9 Essential Eurail Travel Tips & Questions (@Eurail)

Friendly Bahn train conductor, Hamburg, Germany.

German Bahn train conductor & traveller, Hamburg, Germany. Photo by Lily Leung.

I started my first ever backpacking trip to Europe over 4 months ago in Bulgaria and Romania. Since then I’ve,

  • Looped and zigzagged around Europe, travelling over 11,000 km by rail (see my route below)
  • Visited 17 countries, 28 cities/towns, from Varna, Bulgaria on the Black Sea on the east, to Barcelona on the west, Copenhagen on the north and Rome, Italy on the south.
  • Used 20+ travel days on two Global Eurail passes, each with 15 days of travel within two months.

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Nice to Barcelona, by Train [Photos]

Nice to Barcelona, 1st Class Train Scenery

Nice to Barcelona, 1st Class Train Scenery

I’ve had the pleasure of travelling by rail through Europe the last four months using Eurail Passes, and I’m constantly surprised by the spectacular views I have from the comfort of my train seat.

Even on trips that aren’t “officially” listed as scenic routes by Eurail have been stunning, such as from Hamburg to Copenhagen which involved the train going on the ferry to cross the Baltic Sea.
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Interview with Jeff Jung of Career Break Secrets

Jeff Jung, Career Break Secrets & DitchTheCubicle.ca

Jeff Jung, Career Break Secrets & DitchTheCubicle.ca

Jeff Jung, left his consulting turned corporate marketing career in 2007 to take a two year career break. He went to South America to learn Spanish, see magnificent sunsets and sunrises in far flung places like the Galapagos, Easter Island, Cappadocia, and the Nile River.

After his career break, he relocated to Bogota, Colombia and started Career Break Secrets, a website to show people that a career break is possible, real people do it, and how to get the most out of their own journey.
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Reader Question: How Much Does It Cost to Travel?

World travel cost

How much does it cost to travel? Photo by Patrick Slanovc, Novi Sad, Serbia

How much money do you need to travel?

An Explore for a Year reader, Andrew Doades, asked an excellent question recently if I had tips on how to estimate travel costs around the world.
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Location-Independent Living: Interview with James Clark of NomadicNotes.com

James Clark - Traveller, digital nomad and web guy

James Clark of NomadicNotes.com - Digital nomad and permanent traveler

“After years of travelling in search of my dream job, I found that travelling is my dream job.”
- James Clark

James is a web designer and web-entrepreneur who’s been location-independent for the past 8 eight years. Since 2003, he has travelled multiple times around the world to over 40 countries, all while working remotely from his laptop. I met James earlier this year in northern Thailand.
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The 45 Most Inspiring Quotes on Change


Great books, blogs and quotes are three of my sources of inspiration when I feel stuck or need encouragement to do something I’m scared of.

Here are 45 of my favourite quotes on life change, finding courage and having faith that things will work out – like when left my job to pursue my interests, sold everything I owned to travel, and continuing to travel past the one year anniversary of being away from work.
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Why I Love Eurail.com

Lily Leung, with 2 Eurail team members, Janice and Chantal.

Lily Leung, with Eurail.com team members, Janice and Chantal. Photos by Holger Mette.

Are you considering travelling by rail through Europe?
Here’s why you should get an Europe rail pass from Eurail.com.

I had the privilege of joining Eurail.com, the premier online seller of Europe rail passes, last week in Venice for seven days of free gondola rides and a lively Friday night kick-off party with 500+ travellers.

This event was to celebrate their customers and the Mashable Award they won earlier this year for Social Media Customer Service (more on that later). Before we get to the juicy photos of the party and gondola rides, here are 5 reasons why I think they’re awesome, deserving of this award, and why you should buy a Europe rail pass from Eurail.com.
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Hamburg to Copenhagen by Train and Ferry

Germany to Denmark, train on the ferry crossing the Baltic Sea

Germany to Denmark, train on the ferry crossing the Baltic Sea. Photos by Lily Leung.

Taking the train from Hamburg to Copenhagen – did you know the train goes in a ferry (not over bridge) to cross the Baltic Sea?

A few days ago my travel companion and I spontaneously decided at 9:30am to catch the 1:12pm train for a 3 day trip to Copenhangen from Berlin via Hamburg. I knew getting to Copenhagen from Germany required crossing the Baltic Sea, but I assumed the train would travel go over a bridge.

To my surprise, the train actually goes into a ferry at the port in Germany, and then exits the ferry once it arrives in Denmark.
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Best of Explore for a Year – 7 Links

Lily Leung - Explore for a Year. Varna, Bulgaria.

Lily Leung - Explore for a Year. Varna, Bulgaria.

After over a year of blogging, here’s a look back at 7 of my favourite posts from my Explore for a Year blog.

I was recently nominated by Natalie Sayin of Turkish Travel Blog and Corbin Fraser of iBackpackCanada to participate in the My 7 Links project sponsored by TripBase. The purpose is to identify seven posts that belong to each of the seven categories below, and then nominate five other blogs to do the same.
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BUDAPEST: Basilicas, Bridges, Baths and… a Small Birthday?!

Szechenyi Bridge, Budapest

Szechenyi Chain Bridge, Budapest. Photos by Lily Leung.

The classic buildings in Budapest were the perfect backdrop for strolls around the city, people watching in squares and sipping coffee from sidewalk cafes.

While I’ve spent countless hours sipping coffee and people watching back at home in Toronto, having a drink in front of a shiny office building just doesn’t compare to being front of a 96 metre Basiciica in Budapest, and being in a hot tub at a modern gym isn’t nearly as elegant as taking a thermal bath in a beautifully tiled pool in a classic early 1900′s building.
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