Interrail Trip - Summer 2011

[ChrisTheRef]

Hello

After our ALR in February, me and my friends are looking at this for 2011.

Has anybody done one? If so, did you enjoy it? How easy was it to organise?

Obviously, we'll have to get hotels and things done in advance.

Does anybody have suggestions on which ticket to get? I quite like the idea of a "X days of travel in Y consecutive days of travel" ticket, allowing us full days in the major cities.

Thoughts welcome! Thank you!

 

[Greenback]

I did an Inter rail with some friends in 1985 when I was young! We camped a bit, and slept on trains quite a bit too! Of course, in those days there were a lot more overnight trains, and fewer cheap chain hotels about!

We went to Amsterdam first via Hook of Holland, then on to Copenhagen, down to germany for a few daysm then over to Paris, back to Switzerland, down to Rome and back across to France again. We then went back to Paris up to Brussels and back to Amsterdam before coming back home. It was a fantastic experience, and I woudl recommend it to anyone!

In those days there was the iron curtain, but the ticket only cost £120 for a month IIRC! My mates weren't really rail enthusiasts, but they thoroughly enjoyed the experience as well! I imagine it would be much easier to organise now, as we did it before the internet!

If I was doing it now, I;d want to go to Spain and Portugal, but only because we didn;t get there last time! We foudn Switerland, Germany and Italy to be fantastic for brilliant mountain scenery.

 

[ChrisTheRef]

Thanks. There are lots of references to seat reservations on the website.

Is it really the case that you have to be booked onto every train? Or is it like the UK where it helps, but isn't mandatory?

 

[jopsuk]

There's a good guide here that'll help you

 

[Greenback]

We got reservations for some of the overnight trains, but didn't bother in the day. There are more high speed services now, so things might have changed.

 

[gordonthemoron]

I did it in 1991, France, Switzerland, Germany, Czecholslovakia, Germany again, Poland, Hungary, Austria, Italy, France again & Belgium

I didn't book any trains more than a day in advance, which was rather unfortunate for the Stuttgart-Prague sleeper as it was rammed. I also didn't book hotels or hostels in advance, only bad accommodation experience was in Milan, I wouldn't recommend stopping in Milan as (apart from the Duomo & Milan Central) it isn't very interesting.

Cities visited:
Paris, Lausanne, Zurich (v.boring), Stuttgart, Prague, Berlin, Warsaw (bit of a dump), Budapest, Vienna, Venice, Milan, Bruges

 

[AJP62]

Did one back in July 1982. Best things to carry were the Thomas Cook European Timeable and a Students Union Accommodation Guide. Didn't book any trains more than a few hours ahead and were fairly OK.

The Accommodation Guide was great - loads of good quaility cheap places and even if we didn't use the one in the guide you were usually in an area where there was plenty of other similar accomodation. Sure there'll be something similar today though internet will make things a lot easier.

Went Harwich - Hook (bus from Liverpool St due to rail strike!), Amsterdam, Heidelberg, Strasbourg, Lake Constance, Interlaken, Lucerne, Zurich, Innsbruck, Vienna, Thessalonika, Athens, Corfu (few days rest!), Brindisi, Milan, Geneva, Lyon, Paris (early days TGV), Calais - Dover then stopper to Victoria as another strike!

Long haul from Vienna to Greece in trains packed with repatriating Greeks from Germany. Few hours each in Zagreb and Belgrade which were pretty austere then as still a bit Eastern Block. Border crossings were quite well checked around there too!

Only a few overnights on trains as window viewing was pretty interesting.

All local currency back then too so carried bags of currency around so we were able to get things as we entered each country.

TGV from Lyon was the only high speed train in those days. Virtually everything else we used was loco hauled.

Great experience.

 

[Greenback]

Yes, the Thomas Cook timetable wa sinvaluable when we went. We also took Europe by Train, and the Thomas Cook Rail Map of Europe. We had a rough idea of where we were going to end up, but left how to get there on the day unplanned, which added to the adventure!

 

[Capybara]

I did an Inter rail with some friends in 1985 when I was young!

I did one last year when I was old! I went for the 5 days out of 10 option and did Brussels(stay)-Aachen-Koln-Stuttgart(stay)-Salzburg-Graz(stay)-St Anton(stay)-Zurich-Basel(stay)-Strasbourg-Mainz-Luxembourg-Brussels with Eurostar trips to and from London tacked on at each end. It was great and I'm thinking of giving it another go this year. There's also 15-day option available this year which it might be worth looking at. I didn't reserve a single seat other than Eurostar to get there and back. There was a comment in one of the guides along the lines that you really need to think about your reservations to make the most out of your pass which went on to say ‘you could always use local trains but who wants to do that?’ Well I used plenty of local trains and it was great and you can get on most express trains anyway. It’s only the big ‘named’ trains where you need reservations (and pay a supplement). That’s fine if you want a fast, hermetically-sealed trip but if you want to see places use other trains. The trip along the Rhine from Koln to Stuttgart was memorable, as were those from Graz to St Anton and St Anton to Zurich.

 

[Greenback]

I did one last year when I was old! I went for the 5 days out of 10 option and did Brussels(stay)-Aachen-Koln-Stuttgart(stay)-Salzburg-Graz(stay)-St Anton(stay)-Zurich-Basel(stay)-Strasbourg-Mainz-Luxembourg-Brussels with Eurostar trips to and from London tacked on at each end. It was great and I'm thinking of giving it another go this year. There's also 15-day option available this year which it might be worth looking at. I didn't reserve a single seat other than Eurostar to get there and back. There was a comment in one of the guides along the lines that you really need to think about your reservations to make the most out of your pass which went on to say ‘you could always use local trains but who wants to do that?’ Well I used plenty of local trains and it was great and you can get on most express trains anyway. It’s only the big ‘named’ trains where you need reservations (and pay a supplement). That’s fine if you want a fast, hermetically-sealed trip but if you want to see places use other trains. The trip along the Rhine from Koln to Stuttgart was memorable, as were those from Graz to St Anton and St Anton to Zurich.

I'd love to do another one, but I don't think Mrs Greenback would be keen! I wonder if she'd let me go on my own?!

I'd like to travel through Europe in the Autumn or Winter, using mostly local trains. The high speed ones are OK for speed, as you say, but I feel they reduce the feeling of adventure! The best thing about the older trains were the German compartments where you could pull the seats down to make a bed!

 

[gordonthemoron]

I'd love to do another one, but The ebst thing about the odler trains were the German compartments where you could pull the seats down to make a bed!

Unfortunately they don't do that anymore.

The wife wants her, me & my 13 year old to do interailling next year. Given that she doesn't like sleepers, this could be tricky

 

[Greenback]

Unfortunately they don't do that anymore.

The wife wants her, me & my 13 year old to do interailling next year. Given that she doesn't like sleepers, this could be tricky

I know, it's such a shame, I slept better in those trains than I do in sleepers! Mind you, we were very tired after sightseeing!

Looks like you'll be staying in hotels then?

 

[Capybara]

One bit of advice, if you are going for the 'n days out of m' option and are using Eurostar to get on to the continent, then get the best out of the condition on your Eurostar ticket. For example, in my case I stayed the first night in Brussels which was fine, but if I had used the 'anywhere in Belgium' bit that you get on Eurostar I could have started my first Inter Rail day right on the border with Germany, whereas I didn't hit Germany until lunchtime on the first day. There's the potential to gain half a day's travel on each end of your trip if you plan it properly.

 

[gordonthemoron]

is there really anything on the Belgian side of the german border after Liege?

 

[Railjet]

The best guide for what trains need to be reserved, supplements to pay, etc is here.

Good news is that, with very few exceptions (handful of ICE Sprinters), no reservations are needed, nor supplements payable, on ICE trains within Germany, or between Germany and Belgium/Netherlands/Switzerland/Denmark/Austria.

Switzerland is another reservation/supplement free country. Forget Spain for Inter-Railing. Italy got much better this year - the new high speed line means you get to the big cities fast (but €10 a time for a reservation - these you can book on-line).

I think the 10 days in 22 Inter-Rail pass is a great deal - plenty of time to travel, but time to see places too.

 

[D107]

Poland is good fun, I recommend the Polrail website. http://www.polrail.com/

 

[will1337]

I recently did a short Benelux Interrail trip and stayed in hostels spread across the region: Brugge, Amsterdam, Liege, Brussels and Luxembourg City.

I didn't plan many of my moves so as to be able to just jump on board and take convoluted routes via places I wanted to see. As the railways in the region are so dense and frequent and none of the places I were staying were too far away from each other this was very easy to do.

Cannot wait to do another Interrail trip but next time will do slightly more planning and look out for cheap advance and International fares in addition to the pass so as to go for longer and see more.

is there really anything on the Belgian side of the german border after Liege?

I didn't go there, but visited Liege and have to say I loved both it and the bit of the Netherlands nearby with Maastricht.

One bit of advice, if you are going for the 'n days out of m' option and are using Eurostar to get on to the continent, then get the best out of the condition on your Eurostar ticket

Would also recommend this, I used a €9.60 Luxembourg - Arlon single on the way home and caught a late Eurostar.

 

[jopsuk]

Possible consideration- it is of course much more conveniant when it comes to money to stick to the Euro zone

 

[gordonthemoron]

Possible consideration- it is of course much more conveniant when it comes to money to stick to the Euro zone

didn't find much problem paying in Euros in Prague last month (they still use Czech Crowns), even got a better exchange rate than the best exchange offices offered