train in vain?
 

Hi
First time poster here. After reading all the amazing stories on the website I have a feeling that this may come accross as rather mundane, but will plough ahead anyway. I have travelled extensively on foot but have only recently learnt to ride. Realistically it will be a couple of years before I can do a more extended bike trip, so have to content myself with short trips during holidays.

I fancy a jaunt round the czech republic this summer (and possibly further east). Me and my girlfriend would not have a great deal of time, so ideally we'd like to travel with the bikes by train from France to the Czech republic to maximise the time we have out there.

Anyone have any experience of transporting bikes by train in Europe? Any hints or tips? I have searched the website but can only find details of transporting by train within France.

All input greatly appreciated!

Matt

It's a sign of the times: luggage counters have disappeared from railway stations and the luggage vans/compartments are empty these days, if they exist at all. I doubt you'll be able to put your bike on a normal train.

I think you will have to look into the special trains that take cars. They generally take bikes, too. Google "motorail". See a travel agent, as the info on the web seems well hidden.

Found this: http://www.railchoice.co.uk/motorail/information.html

No point looking at the French Railways web site, totally useless and no info whatsoever about car trains.

I always use the German Railways site bahn.de to look up French trains! They have a special web site (in English!) for car/bike trains: http://www.dbautozug.de/eindex.html

Looks like your best bet will be Hamburg or Düsseldorf to Wien.

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Salut from Southern France, the bikers' paradise,

Peter.

Hello!
My advice is to forget about the trains etc. If you feel that you aren`t experienced enough, don`t let that put you off. My brother and I took our first trip around europe (Yam SR500, 16000km`s) when we were 18 & 16, him as a pillion. We stayed away for 2 months. We were pretty green but that was part of the charme. We drove through all Europe (Spain, France etc) and down to Greece. We did the same thing the following two years.
In recent years my exgirlfriend took the bikelicence, bought herself a Ducati Monster and off we went to Portugal. She had ONE week motorcycle experience before we left! What I`m trying to say is simply; don`t worry, you`ll be OK!

Best of luck!

John

Mattrocket,

I have used the german "Autozug" from Cologne to Munich, but I think this now goes from Dusseldorf.

If you are not interested in visiting places on the way it is good way to do an lot of miles and hardly notice. You wake up the next day a few hundred miles from where you started.

The train service was good but the on-train service was bad, very bad. Don't expect to eat much inspite of what the adverting bumf says.

The web site is a www.autozug.de

Thanks for all the top advice! Will definitely be checking the website

Cheers

Matt