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I don't think I've imagined this, but I thought there was a thread from about 2 months ago asking about travelling around European by train - I'm sure it had plenty links and recommendations of websites where you can plan the journey and book tickets.
I can't find it and as of last night, I've been tasked to plan a wee round Europe trip of 7 days leaving from Edinburgh to get to Europe and visit a few places. I'm thinking Edinburgh to London to Paris to Nice then up to Austria and into Germany before returning to Paris and then back to Edinburgh.
I'm hoping I can find trains that can leave in the evening and we wake up in the morning at the new destination so we can spend the day sightseeing and being tourists.
However, I can't find a website that allows.me.to do that and I was sure there was one.mentioned on a thread on here, but I can't find it...
Does anyone have a link to a website that I can use to plan the trip?
Thanks,
Richard.
I'm not sure of the earlier thread mentioned but my go-to web-site on European rail travel is
https://www.seat61.com/european-train-travel.htm
and the links it has.
For train times the DB railway site works well. Will work out train times between any 2 points in Europe. Booking depends but seat 61 explains more of those options. Switzerland buy a rail card on entry for the special foreigner price. Swiss travel centre in London is helpful or just buy the ticket at a large station.
https://www.bahn.com/en
As above, seat61 is full of info and links. It may be cheaper for you to use an interrail pass, which can give you 4, 5 or 7 days travel within a month, covers UK and Europe but not Eurostar you'd need to book that separately. Interrail app allows you to book, easy to use, but for some french, Spanish and Italian trains you pay a supplement. Great fun planning and traveling, good luck!
As above, I always use bahn.de
For Austria & Germany the ÖBB Scotty app is brilliant
Don't forget to plan at least one NightJet trip in a sleeper cabin. Having breakfast whilst mountains go past is a formative memory of my youth. (50 plus years ago 😱).
I do a lot of trips by train between south uf France and Germany (sometimes even London) and find the Trainline good for cross border travel.
Inside France SNCF is best as you get to pick more features (top bunk in the couchette coaches for example). DB app is now really good as well. I’m just not sure that the two rail companies talk to each other as well as they do with Trainline.
Anyway, this should be a fab adventure. Have fun!
As others have mentioned, the DB site seems to work best for most journeys as my brother uses it to book trains across to Austria after using Eurostar to get across the Channel.
I tried the French sites and gave up as they were awful and used The Trainline to sort transfers from Lyon Airport to Bourg St Maurice for skiing, which is also on TopCashBack (which I realised after booking).
Seat 61 is a fantastic resource, I used it to travel from Vejle to Saarburg a few years ago and booked the best seats using the train configuration maps. The First Class section from Cologne to Frankfurt (IIRC) was fantastic as it was in a car with a panoramic glass ceiling** and great views and hardly cost any extra.
Top tip - not all train operators are miserable gits and actually let you break your journey! Our overnight in Osnabrück was actually on a Hamburg - Wherever we changed* ticket but we were allowed to break the journey for something like 18 hours.
*I had heavy duty food poisoning so a bit hazy on the details
**
Tip: Panorama car on train EC8... You'll thank me for this! Train EC8 from Zurich & Basel to Cologne conveys a wonderful Swiss 1st class panorama car, the Rails Down the Rhine video. Speeding along the Rhine in this is a real treat, yet all you need to sit in it is a 1st class ticket. To make sure you get a seat in it, add a free seat reservation when you book, using the select seat link to pick a seat in car 263, see the advice on the Rails Down the Rhine page.
Thanks for the pointers...will grab a bath and go do some research!
I think it was my thread here you are thinking of:
seat61 had very useful information.
I bought my ticket through the Deutsche Bahn website, which is very good. You want to ask for a route that allows bikes (so a bit slower), and set the transfer time to be a bit longer (fifteen minutes is likely to be enough).
You need a bike ticket for Germany which you can also buy separately from the DB website, and you also need one for the the Netherlands - I bought that from the Dutch rail website. No one actually checked it though. The tricky part is finding the web page on both of those websites that sells those tickets. They are something like EUR6 each.
You might want to print out the ticket QR code - I scanned mine from my phone in a station in NL to get through a ticket barrier, and it just took a *new* ticket via contactless (grrrr) but it was only a few EUR in the end.
DB were helpful over the phone a few years ago helping me book Manchester to Berlin via Paris sleeper. Took a lot of the hassle out of it so might be worth a call if they're still available.
Another (more expensive) option would be to use someone like Byway Travel that specialises in European rail holidays. Used them last year as we wanted some backup and they were excellent.