Practical tips for train travel

How to plan and book a holiday by train

So, you fancy taking your next break in Europe by train, but don’t know where to start? Fair enough – the holiday industry is so geared towards flight-based holidays that travelling by train takes a bit of thought and a bit more effort than walking into your local branch of Kuoni and pointing at a brochure page, or making two clicks on a single website. There are some specialist websites which can help, and we’ll come to those in a minute, but I want to start with some more philosophical thoughts.

You can of course, simply choose your destination, and get there as quickly as possible, treating any necessary stopovers as the equivalent of spending the night before your flight in an airport hotel. But, for me, that ignores one of the great advantages of train travel: it’s so much easier to stop and visit other places along the way. I find it’s helpful to find a principal destination, and if this is more than a day’s travel away, I then work out where I could stop along the way – or the way back – or what’s nearby for a multi-centre holiday. So, for example, when we travelled to Lecce in southern Italy this summer, we spent a few days in Rome on the way down, and a couple of days in Milan on the way back. If you were travelling to southern Spain, you could stop off in Madrid or Barcelona. If you’re going to northern or central Italy you could spend a couple of days in Switzerland.  (As a rough guide, if you’re travelling from London or the south of England, you can reach most places in France, Switzerland and Germany within a day, as well as parts of Spain and Italy.)

So, with a typical two week break, you could have two or three days in one place on the way out, a week in your main destination, and other couple of nights somewhere on the way back, which means you get to stay in several places, but still have a proper relaxing break in the middle. Or, if you prefer something more active, you could visit four to five places for a few nights each.

Having worked out where you’d like to go, you now need to work out if it’s possible, and practical. For this, the best resource is undoubtedly The Man In Seat 61 (https://www.seat61.com/). This site is run by Mark Smith, who has probably done more to promote and encourage international train travel than pretty much anyone else. He’s particularly good on how to get from Britain to any given destination in Europe, although he does also range further afield, and has lots of practical details on internal rail travel in various countries. Loco2 is both a good booking site and useful for checking train timetables – if you want to know if there’s a train from Lille to Le Mans, because your husband doesn’t want to change stations in Paris with a large bag, this will tell you (a true example, and yes, there is – in fact there are two a day). (NB In November 2019, Loco2 changed its name to Rail Europe: https://www.raileurope.com/ , although not a lot else seems to have changed) Lots of people in the rail industry use the English-language Deutsche Bahn site (https://www.bahn.com/en/view/index.shtml )which takes a bit of getting used to, but is comprehensive.

If you are booking lots of trains for one holiday, it can take a while, and it is more complicated than booking a package trip. There are also travel agents who specialise in booking train travel, although they’re not always that easy to find. We’re lucky to have the excellent Rail Canterbury (http://www.rail-canterbury.co.uk/ )  on our doorstep – they will also make bookings via phone. You will have to sort out your own hotels though – I tend to start by looking on Mr & Mrs Smith (https://www.mrandmrssmith.com/ ). 

It’s worth remembering that most trains can only be booked a few months in advance – this suits me, as I don’t have to commit to anything too early. Most services don’t change that much, so you can still get an idea of what’s possible by what’s currently available, although bear in mind there are usually extra services in summer to popular tourist destinations.

Packing

I have a confession to make: my name is Kate and I am a terrible overpacker. Because you never know, I might really need that extra pair of shoes. Or that twelfth dress. Or that fourth skirt. Or… well you get the picture. For a summer holiday, I am inclined to take every piece of summer clothing I own, because I live in England, so there’s no guarantee I will get to wear it at home.

Freed from the restrictions of airline baggage allowances, the temptation is to go wild and throw everything except the kitchen sink into your suitcase, but learn from my mistakes (and aching arms) and resist. Although train baggage allowances are both generous and generally unpoliced, you will have to carry your bag around with you, and on and off trains. In some countries (including Italy) platforms are lower than they generally are in the UK, so you will probably have to carry your case up and down three fairly narrow steps. Stations rarely have luggage trolleys, and lifts are not a given. For lots of journeys, you will have to use metro systems to change stations for a connection, and these are even more awkward with large luggage.

Nowadays, I have one suitcase that I know I can lift, even when full, and anything that doesn’t fit in it, doesn’t get taken. It’s slightly bigger than a standard cabin-sized suitcase (55cmx33x23 – I have used it as cabin baggage in the past, before the recent rule change).

The amount of space for luggage varies enormously between trains, and if you’re using a sleeper space is often limited (even on the Orient Express, in their standard cabins at least), but this size suitcase will fit in most luggage racks, including overhead ones.

On the plus side, your luggage stays with you, and is therefore highly unlikely to end up in the wrong country. And you don’t have to worry about where you can put liquids.

Happy travelling!