Hi All,

Our itinerary over an extended Christmas holiday looks like this: Amsterdam - Berlin - Krakow - Prague - Munich - Bern - Venice - Pisa - Rome - Paris - London - Brugge - Amsterdam.

We are travelling in that order because we have to be in a few particular places on specific dates so this itinerary works the best for us & I think it's about 45 days in total to do this trip.

I'm looking for some advice on train travel versus air travel (we will combine the 2 but obviously some destinations will be better by train versus plane). We are a family of 2 adults and 2 teens. We are thinking of air travel from Rome to Paris but the other lengthy legs are proving difficult (such as Berlin to Krakow) where I cant seem to find a low cost carrier.

Looking for some hints and tips on how other travellers have found point to point tickets versus rail passes or suggested air travel routes etc etc.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

http://www.raileurope.com/en/rail-tickets-passes/

I used a site like this for a trip we did a few years ago. See if this is helpful for you. Your trip sounds wonderful. How are you getting from Rome to Paris? I'm thinking of doing the same.

Hi EV,

Have you tried www.whichbudget.com?

They have B to K on bth German Wings and Air Berlin

Air Berlin flies non-stop to Krakow for as low as 70 euros one way.

I like to use www.kayak.com to search for flights options, but they don't necessarily show all airlines.

I've done long family trips like this several times and the one tip I have is to make sure you allow for plenty of down time in your itinerary. Non-stop travel for 45 days can be very tiring. Since you're traveling in the winter a beach or villa vacation isn't an option, but you certainly could consider a few days in the alps south of Munich for a change of pace from cities.

The other tip is to use apartments wherever possible. Eating in restaurants every meal, every day can also be fatiguing. An apartment gives you a lot more flexibility for breakfasts, lunch, and snack time. Apartments often come with washing machines which you'll need for a 45d trip.

Other useful train sites are

- the German train site, good for train times for all Europe, www.bahn.de/i/view/GBR/en/index.shtml

- BETS (www.budgeteuropetravel.com)

- the Man in Seat 61 (www.seat61.com)

I wouldn't trust Raileurope to supply all the trains on a specific routing; it sticks to the faster trains. And Raileurope prices are often inflated.

No one mentioned it but you might consider overnight trains for one or more legs. Not everyone likes them (I myself have a kind of love/hate relationship with them) but it can be an adventure to do once if you haven't and works on the longer legs to move you (during the time you wouldn't be sightseeing anyway) and sleep you (and saves that night's hotel cost) at the same time.

On the other hand a day on a train during such a long trip can be just the "down" time you need to read, write, nap, etc.

If you book your train tickets early then you may find point to point is cheaper than buying a pass, especially if you have to pay a supplement with the pass on certain trains.

You could fly to Berlin too. Easyjet fly there from Schiphol, Germanwings and Easyjet fly from Eindhoven. It might not be cheaper than the train but it will be quicker - though you need to check which airport they land at in Berlin.

One thing that's very important to consider is that winter weather is much less likely to disrupt train travel than air travel - and some of the areas you're headed to (Germany, Switzerland, Poland and Czech republic) have real winters with snow fairly frequent.

Why would winter weather affect air more than trains? Where I live, the trains generally don't run if there is more than four inches of snow on the tracks.