Your flight has a middle seat.
The train has the Alps.

Start where Europe ends — Lisbon's tiled facades and Atlantic sunsets — then ride north through Porto's wine cellars, across the green hills of Galicia, along the Basque coast to San Sebastián, and up through the vineyards of Bordeaux to Paris.

✨ San Sebastián pintxos bars & the Bordeaux wine train

Ride Eurostar under the Channel, sweep through Belgium's art nouveau cities, drift past Dutch canals and windmills, cross into Hamburg's harbour, then up through Denmark's islands to Copenhagen — and on by bridge to Malmö and Stockholm.

✨ The Øresund Bridge crossing from Denmark into Sweden

Berlin's raw energy gives way to Warsaw's resilient beauty, then Kraków's medieval grandeur. Cross into Bohemia for Prague's fairytale spires, and end in Budapest soaking in a thermal bath while barges drift down the Danube.

✨ The overnight sleeper from Warsaw to Prague — wake up in Bohemia

Start in Salzburg's baroque splendour, wind through Innsbruck's mountain bowl, then glide into Zurich on the Arlberg Express. Head south over the Gotthard into Italian-speaking Lugano, onward to Verona's Roman arena and Shakespeare streets, and finish at the waterways of Venice.

✨ The Gotthard Panorama Express — crossing the Alps into Ticino by rail and boat

Begin at Lake Geneva's arc of vineyards, ride east to Lausanne's Gothic cathedral, then climb into the Bernese Oberland for Interlaken's mountain panoramas. Cross the Alps via the Simplon corridor into Milan, pick up the Frecciarossa south through Florence's Renaissance heart to Rome's eternal city.

✨ The Simplon EuroCity — crossing the Alps from Brig into Italian-speaking Domodossola

Start where Italy points its heel — Bari's Norman castle and whitewashed trulli country — then ride the full length of the peninsula north on the Frecciarossa through Bologna and into Venice's lagoon. Cross the Brenner via the RailJet into Innsbruck's mountain bowl and finish among Salzburg's baroque domes and Vienna's grand boulevards.

✨ The Brenner corridor — RailJet climbing from the Venetian plain through the Brenner Pass at 1,371m

Start on the Côte d'Azur with Nice's Baroque old town, trace the coast to Marseille's Vieux-Port, then swing west through Toulouse's pink-brick squares. Cross the Pyrenees into Catalonia, dive into Barcelona's Gaudí universe, ride Spain's AVE to Madrid's museums, and finish in the Basque Country's pintxos capital San Sebastián.

✨ Crossing the Pyrenees by high-speed train — sea level to Spain in under 2 hours

Follow the old Hanseatic trade routes from Berlin's raw energy north to Hamburg's red-brick Speicherstadt, then west into the flat horizons of Groningen before descending through Amsterdam's canals and Antwerp's diamond quarter to Bruges' medieval perfection — where Europe's great lowland rail network is at its most dense.

✨ Amsterdam Centraal to Antwerp on the Thalys corridor — 45 minutes between two of Europe's great port cities

Begin with Bergen's colourful Bryggen waterfront after riding the legendary Bergensbanen over the Hardangervidda plateau. Drop into Oslo's architecture and fjords, then cross into Sweden for Stockholm's island city and Gothenburg's west-coast seafood. Finish in Copenhagen's cycling paradise — a full Nordic loop by rail.

✨ The Bergensbanen — 7.5 hours across Norway's high plateau, one of the world's most celebrated railway journeys

Vienna's coffeehouses and Ringstrasse give way to Salzburg's Mozart and mountain air, then the rail climbs north into Bohemia for Prague's golden spires. Make a day trip west to Pilsen — birthplace of Pilsner Urquell — before the overnight train carries you east to Kraków's medieval grandeur and Warsaw's phoenix spirit.

✨ Prague to Kraków overnight — wake up in Małopolska with a coffee and the Tatra mountains on the horizon