Tell me about Eurail and/or European trains

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m considering a trip to Europe next summer for myself, my wife, my SIL, and my niece. I was thinking about a few days in London, then Paris, and then Rome. We’d fly from the US to London and then fly back from Rome. I was thinking about taking a train from London to Paris and from Paris to Rome.

If you have any experience with European trains and Eurail, I’d welcome any advice that you’d have for me. Feel free to talk to me like I have absolutely no clue about European trains because I really don’t. The Eurail website isn’t the most user friendly that I’ve seen. Reservations are weird too. It seems that I can buy a ticket but then I may or may not need to buy a reservation to go along with it.

Any advice, opinions, or options would be greatly appreciated.

2

There is the ticket for the bare travel, then there is the reservation (plus additional money) if, for example, you want first class. We did this four years ago, so there are details I don’t remember, but that’s the basic thing.

One thing is that now is a good time because the dollar is relatively strong against the euro, almost 1 to 1. It was about 1.35 to 1 I think when we went.

The trains themselves are great. First class is great, as you might expect, but the next class down (2nd? not sure) is no slouch either. I’m not sure what the lowest available class is, we never looked at using it.

Some things about the departing station (we departed on a train from Paris, but we didn’t hit London so that might be different): you have to wait in a large waiting area serving a lot of platforms until maybe 30 minutes before the train leaves; then they allow you to go to the platform. Places to sit are not plentiful, but if I recall there is at least one café you can go to sit down and snack on something, on the second level, that overlooks the waiting area. There is a big board where all the upcoming trains are listed, and this is where you find out what platform your train is at. I didn’t like this part much, I was always afraid I was going to do something wrong and miss the train, but I was fine and we always made it with plenty of time to spare. The walk to the car where your seat is can be kind of long, depending on how far down the train you are.

Now some things, very important, about arrival stations. When you arrive in Paris and in Rome, be sure to have the name and address of your hotel (or wherever you are going first) written on a piece of paper that you can hand the driver. It avoids misunderstandings because of your foreign accent. Find the taxi queue, it will probably be quite long but it should move fast, there were tons of taxis waiting when we went, and wait quietly in the queue until you get to the head of the line, and let the guy in charge get you a taxi. Do not allow anyone to tempt you to depart from the line and try to give you a ride. At best they will be unlicensed and you will get yelled at by the licensed cabbies. This happened to us in Rome (what did we know?) and a fierce lady cabdriver drove off the interloper, and during the entire ride she yelled about what had happened as if it was our fault (all in Italian). I tried to make allowances, but that was very unpleasant.

The trains, by contrast, were always pleasant, extremely clean and comfortable, and fast (you can take a slower train if you want, I guess, I didn’t really check out that option). We always traveled in the daytime so we could see the scenery. The farthest single leg we traveled was from Venice to Naples, and I think it was 5 or 6 hours. I don’t know about London to Paris (Google Maps says 3 to 4 hours), but Paris to Rome will be more than that, over 10 hours if you’re not stopping anywhere. I presume they have sleepers if you want to travel at night, but again, we didn’t do that.

I can’t give you much advice about navigating the website, I managed it so it can’t be too difficult, but I don’t remember much about the experience. We got Eurail passes, which saved some money, I don’t know if it always saves money, it probably depends on factors like how long you will be there and how many different stops you make. One thing to be careful of, if you get Eurail passes, they have to be checked off exactly in the right order by each conductor (I had had no idea about that, we missed the first one somehow but the next conductor graciously forgave us). I think this is so that people don’t try to cheat with the passes. Just read all that stuff carefully, and make sure your first conductor sees your passes. I don’t know if Eurail passes cover London-Paris, if not the passes may not save you money.

This was the first time I had been to Europe and it was simultaneously exhilarating and sort of terrifying and aggravating. Our taxi driver in Naples deliberately took us to a place 1.5 km from our hotel and left us there, with no other taxis in sight, and I never figured out why. It rankles to this day. I hated Naples. I’m glad you’re not going there.

Sorry if this is a little disjointed. Ask questions if you want and I’ll try to answer.

3

Eurail, AIUI, is a middleman. You might do better using the national rail operator for each country. But first for overall advice and tips, start with www.seat61.com

4

That’s a fantastic website! Thanks for the tip!

5

Thank you for the very informative and helpful post Roderick_Femm! Having the hotel address written down is a great tip and I don’t think I ever would have thought of it.

Did you travel with much luggage? I know that everyone just handles their own. Do you just keep it with you or is there a common area to store it?

6

Luggage - will vary with the type of train. For long distance (intercity/international) services there will often be some rack space at the end of each carriage, and possibly some space underneath or between seats. There will be an overhead shelf for hand luggage, jackets, etc.

On local commuter trains there will probably not be luggage racks; there may be an overhead shelf, but you may have to be ingenious about keeping your luggage by you.

I usually travel with a wheeled holdall type of bag, 22"x12"x12" (but fatter when the various pockets are filled), and a courier-type daybag. On a plane, I’d check in the holdall and take the daybag as hand luggage. On a train I’ve never had a problem fitting myself and my luggage in. The most irritation I’ve had is with the newest intercity type on German railways - their overhead shelf was for some reason slatted with large gaps, and a cloth bag with a sandwich and some fruit slid through!

7

My wife and I took a trip to Amsterdam with a side trip to Berlin. I was hoping to take the train between Amsterdam and Berlin, but a discount flight was so much faster and cheaper (albeit uncomfortable) and we would’ve had to switch trains. Tant pis.

8

European trains are fantastic relative to the common US options of short/medium hop flights or taking a Greyhound bus. I’ve ridden the Eurostar to and from Paris and London, the Freccia Rossa between Rome & Milan (and back), the regular Italian trains between Rome & Florence, regular Dutch trains between Schipol airport and Brussels, some high speed train between Brussels and Amsterdam, and a bunch of local Belgian trains between Brussels, Ghent and Bruges. Oh, and the Prague-Vienna and Vienna-Budapest trains as well.

By and large, the high speed trains are the way to go. You have all the advantages of trains - don’t have to deal with checking luggage, security, etc… and jet-like speed. The local trains aren’t as fast, but they’re still pretty great. Sometimes they have the sleeper suites, but I wouldn’t count on it.

As far as logistics goes, we typically just looked up the schedule, and then went to the station itself to buy the tickets. The booth people always spoke enough English to where it wasn’t a problem, especially in the Netherlands.

9

For the London-Paris leg, Eurostar really is the most convenient option. Also, trains from Paris to Rome are a great idea, if you embrace the journey itself as an experience rather than just a way to get from A to B. It can be done in a day, but personally I would stop off at somewhere like Turin or Milan, where you’ll probably have to change trains anyway.

As the Man in Seat 61 himself points out, the Eurail passes don’t necessarily save you money.

10

We each had a large suitcase and a carry-on type. I think we used the storage space at the end of the car for the larger suitcases and there was plenty of room for the carry-ons near our seats. We only rode on the fast intercity trains.

11

Think of it as a land cruise. My most recent was by Eurostar direct to Amsterdam (4hrs from London) then after staying there on to Hamburg for a few days (5-6hrs, if memory serves), then coming back to London in one day (changing at Cologne and then Brussels for the Eurostar) - about 12hrs. All reasonably comfortable and manageable, even when the train to Cologne from Hamburg had some problem and we had to switch to another - what impressed me was that they’d also swopped over the electronic system that displayed seat reservations in exactly the same coach and seat positions.

12

The one exception to this is the Chunnel. Granted, i haven’t taken it in the last ten years, but it used to have airplane-like security, and i had an issue because i had a pocketknife that I’d checked on my flight, but there is no “checked” option on trains. It was only against the rules because it could be locked in an open position, and they ended up letting me keep it, with a lecture about not doing that again. For my return trip, i have it to a friend who was flying.

Also, i love traveling by train in Europe. Fast, convenient, and often an interesting view.

13

I found out, when my son travelled in 2016, that if you want a Eurail pass, you must purchase it in advance - there’s no place where you can walk up to buy one. Sadly, my son did not think about that in advance, so he wound up going a la carte when buying his tickets.

Depending on your travel plans, a pass may or may not be worthwhile. In his case, it likely would have been.

I’ll send him a link to the thread and see if he has any suggestions.

14

“Chunnel” is never used in the UK and is not a good alternative to “The Channel Tunnel”

Since Brexit, the customs and immigration at the two ends of the Eurostar are pretty similar to those on a flight. You are advised to get to St Pancras 90 minutes before departure. It’s a beautiful station with multiple opportunities to buy food and drinks.

For Eurostar at least, the price rises nearer the departure date, so there are good savings available for pre-booking. Search for Eurostar.com from around 90 days before you expect to travel.

“Lock” knives are illegal in the UK, so best left behind.

15

If you don’t mind the (hopefully brief) hijack: Every kitchen knife is a “lock knife” that can’t be unlocked to fold up. What, specifically, makes something an illegal lock knife? A folding knife that can be locked open?

They told me at the time that had my knife been slightly shorter, it would have been allowed.

16

"# Knives: Get the facts

Is it illegal to carry a knife?

It is illegal to carry any sharply pointed or bladed article in a public place (with the exception of a folding pocket knife, which has a blade that is less than 7.62cm or 3 inches).

A lock knife is NOT a folding pocketknife and therefore it is illegal to carry these knives regardless of the length of the blade.

Possession of a lock knife in a public place without reasonable excuse IS an offence.

Possession of a multi-tool incorporating a prohibited blade / pointed article is capable of being an offence under this section even if there are other tools on the instrument that may be of use to a person in a public place (screwdriver, can opener).

What are the penalties for being caught with an illegal knife?

The penalty for committing this offence is a minimum six-month prison sentence (if aged over 18), or a maximum of four years and/or an unlimited fine.

This is from the Suffolk Constabulary website. https://www.suffolk.police.uk/advice/personal-safety/knife-crime/knives-get-facts

17

My pocketknife would be illegal? WTF?

18

Thanks. So it would be illegal to carry a kitchen knife.

How in earth do you cut the cake you brought in for a work/club celebration?

I’ll be more careful nixy time i visit the UK.

Also, the blade on that knife is less than 3", so i must be misremembering the details. It’s very much not a pocket knife that looks like it was designed to be a weapon.

19

Why not take the Orient Express?

20

It’s hard to understand, but it looks like dealers sell kitchen knives without sharp end points to get around the ban. But I would be interested to know the definitive answer to your question, too.