Train Travel in Europe - Best Country

[DrRoy]

We usually rent a car, but had one good train trip in France.

 

[Chuckanut]

Thanks for all the input. It's nice to have so many good choices.

Right now it's a horse race between Italy and Portugal, with Portugal starting to pull away. As much as I love Italy, I have seen plenty of it from Lake Como in the north, small cities and towns in the middle, and Sicily in the south. I have seen less of Portugal, mainly Lisbon and Porto.

 

[brett]

IF you select Portugal, and IF you are over 65 register on line with the railway (cp.pt) for half price senior pricing. We subsequently purchased all of our rail tickets on line. It was so easy to navigate their website.

We found that on certain routes, times fares are discounted down to below seniors pricing. You can check on line. Great system.

It was our third trip to Portugal but our first without a car.

We both went with an international size carry on for five weeks. So glad that we did.

 

[Chuckanut]

Thanks for all the input. It's nice to have so many good choices.

Right now it's a horse race between Italy and Portugal, with Portugal starting to pull away. As much as I love Italy, I have seen plenty of it from Lake Como in the north, small cities and towns in the middle, and Sicily in the south. I have seen less of Portugal, mainly Lisbon and Porto.

Portugal won.

 

[Freedom56]

If you really want to take the train, I would say Switzerland. France and Italy have far too many strikes during tourist season. Plus a Swiss Travel pass covers trains, buses, boats, and some funicular trains and cable cars, and entrance fees to over 500 museums and castles.

A rental car is much more convenient however.

 

[brett]

Portugal won.

We decided to spend five days on Madeira. Oddly enough it was less expensive for us to fly to Madeira, with a stop in Lisbon, on TAP that it was for the same flight that ended in Lisbon. About $75 less. More than paid for our easyjet flight back to Lisbon. TAP flight was perfect.

We flew home from Faro since we ended our trip in Algarve. Again....it was less expensive to fly home from Faro that it was to fly home from Lisbon.

 

[CardsFan]

If you really want to take the train, I would say Switzerland. France and Italy have far too many strikes during tourist season. Plus a Swiss Travel pass covers trains, buses, boats, and some funicular trains and cable cars, and entrance fees to over 500 museums and castles.

A rental car is much more convenient however.

I don't know what it is like now, but 30+ years ago we did a (National Lampoon) European vacation.

The Swiss trains ran like clockwork, literally. If the train was scheduled to leave at 10:22, it left EXACLTY when the station clock hit 10:22 (and I am talking to the second).

 

[SecondAttempt]

With regard to train travel, I would consider all of the EU one big country. There are regional differences in service but they have more to do with population density and commerce than country.

I suggest to plan where you want to go/see and then look at train options. In general I have found trains 10 times easier to navigate than busses anywhere in the world including Europe.

 

[Marita40]

Austria has the best trains. Clean, safe, fast, frequent, on time.