Before I start with the Custom Itinerary, I would like to highlight the Ready-made Itinerary by SOTC. Now this trip covers 6 Europen countries in 11 days. Besides, these guys know where to put us up if we like Indian cuisine, closest shopping destinations, major attractions etc...Here is the details.
Moving on to our own Road/Rail trip, the biggest challenge is the Starting Point which, should be affordable by air from across locations and should not be something that we will pass through twice as a part of our Itinerary. So here's the pick from India...either Zurich or London. As i write this, Zurich is going for 32K and London for 28K. The flipside is, if you are travelling from US, it makes no difference, the cost is approx. $ 1000 round-trip
Once we have landed in Zurich or London, the next set of trips is going to be essentially via trains (high-speed and first class mind you) which is the best bet and the most exciting way to explore Europe. Now there are 2 types of trains that run in and out of Europe. One is the Eurostar that shuttles between 3 countries only, London-Paris-Brussels and then there is TGV rail Network that travels to 6 countries, 60 destinations within Europe (minus London). Now both Eurostar and TGV are like partners and if you plan a trip to say from London to Cannes (France), you will first travel Eurostar till Paris and then switch to TGV for the train to Cannes
Now these rail trips can be made buying individual tickets off the window or buy rail passes, these passes make sense for different reasons. Most importantly, these passes should be bought online coz it will cost us in US dollars versus the expensive Euros when we buy it in Europe. One of the most populare rail passes is the Eurail and the best pass for us could be the Select Saver* Pass. The cheapest is $ 429 (per person) for a 5 day train travel in 2 Months in 3 bordering countries. Honestly, I think even this is expensive considering there is still Hotel charges, local transport for sight-seeing, F&B for each of the 3 countries we need to figure out
So the next question, where do we start and are do we end, that depends on what air tickets you choose as a round-trip and as you know when you go for a promotional offer from the airlines, it is always round-trip. In this case, either London or Zurich. Also, considering the above pass which allows us to travel only 3 countries within Europe, the route can be Zurich (Switzerland)-Italy-France-Zurich.
If it is London, then the route can be London-Paris (remember, the Eurail pass doesn't apply here, this is extra cost) after Paris, the choices are wide open. It could be any 3 countries starting from Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg. There are other countries like Spain, Netherlands, Ireland that are way too off the main countries. Check out the MAP...
Here is the travel time between each of these countries...to their main cities
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