Interrail Questions/Suggestions/Pitfalls

[PeterY]

If all goes to plan, next September I have a plan to try an Inter rail ticket 15 days around Europe staying in hotels. Train riding 7am to 7pm (guide times only) .

Being a lone traveler, this will be way way outside my comfort zone.

So I don't screw my head up too much over thinking things, it would be nice to know what is and isn't feasible in a day.

The only thing I'd really like to do is spend two nights in Switzerland, sampling Swiss railways . Perhaps Sweden, Berlin, Austrian side of Europe.

Does being over 60 offer any reduction on ticket price?

 

[Ken H]

check out national offers for UK residents which may offer better value

here is the page about the ones for Italy.
https://www.italiarail.com/eurail-italy-pass

Bear in mind Inter City trains in Italy have compulsory reservations. It was €10 last time i went but that was some time ago. You can reserve just before the train departs. there are no marking on seats but that isnt a problem because everyone has a reservation.

 

[Struner]

Twelve hours a day for fifteen days???

 

[PeterY]

Twelve hours a day for fifteen days???

I done a 14 day ALR last year. I must admit I did pop home one night for some more clean clothes and drop off my dirty ones. .

 

[30907]

Yes, there is a decent senior discount, and there are often off-season discounts (I am taking advantage of one now!) - mid Sept/Oct typically, book by mid Aug..

There is loads of good advice on Seat61 but FWIW:

I would avoid consecutive 12-hour travelling days (Edit: hadn't seen your ALR comment). Indeed, I would cost out a flexi pass, and add local runabout tickets to the mix.

Italy, Spain and France all require reservations on IC routes, and the cost of these adds up (and they can sell out too).

Cost out the occasional night train (in a sleeper!) but again the passholder fare may not be competitive - and Nightjets to/from Northern Germany sell out fairly quickly.

 

[rg177]

Twelve hours a day for fifteen days???

I sometimes did 16-18hrs a day for 23 days on my "big" Interrail last year

7am-7pm is perfectly feasible for two weeks so long as you have your head down for at least eight hours of sleep most nights. You can always fit in a nap on a particularly long journey if needs be! I managed to function on 6-7 per night most nights on mine- but then again I was 19 and the excitement kept me going!

Your pass is best used in countries like Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Czechia, Slovakia and Slovenia where most trains don't need a reservation or reservations are cheap where necessary.

Certainly Czechia and Slovakia are a nice introduction to some Central European railways with old haulage and stock (albeit in the process of being gradually modernised)- staff on the long distance services mostly speak a degree of English, less so on local services.

In these countries though- particularly Czechia, travel is exceptionally cheap anyway so don't be afraid to have a flexi pass- the Czech version of an all liner is something daft like £21 for the day, and city day tickets are very cheap indeed.

Don't bother with Spain at all- too many reservations required to do anything at all and you'll more than likely get trapped inside an unstaffed gateline on the commuter trains.

 

[Struner]

The TS is talking about twelve hours every day? & I wonder about him popping off home one night to refresh his clothes?

 

[Ianno87]

Don't do every single day on trains. Have a few days off and actually see some places along the way.

 

[superjohn]

I have to agree with others about not pushing it so hard. Get a flexipass and plan in some rest days on a local city ticket.

Also beware of poor long distance punctuality, particularly in Germany. Give yourself some generous connections or you may find those long days get even longer!

If there are any trips you definitely want to do get them done in the first half of the trip. I find it is a good idea to leave some unplanned days later on. They allow you to go back and revisit anything that unexpectedly caught your eye earlier in the trip.

Sleepers are a novelty but very expensive compared to hotels. Certainly try one for the experience but a proper bed for the rest of the nights is advisable. For cheaper hotels try the less touristy destinations. In Germany I favour Mannheim, Kassel and Düsseldorf. All very well connected but not really tourist hotspots so reasonably priced.

 

[Mag_seven]

Take a copy of the "European Rail Timetable" with you - I always find it invaluable on European rail trips. You can't rely on journey planners and apps for everything.

https://www.europeanrailtimetable.eu/

 

[Capybara]

I endorse many of the comments above, particularly with travel in Germany which I've done a lot. With long distance travel, I always have a plan B, often a plan C and sometimes a plan D, as ICE and IC travel can be quite unreliable. Also, try to avoid Fridays as ICEs and ICs are often packed. You can, of course, reserve a seat, though this costs and it's not much good if one of your trains is delayed, or cancelled, and you can't make the train you are booked on. The DB site gives an indication of expected loadings, which I've found quite useful. It's actually not as bad as all that sounds, but it's as well to be prepared.

Interrail tickets are cheaper for over 60s, which is good. Also, as you are planing well in advance, keep a look out for Interrail deals which they offer quite often, usually 15% off, though this year they ran a first class for the price of second which was quite good. These deals are, however, non-refundable.

Oh, and Austria. Spending a whole day travelling across Austria can be an absolute delight. The trip through the Arlberg is beautiful, for example.

 

[PeterY]

Thanks guys for your advice and tips. So much to think about but at least it's a start for me. Two places I'd love to visit are Berlin and Switzerland, probably via Austria.

 

[Ken H]

Thanks guys for your advice and tips. So much to think about but at least it's a start for me. Two places I'd love to visit are Berlin and Switzerland, probably via Austria.

well worth searching Berlin on here - lots has been said. one thread here railforums.co.uk/threads/berlin.56532

 

[Ianno87]

Thanks guys for your advice and tips. So much to think about but at least it's a start for me. Two places I'd love to visit are Berlin and Switzerland, probably via Austria.

I highly recommend Berlin. Worth a couple of days at least.

Also, if you're in Germany, Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg and also Wuppertal for the Schwebwebahn.

Then into Austria via Garmisch-Partenkirchen, which is a spectacular line.

 

[paddington]

If it were me I would be breaking up the trip into 3 sessions of 5 days each with just as many days at home in between.

Switzerland is easy now that they have the Saver Day Pass, as you don't need to do any planning if you don't want to. I don't bother with the typical tourist trains as there are so many funiculars, mountain railways, trams, also ferries, that the only way you could actually run out of things to take is if you live there and do nothing else all year round. Find a few consecutive days which are being sold at 52 francs (about £40).

For Germany I mainly use day tickets from local transport associations, and the Laender tickets. I don't find myself using IC/ICE trains very often as I tend to spend a few days in one state, then it's time to go back to the UK rather than spending 4-6 hours going to another distant part of Germany.

 

[Iskra]

If you want to visit Sweden, the Stockholm-Narvik sleeper is surely a must? And it would save a nights hotel, there are showers available in the first class en suite berths, the communal ones in the rest of the train appeared to be cold which wasn't fun crossing into the Arctic Circle at Easter!

Maybe look into other sleepers to maximise rail time/save on hotels?

However, I do concur with the plethora of advice saying to take it easy and to plan some rest time and some days off. I've done some crazy rail itinerary's before and they do often leave me exhausted. It's also important to plan for things to go wrong, so leave some buffer time between connections especially on long distance and sleeper trains.

 

[PeterC]

A problem I found in France when holidaying by rail (half a lifetime ago now) was that small provincial hotels suddenly seemed to be "complet" when you turned up with a back pack.

 

[Polarbear]

If you want to pass through Switzerland, and avoid some reservation fees, you could travel from Paris Est to Basle via Belfort, then drop down towards Interlaken for either the run over to Lucerne, or alternatively, head back past Zwiesimmen to Montreaux. Some scenic lines to be travelled on in that part of the world.

 

[43096]

Take a copy of the "European Rail Timetable" with you - I always find it invaluable on European rail trips. You can't rely on journey planners and apps for everything.

https://www.europeanrailtimetable.eu/

That is very good advice. The Interrail app which was very good for getting a “line up” for a station (and it downloads timetable data to your phone so doesn’t use mobile data) has been made worse on the last “upgrade” and is now utter garbage.

 

[superalbs]

Be sure to take advantage of the stupidly cheap sleeper trains around Czechia, Slovakia, and Poland.

If you share with others, in Slovakia you can pay as little as £7 for a bed reservation lol. But I did this, and there were only two compartments in use (my party of three, and a party of two), so there's a good chance you won't even need to share.