Europe holidays by train only!

[KennedyD22]

Hi!

Looking for some advice by some fellow plane avoiders… I absolutely love travel but unfortunately my partner is terrified of flying. We’ve flown to Italy once, but he is pretty adamant that he does not want to fly again in the near future.

We have 2 DC aged 2.5 and 1. Next year, we would really love to take them abroad, however with the no plane rule implemented by DP, and our children being young, we’re limited with where we can go.

Any one else have experiences of travel from UK to Europe by train? I personally do not like Paris & do not feel like Amsterdam would be good for my children at this age (when I went it was a party holiday). Looked into Nice as a potential & Switzerland which is a quick train from Paris (but terribly expensive & out of our budget atm).

Please recommend European holidays suitable for children this young!

Inspired by the TV programme "Race Across The World", when air travel was so iffy last year, we had a plan B to go overland to our destination in Greece and make the travel part of the trip. I think it would have taken three days and I was slightly sad it didn't need to happen in the end.

We might do it another year though but cheat by flying home.

When our DC were little we did the direct train from St Pancras to Avignon.

It is an easy journey. We always did first class as it was not much more money and was more roomy with lunch and drinks.

We would hire a car from Avignon and drive to the coast. We like Les Issambres. A lovely place on the coast which had good links to the whole coastline.

If you don't want to hire a car you can get a connecting train to Nice or St Raphael. We have done this and it's easy.

Netherlands. Eurostar to Rotterdam then everything is very easy by an excellent integrated transport system.

They would be the perfect age for the fairytale parts of De Efteling.

Just looked up efteling and this is why I love Mumsnet!

I am actually from Devon! So nearest ferry port is Plymouth but never really thought much about the ferry as it was overnight.

Wow, I wasn’t expecting so much traffic on this so thank you so so much to everyone who commented!

My partner does drive, I don’t, but he doesn’t want to drive too long distances either as he wants to enjoy his holiday and he finds driving exhausting.

In terms of what we’re looking for, I prefer coastal holidays & just somewhere family friendly with playgrounds etc. Not really massively into city breaks and especially with the kids as would rather not trapse them round stuck in a pram all day.

Some amazing recommendations here though, am going to research all the ones I haven’t heard of!

I like the point you make about not comparing it to air travel. I started coming together with some itinerary including catching a ferry from south of France to Sardinia. Then I made the mistake of checking flight times and thought why on earth would we take 2 days to travel somewhere we could go in 2 hours! Then it just put me off completely! So definitely think it’s important to not compare to flying too!

Your partner sounds exhausting. I'd be going off with the kids without him.

Brittany is lovely, you can do Plymouth to Roscoff on the ferry and plenty of places to stay within an hour or two drive. They have entertainment on the ferry as well for kids. Look at Yelloh village for child friendly places to stay.

If you’re in Devon, I’d wait a few years before doing Europe by rail with kids as you’ll have a long journey to get to the Eurostar. We mainly stayed in the uk when ours were little as it was just easier!

Efteling is magical!

Your kids are the perfect age for Eurocamp/Canvas. Le Croix de Vieux Point near Paris is v good and close enough for a day trip to Eurodisney. About 4h drive from Calais.

could you learn to drive by next summer so you can share the driving?

You have to enjoy the journey. Two hour flight times are a bit of a red herring because it still takes most of the day to do a 2 hour flight once you factor in transfers and being at the airport two hours early. The difference in actual travel time is much less and sitting on the train with a table to lay out games, books and picnics is nicer than queuing for airport security. Boats do take ages but high speed trains can be quicker than the plane.

Also, if looking at summer then S France, Sardinia etc will likely be unbearably hot for little ones. Brittany/Normandy etc much more likely to be comfortable.

How about ferry to the North coast of France; Brittany, Normandy and then drive a short distance?

Trains are fun and can get you a long way and while the main routes are through big cities, there are many small places that are well served by regional trains which will fit your coastal requirement. Netherlands has some amazing coastline. Fast trains in France and then local trains to the coast:
https://maps-france.com/maps-france-rails/france-high-speed-train-map
And Germany are following their 9 Euro ticket from last summer with a 49 Euro ticket that is valid for a month on all trains except the IC trains.

I suspect from your post that you are looking for Southern Europe and sunshine... would a ferry from Portsmouth to Santander work - and maybe a short drive from there?

Or as you hinted at - avoid comparing to air travel and make a holiday of the journey.

If you're in Devon I second Brittany too. I worked for a month on a campsite in Carnac and every guest from the UK was very relaxed and happy there. You can hire bicycles with child seats and go off into the forests and the beaches are lovely with lots of cafés around. I know the beach near Carnac has a little toy town train that little kids would love too. Some of the eurocamp sites there... I've booked for one in Spain this summer and contemplating taking the train too, but talking of Brittany is making me want to go back! The only thing is the weather is the same as here so you want to go in high summer to really enjoy the beach.

https://www.eurocamp.co.uk/destinations/france/north/brittany/parcsinregion

Kids don't need to be stuck in a pram in a city though. We never even took the pram but just a baby carrier until they would walk as much as we needed them to. We visited a lot of parks and playgrounds wherever we went - often there is more choice of play parks in cities than more rural areas. Free museums are fantastic for a runabout on rainy days.

For rural/coastal we had an amazing time driving across the north sea coast of Germany. Both Wismar and Travemünde were brilliant with very family friendly hotels and beautiful pale sandy beaches. That was when you could get a ferry Harwich to Copenhagen though. You'd have to drive from Hoek van Holland now.

It's worth thinking about a touring type holiday because you can cover distance but not do it all in one go so it's less tiring. You can do this by car or rail easily enough and there's the no fly cruise option as others have mentioned (cruise is more carbon intensive than flying though if that's something you care about).

Definitely Eurocamp/canvas - we do this nearly every year (our kids now 9,6,3but we started when oldest was 2). Highly recommend driving if you can persuade your DH - so much easier to take all the stuff (buggies etc) with you and you don't have to worry about low quality or missing rental car seats. Valle Gaia in Tuscany is a nice site for kids of the age yours are. Esterel in S France also great.

DD went to lake bled in Slovenia during her interrailing holiday, she said it was really nice.

We went to Malta by train-it was an amazing journey, but our children were older. Not sure I'd fancy it with little ones. I think you flying with the children and meeting him there is probably the best idea. Have you considered driving?

Cruise, Train to Netherlands, or France. Loads of choice.

Efteling! www.efteling.com/en

Not too long a train journey and the accommodation and the park itself are great for small ones

Or Eurostar to Paris and then sleeper down to somewhere like Argeles-sur-mer

On the Eurocamp website you can filter to places that are accessible by train

I haven't read the full thread so someone may have suggested this, but a few years ago we got the Plymouth to Roscoff ferry and then stayed for 10 days in a villa in Roscoff - it was lovely - great beaches, nice town centre, some good day trips. If you live in Plymouth there'd be hardly any driving. The ferry is about 5 hours ish from memory so a cabin is a good idea with little ones.

When I was about 7 my parents took me to Italy for two weeks but my mother wouldn't fly

So we took a ferry and boarded a sleeper train to Italy. We stayed in a six bunk carriage with a German lady and her two brothers .

The trip is something I will never forget. It was my first experience of real live Europeans and I loved it. The lady ( they boarded the train in France), had brought so much food which they shared throughout the whole trip!

In addition the scenery through France and Switzerland into Italy was amazing .

Later that summer we flew to Jersey and my mother got over her fear of flying ( once she'd done it once she was fine she said), so I never took an overland route again until I was an adult with a car.

This was in the 70s and I am not sure if sleeper trains do shared carriages anymore.

Anyway the experience was so worth it.

Sleeper trains are expanding - see the Seat61 website and look up the pages about Nightjet connections. You can choose to share a couchette with strangers, or for a family (like the OP) book a private compartment. It is fairly expensive, but you do save the cost of one night in a hotel, and you get from A to B during what would otherwise be downtime.

Nightjet trains will get you from Paris or Amsterdam (take the Eurostar) into much of Europe overnight, whether you go north to northern Germany and Scandinavia, East towards Austria, southern Germany and Eastern Europe or south to the south of France, Italy, Spain and Portugal.