Welcome to the TravelPod forums

[shaz2003]

Hi everyone, i have just joined up to travelpod, I have had a few trips overseas, visited ireland twice, and have been to parts of germany, austria, hungary, the chech republic and holland.


I have a few questions for anyone out there who may be able to help. What do you think about buying a prepaid phone in austria and calling australia with it. I have been wondering if it would be a more econimical way to go then getting international roaming on my own phone.

Also we are travelling around by the train system and was wondering if we should pre book our trips from here, or just do it when we get there. Any ideas would help.

I would love to hear from fellow travellers who have been to italy in particular as there seems so much to see. We have around two weeks, starting with venice, then florence, rome, sorrento.

I am not sure if this is the right way to talk to you all out there hope so.

Cheers
Shaz.

[alexoproiu]

About Austria and train travel, I've been to Vienna a couple of weeks ago and found that traveling by rail between cities is quite easy.

In Westbanhof (trainstation) in Vienna we could purchase tickets from an automated vending machine in a matter of seconds (English/French/Italian...) interface.

As for phone calls, as a rule I think it's much cheaper buying a sim card in Austria and using it for international calls. Roaming would just make you pay both the Austrian phone company and your own.

[His Royal Monkeyness]

Train tickets are easy to get in Austria and you should be able to just show up and get them (unless it's a popular route). Be aware that train travel is very expensive there. If you're going to be spending much time there, get a railpass.

As for phones, either get a phone card or use a phone at the internet cafe. You'll get the best rates that way.

There's another post in this Europe branch about Italy. Check that out for places to go.

[peacefrog]

What do you think about buying a prepaid phone in austria and calling australia with it. I have been wondering if it would be a more econimical way to go then getting international roaming on my own phone.

I guess you wouldn't be needing to call Oz every five minutes, so why don't you just use skype? Just put credit online on your account with a credit card, and you can call to anywhere from a computer.

If you really need to be reached from or on mobile, you can pay an extra and get a skype number (several numbers in several countries in fact) at which people can call you at a local rate . And you can have your call redirected to your phone. Haven't tried that yet, but I think it works well.

[headinthetrees]

First post.

Hi one and all I have searched the forum but I cant seem to find a refference to this, I am an Australian living in the Uk, I want to travel from Holland to italy over 2 weeks by train to meet a friend and go walking.

Ive been looking on line and found interail global pass, has any one used this one, or is it rubbish? I want to travel a short distance each day. and then spend the rest of the day enjoying my self.

GHF

head in the trees

[mnmrenaissance1]

Hi everyone, i have just joined up to travelpod, I have had a few trips overseas, visited ireland twice, and have been to parts of germany, austria, hungary, the chech republic and holland.


I have a few questions for anyone out there who may be able to help. What do you think about buying a prepaid phone in austria and calling australia with it. I have been wondering if it would be a more econimical way to go then getting international roaming on my own phone.

Also we are travelling around by the train system and was wondering if we should pre book our trips from here, or just do it when we get there. Any ideas would help.

I would love to hear from fellow travellers who have been to italy in particular as there seems so much to see. We have around two weeks, starting with venice, then florence, rome, sorrento.

I am not sure if this is the right way to talk to you all out there hope so.

Cheers
Shaz.

[lukester]

I've been visiting Vienna rather frequently and put together www.viennaresources.com as a English resource for people wanting to travel or move to Vienna. It's goal is to help point people more quickly to the best resources of information for a variety of topics.