The New Grand Tour: Europe's Most Underrated Train Journeys for 2026
There is a particular kind of smugness that comes with watching another airport terminal blur past your window at 200 miles per hour. Not the frantic, shoe-removing, gate-sprinting smugness of aviation. Something quieter. The smugness of someone who chose the train.
Europe's rail network has always been there, of course. What's changed is who's using it. In the past three years, a combination of flight shame, soaring airfares and a genuine rediscovery of slowness has pushed a new generation of traveller onto the tracks. The irony is that many of the most spectacular journeys are ones that travellers have walked straight past for decades.
You arrive in the city centre, not a field fourteen miles outside it.
Start with the Bernina Express, which winds from Chur in Switzerland to Tirano in Italy through terrain that genuinely does not look real. Glaciers, viaducts, hairpin
Europe's rail network has always been there, of course. What's changed is who's using it. In the past three years, a combination of flight shame, soaring airfares and a genuine rediscovery of slowness has pushed a new generation of traveller onto the tracks. The irony is that many of the most spectacular journeys are ones that travellers have walked straight past for decades.
You arrive in the city centre, not a field fourteen miles outside it.
Start with the Bernina Express, which winds from Chur in Switzerland to Tirano in Italy through terrain that genuinely does not look real. Glaciers, viaducts, hairpin
curves through alpine meadows. The entire route is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which sounds like marketing until you're actually on it staring open-mouthed at the Landwasser Viaduct.
Further south, the Douro Valley line in Portugal follows the river through terraced vineyards from Porto to Pocinho. It is not fast. It stops at stations you will never find on any top-ten list. That is entirely the point. There is a very good argument that this is the most beautiful train journey in western Europe, and almost nobody outside Portugal knows it exists.
For those who prefer cities to countryside, the overnight trains are back. The European Sleeper now connects Brussels, Amsterdam and Prague. You board in the evening, have dinner in the dining car, sleep in a proper couchette and arrive in the morning refreshed and already in the centre of wherever you're going. You haven't had to rise at 4am. You haven't eaten a triangular sandwich. You arrive in the city centre, not a field fourteen miles outside it.
Further south, the Douro Valley line in Portugal follows the river through terraced vineyards from Porto to Pocinho. It is not fast. It stops at stations you will never find on any top-ten list. That is entirely the point. There is a very good argument that this is the most beautiful train journey in western Europe, and almost nobody outside Portugal knows it exists.
For those who prefer cities to countryside, the overnight trains are back. The European Sleeper now connects Brussels, Amsterdam and Prague. You board in the evening, have dinner in the dining car, sleep in a proper couchette and arrive in the morning refreshed and already in the centre of wherever you're going. You haven't had to rise at 4am. You haven't eaten a triangular sandwich. You arrive in the city centre, not a field fourteen miles outside it.
The costs are more competitive than most people assume. A first-class sleeper cabin for two from Amsterdam to Prague costs roughly the same as two return flights once you factor in luggage fees, transfers and a city-centre hotel for the night you would otherwise have needed. The experience is not comparable. The train wins.
Rail travel also offers something no airport can: arrival as part of the journey. Rolling into Santa Lucia station in Venice by water taxi after a night on the rails is a different category of experience from tumbling out of a Ryanair gate. The journey is not a necessary inconvenience to be endured. It is the first thing you will tell people about.
Rail travel also offers something no airport can: arrival as part of the journey. Rolling into Santa Lucia station in Venice by water taxi after a night on the rails is a different category of experience from tumbling out of a Ryanair gate. The journey is not a necessary inconvenience to be endured. It is the first thing you will tell people about.
If you have not yet booked a European train journey, this is the year to do it. Interrail passes, individual route tickets and sleeper upgrades can all be found through the WPP Elevate travel portal, where members have access to exclusive discounts on rail travel across Europe.
WPP ELEVATE MEMBER OFFER
Exclusive discounts on European rail travel, including Eurail and My Trainpal tickets, are available to members through your members hub.
Log in to explore your benefits, or not yet a member signup https://elevaterewards.worldprivilegeplus.com/
WPP ELEVATE MEMBER OFFER
Exclusive discounts on European rail travel, including Eurail and My Trainpal tickets, are available to members through your members hub.
Log in to explore your benefits, or not yet a member signup https://elevaterewards.worldprivilegeplus.com/
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