The Genius of Traveling by Train
We’ve learned many things while traveling abroad, one of them being that Europe (among other countries) knows what they’re doing when it comes to public transportation, especially trains. Read to see why trains are a much better way to travel than planes!
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We’ve been of the belief that flying is the best way to travel. The ads have told us so since well before we were born. Our parents lived in the golden years of flying and we live in the inexpensive, easily accessible age of flying. So we ask ourselves, why would we drive six hours when we could fly for only one hour? Why would we drive a car, pay for gas, put the wear and tear on a car, and pay for a meal on the road, when we could spend $50-$200 on a flight and be done with it? This logic makes perfect sense… in the United States.
However, in Europe, we were slapped in the face with a new reality. Trains!
Trains Are the Answer to Travel
While teleportation would clearly be the best option, until that becomes a reality, there are three main methods of getting from point A to point B: car, plane, or train.
Travel By Car
When it comes to travel by car, there are a few things we dislike about road trips...
How long it takes
The traffic
Cost of gas
Cost of maintenance/Cost of rental
Stopping for bathroom breaks
You can’t work/play/sleep and drive at the same time
Travel By Airplane
And what do we dislike about plane travel? (post 9/11)
Security
Taking our laptops out of our carry-on bags
Arriving 2 hours early
Checking our bags and them getting lost
Stuffing our bags into tiny overhead compartments
10 Reasons To Take the Train Instead
Relatively no security to go through
You can arrive on time, not hours in advance
There is plenty of leg space and table space
You can sleep, work, and/or play
WiFi is included on many trains
There is plenty of space to store luggage
There are restrooms on board
Relatively inexpensive
No traffic, so faster than cars
Scenic views
Sadly, the United States doesn’t have an extensive network of rail lines and severely lacks the competition that fosters growth and innovation in the industry and lowers ticket prices. Lucky for us though, we’re in Europe where you can’t go far without seeing a train.
Green Eggs and Ham on a Train? Could You, Would You?
Before beginning our traveling adventure abroad, we discussed modes of transportation. We knew we’d rent cars infrequently, opting to get around town by foot and public transportation.
We thought we’d travel from place to place by low cost airline carriers. Ryanair, FlyBe, Easy Jet, Virgin, etc., all offer tickets within Europe at very low competitive prices. Prices that if in the US would make travelers drool!
Don’t get us wrong, we also knew that trains are quite prevalent in Europe and we figured we’d travel occasionally by train as well. But with our experiences in the United States and learning to love the simplicity of flying, we thought airplanes would be our go-to option.
Oh How Things Change
Now that we’re here, we’ll choose a train over a plane the majority of the time!
We don’t have to worry about fitting our bag in a tiny overhead compartment. We don’t have to worry about security lines, or if security will take our bag apart one item at a time. We don’t have to arrive two hours early. We avoid it all by purchasing a cheaper ticket on a train. Plus, we can reserve a table seat in a designated quiet compartment and sit back and work or relax.
Not only is the travel itself easier for our relocating to a new place/destination, trains open up doors to further out places for day trips. As we’re often house sitting, we don’t often have the luxury of staying out overnight somewhere, so we’re limited to where we can get in a day. A bus can only take you so far, but a train can get a pretty decent distance because of its speed and limited traffic and traffic lights to obey.
So, instead of a 50-mile radius we now have a 150-mile radius we can travel!
Let’s Take a Day Trip to Germany!
And that’s what we did!
While on a house sit in Amsterdam we reached out to a friend from the Netherlands. He heard we were in the area and offered to meet us in Amsterdam, or better yet, take us to Dusseldorf for the famous German Christmas market.
Our Choice?! We choose Dusseldorf!
We looked up the train schedules. (Well, really we just used an online ‘journey planner’ and the work was done for us.) We figured out the train we’d take and planned our trip. We met our friend half-way there and he drove us into Germany for an afternoon of lunch and walking through Dusseldorf. In over a month of travel, he was the first person we’d seen that we knew before our trip. The familiar face was a welcome sight!
The train was easy to catch and only had a handful of stops before reaching our exiting point. It was quick and simple! We both relaxed back in our seats on a double-decker train, put in our headphones, and admired the Netherlands countryside as it passed by.
We Didn’t Know What We Were Missing
Living our life in the US, we had no idea what we were missing. When traveling we were accustom to leaving our home two to three hours early (well, only an hour early for the quiet Boise airport!), showing our ID and boarding pass, taking off our shoes off and taking out our laptops. We accepted security pat downs and grudgingly accepted the smaller and smaller cabin spaces. We were thrilled when we got a small beverage and peanut-free snack on board the plane.
“We were sold the dream of flying and thought it was the way to see the world.”
Travel by Trains is a Better Way of Travel
Now we know that there’s a better way, at least in Europe. Each country and train company is slightly different and takes a bit to navigate at first.
We have an app for every major train company on our phone, many allowing us to travel with a digital ticket and providing updates on train locations. Train stations can be small or so big and vast that they’re almost as complicated as navigating airport terminals. But what you get in positives by traveling by train is well worth the downsides!
We Now Book Trains When We Can!
Yesterday we were planning our travel accommodations to get from London to Chester, England at the end of January. Clocking in at 200 miles to travel, we had three options. Rent a car, go by train, or get on a plane. We didn’t even consider a car rental and plane tickets had about a 30 second discussion.
Train was the primary option and we spent our time finding the best route, while taking into account travel duration, transfers, and cost.
Trains Aren’t Only a Means of Transportation, They Can be an Experience
Not only are trains a great method of transportation, they can also be an experience and trip of their own!
We took one of the world’s most beautiful train rides, the Bernina Express. From the Swiss Alps and glaciers, to the Italian country side and lakes, it was a spectacular panoramic experience!
Finding Trains
When we’re not familiar with the train companies servicing the route we need to take, we have three tools we rely on that get the job done.
Google Transit
Use Google Transit and enter in your starting and ending points. If you want, add additional filters for method of transportation preferred and route preferences. Click on 'Get Directions' and then select the route that you want more details on. This presents you with the company and website information so that you can purchase your tickets.
Or, use Google search engine by typing the place of origin to the destination in the following format: Place of Origin 'to' Destination. This search will bring up directions in the Google search results. The directions default to driving directions, so change it by clicking on the small buss icon located above the map. This gives you all of the public transportation options that are available.
We click on the details link for the train option. This reveals the train companies and routes. From there we go directly to the companies site to find cost and purchase tickets.
Rome2Rio
We never just settle with one result and so we've had great success with Rome2Rio.
It's a site dedicated to giving all the options available to get from place A to place B. The user interface is easy to use, just follow the steps by entering your place of origin and the place of destination. A list, similar to Google's list, will be presented.
What we like about Rome2Rio is that not only is it a second opinion to Google, but it gives an estimated price range for each option of travel. After clicking on the method we want to investigate further, Rome2Rio gives us the travel details and the site to visit to purchase tickets.
Seat61
Lastly, Seat61, can't go without a mention. It's the best website that we've found with general and detailed train advice. If you want to know anything about traveling by train, this should be your first stop! You can find everything from recommended routes, video or pictures of the train, accommodations provided, cost, and general tips for the trip.
Purchasing Train Tickets
Often we can purchase our tickets ahead of time, but occasionally there isn’t an option to reserve tickets in advance. In this case, we show up at the train station and buy our tickets from an automated ticket machine or from an attendant. For example, our trip from Amsterdam to Dusseldorf was planned out ahead of time online, but we purchased the tickets on the morning of travel.
Planning our day trip ahead of time helped the purchase of the tickets, the finding of the platform, and the boarding of the train go without a hitch.
Final Thoughts
Oh how we wish the US would get on board with travel by train. We already know that when we go back to the States, we’ll miss the ease of travel by train. So please, oh please, let there be more trains in the US!
