My fiancee and I are considering Europe for our honeymoon (in late April/ early May) and are interested in traveling by train. Has anyone done this? How easy is it? What is a reasonable expectation for us to be there between 8-10 days? Any and all feedback/info/advice is very appreciated!

Thank you!

Not sure what you mean by expectation. Are you talking buot costs? Completely depends on how many trips and where yuo go.

Day travel be train is fine. Overnight is up to the individual - some love it, some hate it.

Where do you want to go and what to see/do? Interests? Budget?

Might be helpful if you could provide more information, such as: how long is your trip? Which countries? What's your budget?

Go to BudgetEurope.com. Call the 800 number, and ask them. They are extremely knowledgeable and helpful in giving advice on putting together your travels and finding the best fares for you.

Train travel in Europe is definitely advantageous. Not hard to figure out. Not really expensive. Relatively reliable, relaxing and fun way to see the countries.

Correction: BudgetEuropeTravel.com
http://www.budgeteuropetravel.com/

It's very easy to travel by train - buy a ticket, get on the train. Millions of people do it. Sometimes it's less expensive to buy tickets in advance - depends on where you are going.

<< What is a reasonable expectation for us to be there between 8-10 days >>

Two cities within the same country would be reasonable for this amount of time.

Europe's a big continent. And with your time frame you'll want to focus on one country ...... possibly traversing between two depending on which part of Europe. For example you could fly into London, spend a few days there, then train across to Paris for 2nd part of your trip and fly home from there.

Caveat .... many first-timers seriously underestimate the amount of time it takes to move from one destination to the next. When you factor in your check-out, getting to train station, train ride itself (2-to-3 hrs??) and then get settled into next hotel, etc....... that can easily occupy better portion of a day. Just something to keep in mind as you consider an itinerary.

AND, before purchasing your airfare do consider a "multi-city" ticket (or what folks will refer to as an 'open jaws' ticket. Open jaws, means to fly IN to one city and OUT from another (i.e. my example of London/Paris).

Train travel is the way to go IMO, unless you are travelling to really out-of-the-way places - and on the first trip and a 10 days, you won't be.

Check out these three tremendous European rail sites - www.ricksteves.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com (like Peace Out mentioned above) and www.seat61.com.

For an illustrated introduction to European train travel see
http://tinyurl.com/eym5b.

Ditto the advice above re open jaw air tickets. For 8-10 days two major cities with day trips is reasonable. Try Paris and London via Eurostar or Paris and Amsterdam via Thalys for intercity transport. Buy non-refundable tickets in advance to save money. Buy the public transit passes in each city to save a lot of money.

I should have mentioned that late April and early May is ideal for Amsterdam. The Keukenhof Garden, http://tinyurl.com/y8hltjl, is open. Also one of the greatest parties in the world happens on Queen's Day, http://tinyurl.com/yln3hrp.

Going by train is a great way to see the continent but like others have said don't pack too much in, you might just about manage 3 places if you travel overnight... for example you could start in London go on to Paris and then maybe overnight to Barcelona on a trenhotel. Sometime passes are more economical but I think in your case it would be better to just buy individual tickets in advance. You can book 3 months in advance for the cheapest tickets. Enjoy!

If you only remember one train travel resource, make it www.bahn.de (English button top right).

This is German railways site, but it has an online timetable covering just about the whole of Europe.

Use it to check how long train travel is between any two points, whether it's direct or you need to change, whether there's a sleeper or just day trains, and so on.

For prices, you'll need the site for the country where the journey stats.

www.tgv-europe.com for France (select 'Antarctic' if you're from the USA to avoid being bumped to Rail Europe with higher prices).

www.eurostar.com for London-Paris/Brussels in either direction.

www.trenitalia.com for Italy.

www.sbb.ch for Switzerland

www.renfe.com for Spain.

www.thalys.cm for Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam in either direction

www.bahn.de for Germany and for sleeper trains from Amsterdam to Munich, Prague, Copenhagen, Warsaw, Zurich

www.oebb.at for Astria

You can access the English language version by typing in bahn.com, thus eliminating one step.

On www.budgeteuropetravel.com's home page there is a link called something like "Best Online All-European Railway Schedules" - this links you directly to the English schedule page of www.bahn.de - the German Railways web schedule for trains all over Europe recommended above - but this home page link is useful because they give several valuable tips on fully using the Wunderbar www.bahn.de site that may not be apparent at first encounter so i recommend using that info as well.

Up for OP ..... (probably don't realize quick responses & how soon threads can drop).

yes indeedy how many novice Fodor users think their post has just been removed not realizing that once the thread sinks into the black hole starting at #26 post it may sink forever.

some using ttt for topping the thread to bring it back up and this is perfectly acceptable if you want more info or opinions, etc.

Sure it's easy to travel around Europe by train. Just go to the train station, buy a ticket, get on the train. My best tip is to pack very light. One 22" suitcase on rollers for each person, along with a small daypack or totebag.

I think a "reasonable expectation" for an 8-10 day trip would be an itinerary covering 2-3 cities. Fly into your first city, and out of your last city ("open jaw" ticket).

"One 22" suitcase on rollers for each person, along with a small daypack or totebag."

That is exactly what I do and it works great. DH takes a bunch of camera gear, so he usually ends up with a day back AND a totebag along with his rollerboard. I think that is too much, but he's carrying it, so what do I care?

For an 8-10 day trip, it should be easy to fit everything they need into a rollerboard and small bag each.

well on trains at least packing light makes a much better or relaxed trip - lots of stairs to traverse, long walks in stations and fending for room in overhead luggage racks - much more problematic if riding second class