It’s a good idea to fully understand your options for transportation in Europe. While driving gives you the ultimate flexibility for getting around in Europe, it can also be a giant hassle. Gas is expensive, many countries have expensive tolls, navigation can be a challenge, parking can be problematic, and the driver has to concentrate on that so misses out on enjoying the scenery.
Public transportation can be the answer. Assuming you are not spending your entire trip in one place, you need to think about both local and long distance transportation. The good news is that Europe is well-equipped on both fronts.
Researching Public Transportation in Europe
So how do you decide if public transportation in Europe will work for you? You need to do your research. Let’s break it down to long-distance and local options.
Long-Distance
If your European vacation includes stops in multiple countries, cities, towns, or regions you need to get from place to place. Planes, trains, and boats are all options.
Should I Fly?
For longer distances – i.e., a six-hour drive or more – flying could be your best option. Local carriers may provide a shorter, cheaper option to the trains. As with researching your flights to Europe from America, these European contained flights can be found through the consolidators. Then book your flights directly through the carrier. It is important to note that these regional flights often have baggage restrictions (one good reason to pack light).
Our France trip started in Nice but our flight on Iceland Air ended at the Orly airport in Paris. To take the train to Nice required us to get from the airport to a train station and then would take over six hours. Since our flight landed in Paris at around 3:00 pm, we wouldn’t get to Nice until very late at night. We found an Air France flight to Nice for $100 each that was only about an hour or so which allowed us to arrive in Nice in time for dinner — nice!
Train Travel in Europe
Rail travel has long been romanticized and for good reason. Trains are clean, fast, and reliable and most of the cities and towns that attract visitors have train stations. There are high-speed trains for longer distances or you can choose to take an overnight train and sleep for those journeys.
Researching your options is easily done through www.raileurope.com. You enter in your destinations and dates and they will tell you whether a rail pass (and which pass) is the most economical or whether you are better off just buying individual tickets for each leg. They will also provide timetables and costs. In my early planning stages, I will create a chart with the basic information (see below) for the powerpoint deck. Once we have decided which legs of our journey we want to do via rail, I will pull down the schedules so that we have the timetables as well.
You can purchase your rail pass(es) and tickets ahead of time or you can purchase them as you go. If you buy early, the documents will be sent to your home. My approach is to order passes early but to buy tickets as we need them.
Passes: The price of a rail pass is based on two things – (1) first or second class, and (2) the number of days you will travel with the pass. We always choose second class. It is very nice and the price differential is significant. The number of days is important. With a pass, you have unlimited travel on each day that your pass is active. You can choose a pass that is active for consecutive days or one that is active for a set number of days within a certain time period (i.e., 3 days over a 2-week period). You need to activate your pass at the train station on day one in the first case and each day of use in the latter. Optimize the value of your rail pass by planning your trip so that you don’t have straggler trips that add days.
Tickets: If individual tickets are more economical, you can also buy them ahead of time. However, you will be locked into a seat on a specific train if you do. If you prefer the security of knowing you have seats, this may be better for you. We prefer having the flexibility of taking an earlier or later train depending on our desires at the time. Tickets are easily purchased as needed at the train stations. There are automated machines where you can use your credit card or cash and where you can have the transaction translated into English if you need. Buy your tickets, validate them (the validation machines are usually close to the ticket machines) and off you go. The only drawback to this approach is that sometimes the train you want will be sold out. This happened to us when traveling from Venice to the Cinque Terre which delayed us about 90 minutes or so.
Whichever way you go, train travel in Europe is more relaxing than driving and allows everyone in your party to enjoy the scenery flying by.
What About Ferries?
There are several reasons to travel by boat in Europe. Sometimes, the shortest distance between two points is across the water. Examples include Scandinavia and the English Channel. Other times, you have a choice of train or river ferry and may decide that the river provides a different, more enjoyable experience. Some rail passes will include ferries giving you the flexibility to choose at the last minute. The Rhine is one of the most cruised rivers in Europe. On our recent trip to Germany, we made use of the ferry to travel up and down the river (http://www.kdrhine.com). So far, this is the extent of our boat travel in Europe. Updated, current travel books are good ways to research ferry options in Europe and can direct you to the proper websites to finalize your plans.
Local Transportation in Europe
All the major cities in Europe are easily accessible via a combination of trains and buses. Both run often so you generally don’t have to wait long to get where you want to go. You usually have a choice of a one-way ticket (good for a number of hours in one direction) or a daily or multi-day pass. These latter are a good value if you will be covering a lot of ground during your stay. You can also purchase city passes that include your public transportation as well as discounted or even free entry to select tourist attractions. Again, an updated, current travel book provides valuable insight into the best values for your destination.
The process for buying train tickets for local transit is similar to that of buying the long-distance tickets discussed above. You go to the station, find the ticket machine, choose English language if desired, purchase your tickets, validate them at the nearby validation machine and hop on. Train stations in Europe do a good job with signs telling you which track your train will be on and when it will arrive.
Researching local transportation in Europe is relatively simple. First, decide what attractions you want to visit and use google maps for an initial pass on how to get to them. In google maps, I always choose walking directions first. I’m a big believer in getting to know a place by walking around. I think you see more and you have the option of popping into a church or pausing for photos whenever you like.
However, some cities are more spread out so public transportation helps make them smaller. If the walking directions don’t work for you, choose the transit option in google maps and it will lay out the timelines, buses and/or trains that will get you to your destination along with walking directions to and from the transit entry/exit points. Doing this research early helps you keep your plans realistic. Take screenshots of your research results and drop them into your powerpoint deck for valuable reference material while you are on your trip.
I highly recommend public transportation in Europe, particularly in the bigger cities where both driving and parking can be challenging. We have found them to be clean, timely, reasonably priced, and safe.
You may decide that your transportation in Europe will be done entirely via these transit options. If you do, your trip will be more enjoyable if you do not have to lug an excess of baggage around with you. A future post will discuss how to pack light. Stay tuned.
