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Travel + Leisure
17-05-2025
- Travel + Leisure
This Weeklong, Food-focused Train Ride Through Europe Was an Unexpected Way to Taste My Way Through the Region
There's a kind of magic to watching a landscape roll by through a train window—villages, vineyards, and mountains unfolding like a slow-motion film. In springtime, there are trees heavy with fruit blossoms and bright yellow rapeseed fields. Plus, there's plenty of space to stretch your legs and time to visit the cafe car for a cappuccino. In April, I had the chance to rediscover Europe—not just as a food lover, but as a traveler craving deeper connection. With a Eurail Pass on my phone and a week of train travel ahead of me, I boarded in Paris with two goals: to taste my way across five cities and three countries, and to slow down my brain to the pace required to enjoy gazing out windows, making train friends, and reading my long, juicy novel. My journey began in Paris and swept through Reims, Mainz, Freiburg, and Zurich, offering glimpses of Europe's rich agricultural heartlands and vibrant food scenes. Along the way, I met farmers, chefs, and makers whose lives revolve around the land and seasons. Instead of airports and taxis, my travel time became part of the story—reading, writing, and daydreaming in sun-drenched train cars, and arriving in the city center ready to explore. Eurail (called Interrail for Europeans) acts as a synthesizer of Europe's train lines, connecting travelers to 30,000 destinations across 33 countries. In 2024, the top cities visited via Eurail were Milan, Zurich, and Rome. But one of my favorite parts about train travel is how it brings you to less popular destinations. All it takes is a Eurail Pass to hop on a train to Plovdiv in Bulgaria, with its ancient Roman theater nestled into the hillside, or Aarhus, Denmark's second city that feels like a coastal secret. Pro tip: The Eurail app also includes a great trip planner. Even if you don't purchase a pass, you can browse routes and scope out destinations. Hannah visiting vineyards of Champagne Augustin in Reims, France. Hannah Howard/Travel + Leisure Our first stop, Reims, was steeped in history. We dropped our bags at the Continental Hotel—just across from the train station—and explored the High Gothic Notre-Dame de Reims Cathedral before hopping a commuter train to Champagne Augustin, a biodynamic vineyard tucked into the hills of Avenay. I wandered among vines awakening for spring and learned how nature and astrology lead the way here, alongside gigantic crystals stationed in the barrel room and vineyards. Emmanuelle and Marc Augustin, who come from nine generations of winemakers, run the operation with their sons, Maxence and Arthur. We tasted eight of their Champagnes with Maxence. The wines tasted of minerals and life and something deeply rooted in the soil. 'We respect the juice, we listen to the juice, and in return, it gives us so much,' Maxence said. All of those bubbles made me hungry. L'Extra, in an elegant 1920s art deco building, is worth a stop. The restaurant is committed to inclusive hiring practices, offering training and career paths for people with disabilities. I was awed by a silky octopus terrine and a perfect cube of foie gras with candied hazelnuts. Apple tasting at Appel Happel in Mainz, Germany. Hannah Howard/Travel + Leisure It took almost a whole day on three trains to travel from Reims to Mainz, swerving back through Paris. The fruit blossoms were in full glory, foreshadowing our visit to Appel Happel, a multigenerational apple farm. The air smelled of blossoms and cider. Owner Ilonka Happel walked us through apple, pear, and plum orchards, led an apple tasting, and poured glasses of homemade boozy cider. We wandered through Mainz, stopping at a parkside party for graduating medical students and the Gutenberg Museum, which explores the history of printing and Mainz native Johannes Gutenberg. Dinner at Pankratz was nothing short of revelatory: sourdough from their own starter, smoky trout grilled over an open hearth, and vegetables just pulled from their garden. An all-German cheese plate for dessert was a standout—especially a raw milk, mushroomy beauty that oozed onto the plate. The meal celebrated hyperlocal sourcing and deep reverence for ingredients. Brunfels Hotel had spacious rooms and a delicious breakfast to enjoy before heading back to the train. White asparagus season at the the Freiburg Münstermarkt and Hannah enjoying a beer with a friend at the Freiburg biergarten. Hannah Howard/Travel + Leisure In Freiburg, Germany's Black Forest city, I spent a morning roaming the Münstermarkt, held in the town square since the 16th century. With 150 vendors, the market brimmed with wild garlic, alpine cheese, local wine, and hand-milled flours. It was the height of asparagus season, and white and green stalks were everywhere, lined up from pencil-thin to impressively fat. With its cobblestone streets, colorful facades, and water-filled Bächle trickling through the Old Town, Freiburg feels like stepping into a fairy tale. It's compact and walkable, with cafes on every corner and ivy-covered alleyways that invite lingering. At the market, I was handed a slice of freshly baked rye bread topped with herbed quark, and a pot of raspberry pudding. It wasn't just a market; it was the city's heartbeat. One of the market's regenerative beef farmers, Isa Blattmann, joined us for lunch at Adelhaus, an organic vegetarian spot with standout herbed spätzle. 'Farming can be isolating,' she said. 'The market gives us community and connection.' I loved sipping a lager at Kastaniengarten, a beer garden filled with families, first dates, and friends playing cards, and watching the sun set over Freiburg's rooftops. Our final stop was Zurich. At Umami, an urban vertical farm in a nondescript office building, we saw microgreens grown under LED lights and fueled by energy from fish—a futuristic approach to feeding cities. We blind-tasted the zingy microgreens—The only one I got right were the spicy mustard greens. That night, at Restaurant Freilager, those same greens topped roasted beets, paired with smoked ricotta and biodynamic Swiss wine. What struck me most about train travel wasn't just the ease (no baggage claims, no security lines), but how it fostered intimacy—with people, place, and myself. I had time to write in my journal. My friend struck up a conversation with a sweet French man who shared his canelés with us. I met a grandma from California. I even finished that novel. The Eurail Pass let us move seamlessly across borders and languages. It made Europe feel expansive and accessible at once. It also made the journey—the literal movement between meals and places—something I truly savored.
National Geographic
15-05-2025
- National Geographic
A practical guide to exploring the Alps' classic highlights
This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK). Wild as they are, the Alps are brilliantly accessible in the warmer months, whether you want to devise your own multi-day, cross-country trip on the frequent, efficient trains, or hit the trail on a long-distance, hut-to-hut hike. For planning, booking and money-saving tips, try this handy guide. What should I pack? Pack for the outdoors. Bring layers: a breathable fleece, loose walking trousers, hiking boots, flat shoes for cities., a wind/waterproof jacket, sunglasses for glare at high elevations and a daypack. For high-altitude hikes, add thermals, hiking poles, a compass, water bottle, torch, first aid kit and warm hat and gloves. How easy is it to get around by public transport? Exploring the Alps by rail makes perfect sense: trains are frequent, punctual and efficient, relatively inexpensive, and eco-friendly. There are generally some non-reserved seats, but it's advisable to buy tickets in advance in peak periods. Deeper in the Alps, mountain transport takes the form of funicular and cog railways, lifts and cable cars. How can I save on tickets? Get in quick. Many Alpine countries offer cut-price rail tickets, yielding discounts of up to 85% on less-popular days, times or routes. In Austria, these are called Sparschiene; in Germany, Sparpreis; and in Switzerland, Supersaver. They're generally available between six months and one day ahead of travel. If you're travelling around, look out for rail passes like the Swiss Travel Pass and Austria's Vorteilscard. Eurail and Interrail passes are valid on many routes. For high-Alpine transport, devote time to finding the best deals for the region you're visiting. Individual tickets can be pricey, and a discount pass will save you a fortune. Are there accessible options? Yes. Many trains, especially high-speed and intercity services, have lifts, ramps and mobility aids. Some cable cars and hiking trails do, too. Visit the relevant tourist board for details; Switzerland, in particular, has a sharp eye on accessibility. What if I want to drive? Roads in the Alps are generally well maintained and signposted, but you'll need to be a confident driver to tackle inclines and hairpin bends. Some Alpine passes are open year-round, others from June to October. In Austria and Switzerland, you'll need a vignette, or digital toll pass, to drive on major roads. How safe is it to hike? A few common-sense rules go a long way: inform a responsible person of your route, watch weather patterns using the Mountain Forecast app, wear the right clothing and footwear, take enough water and ensure your phone is charged. Increase the length and elevation of hikes gradually; if possible, don't walk alone at high altitudes. Avalanches and rock falls can be a risk, so stick to marked trails. These are generally colour graded: yellow or blue (easy and flat); white-red-white or red (moderately challenging, with some steep, exposed sections); white-blue-white or black (Alpine routes for experienced mountain hikers). For tougher hikes, take a map and compass. Are there any useful hiking and cycling guides? Cicerone publishes an excellent series of hiking, trekking, cycling and bikepacking guides to the Alps, with route descriptions and maps. GPX files are available for most of their books. Tiles include Cicerone, Walking in the Alps and Cicerone, 100 Hut Walks in the Alps. Online, try Bergfex for details on routes, tours, weather and accommodation. How far in advance should I book mountain huts? Most huts are staffed from mid-June to mid-September, and can be booked online, too; on popular trails in high season, you should do so months ahead. Huts with multibed dorms range from simple shelters to smart lodges with hot showers. Bring your own silk or cotton sleeping bag, a headtorch and earplugs. Take all rubbish with you. If you're planning a long-distance hike, consider membership with an Alpine club (DAV in Germany, ÖAV in Austria, SAC in Switzerland, CAI in Italy) for discounts of up to 50%. Their websites are a great resource for trail planning, weather and 1:25,000 topographic maps. Getting there & around: British Airways, EasyJet and Ryanair are among the airlines operating frequent flights from UK airports to Alpine gateways including Munich, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Zurich, Geneva and Milan. Average flight time: possible to reach the Alps by train. For example, London to Munich via Paris takes around 10h; fast trains to Geneva with one stop take as little as extensive and efficient network of trains, buses and mountain railways link up even the smallest towns and villages. Taxis are widely available in cities and towns but can be pricey. When to go: Alpine seasons go with the snow, with most high-altitude resorts closing in low season (mid-April to mid-June and October to early December). Conversely, this is a great time to score deals on flights and rooms in towns and cities. June, July and August are ideal for outdoor activities like hut-to-hut hikes, biking and rafting, with longer days and highs of up to 25C (77F). Winters are crisp and cold, with snow and temperatures often dipping below 0C (32F). The shoulder months of May and September are often mild and perfect for exploring, with temperatures hovering between 12C and 18C, and seasonal colour in wildflowers and foliage respectively. More info Walking in the Alps. Cicerone, £25 100 Hut Walks in the Alps. Cicerone, £14.95 How to do it: Nordic Visitor offers a 12-day Highlights of the Alps holiday from £4,800 per person. Ticking off Alpine regions in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, this small group tour zooms in on the classics — from Neuschwanstein Castle to the Glacier Express, Salzburg and Matterhorn. The price includes hotels on a B&B basis, four dinners, guides, transport and admission to attractions. Flights not included. Published in the May 2025 issue of National Geographic Traveller (UK). To subscribe to National Geographic Traveller (UK) magazine click here. (Available in select countries only).
The Guardian
22-04-2025
- The Guardian
It turns out you're never too old to go Interrailing around Europe
Youth might not be wasted on the young, but for the longest time I thought Interrailing was. When I was a student, as the 1980s became the 1990s, many of my friends took the opportunity to discover Europe by train and they all returned with amazing stories of discovery. But for long-forgotten reasons, it was something I was always going to do but never actually got round to. And then suddenly I was in my late 20s and reluctantly resigned myself to never doing it, having been reliably informed by so many people that it was an opportunity only open to those under the age of 26. Fast forward a few decades to spring 2023 and I'm trying to decide where to take my teenage children for our first holiday in five years – a gap caused largely, but not wholly, by the pandemic. My most memorable childhood holiday had come in 1981 when, over the course of a few days, my dad drove my family and our caravan from Nottingham to Pisa. I still remember the incredible feeling of my horizons broadening overnight. I'd love to give my children a similar experience, except I don't drive. And then I start to see excitable posts from a Facebook friend about his family Interrail trip from Edinburgh to Slovenia and back. 'But … but … he's too old for that,' I thought to myself, before the penny belatedly dropped and I hastily checked out the Interrail (Eurail for non-European residents) website. And there, 30 years late, I finally discovered the truth: the age restriction is long gone. And nobody had thought to tell me! People older than 26 can still go Interrailing! Yes, it's marginally more expensive, but hardly prohibitively so. So I cobbled together an itinerary and a few weeks later my two sons and I set out on a voyage of discovery. It was such a success that we did it again (to different places) in summer 2024. In short, Interrailing was a revelation – for me and for my children. Any doubts I may have had about travel broadening the mind were quickly dispelled when, on the first day of our first trip, I saw my elder son's sheer amazement at the way the departure boards on the metro in Brussels differed from those on London's tube, or – a few days later – my younger son's delight at seeing Berlin zoo's giant pandas. There were mishaps along the way: some homesickness in Vienna; a spectacular inability to read a weather forecast and then dress accordingly in Prague; a poorly child in Bergen necessitating a tour of the city's chemists rather than a nearby national park. But more often, what initially seemed to be a major problem turned out to be an opportunity to discover fresh wonders. When I was too spontaneous with our travel plans for Deutsche Bahn's liking and realised that I'd left it too late to book us on to the Hamburg-Kolding train, I was terrified that we might not get to Legoland Denmark, very much the jewel in the crown of my younger son's trip. This would have been a dereliction of duty I feared might be unforgivable. But there was a slower, more sedate alternative to the Hamburg-Copenhagen express – which proved to be an absolute delight, wending its way across the hypnotically flat Schleswig-Holstein countryside and necessitating briefly changing on to seemingly the world's tiniest train in Tønder, Denmark's answer to Gretna Green. It took us several hours longer, but seeing parts of northern Germany and western Denmark that were far off the beaten (railway) track felt like an adventure in itself. That ability to glimpse Europe's more obscure spots is one of the massive advantages Interrailing has over air travel, where you're whisked from one interchangeable airport to another, going from your home city to the tourist destination of your choice and skipping all that lies in between – the beautiful, the bleak, the places that understandably don't appear in guidebooks, the messy thrill of actual real life – and seeing only the sanitised endpoints. And so, unlike air travel, where the transit element of a holiday is at best a soul-sapping chore in consumerism hell, the actual journeys were as much a part of the holiday as any of our destinations, whether we were on the Oslo-Bergen line, which is habitually – and rightly – described as one of the most scenic in Europe, or the Zutphen-Hengelo line in the eastern Netherlands, which is not, but did have the bonus of a garrulous passenger keen to know my children's views on Brexit (they had many) and the state of Belgium's roads (they had none). (For the record, he was a fan of neither.) That slower pace of travel brings other benefits, too: it's hard to get a grip on how vast and varied Europe is when you can fly over it in the time it takes to digest an airport sandwich. By train it can take almost a full day just to cross Germany. That pace affords a greater connection with your surroundings. As a series of trains gradually took us north from Calais to Oslo last summer, we could watch as the architecture of churches and houses changed; as oak slowly gave way to beech to spruce to white birch; as cedillas on signs were replaced by umlauts and then overrings. Sign up to This is Europe The most pressing stories and debates for Europeans – from identity to economics to the environment after newsletter promotion It offers a wholly different view of Europe in all its vibrant diversity, and my children are hooked, even planning their own future itineraries for when they're old enough to travel without this particular chaperone. Until then, no prizes for guessing what we're doing this summer. I may have been too old for Club 18-30 long before it was pensioned off, but, as I have belatedly realised, you're never too old to go Interrailing. Phil Mongredien is a production editor on Guardian Opinion and Long Reads
Euronews
03-04-2025
- Business
- Euronews
Seat reservations on Spanish trains just got easier for Interrail and Eurail passholders
ADVERTISEMENT Interrail and Eurail passholders rejoice, as you can now skip the queues and reserve your seats on long- and medium-distance RENFE trains online. Rail Europe , a European train booking platform, has expanded its offering to include trains operated by Spain's state-owned railway, eliminating a major hurdle that has dogged rail passholders for years. 'The addition of RENFE's passholder fares to our platform is a game-changer for travellers eager to explore Spain with ease,' says Jürgen Witte, Chief Product and Technology Officer of Rail Europe. 'This enhancement ensures Interrail and Eurail Global Pass holders can navigate its world-class rail system seamlessly.' With the new service, passholders can easily see if a seat reservation is required for their journey and what the associated costs will be. From there, they can make their reservation online, eliminating the need for time-consuming in-person bookings where a lack of Spanish language skills is sometimes an issue. What's the problem with booking RENFE seats with a rail pass? While many Interrail and Eurail trains don't require seat reservations, Spanish high-speed trains - the Alta Velocidad Española (AVE) - do. Although Interrail purports to allow bookings on some AVE trains via its self-service system, users report extensive issues in getting the platform to work. Some trains available on Interrail/Eurail are not bookable via the self-service system at all. Previously, the only option to secure a seat reservation without buying a ticket on a RENFE high-speed train was to call the company. The traveller would then have to go to a RENFE station to pick up and pay for the reservation within 72 hours of booking, which is often not convenient. 'In Spain, almost all trains, apart from purely suburban ones, require a reservation, and RENFE's own website doesn't offer passholder reservations,' explains train travel expert Mark Smith, who runs the website The Man in Seat 61 . 'Furthermore, Spanish trains can leave fully booked, so you ideally need to book ahead. This was a major issue for using an Interrail or Eurail pass in Spain .' Smith warns that, particularly on peak travel days, such as Fridays and Saturdays in the summer months, queues can be atrocious. At major stations in Madrid and Barcelona, passengers can wait as long as one or two hours to be served. The complexity has caused confusion and frustration among travellers. On the Eurail forum, one user said, 'Not gonna jump through hoops to go to Spain. I'll cancel the Spain leg and stay in France.' Seat reservations are required on the Spanish AVE trains. Ricard Codina via Flickr Related What would a single-ticket booking system mean for your next European train adventure? The European tube: Inside the project to launch a continent-wide rail system How to book seat reservations with RENFE To reserve a seat on a RENFE high-speed AVE train, simply head to the Rail Europe website . Click 'add rail pass' below the journey planner and select the type and class of pass you hold. Then, you can search for a journey as normal, but you should only see the passholder reservation costs rather than the normal ticket costs. Smith notes that the Rail Europe system defaults to a second-class reservation in the search results. Holders of first-class passes need to manually change the price drop-down if they want to reserve a first-class seat. ADVERTISEMENT There are other options for booking seats on RENFE with a pass. These include using Dutch agency HappyRail, which has proven to be successful at booking seats on AVE trains, but charges a 3.5 per cent fee. Interrail and Eurail reservation services have been available since 2023, but success is patchy. Smith notes that, when the systems do work, they allow booking in first or second class, but not in the 'premium' class that gets passholders Sala Club lounge access and a meal with wine included on AVE and Euromed trains. Smith has long recommended Rail Europe as a booking service for Interrail and Eurail passholders, as it has more seat choices, more benefits for first-class passholders, and no booking fees. 'This is a big step forward,' says Smith, 'and if one system won't get you the reservation you want, try the other.' ADVERTISEMENT Related What my Interrail trip across Europe taught me about the past, present and future of train travel Be flexible, pack light and bring a spork: Top tips for Interrailing in Europe Where can you travel with RENFE? RENFE operates a comprehensive route network across Spain, with both its AVE (high-speed) and Larga Distancia (long-distance) trains. On the map below, the purple lines are AVE trains, and the grey lines are the slower long-distance routes . The operator offers connections throughout Spain and into France and Portugal. RENFE As well as travelling within Spain, RENFE connects to several international destinations. These include Oporto in Portugal and several destinations in France . From 23 April, RENFE will launch a new direct Seville-Barcelona train service, cutting out the transfer in Madrid and making it easier to get between the two popular cities. Along the way, it stops in Córdoba, Puertollano, Ciudad Real, Madrid, Zaragoza, Lleida, Tarragona, and Girona , which are all attractive destinations to visit, too. The high-speed service takes around six hours and is set to make travel between the south and northeast of Spain a much more convenient option. ADVERTISEMENT
New York Times
10-03-2025
- New York Times
4 Trains, 5 Cities: A Whirlwind European Odyssey
A century after the original golden era of railroads, trains are once again the talk of travel. In Europe, especially, train travel is surging as an environmental alternative to short-haul flights, with more night trains, high-speed routes and transnational collaboration between rail companies. Political ties between European countries may be jittery, but the cities are more linked than ever. Trains also return us to the romance of travel. The pacifying hours invite reading and contemplation as the landscapes reveal the geography between destinations — the Zen opposite of air travel's frittered tedium. I travel to Sweden annually from my home in Florence, Italy. Seeking the contemporary culture of other cities and to cut down on flying, I devised a train odyssey from the Mediterranean south to the Scandinavian north. Could a trip with so many providers and legs actually work? Using a hodgepodge of rail sites, I booked a two-week itinerary of high-speed trains from Milan to Stockholm, with stopovers in Zurich, Berlin and Copenhagen: five cities in five countries. A word of advice: Book a month or two in advance to get the best prices; check if a Eurail or Interrail pass might benefit you; and pack meals — the food service on these routes is spotty and, when available, terrifyingly industrial. With tips from local friends rather than sightseeing checklists, I was ready to cross the continent. Milan Milan has recast itself as a vibrant city, full of high-polish people making things happen. An international flight hub, it's a convenient starting point for travelers arriving from abroad. My first stop was the Prada Foundation, whose contemporary exhibitions give the city a measure of cool and cultural relevance. Heading to Corso Venezia, I promenaded through the park and surrounding streets filled with wild experiments in 20th-century architecture, then visited the Luigi Rovati Foundation, with its Etruscan antiquities and contemporary art in a 19th-century palazzo made modern by the architect Mario Cucinella. In the evening, a friend joined me in NoLo — the long-hyped neighborhood north of Piazzale Loreto. After an aperitivo at La Botte Fatale, a wine bar hosting occasional small concerts and exhibits, we reached the thrumming Piazza Morbegno, where we dined at Silvano, which has been packed ever since opening last year. 'My dream was of a place with happy clients, not a Michelin star,' the chef Vladimiro Poma said of his 'gastronomy for all,' with sharing plates like stewed peppers with peanuts and cilantro. While I crashed at a friend's, travelers might try the new Casa Brivio hotel (from 300 euros, or about $315), in a pair of residential buildings with midcentury-inspired suites by the architect Matteo Thun. Departing from Centrale station, with its Art Deco and Rationalist architecture, its soaring halls and Roman-style mosaics, its Fascist-era megalomaniac scale and indiscriminately plastered ads and LED screens, always seizes me with both awe and anger. I boarded the line to Zurich. Zurich On a spotless Swiss train (3.5 hours; tickets from 34 Swiss francs, or about $38), I watched the soft slopes of Italy give way to Switzerland's craggy cliff faces. Waterfalls burst from the rocks, with snow-capped Alpine peaks wreathed in clouds towering over valleys of wildflower meadows and black-and-white cows — a fantasy landscape. A short walk from the station, I dropped my luggage at Locke am Platz (from 150 francs), which opened last year with apartment-style rooms inspired by Swiss design. Over a couple of days, I roamed from Nude, a riverfront cafe in Tanzhaus's Brutalist headquarters; to the Löwenbräukunst art center, a beer factory converted into art spaces; to Josefwiese park with its pétanque crowds and Alpine chalet bar. From the Bürkliplatz flea market, I meandered into the galleries along Rämistrasse before reaching the Kunsthaus — Switzerland's largest museum since doubling its spaces in 2020 with David Chipperfield's graceful concrete-block monolith. Inside, the Impressionist paintings of the permanent collection were hung amid viewer surveys, with questions like: How to treat these works donated by a Nazi arms dealer? Zurich is built on the shores of a swimmable lake, and its picture-book streets are backdropped by saw-toothed mountains — an idyllic union of nature and an immaculate city. However, there's a vibe shift at Rote Fabrik, a factory that has become a scruffy center for alternative culture, where a new generation is packing the calendar with concerts, parties and drag shows. In its graffiti-encrusted courtyard, D.J.s blasted house music at a day rave I attended, while a packed 'Queer Tango' class proceeded inside. For all of Zurich's predictable orderliness, there's also a thriving and unruly flip side. Across the lake, the Le Corbusier pavilion, a radical 1967 home-turned-museum, stood like a giant stack of rainbow toy blocks. Hopping on the ferry to the center, I stopped by Heisswein, an unpretentious natural wine bar serving small plates and its own pickled vegetables. Back at my hotel, I sat on the balcony and marveled at the city's contentedness. Berlin The Deutsche Bahn train I boarded was bedraggled (from 70 euros), but the trip's scenery made up for it with cornfields and vineyard hills, shifting to flatlands before a shock of skyscrapers in Frankfurt. We stalled for an hour outside Berlin, and as my journey's longest leg stretched to over nine hours, I broke my cardinal rule of avoiding train refreshments with a red wine tasting of artificial oak and desperation. A 15-minute subway ride from the station, the Hoxton hotel (from 100 euros), opened last summer, hoping to become a hot spot in strait-laced Charlottenburg. The accommodation's pastel charms seemed to be working — I spied the musician Devendra Banhart at breakfast. I biked around pretty Prenzlauer Berg with a friend who recalled the neighborhood when, until its recent yoga and ceramic studio years, it was full of war-pocked, coal-heated squats. I watched the evening come alive in Neukölln from a window seat at the new wine bar Sway, and found food love at Sathutu, an imaginative Berlin take on Sri Lankan flavors. Berlin is a muscular city, with epic postwar boulevards and pharaonic East-versus-West architecture. At Kulturforum, a monumental 1950s plaza, I meandered from one museum to the next — Mies van der Rohe's Neue Nationalgalerie building, the Gemäldegalerie of great masters, the airy Museum of Musical Instruments with its house-size old cinema organ and Saturday performances. Against Berlin's staggering scale, the city's tree-lined river and canals provided relief for groups of locals: goth punks, regular punks, barefoot neo-hippies and eccentrics — a citizenry nonchalantly indulging in weed but also hard drugs and one plein-air sex act I cannot unsee. Even with rents rising, the libertine spirit seemed irradicable. Copenhagen From Berlin, the nearly eight-hour journey (60 euros) took me through German cookie-cutter towns of A-frame houses, but when I awoke from a nap in the train's oversize armchair, the view had changed to undulating fields of sheared golden wheat bordered by wildflowers: I'd arrived in Denmark. In Copenhagen, the rain came down in hard slants, yet bike lanes were busy as cyclists in popsicle-colored parkas cruised by, children poking out of Christiania cargo boxes. The well-preserved city, with centuries-old apartment buildings of brick or bright paint, was squeaky clean — so apparently wholesome and well-functioning that I might have been the only jaywalker in town. I headed to Cisternerne, an underground water reservoir transformed, with its open pools, into an unusual art space. In near-total darkness, I crossed a gangway over the cistern's water, enveloped by a dirge-like sound piece by Taryn Simon. Emerging to parting rain clouds, I biked, stopping by the Rosenborg Castle gardens, then the Nørrebro neighborhood of vintage shops and local favorites like the wine bar Pompette. There were bike lanes on even the tiniest streets. The following day was the inauguration of Riviera, the third cafe from the talented baker Chiara Barla, whose recipes span Denmark and her native Italy. In the corner eatery furnished with spare designs by Copenhagen's own Frama, I devoured buttered sourdough bread and apricot ricotta cake. 'People are faring well in Copenhagen,' Ms. Barla said, beaming. Taking the dazzlingly fast subway to Amager island, I left the center for an aperitivo at Josephine, a circus-colored wine bar, before retreating to the brand-new Hotel Bella Grande, where I'd dropped my luggage earlier — more Italian inspiration, with damask couches and space-age lamps, yet somehow still sharp and modern and uniquely Copenhagen. Stockholm Leaving Copenhagen's castle-like station, the train (5.3 hours, from 35 euros) traversed the five-mile bridge connecting Denmark and Sweden, which opened in 2000 as a symbol of shared European Union optimism. Birds alighting from the marshes followed the train over the border, formed by the waters of the Oresund strait. From the windows of the tattered but mercifully silent train car, I watched the passing show: Falu red farmhouses, pastures of cows and horses, shimmering swaths of lakes. I spotted rabbits and deer among the slender birches and spruce pines before the train glided over the mouth of the Baltic Sea to the islands that form Stockholm. I walked to Östermalm for a cinnamon morning bun at Stora Bageriet inside the 17th-century industrial building that houses the Swedish Museum of Performing Arts. At nearby Nybroviken, a bay where boats depart for the archipelago, I opted for the ferry to Djurgården, an island of museums and woods that were once royal hunting grounds, to visit the contemporary art exhibitions and raw concrete new halls of Liljevalchs, then strolled the bridges to Moderna Museet's stellar collection of 20th-century art on neighboring Skeppsholmen. One evening I stopped into Brutalisten, where I found the artist and owner, Carsten Höller, dining at a window table, and sampled a multi-mushroom concoction. Another night, friends and I nestled in the corner of Främmat, a French-inspired natural wine restaurant in a dim, cozy cellar in Vasastan. 'In Stockholm, we're obsessed with figuring out what's next and what's cool,' said one of my tablemates. I wanted to stay in Södermalm, the Stockholm island of eclectic bars, young creatives and squads of paternity-leave dads with their offspring in BabyBjörns, so I found a room at Hotel Frantz (from 140 euros), an antique inn turned design guesthouse, originally built by a tailor in 1647. Just across the street, I took an elevator to the refurbished Gondolen, a 1935 cocktail lounge cantilevered 11 stories over Södermalm's waterfront, with views of Stockholm's harbors and Swedish Grace architecture. Intending to check out several spots, I met friends at the low-key Bar Ninja, but never left — the wine, music and easygoing atmosphere settled us in until closing time. My journey ended with a 5 a.m. departure from Arlanda Airport: I'd given in to the conveniences and hermetically sealed discomforts of budget air travel to head home to Italy. Yet even in my flight-mode zombie state, I was dreaming about my mostly seamless train odyssey, about the landscapes I'd seen and the illuminating cities I'd briefly been a part of. Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2025.
