To consider interrail with 4 kids?

[AgnusandMagnus]

Will this be hell or possibly fabulous fun? We've never done anything like it.

How old are they? Are you on a very limited budget?

just you, or another adult too.?
Ages of children? If it's six-year old quads then i'd advise against it.
Trains I've been on in Western Europe are clean, spacious and on-time. What is your concern?

Sounds like a fantastic adventure. With a bit of careful planning you will have a great time.

It sounds about as stressful to me as trying to herd cats.

I’d book into a hotel for the night every so often so you can have a proper wash, and do laundry

Depends how long, how old the kids are, how much luggage you need and whether you would be the only adult.

I’ve done long train journeys with my two, they loved sleeping in a cabin, that was the highlight of their trip (more so than the destination I think). They were 6 and 8 and I was on my own with them. We had one suitcase between us. There are great family travel blogs out there that can give you a flavour of what it’s like. But yes, it would require a lot of planning.

I spent a large part of my pregnancy with DD3 feeling inadequate because my midwife had just back packed across China with her 4 children aged 7,9,11,13. I still don’t think I could do it with small children but with teens it would be an absolute blast!

It depends on your sense of adventure really! To me, this would be fun and I would love to take my children but we simply couldn’t afford it at the moment as it often costs more than flying.

Have you done it before pre-children? I travelled all over Europe by train as a child with family, inter railed with friends in my late teens in Western Europe, have toured the Balkans by train with my husband and travelled India by train so I feel I’m a little experienced. If you haven’t done anything like it before I would maybe see how you get on with a shorter trip first.

Sounds like fun! But for it to work, it would need to be planned well and some contingency plans as standby.
used to travel a lot by train across Europe

Will cost a fortune as you'll have to pay for somewhere to stay each night plus all the meals and snacks.

I think it depends on their age but could be tremendous fun. We’d never have afforded it but what a brilliant way to learn about Europe.

Closest we've come is the Caledonia sleeper from London to Scotland. Kids are 16, 12, 7 and 3. It's the 3 year old I'm most worried about. We used to really lovely all inclusive type holidays but finances have changed. This was an idea to make it cheaper really and get to go for longer. I was thinking maybe two weeks over Easter stopping in 3-4 cites?

Any blogs people recommend?

This was an idea to make it cheaper really and get to go for longer. I was thinking maybe two weeks over Easter stopping in 3-4 cites?

How much will it cost? It sounds like it could be quite expensive

Looking at the Interrail site, 7 days travel for that many people will cost 900 euros

Eurailed around Europe for 5 weeks with 4 kids a couple of years ago and it was great! Similar ages to you oldest 3 though, can’t help with the three year old. All the trains had wifi so they used their screens a lot to pass the time and it all went very smoothly.

I think it could be expensive too. I interrailed as an adult with then-boyfriend about 9 years ago and we did a ticket that had 5 days train travel within 10 days (one of the shorter options on offer) and for adults it was a couple hundred quid each at least for the interrail pass, then we realised there were additional costs like supplements for the faster/nicer trains (stopping services in eg Italy can go on and on, one journey took 10 hours in an upright seat). Not sure this would be the best way to travel with kids. Also because in Europe a lot of the stations are not in the very centre of the city. Can you road trip? take the car and camp, or hire a camper van? Otherwise, if you’re clever and look at unusual connections, flights can still be cheap and you could do short rail or bus connections between them. This worked well for me, dh and my dd (she was 3) we flew to Munich then did train to Nuremberg, bus to krakow, etc.
Needless to say planning these types of trip is a bit of a military operation! But one plus point is that Europe has a lot of family Friendly hostels.

Yeah as pp’s have said though it wasn’t that cheap. Interrail might be different...

Are you planning on sleeping on the trains or staying in hostels/air bnb/hotels?

DD went interrailing last year and loved it. Unfortunately they travelled during the European heatwave. I can't see the 3 year old enjoying it TBH. If you are going in the summer holidays the younger ones might want a break from all the cultural stuff to stay somewhere with a beach or pool.

I did InterRail as a student. In Italy the trains were mostly late and there were unpredictable supplements to pay. French trains are often affected by strikes. Eastern European trains on the other hand are a breeze. But, seriously, if cost is the issue why don’t you fly and take an Airbnb? You could arrange a multiple-destination holiday that way too.

If u was gojng to do that kind of holiday I'd probably hire a campervan, which is great fun, but I haven't done it in Europe or with kids.

I think the joy of this kind of holiday could be sucked out by unreliable trains or strikes so I'd consider that carefully.

The other issue with Interrail tickets is that you are restricted to certain trains. Last year to get from Paris to Amsterdam DD had three changes. There are direct trains between the two cities, but she couldn't use an Interrail ticket on them.

Interrail sent her ticket with the wrong dates on so I had to book point to point tickets through The Trainline as it was too late to change the ticket (Fortunately Interrail did refund the ticket). Her tickets didn't cost much more than the Interrail ticket, so it is worth looking at other options for tickets.

We found the trains reliable, punctual, clean and easy to manage everywhere we went.

Under 12s (I think) are free on interrail - we're doing it this summer with our 2 and I'm really looking forward to it. Lots of continental long distance trains have soft play carriages which are awesome and keeping kids entertained on trains I pretty easy - you can move about and take lots of colouring/small toys/books etc. I love train travel with the kids and interrail planned carefully can be cheaper than flights for a family. Also, once you leave the UK you will actually have the seat you booked - which is always the worry with train travel here.

Love ok at seat61 for advise