TRAINS-EUROPE EXPRESSLY

[BlodwynPig]

Given up on flights so will be taking the trains to Europe. Some bits look piss easy, some look nigh on impossible. Will of course do my own research but there may be EXPRESS advice on here.

For example, deffo going to the Swiss alps in August, which looks fine : Newcastle-London-Paris or Brussels/Basel/Tiny town/Mountain town - 2 days
Cologne similarly : Newcastle-London-Brussels-Cologne - 1 day, BIG TRAINS ONLY

Bilbao - not so much, either coming from Cologne or Newcastle : X - Paris - Bordeaux - Border town - San Sebastien - Bilbao - 1/2 days, but Bordeaux - Bilbao may also be done by bus?

There must be dedicated websites for this. If I want to keep it easy and relatively cheap are there UNIVERSAL MULTI-COUNTRY tickets or do I need to buy each train separately. I'm sure it was easier back in the day before air travel was the norm.

Thanks

Lily-livered pig

[Zetetic]

https://www.seat61.com for advice.

https://raileurope.co.uk has been fine for me in the last, rather than booking from individual countries etc.

[thenoise]

Hire a car, or do it Top Gear style, buy one and then sell it on once you are done.  Still works out 'greener' than flying.

[New folder]

Recently made the switch from plane to train as well. The ICE trains are a pretty fast and neat way to travel between the big cities.

bahn.de is gut for anywhere in central Europe in my experience.

[wooders1978]

You can get to Bilbao by boat too

[buttgammon]

I'm hoping to take a train from Trieste to Florence and possibly on to Rome in the summer. What are Italian trains like, and how impressively cheap will it be compared to British trains? It looks like all or most of the journey will be on a Frecciarossa high-speed train, but most of the journey times websites have suggested are still four hours or more.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

The fast trains in Italy are quite expensive. There is frequently a massive disparity in price between those and the regional options that even makes England look fair. The best standard competes with anything in Europe bar perhaps some Swiss lines.

That journey is pretty scenic in places, It gets hilly between Florence and Bologna. You shoot in and out of tunnels mega fast for a section.

[Buelligan]

You can get to Bilbao by boat too

I wouldn't completely recommend it from the UK during the winter months.  The Bay of Biscay can be somewhat challenging.  I've done it with a motorbike in the summer (couple of times), even then, it was rough enough to result in the loss of wing mirrors and the like.  Good for whale and dolphin spotting, I believe (though I saw none).

I understand covoiturage with people like Blablacar can work well.  I've never tried it but know people that use it often.

[idunnosomename]

Hitchhike innit

[BlodwynPig]

Hitchhike innit

in my 1000$ suit?!

[BlodwynPig]

https://www.seat61.com for advice.

https://raileurope.co.uk has been fine for me in the last, rather than booking from individual countries etc.

This sounds cool

London ► Pamplona, Bilbao
Day 1, travel from London to Paris by Eurostar, leaving London St Pancras at 10:24 (11:01 on Saturdays), arriving Paris Gare du Nord at 13:47 (14:17 on Saturdays).  Cross Paris by metro or taxi to the Gare Montparnasse.

Day 1, travel from Paris to Hendaye on the Spanish frontier by high-speed TGV with cafe-bar, leaving Paris Gare Montparnasse at 15:52 arriving Hendaye on the Spanish border at 20:31.  Times can vary so check for your date of travel at Raileurope.co.uk or www.trainline.eu.  See the TGV photos above.

Day 1, travel from Hendaye to San Sebastian on the excellent air-conditioned metro run by Euskotren, www.euskotren.eus.  At Hendaye, you simply walk out of the main station exit and the tiny Euskotren station is to your right in the corner of the forecourt branded Metro Donostialdea, see the photo above.  Buy a ticket from the machines or staffed ticket office, go through the ticket gates and hop on the next train.  The station only has one platform and all trains go to San Sebastian, a 37 minute journey.  Metro trains leave every 30 minutes until about 23:00.  The station in central San Sebastian is San Sebastian-Donostia Amara, called San Sebastian-Donostia on the information screens but plain 'Amara' on the station name-boards when you get there.  The final destination of the train is usually shown as Lasarte.  See the Euskotren photos above.

Stay overnight in San Sebastian...

Day 2 for Pamplona:  Travel from San Sebastian to Pamplona by smart modern air-conditioned Alvia train, leaving San Sebastian-Donostia Renfe station daily at 07:28 and arriving Pamplona at 09:13.  If you'd like to spend a day in San Sebastian, there's a daily 16:10 from San Sebastian-Donostia Renfe station, arriving Pamplona at 17:54.  This is a lovely ride, twisting through the mountains then descending onto the plain, in a swish air-conditioned Alvia train with cafe car.

Day 2 for Bilbao, hop on the hourly narrow gauge train from San Sebastian-Donostia Amara station to either Bilbao's Zazpi Kaleak station (journey time 2h29 from Amara) or Bilbao's Matiko station (the train's final stop, 2h35 from Amara), fare €6.30, buy a ticket at the station.
The trains used on this route are similar to the Hendaye-San Sebastian trains pictured above, along a route with some good countryside and coastal views.   In Bilbao, Matiko station is 18 minutes walk from the Guggenheim Museum, Zazpi Kaleak station is further from the Guggenheim (22 minutes walk) but closer to both the old quarter and the 19th century new town.
You can check train times & fares from Irun to Bilbao at www.euskotren.eus, remember that San Sebastian to Bilbao will be listed as Amara to Matiko as those are the station names.  The adult one-way fare is shown as 'ida'.
Incidentally, there's no reason why you can't travel from London to Bilbao in a single day if you leave London early, meaning before 8am, but as the last train to Bilbao leaves Amara around 19:50 I've assumed an overnight stop here.
Alternatively, there are also buses from Irun to Bilbao run by www.alsa.es, leaving Irun railway station at 11:00 arriving Bilbao at 13:30.  The buses run every hour or two, journey time 1 hour 45 minutes, fare €9 one way, €18 return.  In Irun, the bus station is right next to the railway station.

Propa Portillo

[BlodwynPig]

Crikey

[Armin Meiwes]

Was just reading this funnily enough, and thinking about how much id like to do the Malmö to Narvik.

https://amp.theguardian.com/travel/2020/feb/06/10-best-sleeper-trains-in-europe-night-trains

[bgmnts]

Rich cunt

[Blinder Data]

Got the train from Paris to Barcelona. I think it was 50%u20AC and lasted 5-6 hours. We reached 300 kmh at one point and I had a nice chat with a Kiwi guy who worked on Power Rangers.

It is the best way to travel, especially across Europe. I also recommend seat61 and there are loads of train enthusiasts to follow on Twitter if that's your bag.

If the Channel Tunnel had more capacity MAYBE BREXIT WOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED

[chveik]

long-distance trains are more and more expensive in France, unless you take your tickets really in advance. the rare times I have to stumble out of my wankden I take the bus (quite uncomfortable though) or covoiturages (and you have to talk to the plebs).

[Paul Calf]

Fly, mate. Just get in plane.

Seriously though, I've taken the Thalys from Amsterdam to Paris and the AVE from Barcelona to Madrid and can throughly recommend both (although Northeastern Spain is a bit monotonous natural-beauty-wise. The sense of speed is amazing through, and there's an in-carriage speedometer so you know when you've topped the magic 300.

I came here to recommend Seat61 and Deutsche Bahn but I see that I've been beaten to it so fuck you all I didn't ask to be born.

[Armin Meiwes]

I've done a bunch of long journeys - done the sleeper up to Fort William a few times, which is brilliant (although not since the new rolling stock fucked it up), a load of interailing back in the 90s - London to Warsaw and then trips between various countries of eastern europe and then also did San Francisco to NY which was kind of a cool experience but not all that I had hoped for if I'm being honest.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I'd like to do a sleeper to or from Kyiv somewhere. The benefit of covering a lot of distance while unconscious (and not missing much except flat fields, lakes and the occasional chimney) then waking up somewhere new is quite appealing.

I'd rather do this with some company.

I can recommend Czech trains as they generally have seating compartments which makes the whole journey feel so much more calm, only being around max 5 other people. The seats are nice and comfy too. Good for a doze. The good ones have individual climate controls for each compartment too. And this is 2nd class. 2 hour journeys cost about 6 quid. A good experience. They feel chunky and solidly built like German trains.

Polish trains are by contrast crowded, painfully slow and overall shit, even the good ones like Koleo Dolonslaskie that have modern trains, a very good app and looks the part just seems to take an age to get anywhere. 2hr 20 from Jelenia Góra to Wroclaw which are 60 miles away from each other. Similar torture from Przemysl to Rzeszow.

[Armin Meiwes]

Main thing I remember about polish trains, was:

-Having to use a toilet that had no light in there and me desperately needing a shit and just hoping for the best.
-Waking up in the morning in one of those little compartments that just had me and my gf in, to find that the bag I had put under my feet for safekeeping was lying on the floor with the wallet that was in it ripped to shreds with a knife and all the money gone. Lucky I didn't wake up!

This WAS twenty three years ago tho tbf so don't let it completely put you off.

[Armin Meiwes]

Same interailing trip we got kicked off a train in Slovenia because as it turned out that wasn't covered in our pass, at gone midnight, literally made a special unscheduled stop at a tiny little country station just to boot us off BUT my gf of the time somehow (fuck knows how) managed to talk the guy at the station in to stopping a goods train that was on its way to Austria with a load of cars iirc to let us on so we could go somewhere that might have a hostel to stay at. Mental.

[moondogs]

I'd like to do a sleeper to or from Kyiv somewhere

I've gone to Lvov and back a couple of times, and once to Odessa and back. Trains weren't as cheap as I'd imagined but I did travel first class. Great experience. Take some vodka or samagonka with you as it can be quite communal. Trains are graded, so if you don't mind the more Soviet trains you can pay less.