“What to do with your luggage while staying at the dining car?” is one of the most urgent questions for railway travellers, as in most dining cars there is no or limited space to store your luggage.
The baseline and most important thing with this question is, that a stay at the dining car has to be relaxing. Hence there are more than one option and there is no right or wrong, it’s just that what you have to feel comfortable with.
- Leave your luggage where it is and take only your valuables or hand luggage with you. (This is my preferred way of dealing with this question). As an addition, you can ask a stranger to have a look at your bags.
- Take all of your stuff with you, especially if it fits under the dining car’s seats or benches. This solution creates a high security feeling as you have all of your belongings next to you. A downside is the handling of things that you and your fellow dining car visitors don’t need there.
- In some cases the dining car is split up into a dining or bistro section and a seating section (e.g. Railjet), or a luggage storing shelf is close to the dining carriage (TGV), where you can store your luggage at. As a result, your belongings are close and you can have an eye on it regularly and you don’t have deal with the unhandy valuables.
- If you are in a (bigger) group (especially > 4), you can visit the dining car in batches. Hence, no difficult handling of big bags and there is always at least one person having an eye on all the valuables. Downside: You can’t have a joint dining car experience!
- You don’t care at all and you just grab your purse to leave for the dining car. This is a way for people who are in a spirit of not thinking much / at all about their valuables (or they don’t have any with them).