European holiday destinations with easy airport to hotel train transfers

[Highlands1]

Hi!

I’m trying to think of ideas of destinations that don’t require a coach transfer as I don’t like the idea of our 2 year old not being in a car seat, and our own car seat isn’t very portable. I’d be open to booking private taxi transfers but how can you guarantee they’ll have a decent car seat available?

So I’m thinking of destinations in Europe where you can travel from the airport to hotel by train fairly easily. Any ideas? Can travel in July, Aug or September but I’m assuming September will be cheapest!

thank you

Nice. You can straight out the airport down the Promenade d Anglais next to the beach.
Otherwise the station St Augustine is short 10 minutes walk ( and there's a tram) which takes you up and down the coast from Grasse to Italy - Antibes and Villefranche both have sort of sandy beaches.

Malaga.

train from the airport serves all the coastal areas along that route from Malaga down to Feungirola.

If you’re worried about car seats, why not buy your own?

Helsinki has a train from the airport to the city centre. So does Vienna. I'm sure i saw baby seats on the bus in vienna as well.

Second the Malaga recommendation but also Barcelona airport has a train station and nice nearby coastal resorts. If you don't want somewhere hot hot, the coastline near Gdansk is lovely and a short train ride from the airport.

But do you never travel on buses? No-one has car seats or even wears seatbelts on buses and you never see the car seat angst about that.

There are trams in Valencia- from the airport to the town.

Would you go in a bus? Because loads of airports have bus transfers.

Lots of great ideas, thanks!

Where we live buses are almost non-existent so I’ve never really thought about it before. I think a short bus transfer would probably be ok, a longer one on faster roads I’m less comfortable with.

Stockholm, Copenhagen, Lisbon have train and/or metro stations.

You can book private transfers that have a car seat almost anywhere, just search online for ‘airport transfer with car seat [your destination] and contact them directly. We’ve done it in Lanzarote and Frankfurt so far, no issue at all.

Have you considered buying a spare car seat for travelling? The Grace slim fit or joie steadi are reasonably priced car seats that can rear face up to 105cm :)

Tbh it's a PITA to travel with car seats.
We did for years as we needed them on National Express coach from home to airport. I really enjoy we don't need tgem anymore.

I second Nice.
Copenhagen, Amsterdam and Berlin all have direct airport/city centre trains. I imagine most capitals do, except Reykavik. No trains in Iceland.

Definitely don't get a car seat rental - I've seen some horrific ones. It's a pain in the bum but you've just got to take your own. Buy one for travel if needed (I think there's some well rated ones that aren't too expensive and still rear facing). Look on car seat groups on Facebook for recommendations.

The only place I can think of that meets your criteria is Copenhagen, very easy train from airport to city centre. I haven't been but I believe Valencia is similar. There must be loads of places but I imagine they are mainly capital cities.

Another vote for Nice and Copenhagen, but Venice has a boat transfer so it beats everywhere.

Stockholm - Arlanda express is really easy

Bologna - monorail straight out of airport terminal then loads of train options

Munich, Lisbon

That said, you’re massively overthinking the coach and car seat situation.

Krakow. Straight onto the train.

Porto has a tram that goes directly from the airport to the centre of the city.

But as people say loads of peope.take babies and young children on buses. I live in London and it is really common. They.either keep them strapped in the push chair or take them.out and hold.them on their lap.

There are a couple of much better portable car seats on the market now - MyBabiie and Kinderkraft make one which fits using isofix and top tether for under £100, Cosatto have a similar one for about £130-150 depending on the supplier, with no max weight (105cm max height for harness) and Maxi Cosi have the Nomad XL for £190 (personally, I doubt this is twice as good as the other options but I appreciate Maxi Cosi are a more trusted brand.)

They are all forward facing, which is not ideal, but the isofix/top tether is a very good feature and eliminates the issues with loose seatbelt fitting which are common in the other folding FF seats on the market. Isofix/top tether has been standard in the EU car market for 20 years and required in new vehicles since 2013. As a "better than nothing" option e.g. for taxis where you can legally use no seat at all, these are really great. I am not sure how well they compare to a more substantial forward facing seat, and you would not be able to use them in a country or vehicle (like a coach) where isofix/top tether is not available, so in countries where the vehicles might tend to be older (e.g. Balkans, ex-Soviet) this might be something to be aware of, but in countries like Spain or Italy there are often laws about maximum age of private hire vehicles in order to ensure compliance with modern safety standards. You can look this up before you go.

Ferry to France in own car
tgv to Marseilles south of France
Florence train from Pisa airport

Paris and Disneyland Paris
Bruges on Eurostar or ferry and drive your own car

Barcelona, easy train and has city and beach. Amsterdam, or indeed most places in Holland. Public transport is a breeze. Same with Berlin.

Stockholm the Arlanda express, the metro is very easy to use to get around, lots of great family things on museum island like skansen.

Pisa airport has a monorail to the main train station. Probably wouldn't stay in the city for more than a couple of nights but you could easily get a train to somewhere else like Florence.

Barcelona