For those who enjoy luxury travel and a sense of the old-school, holidays by train are the perfect way to see Europe. The slower pace lets you take in more, and trains have a wonderful charm of their own - a fact that Budapest appears to embrace. While the city's attractions are too numerous to describe, here are some that will appeal directly to train lovers.
Hungarian Railway Museum
For those who were brought into Budapest on their holidays by train, checking out the rail transport of bygone eras is a fun way to feel connected to those travellers who came before, rolling into the city behind great puffing steam engines. This outdoor museum has an impressive array of locomotives. If you're travelling with children, this is a museum with plenty of child appeal - let them ride the child-sized train through the gardens, operate the model railway or have a go in the engine simulator. Adults can try driving a steam engine, and there are plenty of other curious methods of transport to try, including the Tchaika car - a car adapted to run on railway lines, once used by maintenance workers to check the lines and reach any faults quickly.
Nostalgia Café
If it's railway nostalgia you're after, you've come to the right city. Hungary's rail heritage organisation is the aptly-named MÁV Nosztalgia Ltd. This company runs the Railway Museum and this café, adjacent to the museum itself. With a terrace overlooking the museum's beautifully landscaped gardens, this is the perfect spot to relax after a day exploring to enjoy some old-style railway-style charm, daydreaming of holidays by train in times gone by.
Station to Station
Taking holidays by train gives travellers a new perspective on Europe's grandest rail stations. These are often noted in guidebooks for their architecture, and photographed from the outside by passing tourists, but for the train traveller they have special significance: they are portals, welcoming you to and leading you out into each new place. The character of a station can give you clues to the character of the city; they are also your portals for departure, the place where you bid a city farewell. Budapest's Nyugati Station, with its 1870s high arches and glass façade, offers an elegant greeting to new arrivals. It is also a pleasant place to spend time, and was recently used as a filming location for the new adaptation of John LeCarre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Two locomotives were borrowed from the Railway Museum for the scenes shot there, so if you do visit the museum remember that some of the trains you're looking at have found stardom on the big screen!
Hungarian Railway Museum
For those who were brought into Budapest on their holidays by train, checking out the rail transport of bygone eras is a fun way to feel connected to those travellers who came before, rolling into the city behind great puffing steam engines. This outdoor museum has an impressive array of locomotives. If you're travelling with children, this is a museum with plenty of child appeal - let them ride the child-sized train through the gardens, operate the model railway or have a go in the engine simulator. Adults can try driving a steam engine, and there are plenty of other curious methods of transport to try, including the Tchaika car - a car adapted to run on railway lines, once used by maintenance workers to check the lines and reach any faults quickly.
Nostalgia Café
If it's railway nostalgia you're after, you've come to the right city. Hungary's rail heritage organisation is the aptly-named MÁV Nosztalgia Ltd. This company runs the Railway Museum and this café, adjacent to the museum itself. With a terrace overlooking the museum's beautifully landscaped gardens, this is the perfect spot to relax after a day exploring to enjoy some old-style railway-style charm, daydreaming of holidays by train in times gone by.
Station to Station
Taking holidays by train gives travellers a new perspective on Europe's grandest rail stations. These are often noted in guidebooks for their architecture, and photographed from the outside by passing tourists, but for the train traveller they have special significance: they are portals, welcoming you to and leading you out into each new place. The character of a station can give you clues to the character of the city; they are also your portals for departure, the place where you bid a city farewell. Budapest's Nyugati Station, with its 1870s high arches and glass façade, offers an elegant greeting to new arrivals. It is also a pleasant place to spend time, and was recently used as a filming location for the new adaptation of John LeCarre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Two locomotives were borrowed from the Railway Museum for the scenes shot there, so if you do visit the museum remember that some of the trains you're looking at have found stardom on the big screen!
Anna Copeland is the Marketing Manager for The Danube Express, which specialises in holidays by train. The Danube Express has a range of exclusive train holidays to Europe, travelling across countries like Poland, Hungary and Turkey
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