traveling by train

Hi! And welcome to the forum!
Your question is perhaps a bit broad, as the experience varies a lot between European countries. Which countries do you have in mind? Where are you planning to go, if you are planning a trip?

This is a good website to get you started: https://www.seat61.com/index-mobile.htm

Rick’s books cover traveling by train pretty extensively. That would be another great place to start. If you search this forum for “train” you’ll find a zillion threads. Do you have specific questions about specific countries? The experience varies country to country.

Also on this site see travel tips/transportation/trains and rail passes

Thank you for your response, we were thinking of traveling from Amsterdam to France.

we were thinking of traveling from Amsterdam to France

From Amsterdam to Paris (I am assuming that when you say France, one of the places you want to go is Paris) is only about 3.5 hours. 2nd class seats are perfectly comfortable and to save money, buy the tickets on the Thalys app or website as soon as the dates you want to go are available. I’ve taken this train a few times and it’s very nice.

What cities?

Amsterdam to Paris is by hi-speed train, namely the Thalys. These are sold kind of like airline tickets. Buy early and get a low price, nonrefundable ticket. Last minute or flexible they are expensive.
https://www.thalys.com/be/en

With regards to experiences, I can tell you that I love train travel - I've traveled by train through most countries in Europe and 98% of the time, it's been a quick and easy way to travel. You can sit back and watch the scenery go by, get something to eat and drink on the long distance trains, kick back and read a book or listen to music and enjoy the wonders of public transportation in Europe.

There are downsides occasionally - every once in a while you might miss a train, or have a train be late, but usually it's not a problem to just jump on the next one. As Continental pointed out, you do not need to pay extra for 1st class - 2nd class is perfectly comfortable.

With regards to specific trains, travel4fun gave you the Man in Seat 61 link, which is a great website, but if you like, here is a more specific link from his site that shows you the Amsterdam to Paris route by train and has some good information. https://www.seat61.com/international-trains/trains-from-Amsterdam.htm#Amsterdam-Paris

Also, since you are starting from Amsterdam, you might want to consider buying your tickets through the Dutch Railways international website: www.nsinternational.nl It's easy to use and might be cheaper than going through Thalys.

"...by train across Europe?" How do you define that? If you mean laterally, a couple of the rides might fit your definition.

In 2001 I went from Northern France to Warsaw, basically the train route went from Arras to Paris, walked over to Gare de l'Est for the train to Berlin, changed in Mannheim, stayed one night in Berlin, near Bahnhof Zoo, the next morning before 07:30 back at Bhf. Zoo to catch the train to Warsaw Centralna. The ride from Paris to Berlin incl the short transfer in Mannheim Hbf took over 10 hours. From Berlin to Warsaw was scheduled another 6+ plus hours. If solo I would have done the Paris to Berlin by night train, which the Mrs was against, so we did this 10 hr. by day.

In 2003 going to Gdansk was almost a repeat of 2001. We went from Paris to Gdansk, stayed one night in Berlin again near Zoo, and then early the next morning boarded for the 9+ hour ride to Gdansk Glowny transferring twice, once in Angermünde, then the 2nd time in Poland once across the border en route along the Baltic....super interesting , riveting seeing that landscape from the border to the lower Vistula to Gdansk.

Probably the longest continuous straight route I've done was Vienna to Amsterdam. That one I did solo by night train.

Well I did Amsterdam to Paris on Friday. The train was completely full so as mentioned upthread get your ticket thru Thalys.com as soon as you have your travel dates.

The station toilets in Amsterdam cost .70€ cents but I used ApplePay, lol. Get some food at the Amsterdam station before you board.

This is a very easy trip!!

When I was a teenager I commuted to high school by train, and on Wednesdays my train home was one that came all the way from Moscow. Those were the days. I then also travelled to Germany and France on my own. Train travel then was a bit more straightforward then now, as train tickets were purely distance based. So all the ticket clerk needed to calculate the fare for my ticket from Aalter to Überlingen was a table with the distances between major and minor stations. When I left I didn't even know yet what train I would arrive at my destination on...

Nowadays railways have introduced things like mandatory reservations on long distance trains, yield management and fare buckets, and this has made booking really long trips more of challenge. But if I were to retrace that trip from Aalter to Paimpol I did when I was 15 now I would probably be there faster. And I would know when I was supposed to arrive there. And I would not have to go and hunt for a public phone in order to tell my parents I had arrived.
But getting the ticket would be a bit more challenging. Travel agents don't do train travel anymore really, and the local station has stopped selling international tickets altogether. But there is now the internet. And there is this site:

www.seat61.com

Really, anytime you have a question on train travel, just go there. That site is a treasure.

Look at rome2rio. Some say it is not accurate. I use it to determine methods to go from PointA to PointB. The costs may be off, but the frequency of trains/buses seems accurate .

My experience is that Rome2Rio misses a lot of possibilities. It also gives you the wrong instructions for buying tickets. For example when I did a search for Wengen to Munich the site only got as far as giving me Lauterbrunnen to Munich, and then went on to indicate I had to buy a Lauterbrunnen - Interlaken ticket, an Interlaken - Bern ticket and so on.

Better approach: Look up times on www.bahn.de first.
Then book from the national railway of the country where your trip starts, and always try to get as much as possible on one booking.

I've found rome2rio inaccurate as to fares, travel times and frequencies. It used to seem OK about mode of transportation, but more recently even that information has seemed questionable. It does often deliver the name of the bus company on a particular route. With than information you can usually go to the source and get accurate schedule and fare information. I don't know of any reason ever to use it for trains, because it's comparatively easy to find train information online.

The man in seat61.
That is your bible for trains around the world. If you don’t google that site, then you are not serious about any train inquiries.

It can be a very simple Thalys service direct from Amsterdam to Paris.

They are the folks who run the maroon colour trains