What the seating choices on trains mean exactly

Hi guys,

I am booking a train from Berlin to Prague and, having never been on a train in Germany, I am not quite sure of the options that have been presented to me. Three of us will be traveling together and because it is not a night train, we will most likely want to be talking not sleeping. So...what do all these choices mean and what would be nicest for three people chatting?

Centre aisle coach
Compartment

And clickable: If no seats are available in an open saloon coach, automatically book a seat in a compartment.
If no seats are available in a compartment, automatically book a seat in a center aisle coach.

And then: Booking seats round a table, if available (ignores the options center ail/compartment in all trains)

Suggestions?

Thanks,
Ali

The one time I traveled on the ICE train (Amsterdam-Munich) I booked a table seat and really liked it. There's a bit more legroom, somewhere to put your drinks and snacks, laptop if you want to... That's my personal pref...

If you're a group you should go into a compartment – in fact I think DB should insist on it. You are of course perfectly entitled to talk on a train, but there's no need to disturb an entire carriage doing so. If you're lucky your group of 3 will have the (6-seat) compartment to yourselves. Those other options you can just leave as they are.

The legroom at the table thing only works if no-one is sat opposite you; for this reason, I always specify airline seat despite being 6-foot-3.

Center Aisle Coach

Compartment if possible.

agree with STB here. table seats suck if the seat opposite you is not empty. and imagine, everyone is using their laptops. some insiste on taking up half their alloted table space. the horror! i travel quite a lot by train and always booked an aisle seat, wagon. for a group, get a compartment and hope you either have it alone or are sharing it with like-minded people. nothing worse than travelling in a compartment in summer. ugh.

then again, when you see groups of German senior cititzens travelling, tehy ususally take up a whole wagon. are rowdy, loud, drunk half the time...

I'm travelling to Frankfurt tomorrow via ICE. It's been ages since I've travelled by train and I cannot remember which, if any, of the seating options provide access to an outlet so I can plug in my laptop. I seem to remember that the table seating has electrical outlets, but perhaps I have totally lost my mind.

Yes, seats with tables have electrical outlets. But only one every two seats (AFAIK). So be sure to plug in your laptop first.

Thanks very much, Panama!