Choosing Trains over Planes - Why Our Customers Are Making the Switch

While environmental impact was a common theme, customers also found rail travel more pleasurable with more space, fewer queues, better views and friendlier people. It may take longer than flying, but why rush when the journey is part of the experience?

Don’t be put off by the state of train travel in the UK, Europe’s extensive network of high-speed trains can take you surprisingly far, in comfort and without breaking the bank!

If our customer stories inspire you, take a look at the most popular rail routes through Europe on our Cycling Holidays in Europe By Train page, or for personal advice from our friendly team, enquire online or call +44 (0)1273 224066.

Longtime Freedom Trekker, Peter Bussy is one of our biggest advocates of train travel and has managed 13 tours over 10 years without flying!

Back in May, he and his partner cycled our Umbrian Escape and Innsbruck to Venice bike tours back to back, travelling to, from and between by train.

"Our logistical challenge was to travel the whole way by train. Seat 61 is a mine of detailed information, and after doing a quick calculation of the train costs I decided to buy Eurail passes for my partner and myself. There are several options, but the one that suited us best was for 7 days train travel in 1 month. For seniors this cost €401 first class (second class would have been €317 each).

One important feature to remember about many European train services is the need to book your seat as well as securing your place on the train. The Eurail app does keep reminding you but it is an extra step and extra cost.

We tried to book hotels close to the station of whichever town we stayed in. I mostly used booking.com and accor.com to book the hotels. Of course, if we needed an extra night before or after a bike ride, we would ask Freedom Treks to add the night.

So why do we travel by train?

• It is better for the environment with a smaller carbon footprint than flying
• It is more comfortable, and you have more room
• You see much more, and frequently meet people from many other countries
• There are no long queues
• Trains more accurately reflect the true cost of travelling
• There are no restrictions on luggage
• The European rail network links up between countries very efficiently
• The food in the restaurant car is better"

Peter and Frances cycled our Umbrian Escape and Innsbruck to Venice tours. The former is a short 4 night tour in the green heart of Italy, cycling between charming towns through unspoiled, rolling countryside. The latter is a longer 9 night tour from the Austria-Italy border taking in some of Italy’s most famous spots - the Brenner Pass, Bolzano, Lake Garda, Verona, Venice and more!

Italy has a brilliant rail network which is easily reached by Eurostar and the French TGV network, or you can take it slow and scenic with more stops along the way in France and northern Italy.

Did you know that if you book two tours you’ll receive a discount of £50 per person? Why not book them back-to-back and use train to connect them like Peter did!

Rachael Wright and her partner made their way to our Lake Bled to Ljubljana Bike Tour by train in August. They discovered that they were able to visit a number of beautiful cities and rural areas that they would have missed had they flown directly to the start of their tour.

"On day 1 we took the Eurostar to Paris and then the super smart French TGV from Paris to Zurich. We had a nice evening in Zurich and stayed the night in a hotel. On day 2 we took the 8.40am train from Zurich, travelling through Switzerland, Liechtenstein and nearly all of Austria, before changing trains at Schwarzach and heading south to Slovenia, arriving in Bled late afternoon.

To get home from Llubjana, we took the 9.30 am train through Hungary to Budapest then changed for the train to Vienna. We then took the overnight train (not a sleeper) from Vienna to Stuttgart, arriving around 5am.

After an early breakfast in Stuttgart we were in Paris by 10 am and caught the Eurostar to London at 11 am.

Why we did it...

We are trying to avoid short haul flights within Europe for environmental reasons but we also really enjoy seeing the countries that we pass through and feel that travelling is much more part of the adventure this way. On the train we love trying the buffet car and reading our books. It feels much more civilised than flying and we always meet some interesting people!"

Featuring incredible scenery, attractive towns and villages, friendly people and plenty of downhill cycling, our Lake Bled to Ljubljana Bike Tour takes you from the sapphire-blue waters of Lake Bled to Slovenia's capital, with its mighty castle and wonderful pavement cafe atmosphere.

You can tell that Slovenia is a popular destination for train travel as every summer the hostels of Ljubljana and campsites of Lake Bled fill with Eurailers backpacking their way around Europe! It’s flexible too, as Rachael’s shown it’s possible to do it with an overnight stop or with overnight trains, whichever you prefer.

You can be as adventurous as you like by rail, even travelling to remote locations in the Arctic Circle! This is what Chris Moon did in August when he and his partner train hopped their way to the north of Norway to cycle our Lofoten Islands Bike Tour.

"When we were looking at holidays we decided that we would try not to fly so when we looked at the Lofoten tour we weren’t sure if this was feasible due to its location. However, after finding the website of ‘man in seat61’ he gave lots of suggested routes for travel throughout Europe, including to the islands. We decided not to rush the journey too much so took a few days in most places we stopped.

My tips for this trip would be travel as light as possible, don’t do too many different cities and have time to explore. With regards to train travel, we would definitely recommend it. We didn’t have any issues with it at all and found ‘seat61’ very helpful for information as well as the German train website deutschebahn for platform and train times information."

Our Lofoten Islands Bike Tour is a once-in-a-lifetime experience where you cycle underneath towering peaks rising straight from the sea in the far north of Norway on the Lofoten archipelago.

Speaking of once-in-a-lifetime, we're extremely impressed by the route that Chris and his partner took to get there. They seem to have had a handful of holidays in one, first taking the Eurostar to Brussels and then on to Bruge where they stayed for two nights. Then they travelled through Germany via Cologne, Hamburg and Kiel before boarding an overnight ferry to Oslo. After that it was a matter of making their way up through Norway via Trondheim and Bodø before beginning their tour in Svolvaer. We challenge you to take the same route!

John Beckett and his partner were conscious of the environmental impact of their travelling this year. So they decided to give the airports a miss altogether when they set out for their Prague to Dresden Bike Tour in June. Not only did they reduce their carbon footprint, they also showed how much more you can see and do when you travel be rail, and stop off at other destinations on the way.

"Train or plane? This is the question we asked ourselves in 2019 when reviewing where we’d been that year. We both felt, given the increasing climate crisis, that we’d done too much flying and vowed to remedy this by looking at rail options. Then came the pandemic so things had to wait... Keen to continue our cycling trips with Freedom Treks this time we chose Prague to Dresden and researched how to use rail to get there and back and avoid airports altogether.

To make this possible (and more relaxed) we decided to stay 2 nights in Nuremberg on the way to Prague and 2 nights in Hannover on the way back from Dresden. So, it was Eurostar to and from Brussels at the start and finish and a succession of Deutsche Bahn trains (and one Ceske Drahy) to transport us across Europe. How was it? Well, it worked (no connections missed) and was by and large, a very comfortable and a more interesting way of getting from A to B.

More humping of luggage on and off trains it’s true but stations easier to get to than airports, in one or two cases within walking distance. I’d also say that railway stations, to me anyway, feel less fraught and tense than an airport.

Our conclusions: if you’re concerned about avoiding excessive emissions from air travel, it’s worth giving rail a try, especially if you have the time and budget (it is more expensive still) on your side – this can allow interesting stop-offs en route too - you can easily end up with effectively 2 or 3 holidays in one."

Our Prague to Dresden Bike Tour offers rich reward for the eco-conscious traveller, as you pedal along the peaceful banks of the River Vltava past diverse landscapes of green mountains, sandstone towers, watery meadows and terraced vineyards.

We love to see our customers going to such lengths to reduce their environmental impact. And it certainly makes an impact - taking the train across Europe can reduce your carbon footprint by up to 90%!

We hope our customers' stories have inspired you to travel by train to your next cycle tour but if you're looking for more information, be sure to check out our Cycling Holidays in Europe By Train. If you have a tour in mind, don't hesitate to book. Enquire online or call +44 (0)1273 224066 and our friendly team will help arrange your next cycle tour.