Railtrail Annual Brochure 2016

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.

1 st CLASS R A I L T R A I L 36 YEARS

Rob Carroll Commercial & Product Manager Railtrail Tours Ltd

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