I just completed my dream Europe Trip, at my own speed, as per my own preferences and without any help of a tour agency. I have no objections with anyone taking group tours, but to me, it seems like I'm not in control, like I have a fixed itinerary that needs to be followed day by day and I'm forced to travel with people I do not know. The system I used on my trip can be replicated, for longer durations of time to cover more countries. On my current trip, I went to Zurich and Rhein Falls (Switzerland), Milan (Italy), Innsbruck (Austria), Munich and Stuttgart (Germany), Paris and Colmar (France) and Amsterdam (Netherlands). I will discuss below in detail how I managed to do the same. The main thing to note is that this sort of trip was possible mainly because of the excellent train connectivity between the countries and in my case the the Eurail Mobile Global Pass.
Decadent Diaries Tips:
You can apply for a Schengen Visa maximum of hundred and eighty days in advance as per current rules (pls recheck their official website for the latest rules). My advice would be to apply as much in advance as possible, especially if you wish to travel in the busier months. I applied in February for my trip in May and the process was smooth sailing. However, I heard from an acquaintance that many people who wanted to travel in the summer months applied in April etc. and had long waiting periods for an appointment. This is because as corona has subsided, the rush to travel and explore has come back with gusto like never before. So yes, please apply for your Visa as early as possible so that you do not need to postpone your flights due to not getting your Visa on time (as the Schengen visa application currently requires confirmed flight tickets).
Start looking for flights and hotels 6 months in advance and keep tracking the rates. Use Google Flights, Skyscanner, etc. to compare rates, airlines, etc. Some search websites like Google Flights have a very helpful pricing grid option to see if you are getting flights cheaper on some other permutation and combination of dates. Google also tells you as per the current trends whether you are getting prices cheaper or more expensive than usual on the Google flights page. In the case of hotels, if they are part of an international chain, download their official website and sign up for their free membership to get the best possible rates. Take a free cancellation booking and keep checking over the months if prices fall for your preferred hotel and room. If they do, then simply cancel your first booking and rebook immediately with the lower price. (pls do reconfirm that the room you have selected is the same, also note lower pricing means that the room may be on a lower floor, etc., but for me, it didn't matter as I would be out roaming all day and only come in my room to sleep so it was fine...).
Choose a base city or cities, which are sort of centrally located and from where you can visit many cities/attractions by train. In our case, we chose Zurich and Paris as our base cities. We used to take day trips by train to nearby countries and attractions and return the same night back to our base city. This made the whole trip a lot less stressful as we did not have to pack and unpack every two days in a different city.
That brings me to my next point. The Eurail Mobile pass. We chose to buy the Eurail Mobile Global Pass as we wanted to travel by train to several countries and to have the flexibility of traveling wherever we want. Changing our minds at the last moment wouldn't cause any issues as we could just change the place and trains by our phone from the mobile app of Eurail (please check the official website of Eurail for all the Rules and regulations of the pass). That being said you can also just buy train tickets point to point online many months in advance to get cheaper rates but the flexibility that the Eurail pass gave was great for us. Also as our largest duration base city was Zurich, the Swiss rail system is currently very friendly to Eurail pass unlike some other countries like France and Italy which require compulsory train reservations along with your pass. So buying the pass worked out well for our situation. *I would like to say upfront that I was not paid anything by Eurail to write this post. I paid for my own passes and I have just written this post to tell you about my journey.
As per our experience, carrying your passport with you during your train travel is essential. As the ticket inspector usually wishes to confirm your identity with your Eurail pass.
Download the official Rail Planner app from Eurail and also the official train apps of the particular countries you have chosen as your base, for eg. the SBB mobile app from the official website of SBB for Switzerland trains. This helps you sometimes see not only timings and current delays but also the platform number in advance so you are more relaxed on your travel day. (SBB app gives platform numbers for Swiss trains but many other country train apps don't.)
Please also note that train timetables keep changing, so please keep checking the official Eurail app.
Choose a hotel room that is extremely close (short walking distance) to the main railway station or close by to a swift public transport like the metro/subway from where you can reach the main station. This really helps if you are returning to your room late at night or if you want to get to the train station quickly by metro.
As per my suggestion, it is not necessary to take a breakfast plan from your hotel. We personally had a lot of fun checking out the huge variety of eating options at the railway stations. Like for example at one of our main base stations Zurich HB, there were so many shops having fresh sandwiches, wraps and salads including vegan options, fresh juices and drinks, all sorts of chocolates, snacks and chips, and many fast food and coffee chains as well. We had a lot of fun every day trying something new for breakfast. We used to grab takeaway from various places and then have wonderful train picnics with our collected goodies on our way to our destination. In turn, you get to try a lot of local drinks, snacks and sweets which I love checking out whenever I visit a different country.
An international roaming plan is a must, do not go through the trouble of buying a local sim to save a few bucks. Having your own number when you travel internationally is a boon and having internet connectivity at all times so that you can use google maps to be your own guide is essential. Also, your Eurail app requires you to have internet connectivity every few days.
Download the google translate app. It really helped us a lot in translating menus and food wrappers and communicating at various places where people didn't speak fluent English.
Mark all the places you wish to visit on the google maps app. It is really your own personal tour guide to any place you visit.
Download local taxi apps, local metro maps and train apps for the cities/countries you are planning to visit. Research the metro/public transport map of the particular city you are traveling to during your train travel to that place. Then once again see your marked places on google maps and chart out a plan so that you walk the least and cover the most amount of what you want to see and eat during your day visit.
Many places are cashless, we learned this the hard way in the Amsterdam public transport system, so always carry your credit/debit cards with you.
Lastly, always wear comfortable walking shoes and clothes when you travel. Also, a small umbrella, a jacket and a backpack to carry snacks and a water bottle for your train trips are all highly recommended.
Day 1 - Arriving in Zurich & exploring the City
We traveled by Air France, Mumbai - Paris - Zurich. I got a good deal on business class tickets as I booked almost six months in advance. The only catch was a five-hour layover at Paris airport but we didn't mind that since we had lounge access and the lounge had fully stocked private shower rooms for freshening up. Read my full review of the lounge here. (blog link coming soon) Anyway, we reached Zurich at around 3 pm and our bags came swiftly. As we had already cleared border control at Paris (the connecting flight to Zurich is considered a sort of domestic flight in the Schengen zone hence border control was at Paris) we headed with our bags to the train station below the airport and took a direct train from Zurich Flughafen to Hardbrucke. We used up one of our Eurail pass days as I had taken a 10-day pass and wished to make full use of it. Taxis can be expensive from airports so I felt it wise to fully utilize the expensive pass I already had. Our hotel was just a five-minute walk from the station.
We freshened up in the room and went back to Harbrucke and took the train which is one stop to Zurich HB main station. In Switzerland certain regional trains are also included in your pass hence you can check the same on the Eurail app, to see what is included and to plan out. Due to this inclusion, we were able to book a hotel at Hardbrucke as our travel from there to Zurich HB was included in our pass via the local rail lines. We spent the evening walking through the main street Bahnhofstrasse, going all the way to Zurich Lake. We took the scenic route which not only passed through famous streets like Augustinergasse but also crossed the famous Grossmunster and Opernhaus Zurich. Over there is located one of my favorite Vegetarian (lacto+ovo) buffet restaurants called Tibits. We had a lovely meal and then finished off with Swiss chocolate ice cream from Movenpick which was close by. To check out more about where I ate in Zurich click here. To check out my blog post about how to spend the perfect day in Zurich click here. (blog link coming soon) Then we walked back along the same route and just window shopped as most of the stores close by 5 pm. We then headed back to our room.
Day 2 - Milan
We took the train at 9:05 am, it had one short transfer/connection at Lugano. However, due to it not being a direct train, we saved on the seat reservation charges. (Eurail denotes on its timetable which trains require compulsory seat reservation charges. The same can be purchased through their website or the respective train company's website as directed by them.) The time to reach Milano Centrale by both the direct and the connection train was similar. The connection at Lugano was quite short, around 4 minutes only. Our train reached late leaving us with hardly two minutes to connect to the next train. However, I think the train to Milano Centrale took into account the delay and waited for two to three more minutes till everyone ran and boarded their connecting train. We reached Milano Centrale and had the most perfect day. I made use of the official app of Milan metro and bought us twenty-four-hour tickets. I had mapped out all I wanted to see as per the metro stations and I was able to cover many important attractions and foods I wanted to try and have a sit-down meal as well! We took the 5:43 train back and reached Zurich HB by around 9 pm. However, the best thing about traveling during summertime is that the sunset happens at around 9:30 pm so it was still light outside! To read more about my perfect day in Milan, click here.
Day 3 - Innsbruck
For Innsbruck, Austria, we boarded the train at 8:40 am. This was a direct train of approximately three and a half hours. We arrived at Innsbruck at 12 pm and as the old town was within walking distance from the main station, we got to see many things and even have the traditional strudel. Here I did not require any metro tickets as everything I wanted to see was quite close by. We took the train back at 3:47 pm after having picked up some tasty "butterbreze" (butter-filled pretzels) from the station. Click here to read about my day trip to Innsbruck. (blog link coming soon)
Day 4 - Colmar
The best thing about Zurich is its location and excellent train connectivity. Hence one day I'm in Italy, and the other I find myself in Austria - all easy one-day trips. So here I was, now visiting the Alsace region of France! Colmar is hardly two and a half hours away by train from Zurich. Once again due to the flexibility offered by the Eurail pass and being in a Eurail pass-friendly country like Switzerland, I was able to do reservation-free travel to Colmar as well. Once again all the amazing things to see were within walking distance and I also had a lovely vegetarian meal based on Alsace favorites like Onion Pie etc. Click here to read about my visit to Colmar. (blog link coming soon) We had finished our sightseeing in half a day so headed back to Zurich to dine at one of my favorite cafes located inside Confiserie Sprungli at Bahnhofstrasse. This place closes early by 6:30 pm, but it is a must try hence I'm glad I was back in Zurich before it closed. I couldn't do this on the first day as I reached Zurich HB quite late after freshening up. Anyway, I enjoyed a lovely sundae with grand cru Sprungli chocolate sauce. It was heavenly. All in all, it was a pretty fulfilling day.
Day 5 - Munich
We took this train on a Friday and I did not realize that there would be a weekend rush. Many seats were reserved (reservation is not compulsory on this train though) but we were lucky to have found some free seats. However like on other trains here we did not get a 4-seater with a table all to ourselves while on the way to Munich. I did somewhat get an idea that this would happen as on the SBB official app the train occupancy estimation was showing high. This train was a direct three-hour thirty-minute train as well. We reached Munich by afternoon and enjoyed the sights and sounds of Munich. Read about my day trip here. (blog link coming soon) Once again all of the main places were like a ten to fifteen-minute walk from the station so no public transport was required. There was a lot of rush in the city both at the station and on the main streets. It looked like everyone was getting into the spirit of the weekend. Anyway while heading back in the evening thankfully we did not have much rush and were able to sit more comfortably. We took some takeaway from the station and headed back to our room to relax.
Day 6 - Stuttgart
Originally we had planned to visit Zermatt but canceled the plan as the weather there was not showing to be good. This is where the flexibility of the pass came in, we changed our mind at the last moment and decided to head to another place but did not have to go through any hassle as we could just choose where we wanted to go that morning itself and add it to our mobile pass. As we loved Munich so much, we headed to another German city only 3 hours by train namely Stuttgart. As luck would have it, it turned out to be an amazing day because Stuttgart was hosting its own version of Oktoberfest but in Summer time. It's called Fruehlingsfest and it was a blast. As some local German trains were also included in my Eurail pass, I was able to travel from Stuttgart station to one station away called Bad Canstatt which was where the festival was being held. It was a big party there with so many rides, separate areas for beer tents, all sorts of candies and carnival snacks, and just so much to see and do. Our detour from our original plan lead us to this amazing place and festival. And it was all due to the support of our Eurail pass as we could change our plans at the last minute. After exploring the festival we headed back to Stuttgart's main station and explored the attractions close by. Read more about my full-day trip to Stuttgart here. (blog link coming soon)
Day 7 - Rhein Falls and more of Zurich
So on this day, we had originally planned to go to Gstaad, but being a little tired from all of the week's exploring, we decided to take a short trip only to Rhein Falls, Europe's largest plane waterfalls and spent the rest of the day exploring Zurich. Once again this was covered by the Eurail pass so we could utilize one of our travel days. Read more about Rhein Falls here. (blog link coming soon)
Day 8 - Travel to France
So France is one of those European countries that are not that pass-friendly, so to take the TGV from Zurich to Paris we required compulsory reservations. However, as I said earlier that because we stayed for the major time in a pass-friendly country like Switzerland, we were able to make good use of the pass for many days. Buying those tickets last minute would have cost us hundreds of Swiss Francs per person (your experience may vary based on your itinerary) This day we were very tired from all the traveling and took a well-needed break by just sleeping from evening till morning - almost 12 hours!
Day 9 - Amsterdam
So for going to Amsterdam, you take the Thalys, for that as well you need a compulsory reservation. But the reservation was one-third the cost of the ticket, so I saved on two third's cost of the ticket if I had to buy it individually without the pass. We took the three-hour twenty-minute train ride to Amsterdam and enjoyed a beautiful day there. Read more about it here. (blog link coming soon) I personally found the Thalys trains to be much more comfortable and cleaner than the TGV trains.
Day 10 & 11 - Paris
We spent the last two days of our vacation in Paris. There is nothing to say about Paris that has not already been said by countless poets and writers and it lived up to its reputation. Paris is beautiful and no amount of time spent there can ever be enough. Read more about my Paris experience here. (blog link coming soon)
There was so much I could do in a span of just 11 days, thanks to a lot of planning and good rail connectivity. Just by choosing the right base cities (like in our case Zurich and Paris), you can take day trips to a variety of different cities in different European countries and be back at your hotel the same night! This truly was a dream trip which was a satisfying culmination of months of planning!
Hope you liked my blog post. This post was as per my personal experiences. Please do your own research before taking a call for your trip. Thank you for reading❤️
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