8. Useful train travel and transport apps

Here are the most useful long distance travel and transport apps that I have found. On my phone I have saved these to a home screen for quick and easy access. I have set up separate home screens dealing with tourist information and city travel, and these will be shown in the next two blog posts. 

Bounce

This app gives suggestions on where to store luggage during the day. Useful on your last day in a city when you may have to leave your accommodation early, but have a late train departure.

Citymapper

Useful for checking live public transport options options in a wide range of cities

Eurostar

The official Eurostar app.

FindPenguins 

Great app for automatically recording your journey and arranging your photos. 

Flixbus 

Intercity coach service covering much of Europe for locations with inadequate rail coverage. 

LeoExpress

Useful for booking seat reservations on trains in Czechia.

LuxExpress 

Intercity coach service covering much of eastern Europe for locations with inadequate rail coverage. 

Google Maps

What's not to like. You can save all your accommodation details, train stations, bus stations, attractions in advance.

Seat 61

Not actually an app, but you can save the The Man in Seat 61 website to your homescreen. Utterly indispensable and possibly  the most useful rail-travel site of all, including all apps. A goldmine of information - https://www.seat61.com/european-train-travel.htm. My only negative about the site is that visually the layout is cluttered and not that userfriendly, and the information could be clasified better. SMTJ (below) does a much better job.

MAV

Booking app for trains in Hungary and surrounding countries.

OBB

Booking app for trains in Austria and surrounding countries.

Omio

Extremely useful multi-purpose travel planning app for bus and rail travel.

PKP Intercity 

Booking app for trains in Poland.

 

PolarSteps

Similar to FindPenguins, allows you to automatically record your journey and save / arrange photos. 

Rail Planner

The official Interrail app which helps you plan your trip, save all your rail trips and gives the relevant links to make any necessary seat reservations. Also allows you to load an electronic version of your Interail ticket and activate all journeys.

Rick Steeves Audio Europe 

Ùseful app for self-guided audio guides of various European cities, some in the style of podcasts. Some paid content.

Rome2Rio

An indispensable app for planning all types of rail and bus journeys. Links to booking websites also. 

 

SMTJ

Show Me The Journey would be extremely useful in the early stages of planning a trip, however I didn't discover it until two weeks before departure. It is not as well known as Seat 61, but in my opinion is equally as useful, and has a much better user interface and layout. Like Seat 61, it is not an app, but you can still save a link to your phone's homescreen. It has guides to over 1000 trips, guides to travelling in most of mainland Europe and guides to all the main train stations.

 

SNCB International 

Booking app for trains in the Netherlands.

 

TravelBoast

A bit gimmicky, but a way of visualing an interrail journey with clever video. Also allows you to upload photos from each destination.