Is there such a thing? I'm looking for an all encompassing book/guide with everything about the trains. I'm traveling to Oslo, Stockholm, Malmo, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Berlin, Munich, Venice, Milan, Zurich, and Paris then home. I am buying a Eurail pass, 2nd class.
Maps of the main train stations in the mentioned cities, etc. Or should I just rely of free maps? I'm trying to plan my exact train schedule.
Thanks in advance!
That kind of guides did exist in the heydays of train travelling, with the Bradshaw the most famous of them, but that's long ago.
For train schedules the train planner of the Deutsche Bahn is the best one-in-all source. It aggregates the schedules of all the national companies, and makes it to one enormous pan-European planner.
I love to have a good map to find my way from the station to the hotel, and I found OpenStreetMap the best: clear, accurate and immensely detailed when zooming in. A screen print does wonders.
There is a huge amount of information on the Seat61 website. Whether there are links to individual station maps, I do not know. With a bit of patience you can find them by Googling.
To get you started:
Definitely for Paris and possibly for others on your list, the city has multiple "main" stations in the sense that more than one station is used for major international trains. So you'll need to start by going to the Deutsche Bahn website and looking up the schedule for your trips in and out of Paris to see which station(s) you'll be using.
Don't forget that most if not all of your trips will require seat reservations. They will cost you extra. And for trips within France, the number of seats available for pass holders on each train is limited. You cannot necessarily wait until the last minute and get a seat on the train. Of course, trains also occasionally sell out even in countries where there are no quotas for pass holders. I don't know whether you will run into quotas in any of your other countries.
Are you sure that rail pass is going to save you money? You are covering vast distances, so it may, but I wonder. Ticket prices you see online (trainline.eu is a good information source) already include the seat-reservation fee.
If you're looking for street maps, Google Maps are a good start. You can usually get a free or low-cost map from the tourist office in each city. There may or may not be one of those near the train station. This is where you need a good guide book. I think Rick's Best of Europe covers most of your destinations, though quite possibly not Malmo. Among many, many other things, he will tell you where you can find a tourist office. If you can make it to your hotel, you'll virtually always be able to get a free map there.
Incidentally, there's no one on this forum who would suggest that you go to Switzerland and see only Zurich, or to two places in Italy and make one of them Milan. Not unless you're traveling on business or have a family connection. In addition, your itinerary is quite heavily weighted toward high-cost destinations--in case that matters to you.
I have two outdated books on train travel that I use a lot as general references - I don't rely on them for detailed information, but they offer a good high level overview of the train routes and most popular destinations (for Americans) in each country.
My favorite is Frommer's "Europe by Rail". I have the 4th edition, which must be from around 2011 or 2012, and it is still available on Amazon. I like it best because of the maps.
The other one, "Europe by Eurail" is still being updated annually and is also available on Amazon. I have the 2013 edition so I can't speak to the 2018 edition.
Even when these books were current, I wouldn't rely on them exclusively, but they help when you're trying to plan a multi-country trip by rail.
If you want an old fashioned paper book to help plan you trip, there is the European Rail Timetable.
This used to be the Thomas Cook European Rail, and has a pedigree. First published in 1883.
Website selling book: https://www.europeanrailtimetable.eu/
This can only show main rail routes and some stations, but may be what you are looking for..
For online info, you can't beat the "Man in Seat 61", and for maps of the area around stations, "Open Streetmap". Google is useless for showing rail routes and stations, it is too road-obsessed,
I don't think any book would be an improvement over using the internet for timetables (and even train station information) - for the sake of accuracy and up-to-date info.
I was going to mention The Man In Seat 61; I see others beat me to it, but didn't give the link. https://www.seat61.com/
Prepare to spend hours looking at all his pages for your destinations. His website really is "an all encompassing book/guide with everything about the trains."
Actually, start with his "should I buy a rail pass?" page, before you do anything else, just so you understand all the factors that should go into this decision. https://www.seat61.com/Railpass-and-Eurail-pass-guide.htm#railpass-or-point-to-point-tickets
Wow, thanks! I will check out each link you've provided!
I'll be in Zurich for 4 days and plan day trips out into the countryside.
EDIT: I've found the about perfect book called Europe by Eurail 2018 (42nd Edition) By Laverne Ferguson-Kosinski
I've found the about perfect book called Europe by Eurail 2018 (42nd Edition) By Laverne Ferguson-Kosinski
WhateverLA, I have the 2008 version of that book. I used it a lot for preliminary research before my trips to Europe, just to get ideas for day trips by train and for longer trips between my base cities by train. It's good for that because it's based on staying in a base city and traveling out from there by train.
One caveat though: like the RometoRio website, while it's good for finding possible transport options, it's not a rail schedule and it's not put out by the rail companies, therefore it can't be used to get accurate train times or ticket rates. Those have to be found on the various applicable rail company websites, or on websites like Seat61 (as mentioned previously).
Hi,
Yes, the books are a good source as long as it is the most updated edition. The best source is Deutsche Bahn.com (or bahn.de, if you want the info in German). Consult various sources.
Keep in mind that rules applying to riding the trains are not uniform at all. What you encounter in France and Italy as respects to the high speed trains, (TGV, etc), pass quotas, reservations, etc you won't come across in Germany with the ICE trains. While it advisable to get a 4.5 Euro seat reservation along with your Pass ( big deal), it is not mandatory as is with the TGV. The worst thing is that you stand or sit on the floor of the coach or move to another 2nd class coach to find another seat. My experience is that rush hour on summer Fridays on the trunk ICE lines are pretty bad, better to get a seat reservation. .
If you are considering taking night trains as another option (very good with a Pass, add an extra day), the general seating area or six seat compartments don't have mandatory reservation requirements. I've seen this on compartments. No mandatory reservations in Austria. I always get a seat reservation when taking a night train, which I do more than once on every recent trip.
I've used the Thomas Cooke book on rail travel, get their rail map of Europe. The latest one I have is the 16th ed, which is somewhat old. On planning the trips I use both the Thomas Cooke and DB.
Hi, WhateverLA,
Perhaps look into Europe by Rail by Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries? This has 50 routes for travelling Europe plus detailed stuff about the trains and the countries.
There is also the European Timetable, which has all major train schedules in Europe and sketched maps of many city centres, also much about tickets.
Hope this helps.
Thank you everyone! I appreciate your ongoing support!
If looking for especially scenic train trips, you can turn up some good suggestions by Googling something like "most scenic trains Europe" or "most scenic trains Switzerland".
Books are better than rail company websites, because rail company websites are generally only directed at people who already know the journeys they want to make. It's often very hard to find information on the web in a format that lets you see in general which places are in easy reach of others and how a network fits together.
Books are better than rail company websites, because rail company websites are generally only directed at people who already know the journeys they want to make.
Which is why a combination of research methods is the way to go when planning a trip. Books help you decide where (and how) you want to go; the websites give you the up to date current times and prices; and online question and answer forums (RS, TA, etc) can help you drill down to the nitty gritty. No one way is the best, you need them all.
