Travelling to and from Europe on Interrail pass

Hi, I realise this is RailUK so not completely suitable for this question but I'm going on holiday in a few weeks on a group tour that starts in Paris and ends in Rome so I need to get to Paris from the North of England. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on doing this by train. I'm hoping to get the Eurostar over there and maybe on the way back so I've looked at getting an Interrail global pass and then paying for one of the passholder fares but there are so many terms and conditions I don't want to get caught out. I'd like to go via the South of France on the way back but might just feel like taking the most direct route after the tour is over and the pass would give me that flexibility. My main question is around how many days I should get the pass for and whether I should pay outside of the pass to get from home to London or on the way back pay for the return thing- the main thing that's confused me in all of the planning is that I think it said somewhere on seat 61 that you only use the eurostar one way? As in you can't do it on the way out and on the return? The other hitch was finding out that I can't have the home to London and London to Paris journey included as one trip if I stay over in London. Thank you!

RTrains8765 said:

Hi, I realise this is RailUK so not completely suitable for this question but I'm going on holiday in a few weeks on a group tour that starts in Paris and ends in Rome so I need to get to Paris from the North of England. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on doing this by train. I'm hoping to get the Eurostar over there and maybe on the way back so I've looked at getting an Interrail global pass and then paying for one of the passholder fares but there are so many terms and conditions I don't want to get caught out. I'd like to go via the South of France on the way back but might just feel like taking the most direct route after the tour is over and the pass would give me that flexibility. My main question is around how many days I should get the pass for and whether I should pay outside of the pass to get from home to London or on the way back pay for the return thing- the main thing that's confused me in all of the planning is that I think it said somewhere on seat 61 that you only use the eurostar one way? As in you can't do it on the way out and on the return? The other hitch was finding out that I can't have the home to London and London to Paris journey included as one trip if I stay over in London. Thank you!

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With a global pass you get two "outbound/inbound" days included, i.e. days on which you can use the pass in your country of residence. These aren't additional to the length of your pass, they are included in it - so if you have a five day pass for example, two of those days can be used in your own country as well as in other countries. The other three can only be used in other countries.

If you are using Eurostar then you will need to use these outbound/inbound days on the days you take Eurostar. On these days you can also use them on the train from the north to London. Don't pay separately for the train to London if you are doing it on the same day as you take the Eurostar.

If you stay over in London then that would affect the above - you could in practice use one of your outbound/inbound days to get to London and then the second one to get the Eurostar, but then you wouldn't have one for the way back. That would feel like a wasted day to me so in that situation you might be better off getting a separate ticket to London and then just starting your pass the day after, when you take the Eurostar.

I think you must have misunderstood something about only using Eurostar one way. You can definitely use it both ways (provided you have the available days on your pass of course).

The Eurostar passholder fares do sell out so make sure there is availability before you commit to the pass. You can't book passholder fares on the Eurostar website itself - try Rail Europe or the Belgian Railways site.

scragend said:

you could in practice use one of your outbound/inbound days to get to London and then the second one to get the Eurostar,

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Are you sure about that?

I don't know; it may be correct. However the T&Cs say "A Global Pass is usually valid for travel within your country of residence during one outbound journey and one inbound journey.", so it allows one of each but not two outbound.

They talk about journeys rather than about days, so that confuses it.

I don't know if it's allowed, but I wouldn't rely on it unless someone has done it in practice..

A couple of observations:

You can certainly use Eurostar both ways on a Global InterRail pass, subject to purchasing the respective seat reservations.

Global passes allow for one “outward” and one “inward” journey from anywhere in the UK. The intention is to allow users to access services to the continent, (using Eurostar, ferry or a flight). They are not intended to be used as a purely domestic pass as the T&C’s specifically prohibit this.

I would suggest you check the prices of your planned itinerary using regular flexible or semi-flexible fares as this may be cheaper than Interrail. For example Rome to Nice with Semi-flexible tickets is typically around £100 and Nice to Paris around £60 depending on date and time of travel. Eurostar fares start at £39 each way so you'd be looking at about £220 total. By comparison an Interrail Global pass for 4 days in 1 month is £254 to which you would need to add the Eurostar reservation fee of about £30 each way plus compulsory reservations on trains in Italy and France say another £30 making a total of £344. You can check prices for your specific dates at https://www.raileurope.com/en

Chris Butler said:

Are you sure about that?

I don't know; it may be correct. However the T&Cs say "A Global Pass is usually valid for travel within your country of residence during one outbound journey and one inbound journey.", so it allows one of each but not two outbound.

They talk about journeys rather than about days, so that confuses it.

I don't know if it's allowed, but I wouldn't rely on it unless someone has done it in practice..

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That's why I added "in practice" My experience is that if you show a ticket inspector in the UK an Interrail pass they just nod and move on. Especially if you're on a train heading towards London.

Taking that wording of the T&Cs, could it be argued that travelling to London on Day 1 and then on the Eurostar on Day 2 is "one outbound journey", just with a break of journey in it?

The Rail Planner app will certainly allow you to do it.

Again in practice, and purely from my own experience, no one on Eurostar will ever look at your Interrail pass at all - you just scan your passholder reservation to get through the gates. They are entitled to check your pass of course, but I've never had mine checked.

scragend said:

That's why I added "in practice" My experience is that if you show a ticket inspector in the UK an Interrail pass they just nod and move on. Especially if you're on a train heading towards London.

Taking that wording of the T&Cs, could it be argued that travelling to London on Day 1 and then on the Eurostar on Day 2 is "one outbound journey", just with a break of journey in it?

The Rail Planner app will certainly allow you to do it.

Again in practice, and purely from my own experience, no one on Eurostar will ever look at your Interrail pass at all - you just scan your passholder reservation to get through the gates. They are entitled to check your pass of course, but I've never had mine checked.

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Some further observations from my experience:

It depends on the ToC whether an Interrail pass can be scanned in the UK. I have never known a scan to work on SWR but on GWR the scanners the guards use definitely recognise them and show whether they are valid.

I agree that no one at Eurostar has ever asked to see the pass.

Irrespective of whether it's allowed to use the pass on two days of the outbound journey I doubt anyone would want to burn a day's validity on a domestic journey. On occasions that I have stayed overnight in London for an early Eurostar I have bought a cheap advance purchase ticket from my local station to London.

6PAN said:

I would suggest you check the prices of your planned itinerary using regular flexible or semi-flexible fares as this may be cheaper than Interrail. For example Rome to Nice with Semi-flexible tickets is typically around £100 and Nice to Paris around £60 depending on date and time of travel. Eurostar fares start at £39 each way so you'd be looking at about £220 total.

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...to which you need to add the OP's fares to and from Huddersfield. From Up North, or indeed Out West, that IME invariably makes a pass worth it provided you can get the Eurostar fare - and if you can't Eurostar is likely to cost way more than £39

So to the OP my advice would be
(1) don't bother with overnights in London
(2) see if you can get trains at tolerably acceptable times
then cost out the rest.

scragend said:

With a global pass you get two "outbound/inbound" days included, i.e. days on which you can use the pass in your country of residence. These aren't additional to the length of your pass, they are included in it - so if you have a five day pass for example, two of those days can be used in your own country as well as in other countries. The other three can only be used in other countries.

If you are using Eurostar then you will need to use these outbound/inbound days on the days you take Eurostar. On these days you can also use them on the train from the north to London. Don't pay separately for the train to London if you are doing it on the same day as you take the Eurostar.

If you stay over in London then that would affect the above - you could in practice use one of your outbound/inbound days to get to London and then the second one to get the Eurostar, but then you wouldn't have one for the way back. That would feel like a wasted day to me so in that situation you might be better off getting a separate ticket to London and then just starting your pass the day after, when you take the Eurostar.

I think you must have misunderstood something about only using Eurostar one way. You can definitely use it both ways (provided you have the available days on your pass of course).

The Eurostar passholder fares do sell out so make sure there is availability before you commit to the pass. You can't book passholder fares on the Eurostar website itself - try Rail Europe or the Belgian Railways site.

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Thank you, I was heading in the direction of getting a separate ticket to London, hoping that the passholder fares haven't gone already but might be able to book to Lille instead of Paris.

I started to think I was going mad and I might have misread this sentence but I've found where I read about not being able to use Eurostar on the way back: 'If you live in Britain, Eurostar counts as travel in your home country so can only be made on one of your 2 permitted inbound/outbound days.' https://www.seat61.com/how-to-use-an-interrail-pass.htm#other-railpasses Might have to ask the writer himself!

Thank you to everyone. It's interesting that they rarely check the pass and you might be able to get away with the splitting the journey into two days but I guess I daren't risk it.

RTrains8765 said:

Thank you, I was heading in the direction of getting a separate ticket to London, hoping that the passholder fares haven't gone already but might be able to book to Lille instead of Paris.

I started to think I was going mad and I might have misread this sentence but I've found where I read about not being able to use Eurostar on the way back: 'If you live in Britain, Eurostar counts as travel in your home country so can only be made on one of your 2 permitted inbound/outbound days.' https://www.seat61.com/how-to-use-an-interrail-pass.htm#other-railpasses Might have to ask the writer himself!

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You are misreading it.

Eurostar can only be used on one of your 2 permitted inbound/outbound days.

You have two such days, so you can use it twice.

30907 said:

...to which you need to add the OP's fares to and from Huddersfield. From Up North, or indeed Out West, that IME invariably makes a pass worth it provided you can get the Eurostar fare - and if you can't Eurostar is likely to cost way more than £39

So to the OP my advice would be
(1) don't bother with overnights in London
(2) see if you can get trains at tolerably acceptable times
then cost out the rest.

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Thanks, I didn't realise my postcode was visible in the forum I know a few people have said about getting point to point tickets but I think the main reason I'm leaning towards not doing that is because I'm not sure whether I'll feel like going home a long way or a short way by the time the actual trip is finished. Í've tried to work out costs a bit and it would seem to add up once I add on passholder fees/reservation fees but then most of the Eurostar prices I've seen are like £95 one way so just that is expensive!

RTrains8765 said:

Thanks, I didn't realise my postcode was visible in the forum I know a few people have said about getting point to point tickets but I think the main reason I'm leaning towards not doing that is because I'm not sure whether I'll feel like going home a long way or a short way by the time the actual trip is finished. Í've tried to work out costs a bit and it would seem to add up once I add on passholder fees/reservation fees but then most of the Eurostar prices I've seen are like £95 one way so just that is expensive!

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You need to remember that for the Italian and French trains with compulsory reservation these can sell out if the train is busy and you would not be allowed to board without one. If I have had alternative itineraries for a trip I have made passholder reservations for both options with Rail Europe and then cancelled the one(s) I don't need when I know which I will use. With SNCF they have given a full refund for the cancelled reservation if done prior to departure of the train, I'm not sure if the same applies for Italy.

RTrains8765 said:

I started to think I was going mad and I might have misread this sentence but I've found where I read about not being able to use Eurostar on the way back: 'If you live in Britain, Eurostar counts as travel in your home country so can only be made on one of your 2 permitted inbound/outbound days.' https://www.seat61.com/how-to-use-an-interrail-pass.htm#other-railpasses Might have to ask the writer himself!

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Read it as 'each use of Eurostar counts as travel in your home country so can only be made on either one of your 2 permitted inbound/outbound days'.

There's no shortcut to doing your own homework. If your trip is a few weeks away then short of special events passholder availability should not be a problem. With your trip a few weeks away it can mean both of the following are probably true:
- If you book individual tickets, you can lock in relatively cheap Advance fares
- If you go down the Interrail route, passholder availability should still be quite good

Set up a spreadsheet and compare prices.

If you travel from North of England to Paris, you don't have to reserve the UK domestic leg giving you some flexibility.

The minimum Interrail day is 4 days. So it depends on whether you think you can usefully use all 4 days.

scragend said:

The Rail Planner app will certainly allow you to do it.

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The Rail Planner app will allow almost anything so that means nothing with regards to what is actually valid.

However as far as I can see using the outbound and inbound journeys in that manner is entirely legitimate, as Eurail themselves will provide extra days for those living in locations such as Sicily (since otherwise they wouldn't be able to cross the border in one day).

The downside is you then couldn't return to the UK at all once you've done this

scragend said:

That's why I added "in practice" My experience is that if you show a ticket inspector in the UK an Interrail pass they just nod and move on. Especially if you're on a train heading towards London.

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I agree with that. In fact on my usual French and Italian trips the actual Interrail pass is typically inspected on 1 in 10-20 trips. The vast majority of times only the reservation is checked and you don't even need a valid pass.

That's a more liberal meaning of 'in practice' than I had in mind. I wondered what the Journey Planner does when you try to add the journeys to the activated pass. I'm sure it will let you plan the journeys, but does it let you actually add them to 'authorise' both days' journeys?

scragend said:

Taking that wording of the T&Cs, could it be argued that travelling to London on Day 1 and then on the Eurostar on Day 2 is "one outbound journey", just with a break of journey in it?

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Yes, that was the point I made in my post. The T&Cs are written in a chatty, but imprecise, style.

I actually think that this may be the correct interpretation. I'm not sure you could even get from NI or the Far North of Scotland to Paris in a day. Definitely Sicilians would not be able to do it. I suspect they do mean a journey including a 'necessary' overnight stay. I'm not sure though.

scragend said:

Again in practice, and purely from my own experience, no one on Eurostar will ever look at your Interrail pass at all - you just scan your passholder reservation to get through the gates. They are entitled to check your pass of course, but I've never had mine checked.

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Totally agree. The opportunity for fraud seems obvious. What's more, if discovered, the fraud would be impossible to distinguish from confusion/accidental.

scragend said:

Taking that wording of the T&Cs, could it be argued that travelling to London on Day 1 and then on the Eurostar on Day 2 is "one outbound journey", just with a break of journey in it?

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Yes, that was the point I made in my post. The T&Cs are written in a chatty, but imprecise, style.

I actually think that this may be the correct interpretation. I'm not sure you could even get from NI or the Far North of Scotland to Paris in a day. Definitely Sicilians would not be able to do it. I suspect they do mean a journey including a 'necessary' overnight stay. I'm not sure though.

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For global pass holders the correct interpretation, for travel by a person whose main residence is in Great Britain, is an outbound or inbound travel (on GB Railways including Eurostar if paying the IR pass holder reservation) must be concluded in one calendar day not a 24 hour period. You can't rack up in London on day one and continue the following day on Eurostar counting that as still day one. You would need to use both outbound and inbound days to break your journey in GB to do that. Single country passes (France) do not have the outbound/inbound facility.

Any person in authority inspecting your ticket is not allowed to question the journey you are making on an outbound or inbound day. They just check the dates are valid and you have listed the train you are travelling on in the app (or listed it on a paper version). You can use your inbound before your outbound and use them between periods abroad depending on the travel days you have bought. I have done this on numerous occasions. You could be departing or arriving from an "airport" or a "ferry terminal" or been dropped off at a "station" or split your time spent abroad. I usually splash out on the 1st class global pass versions when I travel around Europe. Travelling around GB by train (especially by Cross Country) for a day or two can cost more than price of the IR pass (especially 1st class). First class also allows you to make use of the complimentary food and beverages on LNER as a bonus and the first class lounges.

Just remember that if you are using the digital version of an IR pass the journeys you make are recorded for the issuer to see (so they can dish out the appropriate revenue to the participating railways). I suspect that inbound and outbound days are monitored to flag up any misuse (in general not by individuals). I suspect the home country "perk" could be removed if it is felt too many people are not playing by the spirit of the home country allowance.

QJ said:

For global pass holders the correct interpretation for travel by a person whose main residence is in Great Britain all travel on GB railways, an outbound or inbound travel (including Eurostar if paying the IR pass holder reservation) must be concluded in one calendar day not a 24 hour period. So you can't rack up in London on day one and continue the following day on Eurostar counting that as still day one. You would need to use both outbound and inbound days to break your journey in GB to do that. Single country passes (France) do not have the outbound/inbound perk.

The person inspecting the ticket is not allowed to question the journey you are making on an outbound or inbound day. They just check the dates are valid. You can use your inbound before your outbound and use them between periods abroad depending on the travel days you have bought. I have done this on numerous occasions. You could be departing or arriving from an "airport" or a "ferry terminal" or been dropped off at a "station" or split your period abroad. I usually splash out on the 1st class global pass versions when I travel around Europe. Travelling around GB by train (especially by Cross Country) for a day or two can cost more than price of the IR pass (especially 1st class). First class also allows you to make use of the complimentary food and beverages on LNER as a bonus and the first class lounges.

Just remember that if you are using the digital version of an IR pass the journeys you make are recorded for the issuer to see (so they can dish out the appropriate revenue to the participating railways). I suspect that inbound and outbound days are monitored to flag up any misuse (in general not by individuals). I suspect the home country "perk" could be removed if it is felt too many people are not playing by the spirit of the home country allowance.

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Journeys must be started within one calendar day (00:00-23:59, not 04:29 as it would be for domestic tickets), it is entirely allowed and normal to use the Night Riviera or Caledonian Sleeper services to connect with Eurostar for example, provided you don't change trains after midnight.

The person inspecting the ticket is not only allowed, but actively encouraged to check for misuse. You must be travelling as part of an international rail journey, or to or from a port or airport. If you are not, then you do not have a valid ticket and may be treated accordingly regardless of if you posses a fraudulently generated barcode or travel diary.

QJ said:

For global pass holders the correct interpretation, for travel by a person whose main residence is in Great Britain, is an outbound or inbound travel (on GB Railways including Eurostar if paying the IR pass holder reservation) must be concluded in one calendar day not a 24 hour period. You can't rack up in London on day one and continue the following day on Eurostar counting that as still day one. You would need to use both outbound and inbound days to break your journey in GB to do that. Single country passes (France) do not have the outbound/inbound facility.

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That may be the intended rule but, if so, what are people to do if they live north of Inverness or in parts of Sicily where you can't reach a border in a calendar day ?

Have you seen that rule clearly stated anywhere ?

Mainline421 said:

The person inspecting the ticket is not only allowed, but actively encouraged to check for misuse. You must be travelling as part of an international rail journey, or to or from a port or airport. If you are not, then you do not have a valid ticket and may be treated accordingly

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But what counts as “travel from an airport”? Specific example - arrive into Manchester too late for onward travel (by design) so book hotel in central Manchester (or anywhere for which the local station is not Manchester Airport). Use “inbound day” the following day to travel to final destination- but from Piccadilly. Still travelling from an airport - jyy ur at not from the airport station.

Chris Butler said:

That may be the intended rule but, if so, what are people to do if they live north of Inverness or in parts of Sicily where you can't reach a border in a calendar day ?

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You ask Interrail and they will increase the number of home days accordingly - plenty of anecdotal evidence. Some countries (IIRC including Benelux) are already on 3 home days

The exile said:

But what counts as “travel from an airport”? Specific example - arrive into Manchester too late for onward travel (by design) so book hotel in central Manchester (or anywhere for which the local station is not Manchester Airport). Use “inbound day” the following day to travel to final destination- but from Piccadilly. Still travelling from an airport - jyy ur at not from the airport station.

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That is perfectly legit. Similarly, I shall be using an inward day to travel Plymouth-Saltaire after an overnight stop, having arrived from Santander.

30907 said:

You ask Interrail and they will increase the number of home days accordingly - plenty of anecdotal evidence. Some countries (IIRC including Benelux) are already on 3 home days

That is perfectly legit. Similarly, I shall be using an inward day to travel Plymouth-Saltaire after an overnight stop, having arrived from Santander.

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Glad to hear it