Backpacking Through Europe With a Baby - Couchettes and Night Travel

Backpacking around Europe is a great way to see the best of Europe. For non-Europeans, a rail pass is the way to go, allowing unlimited travel throughout nearly all of Europe for one low price. With a baby strapped to your front, and a backpack on your back, you can easily travel from city to city and take in everything Europe has to offer.

If your child is small enough or if you don’t mind tight quarters when you sleep, couchettes are a fantastic way to travel. A couchette is basically a train car turned down for the night, with six small beds, triple-bunked in each compartment. It allows you and your family to not only avoid the cost of a hotel or hostel, but also lets you do your traveling while you sleep, so you can take advantage of every day. If you can travel by couchette, you won’t need to waste time on the train during daylight hours when you could be seeing the sights!

The couchette bed is a bit narrow for two people unless you have a small baby (maybe 10 months or younger), but it’s not terrible. If your baby doesn’t mind sleeping on your chest, it can be very comfortable for both of you. If your child is old enough to sleep in a bed on his own, consider getting a discounted eurail pass for the child at about half the price of an adult pass. Children four and younger travel free on Europe’s trains, but an extra seat might be worth it for a three or four year-old, especially at night.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 at 3:55 am and is filed under Backpacking In Europe, Europe, Train Travel, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.