Affordable Train Travel in Eastern Europe and Finland

We explored several capital cities on a one-month European train trip. Here are some of the things we learned about booking our train travel through Germany, Czechia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland. We found some helpful travel apps and affordable options to stretch our travel budget.

Advantages of European Train Travel

Here are some of the advantages of train travel:

• The navigation is done for you. There are no parking hassles or traffic jams to deal with in a new city.
• Train stations are located in the heart of the city, so we were within walking distance of our accommodation and the historical districts we tend to explore.
• Every city we visited was a major transit hub with regular train service.
• Taking trains generates fewer emissions than other forms of travel
• Train travel is much easier on our 50+ bones. We appreciate the comfortable cushioned seat with a leg rest, easy access to snacks, washrooms and the ability to get up and move around.
• We enjoy travelling alongside locals as it provides more insight into daily life.

We prefer train travel to flights and buses because it’s more comfortable and often a more efficient.

Some of our views of the landscape…

Disadvantages of Train Travel

Travelling by train is not always the cheapest or the quickest method of transport.

Not all places have high-speed trains. We purposely booked daytime regional trains so we could see more of the countryside as we travelled. If we had wanted the quickest mode, we would have taken Flixbus coaches.

Sometimes trains can get delayed, but that only happened once on the Berlin-Prague segment. Since we were travelling within the EU, we knew we could access EU passenger rights regarding compensation for delayed travel.

Our Rail Route

We flew into and out of Berlin, Germany, from Canada, to begin our train trip.

We intended to begin our train travels in Prague, Czechia, but when Craig found a new direct flight to Berlin for a better price, we decided to start our train trip from Berlin instead.

Here’s where we travelled by train (and one ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki):

The Planning Process

Booking the Train Tickets

Once our flights were booked, Craig took the lead to connect all our destinations by train. Each country has different ticket release dates, and so it required vigilance to obtain all of our tickets. We actually booked our last train segment after we had left for the trip, because tickets were released only two weeks before travel. One of our segments was cancelled, and we had to rebook with an alternate train company.

We stayed two to five nights in each city along the way to break up the train rides. We took day trains so we could enjoy the changing landscapes.

We travelled in 1st class once, and the rest of the time we booked 2nd class seats. The trains were comfortable and reliable in every country we visited, so 2nd-class seats were all we needed.

Trainline and Omio Travel apps

As bookings became available, we organized our tickets using the travel apps:

• Trainline
• Omio

Both of these travel apps help to organize tickets. Prices are displayed in Canadian funds, and we can book tickets across multiple languages, train lines and countries. Most train lines allow you to scan the code on your phone rather than a paper copy. Paper copies were required for the Latvian and Estonian segments.

Our Train Schedule and Costs

Departure City	Train	class	Duration	cost (EU)	Cost in (CDN)
Berlin, Germany	RegioJet	1st	4h3m	€87.00	$140.63
Prague, Czechia	Leo Express	2nd	5h52m	€28.40	$45.99
Krakow, Poland	RegioJet	2nd	2h49m	€68.02	$109.94
Warsaw, Poland	PKP/ LTG Link	2nd	8h30m	€58.00	$93.75
Vilnius, Lithuania	LTG Link	2nd	4h39m	€48.00	$77.59
Riga, Latvia	LTG Link/ ELRON	2nd	6h15m	€61.40	$99.24
Tallinn, Estonia	ferry to Finland	2nd	2h30m	€38.00	$61.42
Helsinki, Finland	VR	2nd	1h53m	€19.64	$31.75
Tampere, Finland	VR	2nd	1h40m	€43.55	$70.40
Turku, Finland	VR	2nd	2h6m	€29.80	$48.17
			Total	€481.81	$778.88

I considered our ferry ride between Tallinn and Helsinki as a “water” train and included it in this chart. Buying our train tickets individually was much cheaper than buying an Interrail pass. We didn’t need to limit our train travel days. These tickets included reserved seats. We travelled on trains on 9 different days within a month. An Interrail pass for the two of us would have been $1560 CDN. We paid $780 CDN for the two of us to travel.

Accommodation Selection

Once we had our train tickets booked and our flight from Helsinki back to Berlin, we selected our accommodations within walking distance of the train stations in each city. We booked our accommodations with Expedia and Marriott for this trip. Most were hotels for a few nights in each city. We booked apartment stays, for 5 nights each, in Warsaw and Riga. This broke up the trip and allowed us to do laundry and cook our own meals. We do get restaurant fatigue when travelling for a month!

We enjoyed almost all of our choices. Here’s a link to all our favourite stays…

Travel Tips Learned

Here’s a quick summary of the tips we can share to help you book your next train trip:

• Use Trainline and or Omio to book train tickets for convenience. Interrail is not always cheaper!
• Once flights and train tickets are secured, consider booking accommodation near the station or the historic area.
• Search Expedia for highly rated places. When a cup of coffee costs 6 euros, the hotel breakfast buffet is sometimes worth it. Some of our accommodations included breakfast, which helped reduce our daily costs.
• Be flexible! Sometimes trains are delayed, or the platform can change with little notice. Be alert when waiting for each train. We found the signage changed in every country!
• If you are in the EU and your train is delayed more than an hour, use this site to receive compensation.
• Travel light! We each had a 7kg backpack and then did laundry as needed. It was much easier to travel and manage backpacks up and down the station stairs. It also made flights easier.

Some of the variety of train stations we saw along the way….

Are you up for a train adventure? Where would you like to explore? Feel free to contact me or comment below if you have questions about planning a train trip.