Travel by Train in Europe

Shop deals on ebay
shop deals on amazon
Advertise with us
Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum

Help Support Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
MrFSS

MrFSS

Engineer
Honored Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2004
Messages
9,712
Location
Central Kentucky
My daughter and her husband are going to Southern France to attend a wedding in Late August. They will also take some vacation time to see the country and they want to go to Spain, too.

Her first statement to me about travel there is, "We'll just rent a car!"

I said, "What about the train?"

Gas prices have to be very high there and coupled with the cost of a rental car, maybe the train would be less expensive.

Anyone have any ideas on this? Links to look at on the subject?

They will be "based" in Biarritz for about 6-7 days and would travel from there. Her husband is interested in seeing the Normandy landing sites, etc. They have no interest in going to Paris other than to perhaps change trains.

Thanks!!!!
 
Check out Rick Steves web page on rail touring in France, I see he has some prices there. Maybe he has some tips on car rental, I didn't check.

If you haven't been there before and are doing self guided touring, I'd recommend getting the right Rick Steves book. We rail toured France, Bavaria and Italy in '99, his books were invaluable and I'm sure saved us a bunch of money. I enjoyed rail travel there and the TGV was cool. Even got to see the Italians throw a freeloader off the train.
 
PetalumaLoco said:
Check out Rick Steves web page on rail touring in France, I see he has some prices there. Maybe he has some tips on car rental, I didn't check.
If you haven't been there before and are doing self guided touring, I'd recommend getting the right Rick Steves book. We rail toured France, Bavaria and Italy in '99, his books were invaluable and I'm sure saved us a bunch of money. I enjoyed rail travel there and the TGV was cool. Even got to see the Italians throw a freeloader off the train.
Click to expand...
Thanks - I'll pass it on to her.
 
Biarritz is not that far from Hendaye/Irun the 2 border towns on the France/Spanish border. There are a few trains a day that go into Spain for onward connection to RENFE trains.

Northbound from Biarritz takes you to Bordeaux where you have loads of connections to elsewhere in France including hourly TGVs to Paris and some cross country TGVs that bypass Paris and go to Lille which is not that far from the coast, although not ideal for Normandy. For that you need to go to Paris Gare Montparnasse from Bordeaux then cross Paris to (I think) Gare St Lazare . Whilst not as big as the US , France is quite a large country so driving is not as quick as the TGV and you have to factor in road tolls for traveling on the fastest roads.

Closer to Biarritz, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Montpeiller and Carcassone are places that would not leave you disappointed both in the visual and (more importantly) culinary stakes!

Carcassone especially is a must see, a walled city which looks like a magic castle!

I will dig out some links for you, I travel in France a fair bit so if you need to know more then PM me and I will do my best to sort you out. Makes a change for me to be helping out rather than asking questions!
 
Neil_M said:
Biarritz is not that far from Hendaye/Irun the 2 border towns on the France/Spanish border. There are a few trains a day that go into Spain for onward connection to RENFE trains.Northbound from Biarritz takes you to Bordeaux where you have loads of connections to elsewhere in France including hourly TGVs to Paris and some cross country TGVs that bypass Paris and go to Lille which is not that far from the coast, although not ideal for Normandy. For that you need to go to Paris Gare Montparnasse from Bordeaux then cross Paris to (I think) Gare St Lazare . Whilst not as big as the US , France is quite a large country so driving is not as quick as the TGV and you have to factor in road tolls for traveling on the fastest roads.

Closer to Biarritz, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Montpeiller and Carcassone are places that would not leave you disappointed both in the visual and (more importantly) culinary stakes!

Carcassone especially is a must see, a walled city which looks like a magic castle!

I will dig out some links for you, I travel in France a fair bit so if you need to know more then PM me and I will do my best to sort you out. Makes a change for me to be helping out rather than asking questions!
Click to expand...
Neil - thanks! I'll pass this on to my daughter. If she has some direct questions I'll PM you.

Tom
 
Stuff for Mr FSS to look at.

1. http://www.seat61.com useful guide to trains in Europe although more aimed at travellers from the UK.

2. http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en? German online travel planner. The best in the business!

3. http://www.tgv.co.uk/ French Rail booking site in English.

4.SNCF TER Train service to/from Biarritz towards Bordeaux or Hendaye.

I am sure there are discount rail passes you can get to use in France but I will need to look those up as I already get a hefty discount as part off my UK rail employment!

Its a wonderful country, full of amazing places to see and apart from tourist beseiged places in Paris, the French are not as bad as made out!

One last thing.

Carcassone. Amazing! http://50031.fotopic.net/p23699155.html
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Mr FSS

for the Normandy beaches your daughter and husband should be heading for Bayeaux or Cherbourg.

Looking at train times from Biarritz to Bayeux takes just over 8 hrs, TGV from Biarritz to Paris, then Intercity train from Paris to Bayeux. Leave about 10 50am arrive 7 11pm. The only down side is crossing Paris, which is not hard but is better if you have minimal luggage!

To do the beaches would need a car or there are organised coach tours of the main sites.

A quick internet search brings up several options.
 
You may also like to invest in this, the latest edition of the Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/European-Timetable...6021&sr=8-5

Amazon US doesn't seem to stock it - but I'm sure Amazon UK or other independent retailers can get it for you. Note that one is published for summer and winter every year, with monthly updates also available. Be sure to get the summer edition :D

It's the size of a largeish paperback - but contains pretty much every train time in Europe. Very handy for armchair or actual travel.
 
Well - I have to pass this on as it is a nice story. My daughter and husband are in France right now and yesterday took the train from where they are (near the France - Spain border on the Atlantic Ocean) down to San Sebastian (sp?) for a day of sightseeing, etc. They had a joyous time, ate things they had never imagined they would eat and found the area to be very hospitable. But, they stayed longer than they had intended to and found they missed the last train going back north. When they arrived at the station, the agent was closing up for the night. They were in a real panic and didn't know what to do.

The agent drove them, in his own car, back north to where they could catch another train on another line that would take them back. They made it back to their B&B in fine order.

Think Amtrak agents would do that when a train is late or a passenger misses the last one of the day?

She also mentioned to me that this little town they are in has 24 trains a day in and out to various places all over France and Spain. This is a town with a population of less than 50,000 people.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
MrFSS said:
Think Amtrak agents would do that when a train is late or a passenger misses the last one of the day?
Click to expand...
Well first to be fair, in most places here in the US, the agent wouldn't be able to drive someone to another place to catch a train, because there wouldn't be a train there.

That said, I have seen stories of Amtrak agents taking someone to their hotel or doing other similar things to help a passenger in trouble. I will grant you that most of those stories came from rural areas, where there would only be one agent and a very small station. Can't say as that I've heard of any such stories from say Boston, NY, or LA.
 
AlanB said:
I will grant you that most of those stories came from rural areas, where there would only be one agent and a very small station. Can't say as that I've heard of any such stories from say Boston, NY, or LA.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I can only imagine the horror of interaction with the Amtrak Customer Service office staff in New York Penn Station in this scenario... <_<
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Well - just to report back, they made it to France and back. No airplane delays. They had one surprise. The went from ORD to CDG and then had to shuttle to ORY to catch the small plane to Biarritz. 13 of them in the group so it was interesting.

While she didn't get to go to Normandy area, they did take a train south into Spain. This is the one she missed coming back north.

Here it is arriving in the Biarritz Station.

train1.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I've traveled many times on European trains, and driven as well. In April and May of this this year, I drove a big semicircle from Madrid to Oporto, through Lisbon. My experience is that the train will give you a much more relaxed and pleasurable trip, opportunities to see things other than the autoroutes. The price of fuel is an issue, but parking rules can be confusing and the rules of the road are different. Maybe it's handy to rent a car if you're going to explore Normandy or another out of the way place and want to see a lot in a short time, but otherwise, I'd say take the train and local busses, you'll have more fun.
 
I have ridden the train from Paris to Bayeux (I think spelling is correct) and took a bus tour of the beaches. Rick Steve's guidebook will tell you about other tours that leave from other cities along that route too. This would be much easier than driving.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top