(This is the third in a series offering budget travel advice for the backpacking tourist as well as anyone else seeking cheap travel tips.)

Train or plane? Rent a car or brave the bus? Such are some split-second decisions one must make in order to become a well-rounded tourist (or tourista) in Europe!

I don’t profess to know everything about transportation in Europe, but through the process of trial and error I think I’ve discovered a few worthwhile tidbits for future travelers.

(Florence, Italy, seen here, is a city that can be reached by train, plane, car, bus, and probably even a boat up the Arno River. It's worth the effort. Photo copyright 2005.)

Trains: Riding the Rails

I am a huge advocate of the Eurail train system in Europe. Almost all of the trips “à l’Eurail” I have taken in European countries have been quite decent, and some have been thoroughly enjoyable. The unwritten rules of trains vary from country to country, however, so expect the unexpected.

Know the system: After several satisfactory treks on Italian trains, I considered myself something of an expert. However, on what should have been a speedy trip from Florence to Arezzo, my mom and I hopped on a Trenitalia train which stopped literally every five minutes. We had boarded an Interregionale (local), destined to pick up every breathing body between Arezzo and Florence. Our mistake – we should have checked more carefully to make sure we were on a direct train (diretto, which stops at fewer stops than the IR trains do, is not as fast, however, as the IC, or Intercity, which would have taken us nonstop from Arezzo to Florence). Whoops.

Generally, trains to your destination of choice in Europe are readily available, depending on the size of the city. If you plan to do a lot of travel by train, I recommend Eurail, a company that offers great deals on passes that have fairly flexible regulations. Check it out at www.eurail.com. These passes usually end up being cheaper than buying tickets for each trek separately.

On trains, nights are not necessarily for sleeping: Whatever you do, don’t buy a ticket for an overnight train ride and then actually expect, of all things, to sleep. While you’re trying to drift off to slumber, train rides are bumpier than you might normally notice during the day, and what with the sheets made out of toilet paper and the fellow tourist snoring in the bunk below you, it just won’t happen.

Four-wheeled mass transit: Buses (called "coaches" in Britain when they are intercity transport) are also a cheap and efficient way to get around in Europe. Most of the buses are probably comparable to those in large American cities--no complimentary champagne or foot warmers, but convenient and safe enough. When you board the bus, now is not the time to try and pretend you are a native. Loudly say the name of wherever you want to go to the bus driver, and refuse to move until he nods yes or no.

Automobile rental for the independent spirit:

As for renting (or "hiring," as the British say) a car, this is an entirely reasonable thing for tourists to do in Europe.

I will also say that I, while having read numerous foreign road maps, have never sat behind the wheel of a vehicle in Europe. Driving regulations vary from country to country, and sometimes even within these nations.

(If you want to visit the Garfagnano region in Italy, to the northwest of Florence (pictured here), you will need to rent a car. The driving is an adventure in itself! Photo copyright 2004.)

One warning: fuel is expensive in Europe. Very expensive. On the other hand, cars are usually small and fuel efficient.

Driving habits differ from country to country. It takes a very special (confident, assertive, daredevil, psychotic) person to drive the streets of Florence, while Swedish drivers seem to be very courteous toward each other and respectful of the speed limit.

Note for passengers in charge of navigating the back roads of Tuscany: those dotted white lines on the map are merely “suggestions” of what may have the possibility of once having been a narrow, rutted road, sometime in the very distant past.

Be careful, or you may find yourself in a standard-transmission Fiat Punto the size of a watermelon, bouncing over rocks in the middle of a dark forest at a sixty degree incline. While navigating on a dotted-white “road,” you might look out the window—as I did once--and see a rusting car much like yours hanging from the vines of a tree over a cliff, while your traveling companion (and driver) screams, ‘Omigod! Is that a CAR hanging in that tree? Where ARE we?”

Ahem--not that I would know.

We eventually emerged, relieved, onto paved roads and sunlight. But I wouldn’t trade that adventurous off-road trip for anything.

- Copyright, 2005 by Emily R. Carter. May be reprinted with permission from Emily R. Carter at Cat's Cradle Used, Rare and Out of Print Books - where travel is a passion, and used and vintage travel books abound.

About the author: This is the third in a series by Emily R. Carter, a 2003 graduate of Furman University with a degree in art emphasizing art history. She is a freelance writer who has traveled extensively in Europe both during and after her college years. She lives in High Point, North Carolina. Contact her if you are interested in her freelance writing services. Her travel writing is copyrighted, but may be distributed in print or on the Internet as long as the author's byline, copyright and permission statements are included exactly as they appear in her columns. She would appreciate knowing if you reproduce her work electronically or in print.

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