DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Anyone have experience using Eurorail? Traveling by train in Europe?

Hey all. My wife and I are making the trip this fall to Europe. My first time. Her first as an adult. Were flying into Amsterdam then looking to take the train through Belgium, France, Spain and Portugal. Then possibly flying back to Amsterdam from Lisbon, to then fly home.
Any pointers on traveling by train? Are they comfortable? Safe? Fast enough to get you from point a to point b without "wasting" valuable vacation time?
Anything the unindoctrinated should know?

I've traveled by train twice in Europe

One time was from Vienna to Budapest and then from Budapest to Prague...we spend 2-3 nights in each city and train travel was really easy.

The other time was last year my wife and I visited Italy and took train from Rome to Cinque Terre then to Florence and then to Venice...again around 2-3 nights in each city

I think it was easy although they leave on-time, so don't try to do anything last minute, especially if you do not speak the languages. You can buy your tickets the day of travel in most circumstances although you may want to buy it the day before if you know that you'll be staying in a city for a couple of days. Have your passport ready and don't try to get a free ride as they always check your ticket although sometimes it's a couple of hours after the train leaves

The other confusing thing can be the train names/locations....sometimes the stops/names are in local languange (of course) so you need to be careful to board the right train and get off at the right stop

all in all, it's pretty easy if you have some common sense

I took the trains around England for a day, and I thought it was great! Rather tyring to drive, you could kick back and relax for a few hours, even eat a reasonably priced lunch from the snack bar. If you want fewer stop/faster train, it will usually cost you quite a bit more ... but you actually get to see quite a bit of the countryside from a train too.

The one thing you do have to worry about is cancellations/time-changes. I took a couple of subways/trains to get from Heathrow to London to Birmingham to Aston, and due to some of the closures (mostly of the tubes), I swear I caught all of my trains with seconds to spare. On the way back, they canceled one of the routes, combined it with another, and bumped that train's schedule up 10 minutes. I almost missed that one too. Make sure you give yourself enough time to transfer.

I'm in the planning stages now. But it looks like the plan is spend a couple of days in Amsterdam then move on to Brussels. Two days there before heading to Paris. We'll stay in Paris for 2 to 3 days then we have a wedding to hit in Madrid. Once in Madrid we'll be renting a car. I'd really like to see Barcelona and other parts of the Mediterrainian coast. Hop the train back in Madrid and get into Lisbon with enough time to enjoy it, to then fly back to Amsterdam. 5 countries,15 days total.

We took the EuroStar from England to Paris. Very nice, very comfy and very fast.

Kind of pricey, but it was worth it.

Riding the trains in Germany was excellent. Best transportation ever. Watch the signs, get there early and have fun. The rest of the guys that have responded have given you the best info. I hope that you and the wife enjoy your trip.

I know. I didn't need a car when I lived in Germany. The transportation systems there are excellent. The bus system is always on time, trains always on time and taxi's in abundance and reasonably priced. Just gotta watch some of the taxi drivers....they can be kinda gross.

my wife and I (she was my girlfriend at the time) backpacked western europe for 3 months in 2003.We had the pass that we could ride the trains as much as we wanted. We loved travelling the train but theft is quite common(ie pick pockets).Ways to prevent theft is to have locks on your zippers of your packs.we also had a big combination lock to lock our packs to the rails on the trains. This was done when we would sleep on the trains. We had an incedent free trip and would recommend the trains.Just be aware of getting into a city late at night because sometimes there are no other trains and a place to stay might be far away.Have a great trip

Trains are a great way to get around . Its been a long time but I remember them being easy to use and relaxing (not that you'll need relaxing in Amsterdam .