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Welcome
Welcome to our selection of European rail holidays for 2016, designed with you in mind to introduce to
you some of our very favourite places.
My childhood holidays tended to focus on the Yorkshire coast, Norfolk or North Wales. I didn’t actually
leave these shores until my early 20s, when I went to live and work in Germany and France. That’s where
my thirst for travel came from and it’s fair to say I’ve been catching up ever since. Back then, a trip to
the continent involved the slow and sometimes unpleasant cross channel ferry. Not so now! High speed
lines, state of the art trains and, of course, the Channel Tunnel make Europe easy to reach with comfort,
speed and style.
This new brochure contains destinations close to both mine and Dave’s hearts, including tried and tested
favourites like the stunning
Harz Mountains
– a destination that left Dave dumbfounded the first time
he visited; not just by the narrow gauge steam, but also the breath-taking unspoilt beauty of its towns.
Where else will you find a tour so lovingly produced to explore the scenery and steam of Switzerland,
based in the high alpine village of Wengen, as our
Swiss Mountains Steam
.
Or the classy
French Riviera
, where we breakfast on Eurostar and enjoy dinner on the Mediterranean!
Elsewhere in these pages you’ll find tours to places that have enchanted Dave or myself through our
many years of travel.
Taste the
wines of the Rhine & Moselle
, staying with friends of mine and visiting vineyards not generally
on the tourist route…
Experience the
Glacier Express
and the
Bernina Express
on one tour – which one gets your vote as the
most spectacular journey?
Explore
Lake Garda & Venice
or idyllic
Lake Maggiore
, destinations of worldwide renown.
Visit two of
France’s great steam railways
, pay your respects on the poignant
Somme battlefields
and
visit vibrant
Paris
all on one tour.
Explore French and Spanish
Catalonia
, the Pyrenees by train, cosmopolitan
Barcelona
, medieval
Carcassonne
and the extraordinarily beautiful cove of
Collioure,
also all on one tour.
Or
stay in a Polish castle
, arriving by steam train, uncovering world war and cold war history, plus historic
tours of Berlin from a hotel built by the Soviets.
We are proud to offer you something old, something new, something bold but everything true to the
spirit of Railtrail. Enjoy reading and hopefully we’ll see you at St Pancras.
Rob Carroll
Commercial & Product Manager
Railtrail Tours Ltd
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