Europe By Train With Kids- A Two Week Itinerary

Our summer vacation

I’m over cars. Three kids in the back seat, needing the bathroom or a snack, having to stop fights, etc. The long car rides and traffic, the car sick kids in the back seat. One kid touches the sleeping baby, the other one yells at the one touching the sleeping baby, etc. And Switzerland (and Europe) has the most amazing train links I’ve ever seen. So it was an easy decision to visit 5 big European cities by train this summer instead of flying or driving.

My big idea is to only take the train from now on. And luckily we live in Europe where train travel is seriously amazing. So when I planned out our summer holidays, I scheduled 2 weeks visiting Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, and Salzburg by train. I was worried about the trains being crazy crowded with excited gap year kids with backpacks, but we found very empty cities with perfectly organized trains with seats for our whole family of 5.

Getting Started

I started by creating a spreadsheet in Google Docs. I wanted to spend at least 3 nights in each city. It’s summer after all and I didn’t want us rushing around. Also, we stayed in the center of each of these major cities so we didn’t mess around with any transportation once getting off the train. We chose places right next to great parks or major tourist attractions so we could easily see the city in the 3-4 days we had. I kept the spreadsheet as it had our cities, dates, train confirmations, prices, and accommodation confirmations.

Booking Train Tickets

Next I looked at the amazing website seat61.com to see what he recommended for booking train tickets for this journey. I literally followed his advice word for word and am so glad we did. There was a moment on a train from Vienna to Budapest where a few people with 1st class tickets hadn’t purchased 1st class seat assignments, so they didn’t have seats, they just had the ability to be in 1st class. They were very angry, and I understand. But if they had read this seat 61 blog, they would have seen they needed to purchase the ticket to the train and then purchase a specific seat reservation for the train. So definitely consult this website thoroughly as you book your European train travel.

I ended up booking each individual leg of our journey with reserved seats as it ended up cheaper for a family of 5 than buying one of those Eurail passes. I think I spent 600 Euros for all train transportation. But remember to book reserved seats.

Booking Accommodation

With our family of 5 I either book a rental house or apartment on AirBnB or Booking.com. I would love a lavish expensive 5 star hotel, but it wouldn’t give us that feeling of home and comfort that I love when traveling. Plus, we can’t afford it. I don’t look at hotels as they will either make us have two rooms which will be too expensive for us, or they will not accept a family of 5 in one room. So we book Airbnb’s (always) or kinderhotels (rarely, mainly just for sportferien in February or Christmas week so we can all get skiing and some much needed down time) to get that home away from home feeling while on vacation.

I love Airbnb’s because it feels like we are locals living right in the city. We always find a really great location for the kids either next to a famous park or a famous area they are supposed to just love. I love the bedrooms, kitchen and the space in an Airbnb versus a hotel. I want to feel like I’m home and that’s how all our Airbnb’s feel. We usually have coffee in the morning and the kids can watch a bit of morning television. We walk outside to the nearest cafe for breakfast, go grocery shopping so that we can come back after a long day out exploring and make dinner and watch a movie in the comfort of our little home away from home. I’ll list all of our accommodation for this holiday later.

Here’s our itinerary for 2 weeks:

Berlin 3 Nights

Zürich to Berlin 3 nights July 14-18

We took the 8pm overnight train from Zürich to Berlin overnight in a 6 bed couchette. This was a tight room with just enough room for the kids to be completely comfortable, but my husband and I couldn’t sit up in our beds. But, the idea is to sleep, so we all struggled into our pajamas and went straight to bed. There was not a bathroom in our room, but there is one right outside. There is breakfast in the morning, but it is so early we asked for no breakfast, but as we were exiting the train our steward gave us all orange juices and waters which was very nice. It’s an 11 hour overnight train. You leave at 8pm and sleep until it arrives around 7am.

Prague 4 Nights

Berlin to Prague 4 nights July 18-22
The rest of the trains are quite doable. It’s a 4 hour train from Berlin to Prague. We played UNO and listened to audiobooks.

Vienna 4 Nights

Prague to Vienna 4 nights July 22-26
It’s a 4 hour train from Prague to Vienna. We still played cards and listened to audiobooks.

Budapest 4 Nights

Vienna to Budapest 4 nights July 26-30
It’s a little over 3 hours from Vienna to Budapest.

Salzburg 1 Night

Budapest to Salzburg 1 night July 30-31
It’s a solid 5 hour train ride from Budapest to Salzburg

Zürich Return Home

Salzburg to Zürich July 31
It’s a 5 hour train ride from Salzburg to Zürich

Accommodation:

Berlin: This was the largest flat we rented this summer. Two bedrooms, pull out sofa, laundry, balcony, big kitchen, playpen for our baby to sleep in, and dining room. Plenty of space for us all to watch a movie together at night. It was right across from a shopping mall and a great coffee shop right next door. It was located right where the Berlin wall was separating East and West Germany. The Brandenburg Gate is a 5 minute walk as are a bunch of famous Berlin landmarks. Also, the underground is right at the doorstep. But it’s a super quiet location and high up in the building. I would definitely recommend this place and we would absolutely love to stay here again.

Prague: Location, location, location. This was by far the most incredible view of any place we have ever stayed. I would stay here again just for the view from the enormous balcony overlooking the Charles Bridge. We sat out here as much as we could playing UNO with coffee each morning or wine each night. There is a wonderful playground a block away, right under the bridge that our kids loved. And you can see it right from the balcony. The view from the back of the apartment is of the UNESCO world heritage Prague Castle. This place is amazing. It has one bathroom, two large beds, and a kitchen. Also, they included a playpen for our baby to sleep which was such a nice touch. We would definitely stay here again and suggest it for the incredible view.

Vienna: This AirBnB is located directly across the street from the Opera House, and Hotel Sacher, the famous chocolate cake place! Plus, it’s essentially on a pedestrian shopping street with everything you might need. This place has 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, laundry, kitchen, and a TV with enough shows for my kids to watch. They also liked the phones we could borrow to use while we were out and about. Since I had signed up for Project Fi we didn’t need the extra phones as I had data and cell coverage all over Europe which was wonderful.

Budapest: This Booking.com apartment was in the hip eating area of Budapest. We loved trying all the restaurants. There were two bedrooms, one bathroom, laundry, and a big balcony overlooking the city and a gorgeous church. And air conditioning! A total rarity in Europe.

Salzburg: We ran into a snag as I was planning this European vacation. August 1st is Swiss national day and my husband really likes to go on a big cycle that day and have a yummy brunch. So I shortened our stay in Salzburg to 1 night. Salzburg definitely needs a couple days and we will be back soon to have a better look at this cute city with so many churches. We stayed at this hotel as it had a pool and was located right near the train and the bicycle tour we were doing the next morning. The staff was very friendly and they gave us a wonderful family room with enough room for all 5 of us which is nearly unheard of! Great option for families.

What Would I Do Differently

I would add a few days to Salzburg.

What Would I Do Again

I would do the entire trip again. I absolutely loved the ease of going by train. No one was stressed. My husband didn’t need to carry the burden of driving the whole time while I had to manage the back seat fighting and potty breaks and food breaks. The train made absolutely everything easier. We didn’t have to search for parking or sit in traffic or find our AirBnB in a car and get lost. It was absolutely wonderful.

Each train station we arrived at had everything we might need to grab before heading to our next house. I thought that Budapest with its thermal spas and swimming for the kids was great to break up the city tours and bicycle tours. Also, the pool in Salzburg also helped cool them off and have some fun before the long train ride home. I think those small simple things make a big difference on a happy kid. Also, the dinner and a movie nights were wonderful family time.

The girls each had a wheely suitcase they could carry themselves from the AirBnB’s to the main train station each time. They are 9 and 7 years old and are used to carrying their own bags by now.

Are You Planning A Train Trip?

Please let me know if you have any questions about traveling Europe by train with kids. I was so nervous before we left and I couldn’t be happier with how it went. I think just a bit of planning made it an absolutely amazing trip. And we didn’t plan any on the ground activities before we got there. We just played each day by ear. Except, we did book the Fraulein Maria’s Sound Of Music Cycling Tour ahead of time as we had such a short amount of time in Salzburg. I would highly recommend that cycling tour as you get off the bikes quite a lot and the scenery is absolutely fantastic.