Germany & Eastern Europe

“A great way to have an introduction to these four vibrant cities each with its own characteristics - from the grandeur of Vienna to the splendour of Budapest Parliament building, the beautiful time-warp which is Prague and the vibrant modern city which is Berlin whose main railway station alone is worth the visit! The scenery from the train, apart from that between Prague and Berlin is unremarkable so a bit of a disappointment. In our experience it is a trademark of GRJ that the hotels are all situated within easy walking distance of the city centres. A new, very useful, addition is that the cases are taken separately between hotels which makes getting on and off trains a pleasure. There is a good balance between the organised city tours and free time. Inevitably the traveller is left wanting to return to explore in greater depth. Certainly a tour not to be missed!

“Excellent overview of these 3 countries. Well organised, hotels in great positions and free time to explore just right. Well done Great Rail!

“Fantastic holiday filled with enjoyable activities, good food and fellowship. Well organised. Very helpful professional staff and crew. Only wish we had checked out a couple of hours later and had a 2 hrs city tour of Cologne on the last day . Very pleased.

“Excursions and hotels all very nice, plenty of free time and it was also very warm(!)

“Brilliant holiday great places visited but would have preferred to stay in the Herz mountains for whole holiday

“The tour manager was brilliant and the group made up of interesting and nice people who geld as a group of travellers. Hotel were very nice and the Eurostar was a great experience as was the German rail network.

“A very well managed tour to an interesting country that we had not visited before

“The holiday was very good, visiting Berlin and Prague before boarding the Amadeus Brilliant which was excellent. Accommodation and food on board also excellent, a thoroughly enjoyable holiday.

“If you like Steam Trains and Snow this is an amazing trip. Many Steam Train trips. But Clip on studs that go over your shoes ie 'Crampons' should have been recommended for the top of 'The Brocken' as it can be treacherously icy. We saw many falls. The surrounding towns has some wonderful buildings and appears almost desolate. Very little is in English so you may need to rely on a guide, especially in restaurants. The escort was wonderfully organised and most necessary, especially with organisation and signage as despite what we think the train services in Europe are not too different to ours regarding efficiency and sometimes very much worse. Also having a central point/hotel in Wernigerode from which to explore the area meant we only had to unpack once to enjoy all the different trips. Being old we were surprised to find we could manage much of what was available to see and the guide took care to ensure we were catered for. You can very much imagine it was still part of Eastern Germany when it was controlled by Russia. Strongly recommended. Without a professional guide we would have missed a lot.