When Star Woman and I recently travelled to Europe, a large part of our adventure was to explore different countries by train. I love rail travel and after having done the Rocky Mountaineer from Banff to Vancouver last fall, I was inspired to do more.
Now not all travel is as sumptuous as the Rocky Mountaineer, so that was a very high bar that was set. It’s an adventure I would highly recommend and was unlike anything we experienced in Europe.
For our trip to Europe this August/September, we planned on taking almost 10 trips covering 6 countries during our 5+ weeks there, so we opted for a first class, 10-day global Eurail Global Pass. It’s not that much more expensive than a second class pass and offers more comfortable seating and potentially other extras (though we did not see much of that).
The train network in Europe is impressively extensive and efficient, in that the trains seem to always run on time and frequently. The booking system, however, leaves much to be desired, and can be frustrating to navigate. For instance, a pass or ticket does not necessarily mean you have a seat. Some trains required seat reservations and others do not – to the chagrin of a few surprised fellow travelers. As well, although I had made seat reservations for both of us, we were not always seated together even when seats were available. We know this because we changed seats when we could once the trains were en route, and there were no issues. There are many regional train systems that fall under the Eurail Global Pass and they all have their own rules.
A further few things to be aware of: the train schedules posted online may also not be up to date and there may be challenges doing bookings between train companies. We discovered this when we were headed from Milan, Italy to Zermatt, Switzerland. We had not been able to book seats in France for our entire trip to Zermatt. When we got to Milan, we were given a schedule, which included a bus (due to rail line repair work) and 3 train changes. However, when we arrived in Domodossola, Italy, to catch our first connection, we discovered our train was not listed on the board. There was no rail staff around; however, two train angels camouflaged as (kind) border patrol officers pointed us to a direct train to Zermatt which was leaving in 4 minutes. We made it!
For the next part of our train experience, Zermatt to the lovey city of Chur in Switzerland, we chose to travel on the Glacier Express – famous for good reason. From Chur we took the equally magnificent Bernina Express to Tirano, Italy. Both of these trips are covered under the Eurail Global Pass though seat reservations and meals/beverages are an extra cost. From Tirano, the train ride was partly along the shore of Lake Como as we headed to Bergamo, a suburb of Milan, for a flight to Budapest, Hungary to avoid a 13-hour train trip. Much of the scenery in the train journey after Budapest, a 7-hour train ride to Prague, reminded us of Ontario. After a few days in picturesque Prague, Czech Republic, we travelled by train to Vienna, Austria. Again, we noticed very minimal signage or available assistance - and very little English was spoken. Fortunately, by then we were fairly savvy rail travellers, so we managed to figure it out.
One thing to keep in mind is not all train stations have escalators or elevators so be prepared to haul your luggage up and down stairs. We found that there were very few train attendants on the platforms to guide or help travellers. As such, we were very happy with our decision to travel the 5+ weeks with only carry-on. This is where Via Rail does much better.
Travelling with a Eurail Global Pass is worth it for the convenience of being able to add trips to the app either beforehand or as you go and having it scanned on the trains. That is, if it works as it should. It was fine on my iPhone but did not want to function on Star Woman’s Android. Also, in France, we were able to use paper tickets issued at the ticket office as proof of reservation. However, in Switzerland we found out that the paperwork we were given in Italy was not acceptable. What we needed to do was add and activate each trip on the Eurail app so they could scan the QR code on it. Once we figured that out it was smooth sailing.
There are various different timeframes for making reservations and booking seats, which is confusing. Not being able to make seat reservations in advance from home because schedules are not up to date was concerning until I confirmed on an online Eurail community group that this is normal and should not be an issue. It wasn’t, except that the systems sometimes did not recognize that we wished to be seated together.
All in all, our adventures with train travel in Europe were a very enjoyable, grand adventure and we are already thinking of where we might go next.
Disclaimer: All of the suggestions made in these blog posts are from our own personal experience. We have not been sponsored by anyone nor have we made any commitments to promote any of these businesses. They were up and running when we travelled but that may not still be the case when you travel. And they were as we described when we travelled, but, again, that may not be your experience due to a number of variables. Do your own research - and maybe check out what we found wonderful. Happy travels from 4WW.
Comentários