Annette

What is the longest daytrip by train you have taken and was it worth it? For instance, I picked up a library book which recommends a train daytrip to Salzburg from Vienna. In a similar vein, how far will you travel in a day?

dan woodlief

My longest by train was Interlaken to Luzern and then on to Bern for the night's stay. I don't remember the exact time. I think it was about two hours to Luzern and then another hour or more to Bern. My longest daytrip period was by bus from Cancun to Chichen Itza (second class bus took in the neighborhood of 4 hours) and then on to Merida for one night. Both were well worth it. I would probably travel up to 10 hours total to see a great object. However, for daytrips to cities or towns I try to keep it to 2 hours or less each way so that I have time to explore. I almost always take the earliest possible train when going on a daytrip.

elaine

I guess mine was London-York. That's as far as I'd want to go in one day, because I had barely enough time to see the highlights of York, and I definitely want to go back to spend more time in York and Yorkshire. I don't regret the daytrip though, at least I got a taste. <BR> <BR>I think the time and distance also depends on how long you have in the <BR>base city. I was willing to devote a whole day and into the early evening to York because I'd been to London before, and felt I could spare the time on that trip. On a first trip to a base city, and with limited time, I might not want to spend more than half a day on an excursion, or perhaps not any time at all outside of the base city if I wanted to do it justice.

WJI

Don't know if you put this in a daytrip category, but mine is from London to Edinburgh & back. Take a sleeper train from London, which leaves about 10:30pm or so, arrive in Edinburgh about 6am or so. Tour some sites & take catch the train back to London at about 4pm or 5pm. & back to our London hotel about 10pm. Have done this 3 or 4 times, & we actually never check out of our London hotel. Leave all our luggage there & just take a day pack with us to Edinburgh. But usually the longest out & back trip we take in the same day is about 2hrs by train, such as when we go from London to Cardiff, or London to Nottingham.

kam

Our longest was London-Stratford. Too much to see in Stratford and we felt cheated of time. Went back two years ago and specifically overnighted in Stratford. Good visit that time and we are satisfied. Guess it depends on how much there is to see and do you want to see it all.

wes fowler

Annette, <BR>Our longest day trip by train involved a trip from Vienna to Budapest and return. Left Vienna at 9AM, arrived in Budapest at noon (on the Orient Express, no less), had lunch, took a guided tour of the city via bus, strolled about in Buda, sat at a sidewalk cafe or two and returned to Vienna at 7PM on the "Franz Lehar" arriving in Vienna at about 9:45PM after dining on the train. Second class ticket cost 578 Schillings, about $42.00. <BR> <BR>Interesting experience in the dining car. We were delighted by our Hungarian waiter. When asked if the soup on the menu was good, he replied in excellent English. "Exactly like that your mother makes - right out of a can!" At the end of our meal I complimented him on his English. "You speak excellent English", said I. "So do you", said he. <BR> <BR>Would I do it again? Probably. All of my traveling in Europe is usually done by auto. Traveling from a large cosmopolitan city to another dictated train travel rather than auto to avoid the possibility of traffic congestion and parking problems.

Ben Haines

Fodors <BR> <BR>Dear Ms Sturdevant, <BR> <BR>Yes: I'd say four hours might be a fair limit. But the moment you consider a sleeper outward and a sleeper back, as Mr Irving sensibly does, you get huge ranges. Not just London to Edinburgh but London to Fort William or Inverness, right up north. Not just Salzburg to Vienna but Vienna to Transylvania. Or how about a Swedish sleeper to theArctic Circle from Goteborg with a cinema car, or from Stockholm with a panorama car ? Or an Itsalian sleeper from Milan to Palermo, with breakfast on board the train ferry at Messina. Include nights, and Europe's your oyster. <BR> <BR>Ben Haines, London <BR> <BR> <BR>

Walter

London-Brussels on the Eurostar (3.5hr? in '97). Last minute decision for a Sunday daytrip *only* because I wanted to go thru the Channel Tunnel, which fascinated me as an engineering miracle. Arrived in Brussels with no guidebooks/maps/ideas just changed money and bought a metro pass and when exploring. Still don't know what I saw or where I went. Regards, Walter <BR>

Lori

I think ours was London-York as well, and like Elaine we've been to London many times so a long day trip out of town did not make us feel like we were missing something "in town". I do not think I'd care to do anything over 2.5 hours as it does not leave you a lot of time for your destination. Within a two hour radius of mosts European cities you can see some wonderful sights so why push yourself to the limit? I like remembering what I saw

kathy

Do any of you seasoned travellers think the Vienna to Salzburg day trip would be worth the effort? It is something that i was thinking of doing also.

Tony

Kathy.. <BR> <BR>I did your planned trip in reverse once, from Salzburg to Vienna for a day trip. I still regret leaving my luggage in Salzburg, as I would have liked to stay in Vienna longer. <BR>The trip is definitely doable, there is at least one express train per hour, taking about three and a quarter hours each way and there are good dining/buffet cars on them, so you can save some time by eating on the trains, which I always enjoy, even if it is'nt the best value for money deal. <BR>However my advice to you would be that if you are in Vienna, stay in and around that city - it is much better than Salzburg, and has a lot more to offer. Why waste 7 or 8 hours travelling to Salzburg, when most of Salzburg's real attractions are out of town anyway. <BR>The train ride itself is'nt particularly scenic by the direct route apart from the stretch through the Vienna Woods area, shortly after leaving Vienna. Better to do a Vienna Woods tour or Danube cruise IMHO.

elvira

Longest (tied for first place) were London&lt;&gt;Paris via Eurostar and Paris&lt;&gt;Brussels via Thalys, about 3 1/2 hours each. Definitely worth it, BUT I had been to both cities several times before, and had a purpose in mind on both trips. Definitely would have felt cheated if I had only one day, first time, to either city. I felt that way when I did a day trip London&lt;&gt;Swansea, and vowed to spend a lot more time in Wales the next time.

Lee

Annette: Longest day trip? It would be Frankfurt to Paris for me. <BR> <BR>I worked in Frankfurt and lived in Morfelden. Maybe four couples left Friday evening from Morfelden bahnhof to Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof and on to Paris arriving at dawn. We went to breakfast and stopped at a friends apartment to shower and change. Off we went: Eiffel Tower, Louvre' (couldn't really even call it a visit), Notre Dame, Arc d' Triomphe, Montremarte and dinner and show at the Moulin Rouge. We took the Metro to the train station and headed back to Frankfurt, arriving the next morning at home. <BR> <BR>The reason we couldn't stay was several of us were going on a site trip on Sunday and would be gone for a few weeks. We just wanted a good "send off". What a trip, it was just a blur!

lorraine

i have done aberdeen,london a few times 8-10 hrs its fine, take a book,crosswords , chat to people. <BR>10-11 hr trains several times lsat yr in scandinavia, again enjoy , its no grt hardship, take night trains , saves time and accommodation costs, very comfy. <BR>night train 8 hrs in indonesia, took a spot on the floor. <BR>13hrs by train rangoon to mandilay burma, very hard wooded seat. <BR>night buses long time but only a very short space of time in your life. <BR>get out there and just DO IT !!

Diane Moll

10 hours from Madrid to Barcelona! After flying from Washington, D.C. to Madrid, we proceeded to catch a bus to the train station, and from there spent the next 10 hours on a "local" train to Barcelona, never again! Several times along the way the train just stopped in the middle of nowhere and we all got out and roamed around for 20 minutes or so, then back on. We were visiting my husband's cousin who moved to Barcelona from Vermont, this was not my idea of fun, although we have gotten much better over the years on how to travel a lot more efficiently, in part, thanks to the wonderful people on this forum.

Bob Brown

The train ride between Salzburg and Vienna West takes over 3 hours. One train is a little faster than the others because it cuts out one stop. But still you can think in terms of 7 hours on the train to make a round trip to Salzburg. <BR>If you left at 6:35 AM, you would not get to Salzburg until 9:55. <BR>Then to return you could leave at 5:30 PM and get back to Vienna West at 9:00 PM. That gives you 7.5 hours to look around Salzburg. I think Salzburg is worth a little more time than that. <BR>But, if that is the only way you can squeeze it in, then I think it would be a shame to miss Salzburg all together. <BR>But you would spend as much time on the train as you would seeing Salzburg. <BR>We tried a similar trip from Interlaken to Luzern and return. We spend 6 hours on the train and about that much in Luzern. I am not sure it is worth it. <BR>

ttt

ttt<BR>

Patrick

Several years ago we were in Munich for just three days. My partner who is a car nut saw in the newspaper that the big car show was on in Frankfurt. We took the ICE train to Frankfurt for the day -- 3 and a half hours each way. They were just starting a new early morning run (something like 5:45 AM, I think) so that business people could arrive in Frankfurt in time for work. They rolled out red carpets for the first class cars and as we sat in reclining seats they served us a huge and wonderful breakfast. It was a great trip, free to us as we were on a first class Eurrail pass at the time.<BR>The car show was sort of a bust as they didn't have any of the cars the paper said they were going to have (the brand new BMW Z-3 and a Porsche Boxster before it was released) but it was fun anyway and the train trip itself was a great adventure. The only bad part was we lost one of our limited days in Munich -- which is why we are finally getting back there next summer.<BR><BR>Normally I don't like to do over about 2 hours each way for a day trip unless the ride itself is more of an adventure -- through the alps, etc.

Ben Haines

I agree with 11:14 in his or her reply to 10:56.<BR><BR>Ben Haines

Laura

Me, too Ben!