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Europe: By plane or by train?
IndependentTraveler.com |
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Paris - Barcelona - Lisbon - Paris
This itinerary is a bit less common than our first two, and it proved impossible to book on Ryanair, which doesn't offer flights to Lisbon. We used Paris, another common gateway for U.S. travelers, as a starting point. Because the cities are relatively far apart, this itinerary favored easyJet over Eurail.
The winner: easyJet came out on top with a relatively low total cost ($247.66) and direct flights for two out of three legs: Paris Orly to Barcelona, and Lisbon to Paris Charles de Gaulle. (The latter Paris airport is the one most U.S. travelers will use for international flights, so keep this in mind when planning your trip.) We found a connection in Geneva to get from Barcelona to Lisbon.
The runner-up: Eurail comes in at a distant second place, at $504 for a Eurail Selectpass Saver. We added up a total of about 48 hours (including two one-hour layovers) of travel time. The overnight train is a potentially economical option, allowing you to save time (and money on a hotel room) by traveling at night. Priced individually, we couldn't get an exact cost; two of the tickets were not yet available for sale.
The loser: Ryanair is the loser by default, as the airline doesn't fly to Lisbon. It does fly elsewhere in Portugal, to Porto and Faro, both about three hours away from Lisbon by train. Ryanair flies direct between Paris Beauvais and Barcelona Girona -- but Beauvais is more than an hour by bus from downtown Paris, and Girona is a similar distance from downtown Barcelona.
The bottom line
We learned quite a few things in the oft-laborious process of testing all these itineraries — first, that finding a good deal takes time! Though easyJet.com, Ryanair.com and RailEurope.com are relatively easy sites to use, it often takes a bit of manipulation to get the itinerary you want, especially when connections are involved. But keep trying — it will pay off in the end!
Our second lesson was that although discount airlines may be on the rise, you shouldn't dismiss the train option altogether. Particularly for itineraries where the cities aren't too far apart, the train may still be your most economical and even your quickest choice. However, the more distance your itinerary covers, the more appealing a plane is likely to look.
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Finally, "free" flight offers aside, beware of the hidden costs that could boost your price tag — everything from baggage fees and credit card surcharges to the price of transferring from one London airport to another. Keep in mind that flights may look shorter on paper, but you'll also spend more time going through security and transferring into the city you're visiting than you would for a journey on the rails.
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