This handy map shows you travel times via train anywhere within Europe

Map enthusiast Peter Kerpedjiev has used public data sources to offer up a new way to look at traveling in Europe. By taking average train travel times from a Swiss public transport API, and combining it with how long it would take to travel by foot to any point beyond the train station, he offers a contoured map that changes colors according to travel time.

Here's the map key:

For each point, he calculated the time to the nearest train station in addition to 5 minutes per kilometer for any distance beyond the station. This creates the color contours so that you can go in and easily see what day trips you could realistically make from any given city.

And while this is not an accurate way-finding tool, it does offer a quick planning perspective for travelers who want to leave from a specific city, but don't necessarily have a specific destination. Kerpedjiev provides different origins on his blog, so that you can select your departure city and see the realistic travel times to any point on the map.

We love maps that provide an alternative view of travel, especially ones that help in the planning phase to quickly see how realistic a potential plan is. For example, if you are planning a multi-city European trip this summer, you could quickly cycle through the map to see if your plan is actually feasible given your timeframe.

This map would help you answer, for example, whether you could base in Berlin for several day trips or whether it makes more sense to move cities to reach further into Europe within your time constraints. Rather than having to search train timetables or some other metasearch engine only to learn about travel time, you can just refer to the map — and leave the more tedious task of route selection and booking once you've narrowed down your options.

Navigate over to Peter's blog to experience the interactive map, as well as select an origin point from the 33 cities he has mapped.