Win a copy of Platform Europe + an Interrail Pass! (closed)

My favorite journey, using an interrail pass, was between Naxos (Greece) and Santorini (Greece). You could see so many different islands during the ride, it was so nice. Most people don’t even know about that you can travel by ferries between greek islands using Greek Islands interrail pass.
If I had to mention a trip involving trains, then I would say my favorite was between Como (Italy) and Füssen (Germany). During the majority of the journey, we were traveling between the swiss mountains and man, they looked soo amazing.

I want to go to Spain again and ride the R5 regional train from Barcelona up into the mountains to the Abadia de Montserrat. Last time I was in Barcelona I couldn‘t because of time constraints. :(

My favourite train route by far is the train I took between Vienna and Maribor via Graz. Absolutely stunning route through the mountains!

The main route on my wishlist is the trains between Helsinki, Oulu and Rovaniemi in Finland, I would love to explore northern Finland!

My favorite journey - if I choose one of the less popular options - is the section from Olomouc to Jesenik in the eastern part of the Czech Republic. A real mountain railway in a scenic landscape 

My absolute favourite train ride is from Chennai to Kochi (India). I went on a night train which was an unforgettable experience. I was sitting on the side of the train with the doors opened, there was a small breeze in my hair and I was enjoying the view of tropical trees and plants. I felt at peace and indescribably happy. Although my favourite rout isn't in India I also loved the train ride from Stavanger to Oslo and every other train ride on my previous  Interrail  trip. 

My next train journey would like it to be from Paris to somewhere in Norway ✨ 

During my Interrail trip I visited 8 countries, but Ljubljana in Slovenia made the biggest impression on me🙌🏻 I would love to go there again. I would love to combine it with a visit to Italy🙏🏻😊

Favourite travel route? It’s difficult to choose, I crossed Europe many times and every railway has its beauties. Incredibly slow rides through Romanian flatlands, where we can easily watch birds, incredibly fast ICE and TGV, when we can cross half of Europe in one day. Crossing mountains with deep canyons and tunnels twisting like a snake between the rocks, or riding along coast and watching sunset above sea. Adventures with big delays, when people can get closer and start communicating or when I can do more work, than during whole year. But the most important is, that in every train I feel like at home. Or it is my home. I spend there most of my free time, I can watch landscape and villages, relax, listen music, write or do other work on computer. If the train is empty, I can lie down on the “couch” and enjoy the feeling of home. But one thing is missing there – the people. I can easily watch local people and get to know their habits, but I never have opportunity to enjoy the time together with someone. I don’t have anyone to go with and most of the people are afraid to speak with strangers and if in some countries not, they don’t speak foreign languages. I wish having some tool for people to easily meet in trains. Some places dedicated to solo travellers, who wants to get to know new people, or some platform, where we would be able easily to find company. This way we could bring more people to trains, for example those ones, who are afraid to travel alone and needs someone more experienced to go with.

My slowest and most enjoyable train journey was from St Petersburg to Murmansk, in July, so it never got dark. Hours and hours of silver birch forests and then in the Arctic Circle were navy blue lakes and snow topped pink mountains.

Favourite train journey in Europe: Interrailing through southern France and only taking regional trains

Having to switch trains four times in one day sounds a bit stressful, but it was the complete opposite.
By combining multiple regional trains to get to our destination, we were making use of our breaks between the different trains in the best possible way:
Starting at 8:30 am in Grenoble, at 10 am we were having a croissant in Valence, by noon stopping for crèpe and cappuccino in Avignon and going to the old port of Marseille during early afternoon.
All of that before arriving at our destination on the Côte d’Azur at 4 pm. Loved it.

Train route vienna to venice, very quick, comfy and overnight path to the south! 

Paris to Barcelona is hands down my favorite route! 🚊There’s nothing like watching the scenery shift from the busy streets of Paris to those dreamy Mediterranean vibes in just a few hours. The best part is definitely the stretch near the border where you’re literally gliding past lagoons and beautiful views with tracks right next to the water. 🇨🇵🇪🇸 Crossing the Pyrenees into Catalonia just feels like pure vacation mode😍. 

I wanna go from Berlin to Rome, where I used to live many years ago.

If I could go back in time, my all-time favorite route would be the one from Tirano in Italy to St. Moritz in Switzerland—offering astonishing views you can experience only from the train.

I would love to travel from Paris to Italy, Czech republic and Germany to visit my erasmus friends !

I love the Bernina and also Oslo - Bergen. But I also love Himmelstreppe (translates as: stairway to heaven) a small local train in the Austrian alps not too far away from my hometown Vienna

I wish to travel to my second home in Alicante provins ones again.

My favorite journey so far was from Amsterdam all the way to Naples, bringing me through Switzerland with the sleeper train, and across Italy with views of both snowy mountains and the ocean. 

I really want to do the Sarajevo-Mostar Train this year!

I’m building a startup now and would love to take an interrail from Finland to Turkey in one long sitting and see how much progress I can make in the trains!

I really hope to travel through Norway south to north and back once!! :)

my favourite ride is from Glasgow up to Mallaig in Scotland :) great scenery

Very soon i will travel with interrail in central Europe, visiting five countries. I am excited about this

We’re celebrating the release of Platform Europe, the latest book written by our longtime friend Bart Giepmans. Bart is an author, travel journalist, photographer and a passionate advocate for exploring Europe by train.

He is a true champion of slow travel and spends much of the year discovering Europe by rail, embracing historic stations, meaningful encounters and the stories found along the tracks. He wrote and photographed most of the journeys featured in Platform Europe!

😍Win a copy of Bart’s beautiful book AND a FREE Interrail Global Pass (7 days in 1 month)!

Participation is open to all persons 16+ living in Europe. The giveaway ends on 28 April 2026 at 12 pm CET. Five winners will be randomly selected and contacted via the community DM on 28 April 2026. The winners will receive 1x Interrail Global Pass for 7 travel days within 1 month (2nd class) and 1x Platform Europe book. The book will be shipped free of charge.

📄 Read the full Terms & Conditions, here.

How to enter the giveaway

Whether you are an experienced rail traveller or still dreaming about your first trip:

💬 Tell us your favourite slow travel train route – or the train journey that's next on your wishlist – and why.

Share your answer in the comments below to enter the giveaway👇

I'd love to visit northern europe 🥹

Maybe it was not the most scenic journey my girlfriend and I made the first year of Interrail. It was 1972 and we traveled from Schiedam, The Netherlands around the Botnic Gulf. Mostly by train, sometimes by boat and sometimes by bus. We traveled with no plan and no timetable. In Finland we took the train in Helsinki, direction Vaasa. Birch trees and lakes for hours and hours. Every now and then the train conductor came along and informed the passengers of the stops along the route. We didn't understand a word of his Finnish. But looking outside the windows at the station we read the names of the stations. We wanted to get out in Jyvässkula, but it seemed that we passed a lot of stations, called Ravintola. Finally we understood that we passed Jyväskula an hour ago and that Ravintola ment 'restaurant'. That night we pitched up our tent between the tracks of the station of a small Finnish village. How romantic, traveling without a smartphone and internet!