Tracks Across Europe: 7 Weeks Exploring Europe by Train

 

Welcome! Now, we are no experts on international travel (as you may know if you've been following our Australian Travels), but, I know how long it took me to plan this trip! So if I can help you at least get your trip or route started, then I am happy. This was Keelan's first time visiting Europe, so I really wanted to show him all the touristy places which you have to see once in your lifetime (eg Colosseum), but also visit some of the smaller coastal towns of Europe. We feel like we did a good mix of this, but we already know that next time we visit Europe we would be comfortable with taking the "road less travelled".

We chose to catch the train around Europe after lots of research and reading that it was one of the easiest ways to get around Europe. There's no getting to the airport a few hours early & wasting all that time, you just jump on the train. The trains are high-speed, so they get you from point to point quickly! You also have the option to get on & off throughout the day to explore towns (you just have to pre-plan that and book your tickets accordingly). We had a Eurail pass and had the Greek Islands Pass & a Global Pass, which we will explain further on in the blog. We were so nervous about catching the train because it was all very new to us, but it is honestly easy!!

7-week Itinerary

DAY	LOCATION	ACTIVITIES
1	DEPART PERTH, AUSTRALIA	TRAVEL: Australia, Perth - Greece, Athens
2	ARRIVE ATHENS, GREECE	- Acropolis of Athens, Athina 105 58, Greece
3	Athens - Mykonos STAY: Mykonos Town	- 7am Ferry (Arrive 12) Afternoon: - Eat as many Gyros as possible while you’re in Greece, it is the best street food you’ll ever have! We loved Jimmys Gyros. - Windmills on the hill - Panachra Church - Panagia Paraportiani Church - Dinner & drinks in Little Venice at sunset
4	Mykonos	- Roam the streets in the early morning, it’s so peaceful. - Paradise Beach Club - Check out the beaches on the peninsula between Paragka Beach & Paradise Beach, so many rockpools!
5	Mykonos - Paros STAY: Naoussa	Arrive Lunchtime - Hire a moped or quad to get around the island. We used the moped to explore the different villages and go beach hopping. - Explore Naoussa and the north of the island.
6	Paros	- Take the ferry to Antiparos Island - if you have a moped take it across on the barge, this would make it super easy for getting around. We took the bus and we wished we had a moped. There are so many pretty beaches.
7	Paros	Road-trip to Parikia on the western side of Paros & visit the mountain Villages (Lefkes, Prodromos, Marmara, Marpissa, Piso Livada). We loved Lefkes, the views were incredible from up there & the town was peaceful.
8	Paros - Santorini STAY: Fira	Ferry 11:00 - 15:10 - Hire a moped or quad to get around the island. It’s perfect for beach hopping! - Take a walk around Fira & watch the sunset along the cliffs of Santorini. We walked away from the crowds and winded down the little streets until we found ourselves the perfect little spot to watch it alone. It’s very possible to find a quiet spot! The Karavolades Stairs looked like a nice & quiet spot to watch the sunset with some takeaway.
9	Santorini	- Hike the Fira to Oia walk! It is just over 10km with a mix of paved, streets & dirt trails. Start this one in the early morning while it is cool & a bit quieter.
10	Santorini	- Beach-hopping on the moped/quad: We loved Red Beach & Kamari Beach.
11	Santorini - Naples Naples - Sorrento  STAY: Sorrento	Travel Day: Flight: Santorini (JTR) - Naples Capodichino (NAP) Train or Ferry: Naples - Sorrento - Explore Sorrento & have dinner in town & then take a walk along the cliffs on sunset.
12	Sorrento	DAY-TRIP: Ferry or Bus to Positano & Amalfi. The day we went was too rough for the ferry so we took the bus and it was crazy busy. We had to stand squished in the aisle for 1.5 hours, and it was not comfortable. If you can afford it, just book a day-trip. Otherwise, it was 100% worth it! - Make sure you try Lemon Sorbet & a Panini sandwich in Positano Sorrento: Blue Grotto
13	Sorrento - Rome STAY: ROME	- Spend the morning walking around Sorrento, we LOVED it here. Bus & Train: 3pm - 6pm (3 hours)
14	Rome	- Vatican - Colosseum - Trevi Fountain - Spanish Steps
15	Rome - Florence STAY: Florence	- Try to get a late check-out to do something in Rome in the morning Train - 1 hour 40 minutes - Rest Day
16	Florence	- Explore Florence - We just cruised the streets; we didn't have any spots picked to see & it was the best. Make sure you get a foccacia!! They are delicious, we skipped the place with the huge line and went next door, and it was incredible.
17	Florence
18	Florence - La Spezia STAY: LA SPEZIA	Train - 2 hours - We split our train up & stopped in Pisa on the way to La Spezia. There is a bus from the station straight to Pisa so it wasnt an issue having our bags with us. We only want to go look and then keep going so it worked really well for us. - Walk into town for dinner - there is so many amazing seafood restaurants here!
19	La Spezia	- Cinque Terre Villages - Getting the train between the villages was super easy & most are only a 5-10minute ride apart 👌 We were able to hop off & explore and when we were ready to leave we could just book our next tickets through the Eurail app so we didn’t have to wait in line to purchase tickets, it made it so easy! We explored Riomaggiore, Manarola, Vernazza & Monterosso. Our favs were Manarola & Vernazza ❤️
20	La Spezia	- Palmaria Island Tour
21	La Spezia
22	La Spezia - Nice Ville STAY: NICE VILLE	Travel Day: Train - 6 hours
23	Nice	- Explore Nice
24	Nice	- Day trip to Monaco (20 min train)
25	Nice - Barcelona STAY: BARCELONA	Travel Day: Train - 9.5 hours: 8:00 - 16:33 LIMITED SEATS - Book in advance
26	Barcelona	We LOVED Barcelona, it was so chilled out & relaxed. We spent most of our days just roaming the streets with no real plan, it was perfect. - Barcelona beaches - Ancient cathedrals - Basilica de la Sagrada Familia - Casa Batllo - Random, but the big shopping centre near the Marina has the best food! It was called Time Out Market.
27	Barcelona
28	Barcelona - Valencia STAY: VALENCIA	Train: 3 hours Another city we LOVED!!
29	Valencia	- Mercat Central de Valencia - Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias & Museo de las Ciencias Príncipe Felipe - Metropolitan Cathedral–Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady of Valencia - Beach: Playa de la Malvarrosa
30	Valencia	- Montserrat (Day-trip - we didn't do this, but it looked amazing)
31	Valencia - Madrid STAY: MADRID	Train - 2 hours Check out this blog on 1-day in Madrid: https://laurenonlocation.com/one-day-madrid/
32	Madrid - Seville STAY: OLD TOWN SEVILLE	Train - 3 hours - Seville Cathedral - Giralda - Live Flamingo Dancing
33	Seville	- Optional day trips: Malaga & Granada (we ended up skipping these as we loved Seville so much and just wanted to spend our time there).
34	Seville	- Day-trip to Jerez to see the Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art - we caught the train & walked to the school, make sure you book your ticket there & back a day or two before. We caught the 7:30am train there & were ready to come home by 2/3pm.
35	Seville
36	Seville - Lagos STAY: CARVI BEACH, LAGOS	Travel Day: Bus - 5 hours (Once we got to Portugal, we started using buses as you couldn't book trains online in Portugal and had to go to a station. It was easier for us to book the buses & not waste time going to a station and lining up. We also found that some of the buses were actually faster than the regional trains. It was a good way of getting around Portugal & really cheap.)
37	Lagos	- Explore Lagos town - Walk the coastal walk from Carvi Beach Hotel to Ponta da Piedade, stopping at all the beaches along the way. - Hire kayaks and explore the beaches near Carvi Beach Hotel.
38	Lagos	SURF: - Take a bus to Sagres at the southwestern tip on Portugal.  - Day trip to Praia do Amado (1 hour bus)
39	Lagos - Lisbon Santa Apolonia Station STAY: ROSSIO, LISBON	Travel Day: Bus - 5 hours - Lisbon is another really cool city! Loved it here.
40	Lisbon	- Pink street - Praca do Comercio - National Tile Museum - Lisbon Cathedral - Santa Justa Lift - Tram 28 - we actually didnt do this because the line was way too long. We bought tickets, lined up for an hour and then ditched the line because it was wasting our day. So be warned haha there is tours you can book that take a similar tram line. - Visit the Zara store - apparently the biggest store in Europe. I didn't know this when i went in and I was telling Keelan about how big it was and then saw on TikTok people saying its the biggest store in Europe! Its literally 4 levels! Crazy.
41	Lisbon	- Surf at Praia Grande  - Day-trip to Sintra
42	Lisbon - Peniche  STAY: PRAIA DA CONSOLACAO	Bus: 2 hours - This was where our trip turned into a surf trip & we were not mad about it. Peniche is the coolest little Portugese town & home to some of the best waves in the country. - We hired a Moped from a local guy "Road & Rent" which was the perfect way to get around. Places to explore: - Cabo Carvoeira Lighthouse (Drive along the coastal road and do a loop of Peniche, lots of pretty spots) - Baleal (Very cool spot, we went for drinks & sunset here and the bar is on the sand) - Beaches: Praia da Almagreira, Supertubos, Praia da Consolacao.
43	Peniche	- Day-trip to Nazare (Bus: 1 hour 18 min)
44	Peniche	SURF
45	Peniche	SURF
46	Dargorda Peniche - Porto Sao Bento STAY: PORTO	Travel day: Bus - 5 hours
47	Porto	- You MUST go to Tapas da Batalha - owned by a local couple & they make the most delicious Steak Sandwich & Sangria cocktails - they are out of this world good!! - Porto Cathedral - Cais da Ribeira - Miradouro da Vitoria - Porto was another city we just roamed around, it is stunning.
48	Porto
49	PORTO AIRPORT	Flight home to Australia from OPO (OPO), Francisco Sa Carneiro

Train Travel Tips

As we mentioned above, we had a Eurail Pass to book all our train tickets with. The Eurail Pass includes the cost of all your tickets, however, you still need to pay for seat reservations on some trains.

Once we had planned our itinerary we were able to put it into the Eurail planner & book all our tickets through the app. This made it super easy when we were in Europe as we could just book our tickets a day or two before and choose the times we wanted to travel, it also saved us having to buy tickets from the train stations which had huge lines. The ticket fees are included in the Eurail Pass, you just have to pay for seat reservations on some trains which vary in prices. Sometimes you can choose the train that takes a little longer & not have to pay for a reservation. All your reservations are booked online. The same is for the Greek Island Ferries, there are ferries running from most islands everyday. While it feels daunting when you first see the crowds to get onto the ferries it very easy! When you are booking online, there is a little section that asks for your Eurail pass and you put the details in and it covers the cost. We booked most of ours through Hellenic & Blue Star ferries.

We were super nervous about navigating the train stations & being in non-english speaking countries. Usually, most people speak English, or a little English & we were able to communicate with them. In the case when they didn't speak English we used Google Translate, and it worked perfectly (for that reason alone, we would recommend having eSims with data). There are signs everywhere in stations and they are all written in English.

Watch our Europe Travel Vlog here:

 

 

Honestly, Europe is incredible and we highly recommend everyone sees it! The history & architecture is nothing like what we have in Australia and it blows you away!! We already want to go back and road-trip through Spain & Portugal in a van, it would be epic! We hope that this has helped plan your Europe adventure. It was a jam-packed trip, but we wanted to see as much as possible in the time we had there.

Remember... Money comes and goes, but memories last forever!!

 

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