Should you fly or take the train around Europe? It depends…
A few months ago I had to make a key decision while planning a trip from Paris to Berlin. Plane or train?
I could take a €50 budget flight on easyJet and be there in about two hours. Or I could take the TGV to Germany, and then board an ICE train to Berlin (with a one-hour break in Frankfurt for lunch). The trip would take about ten hours and cost about €120. Which way should I go?
Many budget travelers wouldn’t think twice, of course. The flight was faster and cheaper, right?
I chose the train. First of all, I prefer the experience. I like boarding in the center of Paris, hopping on board with only minutes to spare, and rolling off toward my destination. I like moving down the aisles, grabbing a bite or coffee in the snack car, and watching the world zip by.
Aboard an Ave train from Cordoba to Grenada.
But, romantic details aside, I priced it out and the plane and train journeys weren’t that far apart. But wait, I hear you say, wasn’t that flight ticket only €50? Yes, but when I calculated the “real costs” of the flight, the ticket had become €89.
Now that the difference between the train and plane was only about €30, I could focus on my own travel preferences. I wanted to see the French and German countryside. I wanted to have time to read and daydream. I wanted to disembark in Frankfurt and have lunch. I considered the train a highlight of my trip—and didn’t look forward to the prospect of adding extra airports to my vacation.
Choosing between trains and flights
Of course, everyone’s trip is different. My decision was based on my own travel preferences, and I also happened to find a deal on the train tickets. Ticket prices for both rail and flights fluctuate quite a bit, and they both offer great deals, especially on advance bookings.
Which mode of transportation makes the most sense for your trip? It gets down to time, price and preference. Here are a few things to keep in mind when making the decision:
1. Is your trip really open to both planes and trains?
First, and most obviously: Are you really open to either mode of transportation?
If you need to get between two distant cities and you’re pressed for time, flying probably makes the most sense. (Thanks for reading!) Check out our guide to Europe’s budget airlines and book well in advance. If, however, you need to get between two distant cities and you’re not pressed for time, either method could work for you.
If you’re traveling between two cities that aren’t a great distance apart (for example, Madrid and Barcelona), either mode could work. However, you should still ask yourself the following questions:
2. What’s the real travel time of the trip?
How long will it really take you to fly or ride between the cities?
When calculating the time spent flying, add up the time to get to the airport, time for check-in and security, flight time, time for bag retrieval and customs (if applicable), and time to get into your arrival city.
The flight from Paris to Berlin might only last two hours, but you’ll need to be at the airport an hour early, and it will take about an hour to get to and from both airports. Thus, the flight’s total travel time will be about five hours, minimum. Flight delays can easily make this much longer.
Calculating time for a train trip is a bit easier: How long does it take to get to the station and how far in advance would you like to arrive? Do you need to be extra early to pick up tickets, or do you already have them? In most cases, the train stations will be located in the center of both departure and arrival cities.
My train trip, including an hour for lunch in Frankfurt, was ten hours. I arrived at the Gare de l’Est 30 minutes before departure, and it took me about 30 minutes to get to the station. A friend picked me up at Berlin’s Hauptbahnhof. Total travel time: about 11 hours.
3. What’s the real cost of the flight?
Europe’s budget airlines are notorious for tacking on extra charges to compensate for their bargain-bin rates.
The €50 Paris-Berlin ticket I found on easyJet was just the base charge. However, a bag costs €14 to check in online (which is cheaper than checking the bag at the airport!), and the airline charges a fee to pay by credit card (a whopping €16 in the Paris – Berlin example). Add the Orlybus (bus to Orly: €6.90) and the Airport Express bus from Schonefeld to Berlin (€2.10). And voila! That ticket had become €89.
Let’s take another example: A Ryanair flight between London to Madrid on January 17, 2012.
- Ticket price: £11.99 ($19)
- One checked bag (up to 20 kilos): £25 ($38)
- Paying by credit card: Add £6 ($9)
- Bus to London Stansted: £9 ($14)
- Metro from Madrid’s airport into town: €2 ($3)
- TOTAL: £54 ($83)
(Read a full list of Ryanair’s extra charges.)
Even after adding in the extra charges, however, these flights are still cheap: $89 for Paris to Berlin, and $83 for London to Madrid.
4. What’s the best deal you can find on the train trip?
Finding the best deal on the train trip can be tricky.
If you’re American, you can always consider one of the Eurail passes geared toward American travelers. These sometimes offer savings, although this is usually only the case for travelers who are spending lots of time traveling by train (for example, cramming in as many rail journeys as possible to make the pass “worth it”).
We also know travelers who purchase rail passes because they offer some peace of mind—their tickets are taken care of (although, in truth, passes still require seat reservations on high-speed trains).
We recommend searching directly on the official Web sites for the rail companies, most of which allow advance booking. These include:
- Austria: OBB
- Belgium: SNCB
- Czech Republic: Czech Railways
- France: SNCF
- Germany: Die Bahn
- Ireland: Irish Rail
- Italy: Trenitalia
- Netherlands: NS.nl
- Poland: Polrail
- Spain: Renfe
- Sweden: SJ
- Switzerland: SBB
- United Kingdom: National Rail
A few notes:
Check multiple countries: For international trips, check on sites for both departure and arrival countries for availability or to try to find a deal. For example, for a trip from Paris to Madrid, check ticket prices on both the SNCF (French) site and the Renfe (Spanish) site. The ticket prices may not be the same.
International trip note: Be aware that some railway Web sites don’t offer booking for international trips. For a Paris – Prague trip, for example, you can buy tickets from the SNCF, while the Czech Railways site doesn’t offer online booking for international trips.
Break it up: For international trips, also try breaking up the journey to find a deal. For example, for my Paris to Berlin trip, I found a €49 ticket from SNCF from Paris to Frankfurt, and a €71 ticket from Frankfurt to Berlin on the ICE. Added together, these tickets were less expensive than the direct Paris – Berlin tickets I found on the SNCF or Bahn Web sites.
Book in French: On the SNCF site, stick to French if you can. (Read our tutorial on how to book SNCF tickets in French.) If you switch to English, you’ll be redirected to RailEurope, which is a ticket agency geared to foreign visitors. RailEurope is a helpful site and sells the same train tickets as the SNCF, but they don’t always have the same sale rates.
Book in advance: As Hidden Europe previously explained in their post, you can normally book up to three months in advance for most high-speed trains in Europe. Searching in advance for high-speed rail will increase your chances of finding a sale fare. Ticket prices for slower regional trains do not normally fluctuate.
Make up your own mind
Once you know how long each method will take and how much they’ll really cost, make an informed decision.
In my case, I had to choose between a 5-hour flight experience that I wasn’t looking forward to, and a 11-hour train trip that excited me. The flight was €30 cheaper. I chose the train. Many others would choose the flight. That’s the beauty of travel—you can choose your own adventure.
Your advice?
What else do you consider when deciding between flying and taking a train? Do you have any advice to share with other budget travelers? Tell us in our comments section.
About the author
We should consider the advantages of passenger trains versus air travel. Airports are far outside of town, due to the danger and noise.
Train stations are in the centre of town, close to where people live, work, and sightsee.
Airlines ask you to arrive at the airport 3 hours before departure, to give you enough time for the long baggage check-in line, the long security check line, waiting for your flight to start boarding, and to finish boarding. A plane takes 1.5 hours for all the passengers to board, all filing through one tiny door, loaded with carry-ons and struggling to fit them into the overhead compartments. The whole line waits while one person struggles, unable to pass him/her due to the narrow aisle.
On trains, there is no baggage check line, no baggage weighing or bag counting. Passengers board a train through its many doors with no lines.
After boarding a plane passengers sit for approx. another 30 minutes while the crew gets ready. Finally the plane begins to taxi toward its takeoff runway. Once there, the Captain announces, “We’re 5th in line for takeoff.”
Trains don’t have to delay everyone 3 hours… they stop only a couple minutes at each station.
Train seats are much bigger than airline seats, and there is much more legroom. You can get up and walk around and stretch your legs on a train. Aisles are wide, and people often spend long times in the aisles gazing out the aisle windows which look in the different direction from the windows in their compartments.
For example, if there are mountains on the aisle side of the train that you can’t see from your compartment, just go and stand at one of the many big aisle windows.
On a plane there are no aisle windows, and you would be told to “take your seat” anyway.
On a plane there are seats a few inches in front of you blocking you from walking easily to the aisle. So if you don’t have an aisle seat, the people in your row between your seat and the aisle have to get up and go into the aisle to let you into the aisle. There is no room to squeeze by them.
Not so on trains. Just stand up and walk.
Airline seats recline only 1 inch, making sleep impossible or uncomfortable.
European trains are deliberately scheduled to depart major cities around 10 pm and arrive in another major city around 8 am. They are deliberately timed that way to allow a nice night’s sleep and wake up to start a full day in your destination.
Whether travelling overnight or travelling by day, make sure you buy a ticket for a wagon that is divided into compartments. Sleeper car compartments have 2 seats facing 2 seats (very social).
At night the conductor comes with clean sheets, blankets, & pillows, and by moving panels up & down converts the 4 seats into 4 bunk beds. So instead of sitting up all night as you would on a plane or driving a car, you sleep in a real bed, rocked to sleep by the gentle rolling and sounds of the train. So much for trains being “time consuming.” It’s a night you won’t have to pay for a hotel.
You see so much from the huge train windows.
From the tiny plane windows you see only cloud tops. You really can’t see anything of the natural beauty, towns, & cities of Norway or Croatia from 30,000 ft.
Trains have dining cars where food is cooked and served to you at real tables with white linen. Those that don’t have dining cars have a bar car that serves some hot food & snacks.
At many stations in the former USSR, local women sell home-cooked food from the train platforms. Just hand money through your compartment’s window & receive the food!
Buy from them to taste local fare. Buy non-corporate, non-global!
The conductor will often keep a couple of your items cold for you in the refrigerator he has in his compartment, where he keeps cold beer for sale. Label your bag with your name & date.
When you buy your ticket ask if there will be a dining car on the train. If not, bring dark bread, cheese, boiled eggs, local beer & dried fish. These will supplement the above hot food you buy from the above women at stations. You can buy some food items and bottled water from the conductor aboard.
[And yes, you may bring your pocket knife on board to slice the salami, unlike on airplanes! Nor can you bring food or drinks onto an airplane.]
Many trains have showers; ask if yours does. If not, you can buy a ticket on the same run departing at a different time of day, maybe costing a few dollars more, and that train will perhaps have showers.
Breaking up your train journey can be a real bonus. Heading to the south of Italy and fancy stopping over in Milan for lunch? Trains allow you to do exactly that at no cost. Stretch your legs on a walk around Paris or take in a museum in London, you can schedule convenient stopovers to make the most of your itinerary, with no extra charge. You can’t do that when flying (except at the airline’s flight hub city).
Switzerland for example has over 20 train stations, but only 3 airports. Trains take you more places!
Italy has 76 passenger train stations but only 8 airports. Trains get you closer to your destination.
Trains are more bike friendly than planes. Most trains charge nothing for a bicycle.
The environment? A journey from London to Madrid produces 265 kg of harmful emissions per passenger by plane, but a mere 42 kg by train, according to EcoPassenger. 265 vs. 42!
If you drive in an automobile through a border passport/customs control, you are often stuck in a slow line of many cars. On a train there is not even one minute’s wait. The passport/customs officers board the train and, as the train continues on to the next station, they walk through each wagon, visiting one compartment after the other. Then the officers debord. You and the train are not delayed at all. Unlike automobiles, the train never never waits in a line.
Consider the speed of trains vs. cars. In a car you have red lights and traffic jams. If you need gas, food, or need a restroom you have to stop. At night you stop to sleep (paying €100+ for a hotel room. ) A train suffers none of these delays. It just keeps on rolling, with you sleeping in your real bed, reading, socializing, or eating in the dining car.
On a plane one has only the person next to him to talk to.
On a train, one has everyone in his compartment to talk to, plus the people one can meet in the bar car, and those standing at aisle windows looking out, stretching their legs. Some of the most interesting people can be met on a train. It’s nice to have your own little compartment with a door that locks from the inside at night to keep the sneak thieves out! It is your own little space, and your compartment mates are your companions.
I’ve traveled many times by overnight train in a 2nd class sleeper car. The compartments have always been 4-person with 2 bunk beds on either side. It’s all very comfortable. (The wagons withj 6 person compartments are for day runs). I have never had any problems or complaints about the people I’ve shared an overnight compartment with. Most of them were very interesting people. You won’t get this good an opportunity to meet the local people in a cafe, a shop, or a hotel, where people are often rushed. You don’t tour a foreign country just to see the sights; you also want to meet the people!
Train compartments are a great way for a traveler to learn about a geographic area; many locals are proud to tell you all about their cities. That way you’ll know something about a place before you arrive, and maybe get some good advice. Inside information, as they say!
Lots of people end up having fun parties in their compartments. On the fold-down table appear sausages, cheese, boiled eggs, dark bread, local dark beer, dried fish… The conductor sells beer, and the snack car/bar sells other foods, but most Ukrainians bring food from home. Very dried salted fish is popular in Europe with beer. Try it!
Make sure you don’t buy 1st class train tickets. These are isolation chambers, with only one person or one couple per compartment. Also they’re very expensive.
Many a traveler doesn’t know to ask for “a 2nd class compartment” (day) or “a 2nd class sleeper wagon” (night), and they get stuck sitting all night in an airplane-style seat, all the seats facing forward. Not only is it anti-social, but the seats only recline one inch, so no sleep.
Or the “language barrier” and a ruxhed and surley ticket sales clerk foists a costly 1st class “isolation” compartment ticket on them, assuming that Westerners all want “luxury.”
So find out the words before you get in line to buy a ticket; write them on a piece of paper and hand it to the ticket window clerk:
. . . . . . . . . . 2nd CLASS. . . . . . . . NIGHT . . . . . . . . . . . . DAY
English . . . . . 2nd class . . . . . sleeper wagon . . . . . . compartment
French . . . deuxième classe. . . . voiture-lits . . . . . . . compartiment
German . . . zweiter Klasse . . . Schlafwagon . . . . . . . . Zugabteile
Polish . . . drugiej klasy . . . . . wagon sypialny . . . . . . . przedział
Italian . . seconda classe . . . vagone di cuccette . . . . scompartimento
Spanish . . segunda clase . . . . coche-cama . . . . . compartimento de 6 personas
Russian . . второго класса . . спальные вагон . . . . . . . . . купе
Many tourists take express trains because they are newer, higher tech. I never take express trains because I prefer the old wagons for their charm. Express wagons’ usually don’t have compartments, but instead all seats are together & face forward. Express train tickets cost more, the windows don’t open, and they have more businessmen & tourists than local people.
I advise even more strongly to avoid the high velocity “bullet” trains. Their tickets are much more expensive, and they have non-reclining airplane seating, with no compartments. Few people really need to travel from Paris to Prague in 90 minutes. You’ll miss all the fun!
High speed train stations look like airports, with metal detectors, X-rays booths, restrictions, and armed security. For example you’re not allowed to see friends & relatives off on the platform, or greet them as they come to a rolling stop, like you can with conventional trains. You must arrive 2 hours before high speed train departures. After a long wait in the security line your shampoos and nail files will be confiscated.
High speed tracks are constructed with a huge amount of steel-reinforced concrete, which costs $Billions. This high technology eliminates the pleasing clickty-clack sound of the normal speed trains, as well as their gentle swaying from side to side. Riding in a high speed train feels like riding in a commercial jet.
Interesting sights will pass your window in a blur, without giving you time to look at them. There are no seatbelts, so if you crash at such a speed it is not pleasant. These trains whizz right thru most stations without stopping. Higher tech is not always better, it’s just more costly. Globalization destroys all cultures.
Ticket sale clerks often assume that people from “advanced” countries like the UK want high velocity train tickets, and they’ll sell you one without asking you. So before you get in line to buy a ticket, look in your travel guide for the name of the high speed train service in that country. Write the name in the local language on a slip of paper, with the local words for “I don’t want” in front of it, and give it to the ticket sale clerk. Examples:
UK . . . . I don’t want Eurostar or any high speed train.
France . . . . Je ne veux TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse).
Germany . . . . Ich will kein ICE (InterCity Express).
Poland . . . Nie chcę ani “Y-Line”, ani HSR, ani żadnego szybkiego pociągu.
Italy . . . . Non voglio né Frecciarossa/-gento/-bianca.
Spain . . . . No quiero AVE (Alta Velocidad Española).
High velocity trains are a good example of the modern misconception that new technology is always better. A similar misconception is “If we can do something, we should.”
American tourists should consider that they didn’t come to Europe to fly around, drive on Expressways, and go to Starbucks.
I once had a friend from NYC who took his son to see Europe. He planned it all out, 8 capital cities in 10 days. They took every express & high speed train available, and even flew. Their trip was a whirlwind.
“Look, there’s the Brandenburg Tor… Gotta go!” and “Whoa, the Coliseum!” They collected cities like postage stamps, the more the better.
Speed ruins a trip. Speed makes the world smaller; but I want the world to be big.
Bon voyage!
James Hannum
An AIRPLANE takes 1.5 hours for all the passengers to board, all filing through one tiny door loaded with luggage. Passengers board TRAINS thru about 40 doors simultaneously. So trains don’t have to delay everyone 1.5 hours… they stop only 1 to 5 minutes at a station.
One must drive about an hour out of town to reach an airport. (No neighborhood wants the noise.) Train stations are in the center of towns, and they are much more numerous — these 2 factors make train stations closer to your home. The closest airport is 2+ hours away for many Americans. In Europe (and formerly in the US) every town has its own train station, and cities have several.
One must arrive at the airport 2 hours before departure. You can arrive at a train station 2 MINUTES before departure!
After finally boarding your plane, you sit for another half hour or so before the wheels begin to slowly turn. You taxi at snail’s pace a long way, then stop again. The captain announces, “We’re fifth in line for take off, thank you for your patience.” Within about 2 minutes of boarding a train, you’re at full speed toward your destination.
Finally your turn to take off comes and the engines begin to scream, about 20 feet from your ears. They continue their high decibel screaming throughout the flight. On a train the engine is far away from your wagon; usually it cannot be heard.
On a train you can have a huge suitcase or two without having to check them. Wheel them on yourself. And no charge for any luggage.
Upon arrival, no waiting 45 minutes for your bag(s) to show up on the luggage carousel.
Airline seats recline only 1″, making sleep impossible or uncomfortable, but you can get real bunk beds on a train. The most popular train trips in Europe, as they used to be in the US, are those that depart a major city around 10pm and arrive in another major city around 8 a.m. These Schalfwagons allow one to travel while sleeping in a real bed with sheets, rocked to sleep by the gentle rolling of the train. So much for trains being “time consuming.”
You see so much from the huge train windows, whereas from the tiny plane windows you see only cloud tops. You really can’t see anything of the towns & cities of Norway or Croatia from 30,000 ft. If you don’t have a window seat you don’t see even the cloud tops.
It’s important that train wagons be divided into several compartments with bench seats facing each other, as they have historically always been until recent decades. These compartments are vastly superior to having airline style seats, especially when these seats are arranged like on an airliner all facing forward. Some of the most interesting people can be met on a train if the seating is right. It’s nice to have your own little compartment, 3 people facing 3 people, a large window, a folding out table, 6 bunk beds that fold down at night, and a door that locks at night to keep out the sneak thieves!
Another article included a quote from couple who said: “We were crammed into a night train compartment with a woman who spoke neither the local language nor anything they could speak, and who was traveling with a vast assortment of baggage, including what appeared to be a sewing machine.” These intolerant travelers are missing the point: Traveling together with other people is one of the things that makes train travel such fun.
Also in these old wagons from Europe, passengers can open the window in their compartment. This is good for saying goodbye to your friends & relatives standing on the platform to see you off. In former Soviet countries, at many stations private women sell home cooked food & beverages thru the windows to passengers.
Jet liner windows don’t open and they have stuffy, recalculated air because of the high cost of heating the below zero outside air at 30,000 feet. (The stewardess’ union is always complaining about the unhealthy air, but airline executives refuse to spend the money to heat enough fresh air.) Trains don’t have this problem since they are at ground level where the air is warm.
Trains are hugely more fuel efficient than planes or cars. For the same gallon of fuel one may travel 7 times as far by train as one can by plane. So planes pollute the air 7 times as much as trains.
And most important about train travel is that it is a lot of FUN!
High Speed Trains
I don’t like the new high speed trains. Their stations look & feel like airports, with all the mouth-breathing over-security presence. They won’t let your friends & family onto the platform to meet your train or to see you off. I don’t like the self-important paranoia and restrictions of airports or high velocity train stations.
High speed trains have airline style seats, all facing forward. They don’t recline.
I don’t like the new high speed trains also because of their speed. I don’t want to travel from Lisbon to Berlin in 3 hours. I want to enjoy it, see the forests and beautiful towns go by, catch up on my reading, meet new people in my compartment or bar car, eat a real meal in the rolling restaurant, & fall asleep at night in a real bed with linens, to the rolling cadence of the train on tracks.
You have to sleep the night anyway, why not do it on a train, while moving toward your destination?
Train station ticket window clerks are usually rushed, and just assume without asking that Westerners want the fastest train. If you want to travel at normal speed rather than on the new high tech 100+ mph “bullet train,” before you get in the ticket line look in your guidebook and find the word for “high speed train” in the local language. Tell the ticket clerk firmly “No / Nein / Nyet [word for high speed train].” In Italy the high speed trains are called Frecciarossa (red arrow). In France, Train à Grande Vitesse (TGV). In Germany, ICE. In England, British Rail Class 395. Tickets on these high velocity trains cost much more than normal trains, so you’ll save money and have a better time.
@kiki. Toured Europe last summer. Trains were comfortable and gave us time to relax and unwind. There was space right at the entrance for our oversized luggage. Though I must admit that it was my husband who hauled these suitcases onto the train! If I had to travel solo I wouldn’t take those massive bags – just a small carryon should do…..
We got deals on train tickets e.g the super fast train from Paris to Brussels. As it was our first time in Europe we were a bit sceptical. …but almost every one tried to help and guide us.
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There are generally no restrictions on how much luggage you may take on a train in Europe. It is limited merely by how much you can reasonably carry.
Thanks for your suggestions everybody. Am planning atrip next summer and shall try to use the train for travelling within Europe. I like to feel the ethos of the country….the people…..so ambling along in a train would suit me….Incidentally i wonder if there any luggage restrictions…Any suggestions?
@swarupa:
I travel a lot by train, presently mostly by TGV between France/Switzerland/Germany and there is NO restriction at all – but an address tag on each piece of luggage. It is however quite often an achievement to be able to place your baggage as there is not a lot of storage space and the overall racks are simply minuscule and suitcases hardly ever fit… so be prudent with what you take with you. Happy travelling! Travelling by train is SO rewarding!
@kiki : thanks. Shall be travelling for at least a month so possibly shall have to factor in laundry costs… I want to ‘experience’ Europe and here i am thinking about luggage! Anyway, from what you say, I shall opt for trains. More rewarding!
I would rather choose a train especially if I am not pressed with time. The experience of having to sit and watch beautiful scenes from the outside while enjoying a cup of coffee or tea adds up to my overall travel than having to sit for several hours on plane doing practically nothing. It is far more worth it despite the longer journey and the added cost.
I need to know about the luggage allowance on the train from Barcelona to Madrid. Both of us will have one 26 inch bag and one carry-on. Is there a limit to luggage?
Jan, here it is March, and I just saw your post. There’s a nightly sleeper from Paris-Austerlitz to Barcelona-Franca, no change in trains. There are also a couple of high speed day trains from Paris-Lyon that, for now, do require a change in trains at Figueres, north of Barcelona, arriving at Barcelona-Sants. And my guess is that these are across-the-platform transfers, so pretty easy. (Spain is building a high speed line between Figueres and Barcelona, so in a year or two this transfer will be eliminated.)
The French Railways website offers through tickets for both the day and the night trains, whereas the Spanish Railways website seems to offer online purchase only for the night train. Neither website is particularly easy to use, especially in English. However, they do offer bargain fares with substantial advance purchase. A good guide to using those websites can be found at Seat61: http://www.seat61.com/Spain.htm
Hope this helps!
This is a great article. I really like how it takes into account the real costs of travel, both financial costs as well as time costs. In talking with people, they often seem to omit the hidden time costs of air travel: travel to the airport, arriving two hours early, waiting for luggage, travel from the airport to the city. Though each of those will vary from city to city, a two-hour flight never takes just two hours.
We are trying to book a train from Paris to Barcelona. Supposedly you have to change trains in Barcelona. Most sites will not let you buy a ticket for the second train. Do you have to buy a ticket onsite? Thanks.
just a comment for people booking travel between France and Germany- I highly recommend comparing the fares offered on both the French and German sites. I recently booked a ticket from Paris to Nürnberg and after going through the French site and finding none of the ticket pickup options suited me, I went to the German site since I know they allow printing your own ticket (and my foreign cc works there).
Much to my surprise, the ticket for the exact same trip was 40 euros cheaper, and for a minimal price difference I could even book a first class ticket. I expected some price differences but that much of a gap was a big surprise to me.
Another reason I love the train travel is I almost always end up talking to such interesting people on the longer train rides. If I’m with a companion, the rhythm of the journey makes us both philosophical, and if I’m alone there’s usually some friendly seatmate in my car or in the cafe car. It’s definitely my preferred way to get around in Europe!
Fully agree with everything you wrote. I too – if I can permit myself the extra time – prefer taking the train, and I never arrive stressed-out at the city of arrival.
I LOVE travelling by train for umpteen reasons, not lastly the possibility of sightseeing, reading, sitting in the bar wagon and talk to strangers over a drink, going to the loo when I need and not when and if it’s convenient for my seat-neighbour….
I also can take my suitcase with me without fearing to be marched off for a forgotten nail clipper or – heaven forbid – a container holding more than 40ml of anything for my precious beauty! And I can take my food with me if I don’t feel like eating a train-meal; I can share my wine with another person on the same train. I met one of the nicest people ever on a TGV from Paris to Zurich. We had both a reservation for the same seat and got talking over this… Until the ‘conducteur/controlleur’ remarked that the man’s reservation was for the very same train a month later….. But over all this we kept in touch and are only waiting to be on the same train once more. You never have this kind of experience on a flight.
Sadly, my flights amount to a much higher number as very often there is a discrepancy far too important on either time or/+ money matters.
@ person planning Paris-Venice-Rome-Switzerland, try and rig your plans so that you can take the train for long overnight runs- book a sleeper. Saves you funds for lodging and you arrive rested at your destination. I did this going from Vienna to Venice a few years ago. Booked a bed in a shared compartment, no problems with others in the compartment. Look at site http://www.seat61.com/
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Russian leaders on trains….
Did Lenin not famously take the train from Switzerland via Berlin to Petrograd?
And in summer 1945, Stalin kept Truman and Churchill waiting in Potsdam for a couple of days (at the start of the Potsdam Peace Conference) because the Russian leader preferred to take the train rather than fly. Truman memorably used the free time to do a bit of sightseeing in Berlin.
After a grueling flight into Frankfurt, a woman ahead of me in line to catch a croatian airline had had a hip replacement. So we all had to wait while they took her into a Dr’s office for examination. This was only the beginning. Turned out the Russian president was in the airport, so all others like me were routed to walk with luggage down 3 flights of stairs, out into the rain, and quite a hike to another connection. Russian presidents don’t take trains apparently.
Insightful article but i wonder if trains are practical for an Indian tourist tra travelling all over Europe. How should I plan if i want to tour Paris, Venice, Rome and Switzerland?
Unless it’s a really long distance or too complicated a routing, this American chooses rail for European travel whenever he can. It’s a combination of how relaxing rail travel is and the fine scenery vs. the hurry-up-and-wait one finds in air travel, not to speak of the cramped seating found in the air (I’m tall at 180 cm).
The most recent exception was flying from Istanbul to Paris in May 2011. The ancient infrastructure of southeastern European railways makes for a slow and grossly inefficient trip by rail. However, with our advance booking and paying a small premium, Air Pegasus allowed us to chose more comfortable seats for that long trip.
My wife and I travel to Italy every year but we always travel with two large suitcases.
Can we use train travel with this sort of luggage?
Thanks for ur insight
Love ur letters and information
Hi Tom,
Enjoyed reading your post and the thoughtful responses. My favorite words in your post were, “Choose your own adventure. ” (like those fun books of your childhood!). Anyway, I agree that trains are the fun, rewarding way to travel in Europe; and we try to utilize the train systems as much as possible when we are in Europe.
I really like the trains and seeing the country side. It is a nice way of changing from one country to another. Flying has become so much more tedious. Trains have a way of letting you relax and enjoy the passage of time.
Super post, Tom. Point well made. It is worth bearing in mind that a train ticket booked when bookings first open (typically three months prior to travel) will almost always undercut a plane ticket purchased at the same time. You paid €120 for your Paris-Frankfurt-Berlin rail trip, but the same journey – booked now, for example, for travel in mid-March – could cost as little as €39 one way.
Even when the cheapest lead-in fares are sold out on the fastest premium train services, you can often still secure great deals on slightly slower services, often even just a week or two prior to travel.
For us, a real plus with rail travel is that most tickets allow stopovers at no extra cost. We have made three journeys from London to Berlin (or vice versa) over the last month, each time taking the opportunity to spend a night somewhere along the way (once in Strasbourg, another time in Brussels and last week in Bonn).
Nicky and Susanne
editors of Europe by Rail: The Definitive Guide for Independent Travellers (from Thomas Cook Publishing)
and editors of hidden europe magazine
I have mixed feelings depending on how quickly I need or want to get somewhere. But if I have the leisure, I would totally opt for train travel over flying. It’s the novelty and riding past all the scenery really is its own sightseeing experience. But if it’s a holiday and I just want to get there already, I might pay a bit extra to fly – especially if travel time to and from the airport accounted for – I’m still making it there quicker. Train travel is certainly less stressful though, and there aren’t those annoying airport patdowns to deal with! Don’t forget about all the time it takes to get through security these days.
http://www.thetrainline.com is a good site for discounted train tickets in the UK.
I’m with you on this one, Tom. I’d rather spend hours in a train station than five minutes in a major airport. And taking a train from Paris Gare de l’Est to Berlin Hauptbahnhof is like departing from the 19th century and arriving in the 21st.