European train travel

[Frwinkley]

We are considering some train travel through Europe next fall. Having looked at some cruises, I'm a bit overwhelmed, so am now considering covering a smaller area but by train. We're not interested in flying between countries. We would be traveling from the US, couple in early 60s and in good health. Looking at a 14-16 day trip.

Anyone have any experiences? Perhaps an itinerary you might recommend?

Thanks so much.

 

[clh2]

My DH and I are considering either a river cruise, or a train/bus trip in 2025, also about 2 weeks.

Im curios to see other suggestions! with this process, I feel like a kid in a candy store. Every single trip itinerary looks awesome.

I don’t know if this would impact your plans at all, in 2024 the summer Olympics will be held in Paris.

 

[CynBeth]

We recently did a 7 day Med cruise and it was amazing. The ship left from Barcelona we flew in a few days early and had a day at sea before visiting Marseille, Villefranche (Nice/Monaco), Genoa, Portofino, and Livorno (Florence/Pisa). We ended at Civitavecchia port outside of Rome. We then spent 2 nights in Venice and have been in Rome.

 

[Frwinkley]

We recently did a 7 day Med cruise and it was amazing. The ship left from Barcelona we flew in a few days early and had a day at sea before visiting Marseille, Villefranche (Nice/Monaco), Genoa, Portofino, and Livorno (Florence/Pisa). We ended at Civitavecchia port outside of Rome. We then spent 2 nights in Venice and have been in Rome.

I’d love to know what cruise line you were on. Did you do many excursions?

 

[SirDuff]

I'd have to check with them but my dad and his wife did a train trip through Europe (though theirs was later in the year as they did Christmas markets). It wasn't a group tour, but they did go with a tour company that set them up with all the train routes, hotels, and some tours within each city. Kind of like an independent tour. They really liked it as it removed some of the stress logistics (my dad has traveled all over and used to make spreadsheets for our family trip but wanted a less stress travel this time) but maintained their independence and they weren't stuck with a group (their words). I'm sure that there are many companies that do this, but I can see if I can get a name for you.

 

[CynBeth]

We were on Royal Caribbean’s Enchantment of the Seas. My mother came with my husband and I and she is slow and does not have a lot of stamina so she tends to need to sit down and rest a lot and my DH has Crohn’s Disease never know when he is going to have a bad bathroom day so hard to be part of a tour we did things on our own. For Marseilles we did the ship excursion Aix on Your Own. For Villefranche which is a tender port did not need to get a tender ticket as the locals provided tenders which ran frequently we took a taxi to Monaco and visited the prince’s palace and then saw the changing of the guard and went to the oceanographic museum. For Genoa we went to the aquarium and did the HOHO Bus. For Portofino which is also a tender port those not on an excursion had to get a tender ticket and there was an issue with the ones from the ship only 1 or 2 were running so took forever 4 hours for our number to be called and only had a few hours there so we walked around looking at shops and had a snack. For Livorno we took a taxi to Pisa. I had bought combo tickets ahead of time for the different buildings in the field of miracles and a reserved Leaning Tower time of 11:15 am as we were not sure how long it would take to get off the boat and the time to get there. It was very quick so we went in one of the museums, the baptistery, and cathedral beforehand. Only my DH and I did the climb while DM waited in the cloakroom for us. Afterwards we had lunch and it was time to meet the taxi for our return back. On disembark day we had signed up through Royal for transportation from the Civi port to the train station we took our own luggage off and at the train station got a ticket from there to Rome which is a little over an hour ride. I had bought our Rome to Venice train and our Venice to Rome train ahead of time which is about 4 hours they supply drinks and snacks only have vending machines on the train no meals. For our time before the cruise in Barcelona I got tickets for most of the attractions we wanted to see ahead of time. The same with Venice and Rome.

 

[Karin1984]

Are there countries or areas you want to explore? I could suggest start in the Netherlands, go to Belgium for Antwerp and/Brussels, on to France to Lille and Paris, from there you could go to the South of France.

But you could also go to Berlin, Cologne or Hamburg in Germany. You can take the train to London.

Start in Vienna and go from there to Bratislava in Slovakia, Budapest in Hungary or to Prague in the Czech Republic. I might do this one next year. Vienna is one of my favourite cities and I really want to explore more. Looking at my own research it is a good hub to hop around. Also it will be a little less touristy than London, Rome or Paris.

But really, you have to narrow down what you want. Europe is huge with a many different faces and even more history. I get you are overwhelmed when all you know is "We want to go to Europe."

If you like medieval architecture go to Prague. Ancient? Rome or Athens. 1800s, go to Vienna. Etc.

What do you want to get out of your trip? When you get home what do you want to show/tell your friends and family about.

How relaxed do you want your trip to be? You have about 2 weeks, do you want to explore 1 city (and surroundings) in depth or see 10 different countries. I could make you a 2 week itinerary for the Netherlands or a 10 country trip.

 

[Douglas Dubh]

Anyone have any experiences?

In May, we flew into London, then took the Eurostar to Brussels, then the train to Frankfurt, then to Munich. We stayed five nights in Munich and one day took the train to Salzburg and back. From Munich we went to Bern, then Lyon, then Paris. We stayed in Paris three nights then stayed near Disney for three nights. We then took the Eurostar back to London then went to Glasgow for three nights, followed by two nights in London before we flew home.

In general it worked pretty well, but there were a couple of times the trains were crowded and it was hard to find seats and places to store luggage. One morning going from Munich to Bern we got on a train and stood with our luggage from twenty minutes then got off at the next station and waited for next train.

I used the Eurail Ap to figure out which trains to take and bought a pass for seven days of travel over 30 days. The Eurostar and British trains we booked separately. You can use the Eurail website to reserve seats, which we started doing toward the end of the trip. Or you could buy first class tickets if you want to be sure you’ve plenty of room and seats but then you have to plan out your trip a bit more up front.

 

[GAN]

We are considering some train travel through Europe next fall. Having looked at some cruises, I'm a bit overwhelmed, so am now considering covering a smaller area but by train. We're not interested in flying between countries. We would be traveling from the US, couple in early 60s and in good health. Looking at a 14-16 day trip.

Anyone have any experiences? Perhaps an itinerary you might recommend?

Thanks so much.

Pack light!

 

[Frwinkley]

Pack light!

Haha! yes, I’m realizing that!

I think I’m leaning towards cruising. We’d like to see a little bit of everything, then maybe do a land only trip in the future based on what we enjoyed most.

At least with a cruise, transportation to each port is taken care of, as well as lodging.

 

[Karin1984]

How about an organized trip like Adventures By Disney etc.? Then everything is arranged, but you will see more of one country/area.

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

Europe is a big place ... where are you most interested in going? If your airport flies anywhere to Europe direct, I would pick one of those locations as fly-in/fly-out, to minimize travel hassles.

If you haven't already, check out the Rick Steves website. They have all kinds of itinerary suggestions, and I used some of those ideas when I started planning my trip to Greece. They also offer tours, though I'm not interested in a group kind of tour. (Though I have heard of ones like a PP mentioned where the company arranges the lodging and transport, and an hour or so orientation walk in each new location, but other than that you're on your own - I think that actually sounds pretty nice).

Personally, next time I go to Europe, I would like to see France/Switzerland. Fly to Paris, but I'm not really interested in staying there. First out to Brittany, then Strasbourg, Lake Lucerne, Lauderbrunnen, and then maybe French Alps/Lyon, or Milan/Turin area. We will probably rent a car for this trip, but I don't think you would have an issue planning it by train.

 

[tony67]

Trains in the EU are quite good for the most part and in many cases quite fast. They are also a much better value than trains in the US. It really depends on the country.

Also I highly recommend paying the bit extra for 1st class whenever you can - its usually not much more and it is much better.
Also choose your seats in advance whenever possible - most countries are very good about that.
Portugal and Poland had the best IMO. Germany is very good as well.

Italy can be iffy and you really need to be on your toes when it comes to pickpockets - I've seen them bump into people nock them down and take their stuff when helping them back up. The person who knocks you down is not the one who takes the stuff.

I found Ireland to be the slowest and most expensive IMO - also people have had a tough time recognizing seat reservations even though they have been doing that for 5-6 years at this point and the conductors could not care less. Its gotten better - but many locals still did not know that you can reserve seats in advance - I explained to a family that was in my seats and they honestly had no idea - and they had seats assigned on their tickets automatically that I pointed out to them. In addition sometimes the train decides to not honor them at all - that is always fun. And of course sometimes the reserved seat sign is broken so you are probably out of luck in that case as well.

Be sure you are booking directly with the train company - there are many third party sites that will sell you tickets with extra fees and you don't get the same guarantees when you buy from a third party. They often seem to be the official site so again you need to do some research.

The official sites can be tricky so you may need to do some research on that as well - for example in Portugal you can book high speed direct trains (AP) but the same route can be serviced by other lines that take longer, you have to change trains and have many stops. Once you figure it out its not so bad - but it did take some time and was confusing as they just give you these abbreviated codes.

Lastly - strikes are common so that can through a wrench into the works - but they are usually very good about giving notice of an impending strike - just be aware.

Keep in mind cheap flights as well - Ryan Air is basically a flying bus, but you can get very cheap flights that rival the prices of trains. I prefer trains and hate to use Ryan Air, but sometimes its the best option option. Ive had situations where there was no train between two countries and you have to travel to a third country to get where you want to go so what should take an hour takes four. In those cases there may be a bus as an option.

 

[Moliphino]

You definitely need to check route maps and play around with itineraries online. Some countries rail lines are laid out like a spoked wheel and getting to cities on different spokes takes a lot longer than you'd think just by looking at actual distance on the map.

Like in Spain, Granada and Jaen look super close but there is no train line between them. That trip takes like 4 hours by train.

 

[GAN]

Haha! yes, I’m realizing that!

I think I’m leaning towards cruising. We’d like to see a little bit of everything, then maybe do a land only trip in the future based on what we enjoyed most.

At least with a cruise, transportation to each port is taken care of, as well as lodging.

I think cruising first is a good idea -see what you like then focus on that in a return trip.

 

[Karin1984]

I think cruising first is a good idea -see what you like then focus on that in a return trip.

That is my thing with these kind of trips. You hope that there is a return trip. That is the plan. But life is weird and can change so quickly. Sometimes life intervenes and maybe you never return or it will be 10 years before the next one. And by then your tastes and needs might have changed.

Especially when you are getting older, or when you plan to have kids in the near future. I wouldn't go for a taster. I would pick what you absolutely want to see/do, and focus on this. Everything else will be a bonus.

 

[mousefan73]

Are there countries or areas you want to explore? I could suggest start in the Netherlands, go to Belgium for Antwerp and/Brussels, on to France to Lille and Paris, from there you could go to the South of France.

But you could also go to Berlin, Cologne or Hamburg in Germany. You can take the train to London.

Start in Vienna and go from there to Bratislava in Slovakia, Budapest in Hungary or to Prague in the Czech Republic. I might do this one next year. Vienna is one of my favourite cities and I really want to explore more. Looking at my own research it is a good hub to hop around. Also it will be a little less touristy than London, Rome or Paris.

But really, you have to narrow down what you want. Europe is huge with a many different faces and even more history. I get you are overwhelmed when all you know is "We want to go to Europe."

If you like medieval architecture go to Prague. Ancient? Rome or Athens. 1800s, go to Vienna. Etc.

What do you want to get out of your trip? When you get home what do you want to show/tell your friends and family about.

How relaxed do you want your trip to be? You have about 2 weeks, do you want to explore 1 city (and surroundings) in depth or see 10 different countries. I could make you a 2 week itinerary for the Netherlands or a 10 country trip.

As karin, noted Europe by Rail has endless posibilities. Back in the day there were EuroRail passes, not sure if they still exist. Keep in mind most Rails line are split by countries, though private, the German Rail is for Germany. with a few trains going over to border cities, then you move onto the next country's rail line. Germany now has a 49 euro per month pass where you have amost 99% ( a few rare exceptions) of the network covered, including city public transport.. but you cannot use the high spee trains that goes between cities. if you want to see cultural, castle stuff regional (RE) trains only go there. But if you want high speed book earlier and you can get for example Berlint to Munich for under 30 euros one way.. this are the litle tricks you need to research by country.. for German Rail you can contact me