Packing list for a European trip by train
Paris to Amsterdam to Berlin to Prague to Vienna to Milan, or any order you like, with one bag that goes above your head, the seat reservations some trains demand and others do not, and a laundry plan every four days so the bag stays small.
On a phone with Waystop installed, the button adds the list to your trip as a bag you can tick off. Otherwise copy it and paste it into Waystop’s Chat with “add this to my packing list”.
Checked October 10, 2026.
Tick things off as you go and this browser will remember. Changed your mind?
0 of 17 packed
The bag
0/5Tickets and seats
0/3On board
0/5Clothes and the laundry plan
0/4What the weather is like
This route runs in every season. July afternoons sit around 77°F (25°C) in Paris and Amsterdam and reach 86°F (30°C) in Milan, and the train cars are cooled to around 70°F (21°C). January is 32 to 39°F (0 to 4°C) by day in Berlin, Prague and Vienna with snow some weeks, around 41°F (5°C) in Paris and Amsterdam with rain, and the cars are heated to 72°F (22°C). Pack for the car as much as the city: a layer to put on in summer and to take off in winter.
- A second bagTwo bags is one hand short on every staircase at Gare de Lyon and no space on the overhead rack; everything fits in one 40-liter bag with a laundry day
- A hard four-wheel suitcaseIt does not go above your head, it rolls down the aisle on a curve, and it lives at the car end where you cannot see it
- Printed tickets and a paper timetableThe apps hold the tickets offline and show platform changes, which happen ten minutes before departure and never reach a printout
- Food for the trainSupermarkets inside or beside every major station, Monop' in Paris, Albert Heijn to go in Amsterdam, Rewe and Spar in the German and Austrian stations, open early and late
- A SIM or eSIM for the EUOne EU plan roams across every country on this route at no extra cost; buy it in the first city or set up the eSIM before you land
- Laundry soap and a bottle of water for the first legBoth are cheaper in a city supermarket than at home, and the soap goes in a 100 ml bottle you refill at each stop
Worth knowing
- Book TGV, Eurostar and Italian high-speed reservations the day you fix the dates, especially with a pass: the pass-holder quota per train is small and gone weeks ahead in summer and at Christmas. German and Austrian trains can wait until the morning you travel. Decide on a pass before you book anything. Interrail is for European residents and Eurail for everyone else; both cover the fare but not the compulsory reservations, which run from around €10 to €20 on French and Italian high-speed trains to around €30 on Eurostar. For a fixed route of five or six legs booked two months ahead, point-to-point advance fares are often cheaper; a pass wins when you want to change your mind.
- Put the bag above your own seat, lock the zips, and leave the big rack at the car end for the people with suitcases they cannot lift; look up at every station stop.
- Pick the hotel within ten minutes' walk of the station you arrive at: on a two-night stop the twenty minutes each way to a tram adds up to half a day across the trip, and the areas around Berlin Hauptbahnhof, Wien Hauptbahnhof and Milano Centrale are fine to stay in.
Trips to pack this for
Never leave the charger in the hotel again.
Waystop keeps a list for each bag and each person. On the morning you change hotels it walks you through a quick pack-up check, and Chat can suggest items to add when you ask what to bring.