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Sure, you can still take the train! Eurostar, London (Scarborough photo)

The conventional wisdom used to be that it was always cheaper to take the train in Europe -- you know, the classic backpacker clutching a Eurail pass.

It's a new world of transportation options these days, however.  Let's catch up....

The combination of deregulation initiatives and the border-obliterating European Union and Schengen Agreement have made travel between European countries a snap compared to just a few decades ago. It has also resulted in an explosion of low-cost airlines, since the continent is ideal geographically for short-haul flights. 

The most well-known of the budget air carriers is Ireland-based Ryanair, but they are far from the only one.  There's EasyJet and BMI Baby from the UK, GermanWings from Germany, WizzAir from Hungary and Poland....who can keep up?

Here's a good site for planning low-cost air travel not only in Europe but worldwide:  Which Budget.  Plug in where you're starting and your destination, and off you go.  Fly Europe is also good for investigating air itineraries.

I've flown Ryanair with my family to Pisa, Italy, Oslo (Torp Airport) Norway and Shannon, Ireland.  For a family of four, they were incredibly cheap when I bought tickets early enough.  All of us flew from Germany to Pisa and back for about $150.  That said, they are indeed bare-bones, no-frills and very pernickity about luggage weights -- if you're the family with 48 bursting suitcases, forget it.  Many of their service airports are also out in the middle of nowhere, so you'll have additional transport issues. Frankfurt-Hahn Airport, for example, is not at all close to Frankfurt, Germany.

The upside to air travel in Europe is the chance to hopscotch over pretty big distances and see more places in a limited amount of time.  You can often duplicate the time savings by taking overnight trains, but they tend to be expensive to comfortably accomodate a family of sleepers.

I simply love trains (can't wait to enjoy the Hill Country Flyer near my Texas home) so I'm sentimentally inclined to recommend them.  The travel experience is so much more pleasant, and you can move straight from the center of one city to another, then easily hook up with local transport.  The trains also usually run on time -- now there's a concept!

The Eurail Pass is still a good deal, but the price increases based on the number of countries that you want to visit and the flexibility that you demand.  For the best price, you also need to purchase the pass in the US.   This means you need to do some significant planning first, before you'll really know what sort of pass would best fit your family's itinerary.  For example, there's the Eurail Global Pass: unlimited rail travel in 18 European countries, but does not include Great Britain.  For rail travel in England, Scotland and Wales, you need a BritRail pass.  Ireland participates in the Eurail system, but since it's an island you're going to need to do some ferry-hopping to make that work.

The only other objection I have to the Eurail pass is that it is rather like having to eat too much at an open buffet; you need to run around a lot to make the cost of the pass worthwhile.  That means two things -- a bunch of travel and on-and-off-packing-unpacking with kids in tow (hmmm, not usually much fun) and the inability to slow down and really get to know a place because you're always running to the train station.

Don't forget that individual national rail systems have passes too, even in tiny Belgium.  Force yourself to narrow those choices and how many cities/countries you have to see, and then your transportation requirements will be clearer.

There are some no-brainers for train travel; it's hard to beat the Eurostar/Channel Tunnel train between London and Brussels/Lyon/Paris.  You could possibly fly more cheaply, but with a lot more hassle and you won't zip from city center to city center.  We loved it when we went from Brussels to London and back.  The tunnel part is basically 20 minutes in a dark tunnel, not that dramatic, but you can't beat the convenience.

Still puzzled?  European travel guru Rick Steves has good suggestions for both air travel in Europe and rail travel in Europe.  Check him out.

Update 20 March 2007:  Fodor's Travel Wire has an update on new train lines/destinations for the TGV (train a grande vitesse, or what we call a "bullet train") in France, leaving from Paris and going to Strasbourg, Luxembourg, Basel, Zurich and Mannheim starting summer 2007.

Update 19 April 2007:  Word is out on the Perrin Post blog about high-speed rail travel in Spain.

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