Just a report on our second (1st was in 2024) summer Interrail trip.
We bought our passes during one of the various sale periods. This time we bought 1st class.
Route days:
1. St. Pancras to Salzburg
2. Salzburg to Bohinjska Bistrica (Slovenia)
3 & 4 local non-train journeys
5. Bohinjska Bistrica to Ljubljana
6. Ljubljana to Venice
7. Local non-train journeys
8. Venice to Bolzano/Bozen
9. Local travel
10 Bolzano/Bozen to Zurich
11. Zurich to St. Pancras (+ to Basingstoke for me alone)
Eurostar departure around 7am. We liked the Eurostar plus experience on the way out. Equivalent to short haul flight business class. DB managed to mess our Brussels connection by starting from Brussels Nord with little notice. (and little transfer time) Brussels Midi announcements were on the ball and directed us to a local train that gave a cross platform connection to the ICE. Comfy 1st class on the ICE to Frankfurt. A quick scuttle through the subway for a train to Nuremberg. Pre-planned 2 hr break there. Further train change at Munich. Got to Salzburg not long after 9 pm. It was a bit of a shock that DB failed to disrupt our journey any more than they did anyway!
A morning tourist wander in Salzburg, including the funicular up to the Schloss.Then a direct ÖBB train to Villach. Mountains all the way. A reserved compartment for the 6 of us. The kids were intrigued that you could see the track via windows in the rear coach rear corridor connection. "Buffet" consisted of a guy sat in the very last compartment on the train. Late at Villach but the Slovenian train (bound for Ljubljana) waited for us. A modern EMU. Off at Jesenice. A station that seems built for a more important previous function. No actual train information facilities at all! But the station cafe was pleasant and run by an efficient young woman. Our DMU, bound for Nova Gorica, arrived ten mins late. An older red-liveried 2 car unit. But clean and comfy inside. We got to Bohenjska Bistrica OK.
Local Bohenj public transport is good. There's a Bohenj in Bloom tourist bus system of 8 routes that covers all the hotspots except the Slap Savica waterfall. That can be reached on the normal Arriva service buses which generally were fairly frequent. Bohinj in Bloom buses were a bargain 2€ for adults for a 24 hr ticket with accompanied children free! (But there is a hefty tourist tax added to accomodation prices).
Our travel onward to Ljubljana was disrupted. The train back to Jesenice was late enough to miss the connection there. So back in the cafe again! I was surprised to see that what I thought was the international main line to Ljubljana was single track. Another scenic mountain valley journey, though. Everyone was turfed off onto a Rail Replacement bus at Kranj to rejoin a train at Medvode for the last kms to Ljubljana, a station that appeared to be being entirely rebuilt.
Next day, back on the RRB, but direct to Kranj for long distance passengers. We had been aware of the RRB risk for routes towards Trieste, so were heading back to Villach for trains to Italy. If we'd known that Ljubljana was effectively surrounded by engineering works we would have cut the city out as we spent 2 whole travel days not getting very far and not having much time there. Even a potential short cut from Bohinjska Bistrica via Nova Gorica to Italy was affected. One thing that confused was that our train's destination came up as Beljak. A swift Google revealed it as the Slovenian name for Villach. After breakfast at Villach we got an EC train from Vienna heading to Venice. That is a slow leg, and it includes an inexplicable 40 minute timetabled pause at Tarvisio Boscoverde, the first Italian stop. At Venice SL we hopped on to a direct vaporetto to Lido, buying the 48 hr Venice Passes to cover our total local transport needs for our stay. The boat has the noisiest possible grinding reverse thrust that wasn't actually destroying the transmission altogether! We noted that all buses on Lido are electric. It would be good if the vaporettos were too!
After a day around Venice we caught a train to Verona PN catching a Brennero/Brenner train there for Bolzano/Bozen. Verona PN was madly busy.
Next day we took the cable car to Oberbozen and then the Rittnerbahn narrow gauge train to Klobenstein. All covered by another good value 24 hr pass, the SüdTirol/Alte Adige mobilticket.
Onward again to Innsbruck via two local trains meeting at the Brenner/Brennero border with a somewhat chaotic transfer at what seems to mostly be a freight handling station. Innsbruck has lots of luggage lockers, but even that didn't seem to be enough! After lunch we checked out the ÖBB first class lounge. OK ish. At least it had Aircon! Then we were were booked onto the Panorama car for the EC train to Zurich. Definitely worth it as it was the most comfy coach on the train, as well as having the big windows. The ÖBB catering staff were very good and stayed active all the way to Zurich.
We stayed in Oerlikon. It was a revelation to see the sheer number of Zurich local trains pouring through, mostly double-deck too.
Then to Paris on a Lyria via Basel at a fairly leisurely start after 11am. For some reason we had booked 2nd class, possibly to get top-deck seats. Then RER from Gare de Lyon to Gare du Nord. The latter was in chaos. We were booked on the 17.10 Eurostar, but the 16.10 had been delayed (eventually by 70 mins). The terminal there certainly cannot deal with crowds! We left about 20 mins late. Service in Eurostar + was excellent, perhaps too much so because they gave us all their surplus bottles of Rosé which we failed to resist.
I had a bit of a struggle getting the hang of cross-London travel on Interrail but got home in Basingstoke around 21.30.
Photos - Interrail map showing the routes travelled
- Rittnerbahn train at Oberbozen
-Slovenian DMU (Modern Stadler unit) at Bohinjska Bistrica
We bought our passes during one of the various sale periods. This time we bought 1st class.
Route days:
1. St. Pancras to Salzburg
2. Salzburg to Bohinjska Bistrica (Slovenia)
3 & 4 local non-train journeys
5. Bohinjska Bistrica to Ljubljana
6. Ljubljana to Venice
7. Local non-train journeys
8. Venice to Bolzano/Bozen
9. Local travel
10 Bolzano/Bozen to Zurich
11. Zurich to St. Pancras (+ to Basingstoke for me alone)
Eurostar departure around 7am. We liked the Eurostar plus experience on the way out. Equivalent to short haul flight business class. DB managed to mess our Brussels connection by starting from Brussels Nord with little notice. (and little transfer time) Brussels Midi announcements were on the ball and directed us to a local train that gave a cross platform connection to the ICE. Comfy 1st class on the ICE to Frankfurt. A quick scuttle through the subway for a train to Nuremberg. Pre-planned 2 hr break there. Further train change at Munich. Got to Salzburg not long after 9 pm. It was a bit of a shock that DB failed to disrupt our journey any more than they did anyway!
A morning tourist wander in Salzburg, including the funicular up to the Schloss.Then a direct ÖBB train to Villach. Mountains all the way. A reserved compartment for the 6 of us. The kids were intrigued that you could see the track via windows in the rear coach rear corridor connection. "Buffet" consisted of a guy sat in the very last compartment on the train. Late at Villach but the Slovenian train (bound for Ljubljana) waited for us. A modern EMU. Off at Jesenice. A station that seems built for a more important previous function. No actual train information facilities at all! But the station cafe was pleasant and run by an efficient young woman. Our DMU, bound for Nova Gorica, arrived ten mins late. An older red-liveried 2 car unit. But clean and comfy inside. We got to Bohenjska Bistrica OK.
Local Bohenj public transport is good. There's a Bohenj in Bloom tourist bus system of 8 routes that covers all the hotspots except the Slap Savica waterfall. That can be reached on the normal Arriva service buses which generally were fairly frequent. Bohinj in Bloom buses were a bargain 2€ for adults for a 24 hr ticket with accompanied children free! (But there is a hefty tourist tax added to accomodation prices).
Our travel onward to Ljubljana was disrupted. The train back to Jesenice was late enough to miss the connection there. So back in the cafe again! I was surprised to see that what I thought was the international main line to Ljubljana was single track. Another scenic mountain valley journey, though. Everyone was turfed off onto a Rail Replacement bus at Kranj to rejoin a train at Medvode for the last kms to Ljubljana, a station that appeared to be being entirely rebuilt.
Next day, back on the RRB, but direct to Kranj for long distance passengers. We had been aware of the RRB risk for routes towards Trieste, so were heading back to Villach for trains to Italy. If we'd known that Ljubljana was effectively surrounded by engineering works we would have cut the city out as we spent 2 whole travel days not getting very far and not having much time there. Even a potential short cut from Bohinjska Bistrica via Nova Gorica to Italy was affected. One thing that confused was that our train's destination came up as Beljak. A swift Google revealed it as the Slovenian name for Villach. After breakfast at Villach we got an EC train from Vienna heading to Venice. That is a slow leg, and it includes an inexplicable 40 minute timetabled pause at Tarvisio Boscoverde, the first Italian stop. At Venice SL we hopped on to a direct vaporetto to Lido, buying the 48 hr Venice Passes to cover our total local transport needs for our stay. The boat has the noisiest possible grinding reverse thrust that wasn't actually destroying the transmission altogether! We noted that all buses on Lido are electric. It would be good if the vaporettos were too!
After a day around Venice we caught a train to Verona PN catching a Brennero/Brenner train there for Bolzano/Bozen. Verona PN was madly busy.
Next day we took the cable car to Oberbozen and then the Rittnerbahn narrow gauge train to Klobenstein. All covered by another good value 24 hr pass, the SüdTirol/Alte Adige mobilticket.
Onward again to Innsbruck via two local trains meeting at the Brenner/Brennero border with a somewhat chaotic transfer at what seems to mostly be a freight handling station. Innsbruck has lots of luggage lockers, but even that didn't seem to be enough! After lunch we checked out the ÖBB first class lounge. OK ish. At least it had Aircon! Then we were were booked onto the Panorama car for the EC train to Zurich. Definitely worth it as it was the most comfy coach on the train, as well as having the big windows. The ÖBB catering staff were very good and stayed active all the way to Zurich.
We stayed in Oerlikon. It was a revelation to see the sheer number of Zurich local trains pouring through, mostly double-deck too.
Then to Paris on a Lyria via Basel at a fairly leisurely start after 11am. For some reason we had booked 2nd class, possibly to get top-deck seats. Then RER from Gare de Lyon to Gare du Nord. The latter was in chaos. We were booked on the 17.10 Eurostar, but the 16.10 had been delayed (eventually by 70 mins). The terminal there certainly cannot deal with crowds! We left about 20 mins late. Service in Eurostar + was excellent, perhaps too much so because they gave us all their surplus bottles of Rosé which we failed to resist.
I had a bit of a struggle getting the hang of cross-London travel on Interrail but got home in Basingstoke around 21.30.
Photos - Interrail map showing the routes travelled
- Rittnerbahn train at Oberbozen
-Slovenian DMU (Modern Stadler unit) at Bohinjska Bistrica
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