Top 10 Tips for European Train Travel

By James Martin. Europe Travel Expert

James Martin is a writer, photographer, and webmaster who has traveled extensively in Europe since 1977 and hasn't tired of it. He has lived and worked as an archaeologist in Italy and Greece and has studied Italian at the University for Foreigners in Perugia, Italy. He's been living part-time in northern Italy for seven years, and writes about the experience at Wandering Italy and on the Wandering Italy Blog. His experience there has induced him to author the mobile app called Tuscany for Foodies. Even more recently, he's authored, with Paola Loi, the mobile app called Sardinia Inside Out.

You can learn about some of the other things I'm doing these days in his Google Profile James Martin .

If you are more visually oriented, then our Rebel Mouse page called Europe Travel Tips and Ideas features many of our European destinations, events, apps, and other travel related news and pictures.

Here s what you need to know about traveling Europe on the train--from planning your trip to buying tickets to getting the most for your travel dollar.

European trains are fast, clean, convenient and take you from city center to city center. You might be amazed at all the places you can travel to, including the small cities and villages .

Buying Train Tickets in Advance

Buy Your Train Tickets with a Smartphone App. James Martin

Lots of folks want to get their hands on tickets before they leave on vacation. You risk loosing them, of course. But today there are some fairly safe ways to purchase tickets in advance.

DB Bahn also offers a variety of ways to use your smart phone to purchase tickets. You can either register with the site and get tickets to print out before you travel, or keep the tickets on your smart phone. As long as the battery is charged, you can show the conductor the phone with the bar code and that, plus your id card, is your ticket to ride.