Holidays somewhere lovely and warm easily by train

[Kittybelle123]

Can anyone recommend a lovely holiday by train? We are London based so can do Eurostar + another service. Gutted that their South of France service seems to have been axed. Family of 4, me and DD1 (17) desperate for lovely warm holidays, DD2 (15) autistic and unable to get on a plane (work in progress, I'm determined to help her crack this), DH is happy with whatever so long as we keep the stress to a minimum.

Have previously used the Eurostar direct to Avignon / Marseille which was fabulous as we didn't have to change. If travel involves having to change it would have to involve an overnight stay as it would just be too much for DD2, but I'd rather keep it to just the one stop either way. I feel stressed trying to get my head around this let alone doing it, so if anyone has any advice I'd be so grateful to hear it

You can get the Eurostar to Lille and change there for lots of places e.g. Marseille, Nimes, Bordeaux. It’s just a platform change at Lille as opposed to changing in Paris which often involves travelling to a different train station.

Are you familiar with the Man in Seat 61 website? That has a lot of useful tips for train travel worldwide but especially in Europe.

I would look at the Nice area - lots of lovely options including beaches. We liked Villefranche-sur-mer but there are lots of options on that coast. Another option might be Biarritz in south-western France.

We always do France and Spain hols by train.

Look at the Europe rail map to give you some ideas. We tend to do two-centre trips like Carcassonne then Roses in Spain.

The TGV system is excellent and so fast.

If charging trains is tricky, then look at Eurostar and where you can get to without changing.

Seat61 is excellent for this. I used his route to Zagreb via Paris and Munich. Had the best holiday ever.
We also used Flixbus to get around Croatia. Not as fast as rail but comfortable and cheap, and might open up other options for you? They run in most European countries I think.

We planned a trip to Girona, via Lyon.

We were interested in staying in Lyon for a couple of nights, it is quite ‘foody’ and we'd have loved that.

(We ended up not going because in the height of that particular summer it was going to be too hot! )

You can change at Lille as pp said, there is a direct train to Marseille, or you can easily change at Lyon, Valence or Aix En Provence to get to either the Riviera or Languedoc. We did Italian Riviera via Nice last year. Much better to avoid Paris.

The bahn.de website is fabulous for playing around with the different train possibilities.

This is wonderful - thank you! I'm going to get on to the Man in Seat 61 website and get my thinking cap on!

Thank you all so much for taking the time to come back to me! @MyCatIsPlotting will look at Villefranche-sur-mer and @hellsBells246 I have recently been looking at Roses funnily enough!

@MissAmbrosia, what route did you take to get to the Italian Riviera? Is there a train from Lille to Nice?

So many options - you're helping me to focus where to look in the wealth of information that is out there! Thank you all again!

You can get to barcelona fairly easily by train. Change at paris

Barcelona is definitely an easy train journey with a change in Paris. But Lille and Brussels are both easier places to change.

I also agree with the Man in seat 61 recommendation, I've been to 13 countries by train using his website and its never let me down

We live in Brussels and took direct train to Marseille (also stops in Lille) and then a 2nd train along the riviera. On the way back we did Nice to Aix en Provence and changed there for direct train back to Brussels/Lille. Tickets can be good value via SNCF Go website if you book as soon as they become available (at least 3 months in advance). Normally there is also a train via Lyon to Milan and then onwards to Italy. But there was a landslide and that route is still disrupted. We've also done the Languedoc - changing at Valence for the Montpellier/Nimes train. I aways avoid Paris if it all possible.

For Italian riviera you also have to change at Ventimiglia.

Looking into this too. Olympics in Paris this summer so we are avoiding there and looking at London > Lille > Nimes (stay overnight) > Barcelona then onto a eurocamp via a short train journey. Hoping to only use public transport as not fans of hiring cars and driving on holiday.
Agree with seat 61 website recommendation, after searching a few different possible destinations this is coming up to the closest to what we are after. We don’t like flying much but will probably fly home - cheaper and quicker.

San Sebastian, change at Hendaye in southern France, for the metro to the Spanish coast

Is driving out of the question OP? Taking the Chunnel and driving from there really opens up opportunities.

My son and I drove to the Venetian coast, through Slovenia and to Croatia last year.

You can drive easily to Genoa and get Ferries almost anywhere from there. We were thinking of Elba this year or a ferry to Majorca.

Sorry, I have nothing constructive to add but shamelessly place marking as a Europe holiday by train sounds fabulous! Dh is a very anxious traveller and we don't drive abroad, so could be right up our street too. Good luck with your holiday planning OP!