Traveling Europe by train: the guide to not going broke
Interrail, Ouigo, Flixbus, overnight routes. How to get around Europe without flying and without overspending.
Interrail: when it is worth it
The Interrail pass (Eurail if you are not a European resident) gives unlimited train travel across 33 countries for a set number of days. It sounds like an automatic bargain, but it is not always: it only pays off if you are doing many long journeys in a short time. If your plan is three cities in two weeks, buying individual tickets in advance is almost always cheaper. And here is the detail that wrecks budgets: in France, Italy and Spain most high-speed trains require a compulsory seat reservation on top of the pass, 10 to 30 € per leg. Do the maths with the reservations included before you buy it.
Cheap trains: Ouigo, Avlo, Iryo
Rail liberalisation has blown prices apart in southern Europe. Ouigo, Avlo and Iryo compete on the main Spanish routes with tickets from 7 € if you buy ahead; in France, Ouigo does the same between Paris and the south; in Italy, Italo goes head to head with Trenitalia. The rule is simple and it always works: buy one to three months ahead, avoid Friday evening and Sunday night, and be flexible with the time. The difference between the same journey at seven in the morning and at eight in the evening can be four times the price.
Night trains: sleep and save a hotel
Night trains are back, and they are the best play on the board: you save a night of accommodation and wake up in another city with the whole day ahead of you. The Austrian Nightjets connect Vienna, Munich, Zurich, Amsterdam, Rome and Paris; the European Sleeper links Brussels with Prague and Berlin. A couchette costs 50 to 100 €, so compared with a hotel night plus a daytime ticket, you almost always come out ahead. Book well in advance, because sleeper berths vanish, especially in summer. And bring an eye mask, earplugs and a power bank: sockets are scarce.
FlixBus as an alternative
Not as comfortable, but unbeatable on price: there are international routes for 10-20 € that would cost five times as much by train. For medium distances, four to six hours, the real time difference against the train is smaller than it looks once you add the transfers to the station and the boarding margins. Night buses save you a hotel the same way trains do, though you sleep considerably worse. And always compare with flying before deciding: on long routes, a cheap flight can work out better than twelve hours on a bus. Time is part of the budget too.
The best routes
Prague-Vienna-Budapest is the perfect route to start with: three spectacular capitals, short hops, frequent cheap trains, and not a single day lost to travel. Paris-Amsterdam-Berlin works just as well in the north, with fast, comfortable connections. And if you want prices from another planet, cross into the Balkans: the routes in our guide to cheap destinations in Europe chain together well overland, though there the bus rules more than the train. A practical warning for that region: many of those countries are not in the EU, so your data plan does not apply. A multi-country eSIM stops you losing your maps right at the border.
