Trains, and why they're great

We need to start by saying how happy the overwhelming positive response to our new website has made us. People's support has been fantastic. It means so much to us. So, thanks, supporters of Leaping Hound Travel! We love you!

Let's talk about the literal "travel" part of Leaping Hound Travel. When we're in Europe, we love to travel by train. Though it can take longer than flying, there are a lot of reasons to prefer it. First of all, you don't need to arrive hours early. No need to take off your shoes as you go through security, or worry about the amount of liquids in your carry-on (and it's all carry-on!).

The high-speed train from Lyon to Paris

Also, train stations are typically centrally located, rather than on the outskirts of the city. It is so much nicer to arrive in, say, Florence at the Santa Maria Novella train station, right in the center of the city, just a short walk from famous sites like the Duomo and the Palazzo Vecchio, instead of having to navigate finding a taxi or bus from the distant airport. 

​You're given more freedom on a train, too. The seats are more spacious than on a plane, and you can always get up to use the bathroom or stretch your legs (no waiting for the "seat belt" sign to turn off). Instead of waiting to be served a meal, you can wander over to the dining car whenever you feel like it.

Something harder to measure, but at least as important, is the romance of trains. You can really feel the distance you're covering--watching the terrain change as you travel into the Alps, peeking into different cities as your train pulls in and out of the stations, hearing the train announcements change languages as you cross international borders.

Train travel is a wonderful mix of old and new--European trains themselves are often high-speed (look for speeds over 300 km/hr!) with lots of modern features, but the history of the routes they take stretches back into the 19th century. In the book Slow Train to Switzerland, Diccon Bewes traces a route first taken 150 years before: Thomas Cook's first conducted tour of Switzerland. Bewes follows in the footsteps of Miss Jemima Morrell, an Englishwoman who kept a diary of her experiences on Cook's tour--not something he could do if he stuck to air travel! 

The train from Lyon, France, to Florence, Italy

Slow Train to Switzerland by Diccon Bewes

There are downsides, of course. Really large distances can take really long times! A flight from, say, London to Bucharest, is probably a much better use of your travel time than a series of trains over several days. But, though they aren't as numerous as they once were, there are still night trains. Taking a night train is an experience not to miss, and a whole other blog post in itself!

Questions about train travel? Stories from trips of your own? Share below, post on our social media, or email us! ​​​

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