As a family, we’ve always loved staying on campsites. It’s brilliant to be in the outdoors on holiday, where the children can safely run around, while we slowly watch the world go by. At the same time, we’ve long avoided flying overseas, preferring to take the slow road instead. In recent years, this has increasingly meant travelling by train rather than driving in the car. The Man in Seat 61 website has been a brilliant companion in this respect, as we’ve sought out train and ferry connections to crisscross Europe.
This is all great in principle, but there’s always been one difficulty: how best to combine a love of camping holidays with train travel. As a family of four, we’ve never fancied lugging a tent and all the equipment on and off trains, so have instead sought out existing accommodation on campsites: cabins, caravans and fixed tents. Finding nice campsites, near stations and with self-catering accommodation is not easy. It often involves many weeks of scanning railway lines around Europe for any possibly camping option within walking distance of a railway station.
The aim of this website is to take the pain out of rail camping. We’re gradually putting together a list of Europe’s campsites that meet the basic criteria of a) being accessible from a railway station and b) having self-catering accommodation available.
We’re very aware that there are many more options out there, so we welcome any suggestions. Please do share them with us and let’s build a rail – camping future!
Email: railcamping@outlook.com
Camping by Rail 