Cheap train tickets for Europe are here, city centre to city centre, no airport taxes, no baggage fees, no booking fee, infants go free.  You usually print your own ticket.

But you need the right website for the right journey.  It would be lovely if there was one website which sold tickets for all European trains at the cheapest price, but there isn't (to understand why not, read this).

On this site I'll tell you the best way to buy European train tickets for your specific journeys, as long as you have a credit card & internet access.  Just select the city where your journey starts in the drop-down menu.

Read these tips to understand how train tickets work & whether to book in advance or buy at the station.

Why it matters which website you use

Each European country has its own national train operator with its own ticketing system and its own website.  There are private operators too.  Most operators offer cheap budget-airline-style fares if you book ahead, but you can only buy them from their own website or from an agency directly linked to that ticketing system.

Take Prague to Budapest for example.  My site tells you to book at the Czech Railways (CD's) website as this sells advance-purchase tickets from just €21, international credit cards accepted, no booking fee, you print your own ticket.  You can even choose your seat from a seating plan!

No other website can access these €21 Prague-Budapest fares, but several well-known ticketing sites will sell you a ticket for a whopping €90+ using an almost-obsolete inter-operator system called TCV, a conventional ticket which must be posted to you at extra cost making it over €100, ouch!  And your seat is allocated with little or no choice.  Can you now see why it matters where you buy?

Ticket delivery matters too.  For example, you can book Vienna to Venice at Trenitalia.com, but tickets have to be collected from a self-service machine in Italy, no good if you're starting in Vienna.  Thetrainline.com links to the Austrian Railways system & does e-tickets in either direction, so this is the site I recommend here.

I take all this into account to tell you the cheapest & easiest way to book each specific journey, whether you live in the UK, USA, Australia, Singapore, wherever.

European train travel FAQ

How to use the French railways site www.sncf-connect.com

How to use the Italian railways website, trenitalia.com    How to use the Spanish railways website, renfe.com

How to buy a special add-on ticket from almost any station in Britain to London International (St Pancras)

Tips for buying train tickets

• Do you need to book in advance?  Can you just buy at the station?

  If you can get your head around the 3 different concepts of train ticketing explained here, you'll understand how European train ticketing works, and why sometimes you're told to buy at the station but other times to book in advance.

• (1)  Local, regional, suburban trains = turn-up-and-go ticketing:

  Tickets for local, regional & suburban trains can be bought at the station.  The price is fixed so there's no price advantage in pre-buying.  Reservation is usually not even possible, these trains can never sell out, so again there's no point in pre-buying.  Just buy a ticket at the station, hop on the next train and sit anywhere you like.  Think New York Subway!  Buying online just saves a few minutes at the ticket office.

  Domestic trains wholly within Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium & Luxembourg work like this, reservation isn't necessary and in most cases not even possible even for InterCity trains.  You turn up, buy a fixed-price ticket at the station & catch the next train.

• (2)  Long-distance trains in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Sweden = airline-style ticketing:

  At the other extreme, inter-city & high-speed trains in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal & Sweden work like airlines, as do international high-speed trains to or from France including the London-Paris Eurostar trains, Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam Thalys trains, Paris-Germany high-speed trains, Paris-Switzerland TGV Lyria trains, the Paris-Milan TGVs, and the Paris-Barcelona TGVs.

  Fares are dynamic like air fares, cheap if you book in advance, expensive if you buy on the day.  For example, Paris to Amsterdam starts at €35 several months in advance (no refunds, no changes to travel plans), but costs €130 for a fully-flexible ticket if you buy on the day.  The most expensive fares usually allow changes & refunds, the cheapest fares usually mean no refunds, no changes to travel plans.

  Every ticket comes with a reserved seat included, just like flights.  Trains are all-reserved so can sell out, at least in theory, although in practice they seldom do except at very busy periods.  For example, the average load factor on French TGVs is 85%.

  The message in this case is clear:  Pre-book to save money and be sure of a place!!

• (3)  Long-distance trains in the UK, Germany, Austria, Denmark, central & eastern Europe = traditional train ticketing:

  Inter-city trains in the UK, Germany, Austria, Denmark and much of central & eastern Europe work the old-school way.  There's a flexible full-price fare with unlimited availability and a fixed price, good for any train that day.  This cannot sell out, you can always turn up, buy a full-price ticket and hop on the next train, sitting in any empty unreserved seat.

  However, these full-price flexible tickets are often expensive, especially for longer distances.  You can buy cheaper advance-purchase fares if you book ahead and commit to a specific train with limited or no refunds or changes to travel plans.  These advance-purchase tickets go by various names:  Advance in the UK, Sparpreis in Germany, Sparschiene in Austria, First Minute in the Czech Republic.  The prices are dynamic with limited availability at each price level.  The price rises as the cheaper tickets are sold and departure day approaches.

  A seat reservation is optional, usually for a small extra fee, typically €3 to €4.50 per seat.  If you choose not to reserve a seat you sit in any empty unreserved seat, of which there are usually many - for example, the average load factor on German IC & ICE trains is 65%.  But at busy periods you may have to stand if you find all the seats already taken.

  For example, from Munich to Vienna you can buy a cheap advance-purchase ticket for €29, €39, €49, €59 etc., limited availability at each price level, only good for that specific train, limited or no refunds or changes to travel plans.  Or you can pay €95 for a full-price ticket, good for any train, unlimited availability, can never sell out.  Neither type of ticket comes with a reserved seat, you can can get on and sit anywhere you like, or you can pay an extra €4.50 for a seat reservation to be 100% sure of a seat.  I wouldn't bother reserving if I was travelling solo mid-week in February, but I would make a seat reservation if I was travelling on a Friday in July and there were 4 of us!

  The message here is, pre-book to save money if you are happy committing to a specific train, but if you don't mind paying full-whack you can buy on the day as trains cannot sell out.

How far in advance can I book?

• The single biggest reason people initially hit a brick wall trying to buy a train ticket is that they try to look too far ahead.

  Overseas visitors planning a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Europe try to buy a 50-mile train ticket 10 months ahead and wonder why trains aren't shown and booking doesn't work.  Local people buy train tickets as part of their routine daily life, to visit Granny, attend a meeting or go shopping, planning trips & buying tickets hours, days or weeks ahead, not months or years.  There's no rush, wait till bookings open!

  See the How far ahead can I book? page for full details of how far ahead you can book different types of European train.

• Tip:  If you need to book hotels or accommodation at your destination before train bookings open, no problem, you can hold accommodation risk-free at www.booking.com as they usually offer free cancellation up to 24 hours before your stay.

Don't buy a Eurostar ticket before onward trains open for booking!

• Eurostar reservations between London & Paris open up to 6 months ahead, but your onward train probably opens only 3 or 4 months ahead.  I strongly recommend waiting until onward train booking is open so you can confirm the actual times of your onward train for that date before booking a non-changeable non-refundable Eurostar ticket.  At least, unless you are consciously prepared to take a calculated risk - Eurostar tickets are now changeable, but it costs £40 + the difference in fares to change a Eurostar ticket.

Can I stop off?

• As a general rule, to go Paris-Amsterdam with a stopover in Brussels, treat this as two separate tickets, Paris to Brussels & Brussels to Amsterdam.

  People who cling to the concept "I want to go from A to C with a stopover at B" often bang their heads against a brick wall trying to book and end up 'confused' while people who think clearly "I want to go from A to B on this date, then B to C on that date" quickly & easily book both tickets...

• Cheap advance-purchase tickets are almost always train-specific, for example Paris-Amsterdam for €35.  You cannot stop off with these cheap tickets as they are only valid on the specific train you've booked.  If you need to, you can get off short of your destination with these tickets (fine in mainland Europe, although not in the UK), but the unused part of your ticket becomes worthless.

  On trains with compulsory reservation (for example, almost any longer-distance train in France, Spain or Italy), you cannot stop off even with flexible tickets, as they too are only valid on the train you've booked.

  On local trains, and on long distance trains without compulsory reservation, you can often stop off if you have a flexible ticket which allows stopovers.  But check the small print carefully for your specific ticket type &as every rail operator has different rules.   It's often best to play safe & book each leg as a separate journey.

• There is one useful exception, where you can pre-programme a stopover into a cheap advance-purchase ticket...

  When booking a journey to, from, across or within Germany at the German Railways website, www.bahn.de, you can pre-programme a stopover using the useful Add intermediate stop feature.  Just enter a city and a specified number of hours in the 'hh:mm' stopover box and it'll give you (for example) a Munich to Vienna ticket from €29, but with a stopover in Salzburg included.  Or Berlin to Prague with a stopover in Dresden.  Maximum 2 stopovers, within the 2 day period for which the ticket is valid.  Well worth knowing!

• Finally, of course, if you are making a long multi-train journey such as London to Malaga where each train is ticketed separately in any case, you can naturally arrange stopovers simply by booking each leg for whatever date and time you want.

Senior & youth fares

• Senior fares, my advice in a nutshell:

  Many seniors waste time & effort worrying about being Senior, desperate to find a senior discount.  They find lots of conflicting information about passes, railcards, discounts, and get confused.  Stop!  Forget being senior.  Just go to the relevant train operator website, book 2 or 3 months in advance, find a cheap advance-purchase ticket, pay, print, travel.  Don't worry about being 'senior' as 9 times out of 10 it's irrelevant.  You can pretty much say the same thing about youth fares.  Here's why...

• A senior or youth fare will be offered automatically if there is one and it's cheapest:

  Most websites ask your age before you run an enquiry and it'll show a senior or youth fare if there is one and it's the cheapest option for your journey.  So don't waste time thinking about it, run the enquiry and buy whatever ticket is cheapest.  If you are offered a senior or youth fare just because you entered your age, then no special railcard is needed, just carry proof of age when you travel such as your passport.

  One tip:  Don't buy any fare marked Carta, Carte, Karta, Cartafrecchia, which all mean Card.  Most websites ask you what discount cards you have and won't show you card-discounted fares if you don't enter a card, but a few sites show railcard-discounted fares to everyone.  The biggest culprit is Trenitalia.com which always shows Cartafreccia fares - don't buy these if you don't have a Cartafreccia card.  In fact, it asks you for your Cartafreccia card number in the next step, so you can't buy a discounted ticket accidentally, but it confuses people who don't realise Cartafreccia is a discount card they don't have!

• The senior or youth fare is often irrelevant...

  Many international train fares work like this:  €29, €39, €49 or €59 limited-availability advance-purchase fares for anyone of any age,  €80 Senior fare, €100 full-flex fare.  The senior rate is typically a % discount off the megabucks fully-flexible fare that you'd seldom want to buy, not a discount off all fares.  Only if you needed to travel at short notice when the cheap advance-purchase fares were sold out would there be any point in buying the senior fare.  So again, forget being senior, just buy the cheapest ticket.

• Railcards for seniors or under-26s: Useful for regular travellers, a distraction for occasional visitors:

  Some countries have their own senior or youth railcard schemes.  You buy the railcard for a fixed fee, it then gives discounts on tickets for domestic journeys within that country for a year, but not usually on international journeys.  In many cases you can only buy these railcards when you get to the country concerned, not online and not from abroad.  However, in 90% of cases a foreign visitor will not be making enough trips to make such a card worthwhile.  And if you can only buy the railcard when you get there, the day before you want travel when all the cheap advance-purchase fares are sold out, your card might give you a 25% discount off a €100 full-price full-flex fare when you could have booked online from your own home two months ago and bought a €29 cheap advance-purchase fare without a railcard.  In general, you only need to consider such a railcard if you are planning to make multiple journeys in that country during the course of a year.  Most holiday travellers can forget this distraction, just go online in advance and nab a cheap deal, don't worry about railcards.

  Incidentally, British Senior Railcards & 12-25 railcards don't entitle you to any discount on Eurostar or anywhere outside the UK.  They are National Railcards, the clue is in the name!

• To find out more about senior or youth railcards in a given country...

  Go to the relevant rail operator website, see the list on the links page.  In Italy, the senior fares shown on Trenitalia.com are only for people with Trenitalia's Carravaggio card.  French Railways have a similar Carte Senior, which gives a 25%-50% discount for around €55 a year.  In Spain there's the Tarjeta Dorada.  The golden rule when booking is, don't select any strange brand-name with the word 'card', 'carta', 'carte' etc. before or after it unless you know you have one!

• Rail+Senior card...

  There used to be an international railcard called a Rail+Plus Senior card which gave a 25% reduction on full fares for international journeys between a range of western & eastern European countries.  However, it has now been withdrawn, no great loss as it wasn't valid on any of the 'globally priced' international trains in western Europe, which now means almost all of them!

Child fares

• Infants under a certain age go free on trains, no ticket required (Spain is an exception, see here and so is Russia), just bring them with you.  Children under a certain age travel at a child rate, sometimes a 50% discount, sometimes a special child rate.
• Infant & child age limits vary from country to country, so if you are travelling with children, see the train travel with children & child age limits page for full details and advice.
• Forewarned is forearmed, so here are the two key pitfalls to keep an eye open for when booking children online:

  1)  Child fare more expensive than adult fare.  This happens when (a) the train operator has created an adult full-price fare and a child full-price fare plus some cheap adult advance-purchase fares, without creating any advance-purchase fares for children, and (b) the website software isn't clever enough to know that an adult advance-purchase fare can be used by a child (just not the other way round, of course!).  For example, I have seen the French Railways website charge €74 cheap rate adult + €114 full-fare child for 1 adult & 1 child from Paris to Barcelona, because the system wasn't clever enough to offer 2 x €74 adult tickets.  The solution is to manually re-run the enquiry with 2 adults selected, or find a better website:  Raileurope.com has better software and handled the same enquiry correctly, offering 2 x €74 adult tickets.  So keep your eyes open and brain engaged!

  2)  Some websites apply the wrong (more restrictive) child age limits:  Most notably, due to technical limitations French Railways-based websites including www.sncf-connect.com blindly apply the French Railways age limits to any train they book, whatever age limits actually apply.  It's a particular problem when booking Paris-Germany trains as French Railways apply their own 'under 4s free, under 12s child rate' policy when the German Railways website Bahn.de correctly applies their own far more generous policy of 'under 6s free, under 16s at child rate, under 16s free if accompanied by a fare-paying adult' when booking exactly the same train.  A key rule is that if you have kids and the train is German or to, from, across or within Germany, use the German Railways website not the French!

  Zen & the sound of one hand clapping...  Incidentally, if you took a 5-year-old on a TGV from Paris to Munich he wouldn't need a ticket according to the German Railways website as he's under 6, but as he's over 4 he'd be travelling illegally if you didn't buy him a child ticket according to the French Railways website.  It all depends which website you didn't use to not buy him a ticket.  How does the conductor know which site you didn't use?  Is this the railway equivalent of one hand clapping?  I knew a philosophy degree would come in handy for rail ticketing...

• When kids under 15 go free...  Two long-standing permanent offers are worth mentioning...

  On journeys to, from, across or within Germany, kids under 15 usually go free when accompanying their parent, guardian or grandparent using a cheap advance-purchase Sparpreis fare booked at the German Railways (DB) website www.bahn.de.  Paris to Salzburg, Amsterdam to Prague, Brussels to Vienna, Berlin to Zurich, Munich to Copenhagen, it applies to all these and more when booked at www.bahn.de.

  On journeys to, from or within Austria, kids under 15 go free when accompanying their parent, guardian or grandparent using a cheap advance-purchase Sparschiene fare booked at the Austrian Railways (ÖBB) website www.oebb.at.  Vienna to Venice, Vienna to Prague, Budapest to Salzburg, Innsbruck to Verona, it applies to all these and more.

  In both cases, you just add your child to the booking in the normal way and you should find they are included at no cost.

Railpasses

• Railpasses give unlimited flexible travel around one country, several countries, or most of Europe.  If you want to be free to explore Europe, see the Interrail pass page if you live in Europe or the Eurail pass page if you live outside Europe.  Contrary to overseas railpass marketing, railpasses are most definitely not a way to save money, rather an amazing freedom to experience Europe for which you pay top dollar.

• If you simply want to travel from A to B cheaply, just pre-book an advance-purchase ticket a month or two ahead as shown on this page and forget about passes.  Railpasses may (sometimes) save money over expensive long-distance full-price tickets bought on the day of travel, but almost never against the cheap advance-purchase fares that you can now get on most routes.  For a blow-by-blow account of the classic 'Should I buy a railpass or point-to-point tickets?' argument, see the Railpass & Eurail page.

Complex journey? Split the booking!

• The most important piece of advice, when people find booking systems won't handle (say) Avignon to Pisa all in one go, or won't give a cheap fare for (say) Zurich to Florence, or the Italian Railways website won't book an indirect train to Luzern:  Split the booking!

• Some booking systems can only handle direct trains, for example Spain www.renfe.com (other than a limited number of key pre-programmed connections), and Hungary www.mavcsoport.hu.  The Italian railway website www.trenitalia.com can handle changes of train within Italy, and direct trains from Italy, but not journeys with a change of train outside Italy, such as Milan to Luzern with a change at Arth Goldau.  The French system at www.sncf-connect.com can handle a maximum of 2 or 3 changes, but more than that and it won't work.  Very few sites can handle complex multi-leg journeys.

• The solution is to break the journey down into bite-size chunks, then book each part of the journey (and if necessary, each individual train) at the relevant operator's website.  It's often helpful to start by finding a suitable end-to-end journey using the German Railways all-Europe online planner at www.bahn.de, as this can happily work out multi-country multi-leg journeys, but not sell tickets.

• For example, no train operator website can book you from Amsterdam to Benidorm near Alicante in Spain all in one go.  But www.nsinternational.nl or www.thalys.com will book Amsterdam-Paris.  The French Railways website www.sncf-connect.com will book Paris-Barcelona and the Spanish Railways website www.renfe.com will book Barcelona-Alicante.  A local ticket from Alicante to Benidorm can then easily be bought on the day at the station, so no need to worry about that.  Some creative thinking is sometimes required!

Check ticket delivery options!

• If I'm unfamiliar with a ticket selling website, the first thing I check is ticket delivery.  For example, Italian railways trenitalia.com will happily sell a ticket from Vienna to Venice, but hard-copy tickets must be collected from a Trenitalia ticket machine at an Italian station, no good if you're starting in Vienna.  The Austrian Railways website oebb.at gives print-your-own tickets for these trains so can be used to book Vienna-Venice trains in either direction.  I take this into account in recommending the right website to use for any particular journey.

Avoid foreign currency conversion fees

• If you live in the UK or another European country, get a Curve card to get a better exchange rate and avoid paying foreign currency transaction fees when buying train tickets in a foreign currency, see explanation below.  It also saves on fees and exchange rates when taking cash out of foreign ATMs.

When is it better to book by phone?

• If there's a persistent glitch with the online systems, or none of the systems seem to book what you want, pick up the phone!  People forget you can still do this.  See the advice on who to call here.

• You may also need to pick up the phone if you have a specific requirement, such as a specific seat or a seat in a specific carriage.  And there are journeys that simply can't be booked online at all, for example many eastern European journeys such as Warsaw-Kyiv or Bucharest-Istanbul to name just two. 

• Finally, if you're booking a more complex journey, you may prefer to book all your tickets together by phone, even though you pay a booking fee, rather than have to make multiple bookings on several websites making sure that each of these connects.  See the How to buy tickets by phone page - some agencies are better than others for specific routes or countries, because of the system the use.

Have your trip arranged as a package

• Booking your own tickets online and putting a trip together yourself is the cheapest option.  But if time, hassle and a lack of the necessary expertise are your main concerns, not cost, you can get specialist train tour agency Railbookers to arrange your whole trip, with train tickets, transfers and hotels all expertly organised to your own specification.  As you are then considered to be booking a package, they'll also take care of any necessary alternative arrangements if disruption occurs during the trip, for example strikes or floods.

    UK call 0207 864 4600, railbookers.co.uk

    US call free 1-888-829-4775, see website

    Canada call 1-855-882-2910, see website

    Australia call 1300 971 526, see website

    New Zealand call 0800 000 554 or see website.

Booking accommodation when you travel by train

• You can book your hotels before booking your trains...  Trains normally can't be booked more than 90 days ahead, but people often want to confirm their accommodation earlier than that.  I generally use www.booking.com for hotels as they usually let you book rooms with free cancellation.  This means you can book hotels at no risk, months before train bookings open.

• Left luggage for free...  Hotels will almost always look after your bags for free if you need to check out and catch an afternoon or evening train, or if you arrive in the morning before you can check in to your room.

• Hotel buffet breakfast, even if you're not staying there...  If you're arriving early, perhaps by overnight sleeper train, don't forget that you can usually walk into a large hotel near the station and pay for their buffet breakfast even if you're not staying there.  All the coffee, juice and cooked breakfast you can eat and drink, for a fixed price.

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To buy British train tickets, see the UK page

Buy tickets starting in the UK

For journeys within Britain...

Guide to train tickets & fares within the UK

London to Bath by train

London to York by train

London to Edinburgh by train

London to Scotland by Caledonian Sleeper

London to Cornwall by Night Riviera sleeper

Train & ferry tickets to the Channel Islands

Train & ferry tickets to the Isle of Man

For journeys to Ireland...

Cheap train & ferry tickets to Belfast for £58

Cheap train & ferry tickets to Dublin & Ireland from £48.80

For journeys to mainland Europe...

Each destination country page gives step-by-step instructions for booking a train journey from the UK to destinations in that European country.

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Guidebooks

Paying for a guidebook may seem an unnecessary expense, but it's probably just a tiny fraction of what you're spending on your whole trip.  You will see so much more, and know so much more about what you're looking at, if you have a decent guidebook.  For the independent traveller, I think the best ones out there are either the Lonely Planet or the Rough Guide.  Both guidebooks are excellent, and you won't regret buying one..!  Alternatively, the 'Europe by Rail' guide combines country information with basic train information.

Click the images to buy at Amazon.co.uk

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Hotels in Europe

Other hotel sites worth a look...

www.tripadvisor.com is a huge resource, a good place to browse independent travellers' reviews of all the main hotels.

www.booking.com is my own preferred hotel booking system (Hotels Combined being a booking site comparison system).  It has a simple interface, a good selection in most countries worldwide, useful online customer reviews of each hotel, and decent prices, usually shown inclusive of unavoidable extras such as taxes (a pet hate of mine is systems that show one price, then charge you another!).

Budget backpacker hostels...

www.hostelworld.com:  If you're on a tight budget, don't forget about the backpacker hostels.  Hostelworld offers online booking of dorm beds or ultra-cheap private rooms in backpacker hostels in most European cities at rock-bottom prices.

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Travel insurance & VPN

Always take out travel insurance

You should take out travel insurance with at least £1m or preferably £5m medical cover from a reliable insurer.  It should cover trip cancellation and loss of cash & belongings up to a reasonable limit.  These days, check you're covered for covid-19-related issues, and use an insurer whose cover isn't invalidated by well-meant but excessive Foreign Office travel advice against non-essential travel. An annual policy is usually cheapest even for just 2 or 3 trips a year, I have an annual policy with Staysure.co.uk myself.  Don't expect travel insurance to bail you out of every missed connection, see the advice on missed connections here.  Here are some suggested insurers, I get a little commission if you buy through these links, feedback always welcome.

  www.staysure.co.uk offers enhanced Covid-19 protection and gets 4.7 out of 5 on Trustpilot.

  www.columbusdirect.com is also a well-know brand.

  If you live in the USA try Travel Guard USA.

Get an eSIM with mobile data package for Europe

Don't rely on WiFi, download an eSIM with a mobile data package for Europe and stay connected.  Most newer mobile phones can download a virtual SIM card so you don't need to buy a physical SIM, including iPhone 11 & later, see device compatibility list.  Maya.net is a reliable eSIM data retailer with a 4.5 out of 5 Trustpilot rating and a range of packages including unlimited data.

Get a Curve card for foreign travel

Most banks give you a poor exchange rate, then add a foreign transaction fee on top.  A Curve MasterCard means no foreign transaction fees and gives you the mid-market exchange rate, at least up to a certain limit, £500 per month as I write this.  The money you spend on your Curve card goes straight onto one of your existing debit or credit cards.  And you can get a Curve card for free.

How it works:  1. Download the Curve app for iPhone or Android.  2. Enter your details & they'll send you a Curve MasterCard - they send to the UK and most European addresses.  3. Link your existing credit & debit cards to the app, you can link up to two cards with the free version of Curve, I link my normal debit card and my normal credit card.  4. Now use the Curve MasterCard to buy things online or in person or take cash from ATMs, exactly like a normal MasterCard. Curve does the currency conversion and puts the balance in your own currency onto whichever debit or credit card is currently selected in the Curve app.  You can even change your mind about which card it goes onto, within 14 days of the transaction.

I have a Curve Blue card myself, it means I can buy a coffee on a foreign station on a card without being stung by fees and lousy exchange rates, just by tapping the Curve card on their card reader.  The money goes through Curve to my normal debit card and is taken directly from my account (in fact I have the Curve card set up as payment card on Apple Pay on my iPhone, so can double-click my phone, let it do Face ID then tap the reader with the phone - even easier than getting a card out).  I get a little commission if you sign up to Curve, but I recommend it here because I think it's great.  See details, download the app and get a Curve card, they'll give you £5 cashback through that link.

Get a VPN for safe browsing.  VPNs & why you need one explained

When you're travelling you often use free WiFi in public places which may not be secure.  A VPN encrypts your connection so it's always secure, even on unsecured WiFi.  It also means you can select the geographic location of the IP address you browse with, to get around geoblocking which a surprising number of websites apply.  See VPNs & why you need one explained.  ExpressVPN is a best buy with a 4.7 out of 5 Trustpilot ranking which I use myself - I've signed up as an ExpressVPN affiliate, and if you go with expressvpn.com using the links on this page, you should see a special deal, 3 months free with an annual subscription.  I get a small commission to help support this site.

Always carry an Anker powerbank

Tickets, reservations, vaccination records and Interrail or Eurail passes are often held digitally on your mobile phone, so it's vital to keep it charged.  I always carry an Anker powerbank which can recharge my phone several times over if I can't get to a power outlet.  Buy from Amazon.co.uk or from Buy from Amazon.com.

Touring cities & museums?  Use hill walking shoes!

One of the best things I've done is swap my normal shoes for hill-walking shoes, in my case from Scarpa.  They're intended for hiking across the Pennines not wandering around Florence, but the support and cushioning for hiking works equally well when you're on your feet all day exploring foreign cities.  My feet used to give out first and limit my day, now the rest of me gives up before they do!

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