Food on trains?

The longer trips are Venice to Vienna, Vienna to Hallstatt, and Salzburg to Fussen. We figured we'd need to bring a little picnic lunch with us but wanted to get some opinions on train food. Thanks!

Steve... I mean Ian, writes: "You'll make a much better picnic bringing your own food from the shops in many of the train stations than you'll find on most trains."

Written by someone who apparently has never eaten on a European train. I have eaten surprisingly good meals on Deutsche Bahn, Irish rail and Czech rail, although the price was what you would expect to eat on a train. Belgian (NMBS) and Dutch rail (NS) usually only have a snack cart.

To go from Salzburg to Füssen, you almost have to change trains half way in Munich. There is a food court in the Munich station. It's not great food, but it's OK and at a reasonable price. I've eaten there three times while passing through.

As for Vienna to Hallstatt, the trip is only about 4 hours by the fastest trains. Can't you go that long without eating? Anyway, by one route, you change trains halfway in Attnang-Puchheim. I image you could get food there. If you go by regional trains, it will take more like 5 hours, there will probably not be food service on the train. You would have to stop somewhere.

Where? What country? What kind of train? These are all variables that we would need to know in order to answer your questions.

For example, in Germany, the ICE has food, but it is always expensive. Taking a slow, Regional train along the Rhein, you will find no dining car.

Each country is different. Normally, taking food and drink with you onto the train is a wise choice.

Which countries? Which train routes? In the UK the longer train routes often have a buffet car where you can purchase either sandwiches or full meals. On mid-length routes there is often a "trolley" that goes through the cars several times selling snacks, drinks and sometime sandwiches. On some short comuter routes, there is nothing. Most UK train stations have one or more places to purchase food. Larger ones even have grocery stores (like Whistlestop or Marks and Spencer Food Only) where you can get some pre-cooked items or pick up picnic items.

In the last 10 years, I have never needed to buy food on the train. I've always been able to get it in a station food court. I did get a Bier on an ICE in 2008. My impression is that food is OK, but not highest quality, and a little more expensive than in the station, but not outrageous. A lot of trains (mostly regionals), will not have food on board the train.

On French and British trains (or chunnel crossing), we've picked up food in the stations before the trip. (We especially like departures from London, where you can get a wide variety of foods at the Marks and Spencer's take out shop.)

We have a very fond memory of our first trip to Venice departing from Munich, though. We had had a really early departure, so didn't take the time to pick up food and were glad we didn't. The train was actually Italian, and we had the best breakfast and sat in the dining car for hours. (Breakfast, of course, was an assortment of Italian meats and cheeses, bread, pastry, and espresso.) And it was affordable, to my surprise.

When food for sale is available via attendant with a cart, it’s similar to an airline: sandwiches, chips, pop/beer/water, treat, etc. It’s edible but not great…it works when you’re starving. You can typically get all of this and perhaps a bit more when the train has a bar/buffet/dining car. Some trains have dining cars with menus, full bar, wait staff, and good food. If you’re ever in first-class or premier, you might have wait staff bring a good meal to your seat. And, some shorter trains have no food at all. For example, I don’t recall anything on that Munich to Füssen run you’ll be taking…you should probably bring something or have a bite beforehand. Your long distance routes, like Venice to Vienna, will most certainly have food available. BTW, the quick shops in the stations offer the same kind of snacks as their counterparts in airports.

"Venice to Vienna, Vienna to Hallstatt, and Salzburg to Fussen."

I agree that stocking up prior to boarding can be an easy and economic way to go.

In most large European stations there is a broad variety of pretty decent take-away food on offer at a fraction of the price of things available on board.

I agree that it is sometimes possible to have very good meals on some trains, but it does come at a price.

There are exceptions to stations with lots of variety and some of them are the stations being used by the OP.

Venice has a number of small fast food stands and a restaurant but to stock up at a grocery store you might visit the Coop just down the Grand Canal in Piazzale Roma.

Both the station in Salzburg and both main stations in Vienna are all being rebuilt and turned into through stations. At the moment a lot of the facilities at these stations are behind plywood. I'd advise using a store before getting to the stations in Salzburg and Vienna until the work is complete.

Fuessen is a tiny station, and my memory is that there is nothing at all in the station, but plenty in the nearby town.

I don't know about Hallstatt.

The station layout of Füssen Bahnhof and the picture of the station show a "Bistro" in the station building. But, the station is right at the edge of the downtown area and there are probably plenty of restaurants nearby.

The Hallstatt Bahnhof is across the lake from the town and accessible by boat. From what I could see from across the lake, it's little more than a bus stop (no station building) and boat dock.

i could tell you stories about the good old days. Forget about it. Bring your own food. The German station food is often good.

So Fuessen now runs to a , eh Lee?

Its really moving up in the world!

I can remember when even the locks looked old ;-)

One of my last major train trips was from Milan to Paris on fancy-shmancy EuroCity and TGV trains. Over 7 hours long. The 'food guy' (notice I said singular 'guy' for this big international train) decided he didn't want to come in to work that day. Sure; no problem. There wasn't a bottle of water on that train! After a few hours, the conductors had telephoned ahead to the next stations and arranged to get a few cases of water and handed those out to everyone. A bottle of water for breakfast and lunch...

Meanwhile, the previous evening, I had insisted to my husband that we go to the basement of Milano Centrale to the grocery store and get some food for the trip. Of course, I wasn't really comfortable pulling out our grand picnic in front of all of the hungry passengers (including the kids behind us :-( ) We just snuck bits and pieces of food out of our bag and stuck them in our mouths.

I was stuck on a runway for several hours years ago (in First Class - Bloody Marys are kinda filling; try and get olives). Needless to say, I've always brought food on all subsequent flights. It's prolly TMI to discuss my restroom arrangements...;-)

Never again. Always bring food.

I want to second what Mary said...always bring food! We took an overnight train from Rome to Munich earlier this month and the dining car was closed. We had bought dinner in the station, so we were fine, but, needless to say, there were many upset people. I felt bad for the families with kids. Cindy http://embracing-the-journey.blogspot.com/

Yes, bring food! The bigger stations in Germany have places to pick up pretzels, brotchen, or even croissants! Get some water and Coca-Cola (mmm with sugar, not corn-syrup) there, too. I brought a small little portable soft cooler/insulated bag from home and had some cheese and cold-cuts on one leg, as well. We were able to easily get to the dining car on one trip (Nuremberg to Berlin), just for drinks, but the prices were really high! Another leg (Leipzig to Mainz), the train was so crowded that there were too many people to step over and through that I don't even know if the dining car was even open. The guy did come through with coffee, once, though. We, luckily, had our own food- we were just looking for additional snack options.