Europe travel guide

Motorail service criticised

With many finding airports nothing but a pain to negotiate, or wanting to use their own car on holiday but disliking the long driving distances involved to the south of France, it's worth considering putting your car on a train. It used to be popular a generation ago but what are the standards and costs like now as fuel prices seem to go ever upwards.

Daily Telegraph writer Robert Chesshyre used to use the French Motorail service in the 1970s and had fond memories of eating a fine dinner on board and waking up to the sun on the Mediterranean hills. But what's the service like now, he wondered.

It still runs is the good news. The bad news is that a one-way trip from Calais to Frejus cost him £576. But when he worked out the fuel and toll costs plus an overnight stay if driving, it wasn't too excessive. The worse news was that the service has deteriorated with old trains, difficulty seeing out of the windows, very second-class couchettes and no longer a restaurant, although there is a bar.

This is something of a surprise as SNCF, the operators of Motorail, have some of Europe's finest trains. The company, the Telegraph article noted, were dealing with problems such as 'blown' windows which meant passengers could not see out of the windows.

This article was written for TravelSavvy Europe by Bob Cartwright. If you come across any good European holiday deals we have missed, please get in contact.