By this point, I’ve shared quite a bit about some of the cities we visited on our nearly three-week train trip in Europe — with more to come — but I haven’t talked much about the train travel itself! Fun fact: We took a total of 14 trains through four countries. While I had taken plenty of trains on previous trips, this was my first real “train trip” in the sense that it was my primary method of getting from one city to the next.
If you’re interested in taking your own train trip in Europe, here are 7 things you’ll want to know first.
1. Some countries are better for train trips than others
Our train trip started with us flying into Brussels, Belgium. We then rode the rails from Brussels to Cologne, Germany; Cologne to Luxembourg City, Luxembourg; Luxembourg City to Heidelberg, Germany; Heidelberg to Tรผbingen; and finally Tรผbingen to Zรผrich, Switzerland, from where we flew back home to Alicante.
This part of Europe boasts one of the densest rail networks in the continent, so it was the perfect place to travel exclusively by train once we got there! Whether it was taking day trips from Brussels to Bruges and Brussels to Ghent, or planning a last-minute trip from Zรผrich to Liechtenstein, it was always easy to book trains spontaneously without worrying about times or availability.
But keep in mind that not all countries have the same availability — whether that’s the volume of lines, number of services per day, or even variety of destinations served. For example, a couple of years ago we took a Christmas Market trip to Wrocลaw, Poland; Prague, Czechia; and Bratislava, Slovakia. And despite none of these cities being super far away from each other, the fastest option was to take a FlixBus between them rather than a train.
So before you decide on a train trip, make sure you can reach all the cities you want by train. ๐
2. Some countries’ trains are notoriously unreliable
I am not someone who typically watches YouTubers, but Matt got me hooked on a travel YouTube/Nebula channel called Jet Lag: The Game, which is now one of my favorite things ever. The three main guys make games out of transit all over the world — many of which take place on Western Europe’s railways. The show has a running joke about getting “Deutsche Bahned” because Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s national railway, always seems to screw someone’s game plan due to cancelations or delays.
We ended up booking our entire trip through the Deutsche Bahn app. Despite the warnings, we reasoned that we weren’t competing for anything and as long as we eventually ended up at our destination, it wouldn’t be too bad if we got delayed. Deutsche Bahn’s app was easy to use and allowed us to seamlessly buy our tickets as one journey, even when not all segments were operated by DB.
But out of the 14 trains we took, we did get Deutsche Bahned twice when our trains were canceled, which meant we had to re-route — though this wasn’t difficult, also thanks to the DB app. Another two times we *almost* got Deutsche Bahned when our initial train was delayed to the point that we should have missed our connection… but lucky for us, the second trains were also delayed enough for us to catch them!
You might expect more from the supposedly-highly-efficient Germans, but the Swiss trains are really where it’s at. The Swiss Federal Railway is so committed to on-time departures that they will prevent German trains from even entering the country if they’re running too far behind. ๐
All this to say… train punctuality is a mixed bag, so keep that in mind when planning!
3. It’s way easier than flying when visiting multiple cities/countries
This cannot be overstated: traveling by train is soooooo much easier than flying! First of all, train stations are typically so much more central than airports, which means it’s usually just a quick walk or a short bus ride from the city center to the train station — compare that to a 30+ minute taxi ride, and that’s not even considering the cost.
Second, getting from the train station entrance to your assigned platform takes almost no time at all. You can usually show up about 20 minutes early and be totally fine, even if you have to go through a short security process for certain long-distance trains. This typically consists of putting your bag through a scanner, no need to remove liquids/electronics/shoes/belts, etc.
That’s also super convenient because you aren’t subject to the same restrictions as air travel. For example, we bought a bottle of wine in Luxembourg City that we didn’t end up drinking while we were there. If we’d been flying to the next city, we would have had to drink it when we didn’t want to, or leave it behind. Instead, we were able to just pack it in our bag and bring it with us to the next city, when we really had the chance to enjoy it!
And train travel is so much more relaxed than flying. It just doesn’t feel like such a big ordeal when you can roll up to the train station a little bit before your scheduled departure and hop on a train — where you’re unlikely to be squished in a middle seat, told when you’re allowed to stand up or use the restroom, or be subject to delays that you have no control over. Traveling by train gives you so much more freedom and personal space, and while the travel time itself is of course not as fast, I really don’t mind the time at all. It’s a good opportunity to actually look out the window and connect with your surroundings.
4. Be aware of luggage policies on different rail operators
With all the different rail operators you may encounter during your train trip in Europe, keep in mind that they will all have their own requirements when it comes to luggage. And this can even vary on different services within the same rail company.
Deutsche Bahn, for example, seems to allow three pieces of luggage per passenger — carry-on, personal item, and large bag — on all their trains.
RENFE, the Spanish national rail company, only allows three pieces of luggage on their AVE, Alvia, and Euromed trains. On Avlo trains, you must pay extra for a third bag.
If you’re taking a train trip, I recommend traveling with just a carry-on size bag and personal item so you don’t have to lug a huge suitcase around with you — a lot of the old train stations aren’t accessible with elevators or even escalators. We always try to pack as light as we can, and I never regret it. Also, I just really like the idea of simplicity, just taking the train around Europe with a couple of small bags and no worries. ๐
Hi, I’m Cathy, and I’m a proud #doublebackpacker
5. Booking train tickets directly with the rail operators can save you a bit of money
If you’ve ever taken a train trip in Europe — even a short one — you might be familiar with train booking companies such as RailEurope and Trainline. The nice thing about these websites is they’re usually pretty user-friendly, can be used in English (or any language), and they also pull in results from multiple different rail operators for the same route into one place, so you can really see all your options.
The tradeoff is that they will charge you a service fee for each booking. When you’re taking a longer trip with more bookings, and multiple people, that could add up. I’m also not 100% sure how it works if your train is delayed or canceled — I assume it’s covered, but I haven’t been in that situation myself, so I can’t say for certain.
Booking directly with the rail operator can be a frustrating experience for sure. I don’t like the Deutsche Bahn online interface and it actually was giving me a ton of errors when I initially tried to start booking our trip through their website. (Their app is way better, so I recommend that.) Other rail companies’ websites will also be hit-or-miss, so it’s just a matter of personal preference: a better booking experience for a slightly higher fee with a train booking company, or muddling your way through a hard-to-use rail operator website but paying less in fees.
6. Buying tickets in advance has its benefits
Most of our train tickets, booked about a month in advance, cost about โฌ20-30 per person. I thought that was pretty reasonable! But I did notice that when we booked day trip train tickets at the last minute, prices could be almost double that. If you have a clear itinerary for where you’re going on your train trip in Europe, I recommend booking in advance. Not only will you likely get lower prices, but you can also guarantee that you’ll have a seat and your desired train won’t be sold out.
Speaking of seats — each time we booked with Deutsche Bahn, I had the option to buy a reserved seat for an extra โฌ6 per person. After doing a little bit of research to see whether that was really necessary, I decided against it. Basically, you are guaranteed to get a seat regardless of whether you pay extra or not — but paying extra lets you choose your own seat and ensure you’ll be sitting by your travel companions. There was only one train where Matt and I had to sit in adjacent rows instead of side-by-side. Most of the time, there were plenty of free seats available.
If you’re not sure whether a seat is reserved, some trains make it easy to check: just look either above the seat (or sometimes right next to the headrest) to see if there’s a status indicator. For example, in the image below, seat 71 was reserved only on the Brussels to Cologne leg of the trip; from Cologne to Frankfurt, it would be available, so that’s why the light was yellow instead of red. But seat 72 had no reservation for the entire length of the train’s journey, which is why the light was green. So anyone could sit there!
7. Staying close to the train station will make your life a lot easier
When you’re traveling by train, you’re likely going to be taking the train in and out of the same station. Not having to lug your bags (even if they’re small) very far when you arrive and depart just makes life easier. Also, the stations are usually pretty central to the best parts of the city.
We got pretty lucky with our hotels being close to the train station except for in two cities — Brussels has three train stations, and when we arrived from Charleroi airport, the shuttle bus dropped us off at the southernmost station, while our hotel was a lot closer to the central station. And Heidelberg’s train station isn’t as close as you might expect to the fully pedestrianized Hauptstrasse, Main Street, where I knew I wanted to stay, so we had to take a bus there.
Besides those two situations, we were always within a 10-minute walk of the train station, which was also really convenient when we decided we wanted to take day trips to nearby cities. And, we didn’t have to worry about taking multiple methods of transportation (which could have long connections or be delayed) just to get to the station, so we always had more peace of mind about catching our trains.
Okay, I think this should cover some of the major things you’ll want to know before setting off on your train trip in Europe! More posts about train travel to come soon. ๐ In the meantime, let me know in the comments if you have any questions.
-Cathy
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