reservation as it is the only way to take a bicycle north through the Czech Republic to Germany from Vienna, Bratislava or Budapest without a hundred changes.

I wanted to take the EC 174 to Decin, cycle across the border and then continue with German Happy-Weekend-Ticket to Berlin since this is the cheapest and easiest way to get from Vienna to Berlin.

I tried to make reservation for carrying the bicycle through Slovak Rail and other places, but had no luck.

Since I am German I finally got the reservation for the bicycle from Deutsche Bahn. I called their Bicycle Hotline and then pulled the reservation out of a DB ticket vending maschine in Germany, price was 4 EUR and I had to pay with EC debit card or alternatively with credit card.

The ticket for the train I bought in Bratislava at the main train station. Bratislava-Decin was 25 EUR.

On the day I was travelling there weren't many bicycles on the train, so I am not sure whether reservation is absolutely necessary if you are willing to be flexible. But if you need to travel on a certain EC train on a specific date I still recommend buying the reservation.