If you’re thinking about taking your first rail holiday, you might be wondering where to start! We’ve come up with a quick guide below with some ideas about how to choose the holiday that’s right for you and how our booking process works. 

If you have a question we haven’t answered, please let us know!

Choosing your trip

Obviously, the first step in choosing a holiday is thinking about where you’d like to go. With a bespoke rail holiday, the huge breadth of options can seem overwhelming – which is why we’ve put together a large selection of pre-planned itineraries so that you can see what kind of journeys are possible, how long they will take and what costs might be involved. 

Our itineraries are just a starting point though. If you see a holiday that goes to Lake Como via the Bernina Express but you think, I love the idea of the Bernina Express but I’d really like to end up at Lake Garda instead, we can adapt the itinerary for you.

Thinking about these questions may help narrow your search

  -Where do I want to visit? 

You can choose from over 130 holidays online, covering destinations from Morocco to the Arctic Circle and Turkey. We can also take you anywhere in Europe, Morocco, Tunisia, the USA or Canada with a station and hotel accommodation. A lot of our holidays focus on cities like Venice, Florence and Rome or Prague, Vienna and Budapest, but you can also go somewhere more rural to walk or choose a coastal resort to relax. 

  -How long do I want to be away? 

If you have plenty of time, you can travel further afield by rail (have a look at one of our epic journeys by rail)  or enjoy more stops along the way to your destination. If you have a shorter window for your trip, consider closer destinations like France, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland. Alternatively, you can fly in and out of the country you want to visit and save time that way. For example, we can easily offer our Norway in a Nutshell trip with a flight into Norway

  -Do I want to get to my destination(s) as quickly as possible? Or would I prefer the scenic route?

High speed trains lines and sleeper services across Europe mean that you can travel over a thousand miles relatively quickly by train. It’s possible to reach Italy or Spain from London in a day for example, if you’re happy to start out early and arrive late. But, certainly in the case of Italy, we’d recommend the slower route through one of the many mountain passes in the Alps so that you can combine bucket list places with spectacular vistas en route.

Of course, if you are looking for beautiful journeys in particular, our Scenic Rail Journeys selection of holidays gives you a good starting point and includes famous trains like the Glacier & Bernina Expresses, the Flam Railway and the Inlandsbanan in Sweden.  

  -Can I amend a holiday on the website?

Of course you can! We can extend nights in destinations or add new ones. We can upgrade your rail travel (or downgrade our first class itineraries). We can amend the routing if you’d like to stop somewhere different on the way. We can almost always help with hotels that aren’t on our website if you’ve seen one you like (as long as we are satisfied that they are of a good standard). We can also take your bespoke plans and turn them into a trip. We particularly welcome spreadsheets!

  -What if I need some help along the way?

We can also add private transfers if you would like them or tours and tickets. If you have general enquiries before or during your trip, you can always give us a call. And we have an emergency phone line in case the unexpected happens and you experience disruption to your journey. If you have particular mobility issues, please let us know and we can create an itinerary with support to suit your needs. 

  -How about escorted tours?

The majority of our holidays are for individuals, whether that’s solo travellers, couples, families or groups of friends. However, we do offer some escorted journeys for those who want to travel further afield but would prefer a helping hand along the way. Our Escorted Journey to Marrakech is the most popular of these and if you are subscribed to our newsletter, we’ll keep you posted about other ad hoc escorted journeys. Further afield, we have some exciting escorted holidays in South America and private train journeys, often aboard luxury trains like the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, where you’ll meet fellow passengers along the way. Our Uzbekistan holiday combines individual travel with private tours and transfers throughout. 

Confirming your holiday

When you send us an enquiry or call us, we’ll get some more details from you and then put together an initial quotation, based on your requirements. It’s likely that there will be some back and forth after this where we will tweak the itinerary until it’s exactly what you want. After that, if your departure date is more than three months away, we’ll take a 20% deposit to secure your booking and send you through a confirmation email with some initial information. 

Three months before your trip, we’ll take your balance and then around two to three weeks before, you’ll get your tickets. This will usually be a PDF pack by email with any paper tickets you need sent in the post. 

We’re here to help if you have any questions about your tickets or anything else. And then all that remains is to get packed and head off on holiday!

What will it be like?

For information about what to expect on your trip, you can have a look at our dedicated page, which includes tips about luggage, finding your train, reserved seats, onboard dining and more!  You can also take a look at our FAQs page.

For any other questions or to enquire about a holiday, get in touch! We look forward to hearing from you.