Top 10 European Train Trips
Norway's Flam Railway features a steep climb through fjord country.
Photograph by Morten Rakke, Visit Flam
From the July/August 2010 issue of National Geographic
Traveler
Much of European train travel is about efficiency and comfort—punctually
leaving and arriving and having a cozy seat or sleeper compartment in which to
devour the latest issue of the Economist. But rail travel in the
United Kingdom and on the Continent is also about experience: gaping out the window at Alpine glaciers, savoring gourmet cuisine in a restored last-century dining car. Accordingly, our ten favorite European trains don’t necessarily offer the fastest journeys—just the most memorable. All aboard!
1. Sweet Switzerland: The Chocolate Train
Route: Montreux to Broc, Switzerland
Duration: 9 hours, 45 minutes, roundtrip
This charming train running in summer and fall
climbs from Montreux overlooking Lake Geneva to the medieval town of Gruyères,
population 1,600, home to the cheese of the same name. Tour the cheese factory
and the local castle, have lunch, then reboard the train and continue on to
Broc. There you’ll bus to the Cailler-Nestlé chocolate factory, tucked between
Lake Gruyères and mountain peaks, for free samples, before making the return
trip.
2. Tunnels Galore: The Bernina Express
Route: Chur, Switzerland, to Tirano, Italy
Duration: 4 hours, 14 minutes
This narrow-gauge, vertigo-inducing train takes
on seven-percent inclines, a 360-degree spiral, 55 tunnels, and 196
bridges—reaching an apex of 7,391 feet and then descending 5,905 feet before
coming to a stop. The word “express” refers to the availability of short-notice
seat reservations, rather than the train’s velocity as it courses through the
Alps south from Switzerland’s oldest town to a charming Italian town of just
under 10,000 people. Part of the route is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
3. A Hotel on Wheels: Francisco de Goya
Route: Paris to Madrid
Duration: 13 hours, 30 minutes
Leave Paris in the evening, enjoy a three-course
dinner and the increasingly rural scenery, slumber to the soothing rhythm of
the rails, and wake the next day as you arrive in Madrid, rested and ready to
tour the third-most-populous city in the European Union. Grand class includes a
welcome drink, gourmet dinner, breakfast, and an in-room bathroom with shower.
4. Reliving the Age of Chivalry: The Castles of Britain
Route: Inverness, Scotland, to Gwynedd, Wales
Duration: 15 days
Discover the United Kingdom’s historic fortresses
on this itinerary combining a two-week BritRail pass with the Great British
Heritage pass. You’ll get entry to 580 attractions, as you hop off for local
touring. Start in Inverness, Scotland, near Loch Ness, to tour Urquhart Castle.
Continue south to Stirling Bridge, where William Wallace triumphed over the
English in 1297, and on to Edinburgh Castle. English sights include Dover
Castle, with its wartime tunnels. In Gwynedd, Wales, tour Caernarfon Castle, a
World Heritage site where the investiture of Prince Charles was held.
5. The Epic Journey: Trans-Siberian Railway
Route: Moscow to Vladivostok, Russia
Duration: 19 days
This fabled route, an icon of Russian culture,
crosses eight time zones to connect the Russian capital with a port on the
Pacific Ocean. On board, poor mingle with rich, young with old, foreigners with
locals. Social barriers disappear as passengers share a unique rail
experience—and shots of $3-a-liter vodka. You can book a private car via a tour
operator for added comfort; schedule any number of side excursions from
trekking and scuba diving to city tours.
6. Waterworld: The Flam Railway
Route: Flam to Myrdal, Norway
Duration: 1 hour
A must-do on any tour of fjord country, the Flam
Railway, rising from a village on the shores of Aurlandsfjord, mounts a steeper
climb than any other non-cog, normal-gauge railroad in the world. In just 12
miles, the train climbs over 2,838 feet to reach the mountain plateau of Myrdal
in under an hour. See the Rjoandefossen waterfall with a free drop of 459 feet,
and the Kjosfossen waterfall, plunging 305 feet, where the train makes a photo
stop during the summer.
7. Bavarian Bullet: InterCity-Express (ICE)
Route: Munich to Nuremberg, Germany
Duration: 1 hour
Want to go fast? This high-speed wonder zooms you
between two historic Bavarian cities at speeds up to 199 miles an hour. “It’s
amazing to watch the landscape change so quickly,” says Gillian Seely, a Boston
resident who traveled widely by rail while living in Europe for 22 years. “The
train is completely quiet inside,” she says. “Vibrations are barely enough to
cause ripples in your strong German coffee.” In December, visit various German
cities via the ICE rail network to take in traditional Christmas markets
selling seasonal foods, handmade gifts, and gluhwein, a mulled spiced wine.
8. The Elegance of Yesteryear: Venice Simplon-Orient-Express
Route: London to Venice
Duration: Two days, one night
Step aboard the VSOE, as the train is known, and
the calendar turns back to the 1920s and ’30s, the golden age of rail on the
Continent. The operator spent $16 million restoring 35 sleeping cars to their
original art deco sophistication; passengers are expected to dress elegantly
for dinner: at a minimum, suit and tie for men and the equivalent for women;
black tie and gowns encouraged. Awake to the sight of the snowcapped Alps and
learn the story behind each of the restored carriages.
9. Roughing it by Rail: Balkan Flexipass
Route: Belgrade, Serbia, to Bar, Montenegro
Duration: 10 hours, this leg
Explore the heart of the former Yugoslavia via a
Balkan Flexipass (which offers unlimited travel for five, ten, or 15 days
through Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, and Turkey).
Start in Belgrade, with its glitzy all-night club scene, hop off at any of
various stops to shop or overnight, then board a later train to continue on to
sleepy Bar, an ancient town influenced by various conquering cultures on the
sun-swathed Adriatic. “Relax, and budget extra time for the inevitable delays,”
says Chris Deliso, a travel writer who lives in Macedonia. “The trains are
run-down, and the local characters you meet are salt-of-the-earth types.”
10. Luxury on Wheels: The Transylvanian Odyssey
Route: London to Istanbul, Turkey
Duration: 8 days (including stays in Budapest and
Istanbul)
At the top of the food chain among European
trains is the Danube Express, a private train with classical elegance, modern
conveniences, and fine dining. On this route, which begins in Budapest after your
flight from London, you penetrate the heart of Transylvania and enjoy a walking
tour of the medieval town that was the birthplace of Vlad the Impaler.
Eventually you approach Istanbul along the Bosporus, where the Topkapi Palace
marks the skyline. Source Article
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