The contents of Europe by Rail

Here's an overview of the contents of the 19th edition of the guidebook Europe by Rail.

Fifty routes exploring Europe

At the heart of Europe by Rail: The Definitive Guide – the 19th edition of which is published on 22 June 2026 – are detailed descriptions of 52 amazing European rail journeys. Some journeys are sufficiently long that you could easily build an entire holiday around them (eg. from Amsterdam to Stockholm or Hamburg to Budapest). Others are more modest in scope - such as a scenic wander through the Harz Mountains of eastern Germany or a rail cruise along the French Riviera.

Each route kicks off with our personal appraisal of the journey using a star rating system and a note of the countries through which the route passes. Every route description includes a sketch map, showing places along the way, with superimposed grids that give the pattern of rail services along that route.

Sometimes we commend a short-cut or an alternative route. Of course no-one dictates that you must follow our routes in their entirety. You can pick and choose, switching from one to another where they intersect, and sometimes branching out on your own to explore territory beyond our recommended routes. Here is the list of the 52 routes featured in Europe by Rail (just click on a section name to review the list of routes in that area):

01Discover Britain and Ireland

1. Following Brunel to Cornwall
- London – Reading – Exeter – Plymouth – Penzance
2. Cathedrals, castles and glens
- London – York – Durham – Edinburgh – Inverness – Kyle
3. The rural route to the West Highlands
- Amsterdam – Newcastle – Carlisle – Edinburgh – Fort William – Mallaig
4. Across England and Wales to Ireland
- Rotterdam – Harwich – Chester – Dublin – Killarney
5. West to Europe’s Celtic fringe
- London – Cotswolds – mid-Wales – Dublin – Galway

02The Low Countries and Germany

6. Through Flanders to Amsterdam
- Lille – Bruges – Antwerp – Den Haag – Amsterdam
7. From Hauts-de-France to the Rhine
- Lille – Brussels – Liège – Aachen – Cologne
8. From the Netherlands to Lake Geneva
- Amsterdam – Maastricht – Luxembourg – Strasbourg – Lausanne
9. Exploring the Rhine Valley
- Cologne – Koblenz – Heidelberg – Triberg – Zurich
10. Across northern Germany
- Cologne – Düsseldorf – Hannover – Helmstedt – Berlin
11. Steaming through the Harz Mountains
- Hannover – Goslar – Wernigerode – Quedlinburg – Magdeburg
12. From Berlin to the Alps
- Berlin – Leipzig – Weimar – Würzburg – Munich – Salzburg

03Exploring France

13. From London to the Mediterranean
- London – Paris – Nevers – Clermont-Ferrand – Nîmes – Marseille
14. Paris to Geneva – the slow way
- Paris – Dijon – Beaune – Lyon – Annecy – Geneva
15. Exploring the French Riviera
- Marseille – Bandol – Toulon – Cannes – Antibes – Nice
16. The Seine Valley and Normandy
- Paris – Giverny – Rouen – Lisieux – Bayeux – Cherbourg
17. The Loire Valley and Atlantic coast
- Paris – Angers – Bordeaux – Biarritz – San Sebastián
18. To the Pyrenees
- Paris – Dordogne – Toulouse – Latour de Carol – Barcelona
19. From Normandy to the Rhône Valley
- Caen – Le Mans – Angers – Bourges – Lyon – Valence

04Iberian connections

20. From the Alps to Catalonia
- Geneva – Aix-les-Bains – Avignon – Perpignan – Portbou – Barcelona
21. Historic Spain
- Barcelona – València – Despeñaperros – Córdoba – Seville – Cádiz
22. High-speed Spain
- Barcelona – Madrid – Córdoba – Málaga
23. Not quite the pilgrim route to Santiago
- San Sebastián – Burgos – Madrid – Zamora – Santiago de Compostela
24. The Atlantic coast of Iberia
- Santiago de Compostela – Vigo – Porto – Lisbon – Seville

05Scandinavia and the Baltic

25. Great maritime cities
- Amsterdam – Hamburg – Odense – Copenhagen – Stockholm
26. To the Skagerrak and beyond
- Fredericia – Aarhus – Hirtshals – Oslo – Stockholm
27. Sampling Scandinavia
- Copenhagen – Göteborg – Oslo – Bergen
28. North to the Lofoten Islands
- Oslo – Lillehammer – Trondheim – Bodø – Svolvær
29. Night train to Narvik
- Stockholm – Boden – Narvik – Svolvær
30. A foray through Finland
- Boden – Oulu – Tampere – Helsinki – Turku – Stockholm
31. Baltic adventure
- Hamburg – Lübeck – Stralsund – Szczecin –Gdańsk – Warsaw
32. A new rail link for the Baltics
- Warsaw – Białystok – Kaunas – Riga – Tartu – Tallinn – Helsinki

06Central and east European adventures

33. Bohemian byways
- Nuremberg – Plzeň – Karlovy Vary – Prague
34. Four capitals in a day
- Hamburg – Berlin – Prague – Bratislava – Budapest
35. To the Black Sea
- Vienna – Budapest – Sighişoara – Bucharest – Constanța
36. Exploring Slovakia
- Vienna – Bratislava – Poprad – Košice – Budapest
37. East from Berlin
- Berlin – Pozńan – Warsaw – Kraków – Przemyśl – Lviv
38. From Saxony to the Tatra Mountains
- Dresden – Görlitz – Wrocław – Kraków – Zakopane – Poprad

07Scenic Alpine routes

39. Crossing the Alps
- Munich – Mittenwald – Innsbruck – Bolzano – Verona
40. The Arlberg route
- Zürich – Feldkirch – Innsbruck – Salzburg – Vienna
41. Over the Bernina Pass
- Zürich – Zernez – St Moritz – Tirano – Milan
42. The classic Gotthard route
- Basel – Lucerne – Gotthard – Locarno – Stresa – Milan
43. Following the Glacier Express
- St Moritz – Andermatt – Brig – Zermatt
44. Swiss lakes and mountains
- Zürich – Lucerne – Interlaken – Montreux – Lausanne – Geneva

08Italy and the Adriatic

45. Habsburg connections
- Vienna – Semmering – Graz – Villach – Udine – Trieste
46. From the Riviera to Florence
- Nice – Monaco – Sanremo – Genoa – Cinque Terre – Pisa – Florence
47. Tuscany and Umbria
- Verona – Bologna – Florence – Siena – Orvieto – Rome
48. North Italian cities
- Genoa – Milan – Cremona – Mantua – Verona – Venice – Trieste
49. South to Sicily
- Rome – Naples – Messina – Taormina – Siracusa
50. By rail and ship to Greece
- Venice – Bologna – Rimini – Bari – Patras – Athens
51. From the Danube to the Adriatic
- Budapest – Lake Balaton – Zagreb – Split – Ancona
52. Through former Yugoslavia to Trieste
- Budapest – Belgrade – Zagreb – Ljubljana – Trieste

The “Sidetracks”

The Sidetracks features, 25 in all, are often bold leaps — and might particularly encourage you to strike out independently. Some Sidetracks will lead to offshore islands (such as Sardinia or Mallorca), others will take you well beyond the regular tourist trails, even to countries like Albania or Kosovo which often get completely overlooked in many travel guides to Europe. The Sidetracks also recall moments from railway history and especially memorable short trips beyond the core 52 routes covered in the book. Here are three examples from the book (click on a title to see a short excerpt from the text):

01Belgium’s coastal tramway

Belgium’s Coastal Tramway (Kusttram) is the world’s longest tram route. And it confers on Belgium the distinction of being the only country on the planet where the entire coastline can be surveyed in a single tram ride. From the French border near Plopsaland to the dune landscapes of Knokke on the Dutch border it is about 70 kilometres, and the Coastal Tramway takes in the entire coast, with about 70 tram stops along the way...

02Rhine versus Moselle

Travellers who progress up the Rhine Valley from Cologne face a big decision at Koblenz. Most continue up the Rhine and indeed that is just what Route 9 does. But you might forsake the Rhine in favour of the Moselle, following the lesser river upstream towards Trier and Luxembourg (where you can join Route 8 in this book). Mary Shelley commended a Moselle excursion as a device to enhance still more “the prouder and more romantic glories of the Rhine.” The Moselle landscape, Shelley suggested, possesses “an inferior beauty”...

03Norway’s Far North

Whether you approach Narvik on the direct overnight train from Stockholm or on the bus that runs up the Norwegian coast from Bodø and Fauske, you are sure to have that distinct feeling of having reached somewhere very far from civilisation. Narvik is the end of the line, and the spectacular Ofoten railway that runs over the mountains from Sweden (part of Route 29) is the northernmost rail journey included among the fifty routes in this book.

End of the line does not mean end of the road, and true adventurers can continue beyond Narvik to explore Norway’s two northernmost fylker (or counties): Troms (or Romsa in the Sámi language) and Finnmark (Finnmárku in Sámi). If you are tempted to head north from Narvik, don’t underestimate the formidable distances involved...

The Country Gazetteer

There is some information that is best presented on a country-by-country basis. In the gazetteer we give key data such as language, time zone and currency. For countries that feature in our 52 rail routes, we give additional travel information, which includes the countries' main rail operators. An overview of accommodation options and culinary hightlights rounds of each country description.

City Links

The comprehensive tables of city links in Europe by Rail show, for major cities on Europe’s rail network, the key facts about train travel between principal city pairs. City pairs may be linked by a direct overnight train service and/or by a daytime service. For all services we give a typical travel time (in hours and minutes). This allows you to quickly detect additional travel options while planning your trip through Europe by rail.

Connections

Previous editions of Europe by Rail had limited information on connecting options from principal waystations along a route. But starting with the 14th edition, we have greatly extended the coverage as well as the number of connections. This allows you to branch off a route or connect mid-way to another journey described in Europe by Rail. Connections are now a really powerful way of devising your own routes.