European grand tour by train

RetfordRover

Now that I'm retired I would like to do a few of the things I promised myself, one of which is a grand tour of Europe in the footsteps of the Victorians. First of all however I would like to 'try out' the idea by doing 2-4 weeks in France, mainly because I speak the language. I intend to do all of my traveling by train and using small hotels and B&B's. Obviously the tighter the budget the longer the trip can be.

If anyone can offer any helpful suggestions I would be most grateful.

MikeJXE

I’m also retired and single, I have done a lot of France with the family but by car,  getting to all the places you can’t by train as that is station to station and car is door to door, in which a train traveller would need to find other transport 

It’s a good few years I did that and it was a pleasure to drive on their roads 

I’m retired to and if I had the courage (on my own) I would do coast to coast USA

RetfordRover

Thanks for your reply, I have traveled extensively in France by car and visited a lot of 'out of the way' places but also being a lover of train travel I would like to do this. In addition I would like to visit the major cultural areas and expect them to be well served by rail stations.

Cairnpapple

Your trip sounds great. I don't know if you're familiar with the seat61 website but that would always be my starting point for train travel abroad. The France page has info on rail passes which might be relevant. 
https://www.seat61.com/train-travel-in-france.htm

There are also various specialist travel agencies for rail but that's less moneysaving.

For hotels in Europe I tend to try to find an aparthotel with at least a fridge and a microwave because I'd prefer not to eat out all the time, but your priorities may be different!

RetfordRover

Thanks for your reply and the link. I'm sure I would have come across this in time but this has saved me looking at the 100's of irrelevant google results.

daveyjp

If you have a smartphone this is far easier than it ever was.  Most rail bookings can be done online and airbnb is a resource for finding cheap accommodation, especially rooms in houses, otherwise booking.com to find cheap accommodation then book direct.

Relatives did a full tour of Italy last year.  They started with a flight to Milan and over three weeks took the train south to Sicily, taking in main cities along the way.

Needless to say youtube is full of videos from travellers doing rail journeys around Europe.

DE_612183

Interrail is the way forward for this.

thegreenone

It sounds wonderful and I can't offer you any advice other than to second looking at Seat61.  He has recently travelled London to Venice via Innsbruck, on a new sleeper service.  One day!

SiliconChip

When I was researching a possible Interrail trip this year (which I'm not actually going on now) one thing of note is that many journeys in France have compulsory reservations with quite high charges. This might not be so much of an issue if you're planning to travel slowly on local trains, and it might be worth checking whether the fees that apply to Interrail pass holders also apply if you're booking directly with SNCF.

Archergirl

MikeJXE said:

I’m also retired and single, I have done a lot of France with the family but by car,  getting to all the places you can’t by train as that is station to station and car is door to door, in which a train traveller would need to find other transport 

It’s a good few years I did that and it was a pleasure to drive on their roads 

I’m retired to and if I had the courage (on my own) I would do coast to coast USA

There are self drive group tours that may suit you, but it's an easy thing to do on your own....enjoy.

DE_612183

MikeJXE said:

I’m also retired and single, I have done a lot of France with the family but by car,  getting to all the places you can’t by train as that is station to station and car is door to door, in which a train traveller would need to find other transport 

It’s a good few years I did that and it was a pleasure to drive on their roads 

I’m retired to and if I had the courage (on my own) I would do coast to coast USA

There is a rail pass in the US for 10 long distance journeys for about £400