Twelve tips from 1,653 days without a flight
A belated Earth Day post
A month ago, I received some devastating news meaning I had to go back to Hungary on a whim.
Not an I-have-a-week-to-plan-this whim, but a you-need-to-be-here-tomorrow whim.
With all nightjets to Vienna fully sold out, and last-minute Eurostars being notoriously expensive, I hopped on a commercial flight for the first time since September 11, 2020. My suitcase took another twenty-four hours to arrive, but at least I wasn’t offered scratch cards on the flight and the pilots were entertaining.
It was a good streak, and one I intend to continue moving forward with some caveats. My issue is not with flying per se: my issue is with low-cost carriers. RyanAir, WizzAir and easyjet are products of a market failure: a market which fails to price in the environmental impact of low-cost aviation thanks to an army of lobbyists keeping kerosene - jet fuel - tax-exempt in the EU. The people who take “day trips” to Spain on these carriers to get away from their problems should be shamed just as much as those who went on an eleven-minute space flight. Before you say but the flight would have taken off anyway, I would simply like to point you to the idea of supply and demand. All I want is for speed and pollution to be taken into account when pricing transportation methods.
Until that is reality, I am stuck paying more to pollute less. But five years of doing so have given me an ample number of experiences from taking trains - so here are my twelve top tips.
1. Trust Deutsche Bahn
DB gets a lot of bad rap these days for delays, cancellations and unexpected surprises, but they are still Europe’s backbone network. The German carrier will take you to your destination, it will put you in a hotel and/or pay for your taxi if it can’t, and it will do its best to inform you. Their app is simply the best: don’t take my word for it, but Jon Worth’s.
The DB navigator app often includes the most reliable data for all European trains, including platform numbers and precise departure times, and it has a very nifty “My Trip” feature where you can put in any convoluted journey and keep an eye on whether you will make the connections or not.
I also think that DB’s trains are among the most comfortable, their dining cars among the best and they overall try to make everything function to the best of their abilities.
2. The fewer connections, the better
This is sort of self-explanatory, but each connection is a point where things can go wrong. Let me explain with an extreme example: Budapest to London in one day is, theoretically, possible with four connections. You take the earliest train leaving Budapest at 5:40 to Vienna, change to the international ICE from Vienna to Frankfurt, then in Frankfurt you change to another international ICE to Brussels, arriving at 19:35 - plenty of time before the check-in window closes for the last Eurostar of the day to London.
But that first train is actually EC Dacia coming all the way from Bucharest, and even with some timetable cushioning built in, it might still run delayed - so despite it arriving in Vienna with plenty of time to spare until the first ICE to Frankfurt, you are still at risk of missing your connection. In my case last June, I missed the connection in Frankfurt, leaving me with no choice but to overnight in the Belgian capital. I drowned my sorrows in plenty of pains au chocolat the following morning. The preferable option would have been to take an afternoon railjet to Vienna, then the nightjet from Vienna to Brussels and then a mid-morning Eurostar to London.
Long story short, leave a cushion of anywhere between ten to forty-five minutes to allow for changing trains.
3. Speak to the conductor
The people walking around in intimidating outfits controlling your ticket - train managers, conductors, ticket inspectors - are there to help you. If you have a risky connection, they should be your first port of call. And if you see others near you wanting to take the same connection, you should round them up: the truth is, no railway operator wants to pay hundreds of euros in compensation for delayed and disgruntled passengers. It is often the case that some services will be made to wait a few minutes to allow customers a quick sprint to make their connections - especially if there is an international service involved. Explain your case, the earlier the better, and if you are lucky, they will make a call to the dispatcher to hold the connecting train.
In my case above above, as we were approaching Frankfurt, I had been telling them that I have an onward connection to Brussels, but because I was by myself, and it was not the last train of the day, despite my pleading about the later Eurostar question, I did not make the original Brussels service.
4. Know your rights
Thanks to the great force of the European Union, buying a train ticket gives you certain rights. For example, if you are delayed, you get some of your booking costs back. If you cannot make it to your final destination by the end of the day, you have the right to a hotel - usually up to €120 - paid for by the rail carrier that sold you the ticket. They will even pay for a taxi in some cases. In some cases, high-speed operators will even let you just “hop on the next available train” if you get a HOTNAT stamp on your ticket.
But this is also why buying a complicated, long journey with multiple connections is incredibly difficult: while Deutsche Bahn International will sell you London to Frankfurt, they go to great lenghts to tell you that the two tickets constitute two separate contracts - so they are off the hook for travel costs. Except… They can’t really do that - thanks DB for the two nights in Brussels you’ve had to pay for over the past twelve months. If you must book point-to-point tickets, try your best to get it all through one outlet if risky connections are involved - so that it’s all one ticket. Post a comment below if you need help with this.
5. The cheapest international tickets are usually sold by DB and MÁV
Going back to the first point, but this is really self-explanatory: DB’s Super Sparpreis tickets are usually difficult to beat when it comes to last-minute prices. MÁV’s Start Europa tickets are also often cheaper than one would expect, and they are not very well-known. MÁV also has surprisingly good English-speaking phone operators and little waiting times. I would highly recommend them. Their reach is limited, though, so for anything in France, Italy or Spain, you’re better off looking elsewhere.
6. You can travel in silence
Noise-cancelling headphones have come a long way, but there is nothing quite like little pictograms telling people to not take phone calls. Most long-distance trains in Europe will have one or two such carriages. Make use of these when picking your seats. This also gives you the great privilege to tell the conductor/train manager when someone is not respecting the rules. These carriages are usually less busy than their quiet counterparts, and the peer pressure not to take calls works very well in them. As explained in the next point, if you know that you will have to be on a long-distance train - let’s say, ICE 27, which leaves Köln at 9:49 and arrives in Vienna at 18:27 - get a seat for €6.
7. If you need to be on a train, get a booking
This is a very Interrail-specific piece of advice but I did travel using those passes for most of the past four-and-a-bit years. On high-speed trains, and especially on international high-speed trains, seat reservations can go very quick - and trust me, you do not want to sit in the vestibules for three hours between Frankfurt and Brussels. These cost somewhere between €5 and €20 a pop - it’s worth getting one if you know that there is a specific train you need to be on. And again, quiet carriage. I’ve often found myself booking a reservation and just finding a different free seat anyway - the peace of mind that I had a seat just in case I needed it was enough. It also ensures that you get a window seat, which is always preferable.
8. Eurostar Plus is worth it
There is a little upcharge between Eurostar Standard and Plus but the difference in comfort level between the two is huge. Standard just resembles any continental train - Plus gets you a virtually unlimited number of drinks, a light meal and snacks in some cases, and 1+2 seating - perfect if you are travelling as one or two. It is especially worth it when travelling with Interrail, as the costs of seat reservations are always the same as long as the train is not super booked out. Bring your own coffee, though, as Eurostar coffee is dreadful. Or have some tea.
9. Mini cabin, sleeper, couchette, seat
I love night trains. I’ve taken them all over Europe. I have an ÖBB nightjet blanket I use for picnics and no ÖBB, you can not have it back. But they are not made equal: sleeper trains are for sleeping, not economising. If you are lucky enough to travel on one of the ‘nightjets of the new generation’, mini cabins are simply the best way to have privacy and comfort without having to pay too much.
The second best option - both on old and new nightjets - is a sleeper reservation. Yes, these are costly, but there will only be a maximum of two others to share the compartment with, and you get a shower and a nice breakfast. Couchettes are fine1, they get the job done, but you get a higher chance of someone snoring, and there really is not enough space in six-berth couchettes for everyone. Things to avoid are: booking female-only compartments as a non-female (I got called an idiot for not realising what ‘donna’ meant) and seats.
10. Strike up conversations
The best part of travelling by train is that you can run into fully random people. Dining cars are excellent for this, but a little chit-chat in a night train compartment cannot hurt either. Knowing that the person you will likely share a space with overnight is a decent human being makes falling asleep much faster, as it establishes just that tiny bit of trust that extinguishes the “will-they-stab-me-when-we-get-to-Münster” anxiety. Similarly, conversing over a coffee or a pint in the dining car can lead to exactly the types of perspective change that most of us travel for.
11. Make use of niche online resources
Train nerds in Europe are unfortunately segmented off by nationalities but if you know where to look, there are a lot of helpful resources. Here are some of my favourites.
Zugfinder: historical delay data for trains. Useful for getting a feel for how likely it is for your trains to be delayed - but by no means a predictor.
Vagonweb: very useful for scouting out train compositions and knowing the kinds of carriages that will be on a train, including photos and possible variations.
Seat61: Mark Smith’s life work gives you railway travel guides all over the world. Useful for inspiration, planning and procrastination.
Interrail’s pass cover number generator: When looking to book trains with limited Interrail passholder availability that want you to put in a pass cover number - so, Eurostar - this tool is very handy. They never cross-check whether you put in the same cover number as the one on your pass. Very useful for times when you want to book in busy season but you don’t yet have a pass.
"How to get seat reservations" interrail thread - Self-explanatory.
Eurostar Snap - A cheap way to get Eurostar tickets if you don’t mind a little flexibility. Standard only, though!
12. Have fun
Bring snacks, bring drinks, and enjoy train not having to go through an airport. Enjoy the changing scenery out the window. Enjoy the adventure of it. Notice the small things: how the signs change, how the languages change, as you traverse Europe. Train travel is a caleidoscope of being European: it’s some people smoking cigarettes on the platform at 11pm before going to bed, it’s other people bringing home-made snacks and sharing it with others around them, it’s another group binge-drinking through the entire journey. It’s beautiful, it’s - for the most part - peaceful, and it’s a great way to enjoy the journey.
Do you have any questions about the 1,639-day streak? Leave a comment and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
Technically nothing stops you from going over to the sleeper carriage and taking a shower, but I’ve been shouted at by newrest employees. Also, in France, you can shower at your destination in Paris and Toulouse if you book “first class” (couchette-4).