Europe by Rail

JonnyT

JonnyT

JonnyT

Associate
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
2,149
Location
Cambridge
Hello all,

As I have a 'marquee' birthday coming up (life begins etc..) I'm looking to do something a little different this year for a holiday. Now the key thing to mention is that flying is not an option; I have avowed myself due to previous bad experiences and will freely admit I have a phobia etc. This has restricted me to 'staycations' to Cornwall in recent years, which is lovely in itself, and is an option for this year too if I cannot come up with an alternative...

Anyway, given I am footloose and single, I had the idea of travelling solo down to Italy by train, and then around Italy for a few days (approx 7-10 days total). https://www.seat61.com/ seems to be the go-to place for information on how to do it, but I thought I'd ask if anyone had any experience of doing something like this, recommendations on places to visit or things to do, or alternatives?

My current thought is I'd overnight in Paris before continuing on to Milan/Turin, but then am a little lost as to where to go afterwards. I'm not 100% convinced about the Italian lakes, but would definitely like to visit the coast somewhere along the line...
 
It's a weird world, we take a giant tin can that weighs hundreds of tons, fill it with an ocean of highly flammable liquid and strap on a few turbine jet engines then fly it in the freaking sky, and it's somehow safer than walking down the road.

Get over the phobia and the world is your lobster
 
Last edited:
I'm not looking for advice on beating my fear, thanks, just seeing if anyone has done it and has any recommendations for places to go, things to do etc?
 
That will be boring as hell on your own. You'll spend the whole time going into big town centers and drinking coffee on your lonesome; trains are very limiting in their destinations.

The Italian lakes are full of retiree's, expensive prices, etc. It looks better in photos.

Rent a campervan and go traveling around Wales for something different.
 
Thanks for the feedback so far. @ScoTTyBEEE that thought had indeed crossed my mind; I don't mind a day or so going round Milan/Rome etc. but I would also like to explore a bit farther afield...

Maybe my original idea of an activity-focused holiday in Perranporth wasn't so bad after all...
 
Don't let others put you off seeing some amazing parts of Europe because you're not keen on flying.

Whilst I've not gone by train I've done similar-ish by driving on my own down into France and Switzerland. Nothing wrong with going alone, in fact it can help you with the local language(s) and allows you to meet other people / chat with people whilst you're there and find out about things you may not have known about otherwise.

My advice would be to research the trains (using google, trip advisor etc.) along with researching the various towns / cities you're interested in seeing and spending time in.

Trains can be limiting but as with the UK there will be small local services (or buses etc. too) which get you to areas less frequently than the main services so shouldn't actually limit you all that much.
 
I've done Europe by car and train before and much prefered train. You arrive at your destinations fresh, you have energy to enjoy the night life and you can then catch up on sleep on the train out of the city. It was great not having the responsibility of the car too.
 
I'd really love to do this too, me and the wife have talked about it, I do fly but i don't like it so i avoid it if i can help it.

I'd like to do a few German cities, i've been to Berlin a few times as i have a friend there but i'd love to do some of the others and then maybe into Poland or Czech republic.
 
I've posted these before, so worth a copy and paste.

You will meet lots of people as you go, be it in hostels, at train stations, in pubs, on the train. Just wear a smile and be open to new ideas. You'll have an absolute ball!

Holidaying alone is brilliant, I go away every year by myself.

Ahleckz said:
Amsterdam - Brussels - Luxembourg - Paris - Geneva - Nice - Rome - Venice - Rome - Interlaken - Munich - Berlin - Amsterdam.

Make sure you go to Berlin & Munich. Interlaken is awesome for extreme sports. Nice isn't great, but if you want to go to Monaco it's best to do it from there.

I've spoken about my trip a couple of times, so can't be bothered doing it again but if you have any specific questions just ask.

Oh, and don't do it through an agency. All you need is hostelbookers.com.
Click to expand...
Don't try and see too much, you'll end up seeing the inside of a train more than anything else. With that budget, it's hostels only! Hostels are fine though, just check them out on hostelbookers or something like that and book one with a decent rating.

When I went interrailing, we didn't have a route planned at all. We knew we had to be in Amsterdam on a certain date to get back to the UK but that was it. We would have a chat about where we wanted to go the next day, book a hostel for the first night and then get there. Much better this way, as if you don't like somewhere (Nice for us) then you're not stuck to staying there for 4 nights as you've booked the hostel. On the other side, if you want to stay somewhere longer (Interlaken) then that's possible as well because you don't have to be somewhere else.
Click to expand...

We tended to book a hostel a night or two before but sometimes we'd just turn up in a city and hope to find somewhere. We didn't have any major problems doing this.
Didn't prebook trains either, just turned up at the station and got on one (sometimes had to pay 5 euros or so). Didn't do any night trains. The train part is great, when I was going from Rome to Interlaken, alone, I was in a compartment and then 4 Italian women got on. They then started offering me their home cooked meat balls and bread, it was delicious.
Click to expand...
 
I never had interaction with anyone on a train in Switzerland.
everyone always seems to keep to themselves, quite often people walk up and down the train looking for a completely empty set of seats than sit next to someone :S

only one time did I ever see 2 randoms talking but they exchanged phone numbers so probably went on a date after :O

your bound to get to know people in the hostels though, and if the rest of Europe is anything like Switzerland there will be quite a lot of people hanging around the city at night listening to music from a portable bluetooth speaker and unlike the UK they will be fairly approachable and friendly.

Rivers are probably a good bet also, quite a lot of people hang out on them listening to music, cooking BBQ etc

Maybe just use Switzerland as a base :P Italy, Germany, Lichtenstein, Austria, France all really close.

the trains there are easy, ticket machines have english language, announcements on the train in multiple languages including english, SBB app makes the trains easy, every station should have free SBB wifi without the need to sign in, you just hit free wifi for one hour. the train stations are easy to navigate even the multiple level ones like Zurichs

almost all the trains also have plugs above the window at every seat so you can charge a laptop, phone or whatever.
 
Moses said:
That was only part of what I said, tbf!



Trains will easily get you to the normal destination cities... oh no, I’m stuck in the middle of Barcelona, or Berlin, or Paris... nothing to do other than drink coffee :(. Or, you know, do all the normal tourist stuff once there?
Click to expand...

Berlin, Paris and Barcelona aren't in Italy. I can promise you this, after 7-10 days of taking trains into the heart of Italian cities you won't ever want to visit Italy again.
 
I know this is going OT slightly but has anyone travelled around Spain by train? I was looking at going to Hawai'i for a once-in-a-lifetime holiday but the prices are just astronomical. So Spain (and the Balearics) was my next choice. Just don't know whether to hire a car or train. I haven't investigated Spain's trains at all yet.
 
Lopéz said:
If you think Italy is a third world dump then I think you probably need to get about a bit more to give you some perspective.
Click to expand...

OK it may not compete with Lagos I get that, but it's striking when you compare it to much of Europe. Also the actual 3rd world offers some value to a holiday, Italy doesn't even offer that.

I also said half of Italy. The N/S divide there is far worse than the UK.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom