Does anyone have any tips on traveling across Europe by train?

flyingscottie81

Hi all,

Hubbie and I are hoping to travel to some interesting cities in Europe in two weeks this summer using the excellent train system.

Does anyone have any recommendations on places to visit or stay, and tips for the trains?

The cities we are thinking of, but might not get to see all of are:

Paris
Barcelona
Munich
Split
Ljubljana
Lake Bled
Venice

Any thoughts most welcome.

thanks FS :T

123oleary

check out raileurope.co.uk and look at the rail pass options and try comparing those to the totals of individual train journeys. also google dautcshebahn, they have details of every train in europe.

alanrowell

The best tip is to go to https://www.seat61.com and start reading.

Don't make any decisions at all until you've read it

flyingscottie81

It was actually seat61 that inspired us to look at this trip!

But to be honest it is a little overwhelming...

Hoping someone can say that for example - Munich to Venice, and Venice to Ljubljana is sweet, but you can't easily do Barcelona to Budapest etc......

Thanks

123oleary

venice to ljubljana is about four/five hours. ljubljana to zagreb is about 3 hours change there for split about 2 hours i think

123oleary

have you thought about how you will get to europe in the first place? outward and inward flights to opposite sides of europe can work out expensive, some times its cheaper to make your trip a loop so you start and finish in the same city

123oleary

munich to venice would be a long trip ,id guess at about ten hours if you can do it at all.

vivatifosi

You've probably tried this, but if you haven't, then get a map of Europe and work out the order in which you want to do things. It strikes me that you have things that you want to do that are relatively west in Europe (Paris, Barcelona) and those in the East, but not so much in the middle. If you can work out what you want to see between those points then you may be able to plan your routing better.

Just an example (and I haven't researched this so there could be many better options), the towns on the Cote d'Azur have excellent train connections and may offer you an interesting southern route across Europe - for example you can go from Barcelona to Nice via Montpelier, and from Nice to Venice via Milan.

Coming back, if you route your German journey into Strasbourg there are some fantastic TGV options via Paris that link with the Eurostar to get you home. I know people who use this route to commute and its great.

My only concern is the amount of the continent you are trying to pack into the journey. Its a long time since I inter-railed (though I've travelled across Europe in single train journeys since) and although both the trains and the networks have got much better (you no longer have to stop to let the cows cross the track in Spain) but you could end up spending a heck of a lot of time on trains and not much time looking around. How about doing a France/Spain/Italy loop one year and Munich/Budapest another?

kingston_toon

Do it - that's all I'd say. I go away every couple of weeks using Ryanair's silly cheap fares, then travel around by train once in Europe. Ljubljana to Zagreb is very easy by train and there are high quality Eurocity trains that make the trip a couple of times a day. For a cheaper option, take the local train and change at the border (Dobova). You can go from Split to Zagreb then on to Ljubljana, or do as I did and change at Karlovac for the local train via Novo Mesto.

Other thoughts... Venice to Trieste is a nice run along the cliffs... you go this way towards Slovenia, although I did hear at one point that the through day train had been withdrawn, so you may need to go to Trieste, then bus to Koper, then on that way by train. I'd also recommend a train trip along the edge of Lake Balaton in Hungary if you can... a walk-up ticket is very cheap and you can usually stick your head out the window which is great in summer.

Finally, if you're in the Munich area, take the train to Oberstdorf if you have time... the last leg is fantastic, as you wind along by the mountains.

Hope that helps!

PolishBigSpender

I'd recommend keeping away from Western Europe unless you've got an unlimited use pass. The fares are just horribly expensive in the West - 100EUR one way from Berlin to a Dutch station, for instance.

Voyager2002

PolishBigSpender wrote: »

I'd recommend keeping away from Western Europe unless you've got an unlimited use pass. The fares are just horribly expensive in the West - 100EUR one way from Berlin to a Dutch station, for instance.

I thought it was more than 100EUR when I looked at fares last summer!

Anyway, there are some great deals if you book in advance (like trains here). The best deals in France are only offered on the French version of their website (voyages-sncf): if you take the option to view it in English then most things get a lot more expensive!