We're celebrating our favourite way to see Europe, by rail, in this episode of Travel Smart.We look at how to see the best of France, Spain and Italy in the most sustainable way possible and Simon Calder answers your questions with Annabel Grossman on how to get the best ticket prices when travelling in Europe by train. So whether it's a short city break or an overnight sleeper, let Travel Smart get you to your destination.Get all your travel updates with The Independent Travel section and Travel Smart, available on desktop, mobile and connected TV.
Category
đź—ž
NewsTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome to Travel Smart, your weekly guide to travel from the
00:05independent. We aim to inspire, entertain and inform you about the industry of
00:11human happiness. As you probably already know, The Independent has always
00:16championed sustainable travel and in this episode we're celebrating our
00:20favourite way to travel around Europe, by rail!
00:35Besides limiting the environmental impact, you enjoy the best views,
00:39including some inaccessible by any other form of transport. As well as spectacular
00:45vistas of coast and countryside, you'll also get right to the heart of Europe's
00:49most alluring cities. And right now there are more opportunities to travel at high
00:54speed for less. Where better to start than Eurostar? Trains run from London
01:00St Pancras International to Paris and Brussels in just over two hours and
01:04Amsterdam in less than four hours. Because Eurostar is so popular and has
01:11limited departures, fares tend to be high. But if you book well ahead and are
01:16flexible about dates and times, you can find tickets for as little as ÂŁ39 each way.
01:23The ideal place to begin a continental rail adventure is France, where TGV
01:29high-speed expresses have been running for over 40 years.
01:39For all intercity trains in France you need to book a seat, but for the slower and cheaper
01:45TER trains, Transport Express RĂ©gional, you can just turn up and go, often at very low fares.
01:54The line along the French Mediterranean coast all the way from the Italian border
01:59to the Spanish frontier is a joy with frequent cheap trains.
02:05Spain has lifted the crown from France for Europe's most extensive high-speed network.
02:11It also has intense competition, with four different operators on the flagship Madrid to Barcelona line,
02:18forcing fares down to as little as ÂŁ15 for the two-and-a-half-hour trip between Spain's two biggest cities.
02:26Yet the most alluring journeys are very low speed, on the tangle of narrow gauge lines along the coast of northern Spain,
02:35from San Sebastian to Bilbao and onwards to Santander and La Corona.
02:42Italy has an excellent high-speed network too, with lots of competition particularly on the main
02:48line between Milan and Rome. But if you've got a bit of time, then how about taking just the old
02:56classic Trenitalia trains. They will run much more slowly but through more wonderful countryside
03:04with fewer tunnels and they'll also offer an excellent fare with no need to book.
03:10My dream trip is from Genoa to La Spezia, carving along the Mediterranean coast.
03:18I also like the trains in the deep south, around the province of Puglia and over to Sicily,
03:26reached on Europe's only surviving train ferry, which is actually carried over the Strait of Messina.
03:35Going east from Italy the speed and the cost of trains goes down. Through Serbia you can follow
03:42some of the route of the original Orient Express, but considerably more slowly than that celebrated
03:49transcontinental icon. In recent years overnight international trains have been making a comeback
03:57with Austrian Railways night jets operating on a range of routes
04:01and new competitors like the European sleeper moving in.
04:05You can usually choose from a private cabin or a seat where you'll sit up all night.
04:10The other option is a couchette, which is a bit like a hammock in a compartment sleeping six.
04:17Switzerland has a good claim to offer the most scenic railways in Europe
04:21with the Glacier Express the standout, taking all day from St. Moritz to Zermatt
04:28and now offering the height of luxury in excellence class, in which you'll get a five-course meal
04:35as you trample through the mountains.
04:39One European country deserves a very special mention, Luxembourg, where they abolished railfares completely in 2020.
04:49And despite the diminutive size of the Grand Duchy, you can make some really good money.
04:55Despite the size of the Grand Duchy, you can make some really good journeys with buses filling in the gaps.
05:01And they're free too.
05:03Once you're into Scandinavia, things change. Fares are higher and trains less frequent due to the sparse population.
05:11But you can travel all the way into the Arctic Circle with the link from LuleĂĄ in Sweden to Narvik in Norway,
05:20the highlight of many a pan-European rail trip.
05:26So Simon, a viewer from Scotland has asked, given the high cost of railfares at the moment,
05:34would an inter-rail pass be a good option?
05:37Inter-railing, this wonderful half-century-old idea that you can travel far and wide across Europe on the railways,
05:47is certainly a good option for a number of people.
05:51If you want to do lots of high-intensity travelling, it can be very good.
05:55As long as you can bear with the idea that you're going to have to, in places like France and Italy and Spain,
06:03pay extra for reservations, which I find is actually very tedious.
06:07I much prefer it in countries like the Netherlands, in Germany, Austria, where you can effectively just turn up and board any train.
06:16Are there any countries you would recommend visiting with an inter-rail pass?
06:20I would strongly advise you, if you want to pick one country to explore, that would be Switzerland,
06:26because the trains are normally very expensive, but they're also very scenic.
06:30And the alternative for that is to have the Swiss day pass, a bit of a niche product,
06:35but that also will enable you to explore that great country in detail.
06:41Thanks very much, Simon.
06:44If you have a question that you'd like to get answered by Simon,
06:47feel free to email us at
06:54That's it for this episode of Travel Smart Weekly.
06:57For the next episode, we'll be doing plenty more travelling by rail.
07:01Hope that you will be too.
07:03Meanwhile, of course, you can go to independent.co.uk forward slash travel
07:08for the latest travel news, reviews and advice.
07:12And perhaps check out my daily travel podcast.