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4 Essential Tips For Seeing Europe By Train

By Eurail, the sponsor of this post

Europe has an extensive rail system that makes it relatively easy to travel from city to city. Traveling by train offers many benefits, though you first need to learn how to use the train to reap these. Follow these four tips so you can maximize the benefits of your railway ticket and have a great time seeing Europe by train.

1. Choose Your Arrival and Departure Cities

If you want to travel through multiple European countries, it makes sense to choose separate arrival and departure cities. For instance, you may land in London, make your way through France, and depart from Madrid or Barcelona. Sure, your airline may charge you a higher price for arriving and departing from different cities, but you will get to see more places during your vacation.

2. Save Money With a Eurail Pass

Purchasing a Eurail Pass can help you save quite a bit of money during your Europe trip. You get to choose between three major types of passes:

  • The One Country Pass lets you travel freely within one country
  • The Select Pass lets you enter two to four bordering countries
  • The Global Pass lets you explore five or more countries.

Eurail prices vary considerably depending on how many countries you plan to visit and how long you want to stay in Europe. Explore your options to make sure you get a good deal for your plans. In most cases, though, you’ll spend less money on a Eurail pass than separate tickets to destinations throughout Europe.

3. Take Overnight Trains When Possible

Travel experts have a lot of advice for first-time travelers trying to see as much as possible without spending a lot of money. One particularly good tip advises you to take overnight trains when possible.

Night trains are some of the fastest ways to travel between major cities because they don’t make a lot of stops. Also, you save money by avoiding the cost of a hotel for that evening. Many overnight train cars are designed for four or more people, so book ahead of time. Make sure you designate your gender on the reservation since some travelers may have concerns about sleeping in a car near members of another gender.

4. Give Yourself Plenty Of Time In Each City

You don’t want to feel stressed when visiting Europe, so you should give yourself an appropriate amount of time to explore each of the cities on your itinerary.

The amount of time you devote to a city will depend on what you want to do there. In general, though, you can expect to spend two to three days in cities like Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin and Prague.

By the way, if you like traveling alone I absolutely love solo travel in Prague and would book a solo trip to Amsterdam any day!

Bigger cities like London and Rome probably deserve three to four days. Do a little research to decide how long you want to stay in your favorite places.

Do you have any European train travel tips to add? 

*This post was sponsored by Eurail 

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Hi, I’m Jessie on a journey!

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