Inter-railing budget

[SuperSue77]

My DD is planning to go inter-railing with 3 friends in June 2027 once A levels have finished and is asking me what her budget should be!

I have no idea! Has anyone’s YP done it recently and can advise what is a sensible budget? She and her friends are not big drinkers so won’t need a huge budget for that. But more likely to buy pre-prepared food than make for themselves, so may spend more in that area.

I know this question is a bit like how long is a piece of string and will depend on what activities they plan to do, but just thought I would see if anyone had any experience? She suggested £1,800 to me - but I have no idea!

My son has his trip in mid-August. He’s going for a month and they’ve decided on cities based on the availability of cheap hostels. Even then I think they will easily spend at least 50 euros a day minimum.

Depends how long! I’d suggest €100 a day, with access to more if needed.

Depends on accommodation. I mean, both the cost, but also the availability of a kitchen. Eating out is going to be a lot more expensive than being able to cook some pasta for example. More so if they have a base for a few days and are able to save a fortune on stopping for a coffee, etc.

Depends on whether they are happy to wander round the outsides of places, and soak up the atmosphere / do a lot of traveling and get 'the feel' of lots of places, or if they want to spends a few days in one City and go in to various attractions.

Also depens which parts of Europe they are heading for. Poland is a lot cheaper than Italy, for example, but even within any Country, prices will be higher if they head from one Capital City to another.

When my dd and her friends went a couple of Summers ago, they had intended to inter rail, but when they looked into it, it was cheaper to get flights between quite a lot of places, and coaches and the odd train, than to buy the inter rail pass. They got apartments and self catered if they were staying a couple of days or more and it worked out cheaper than 4 of them paying for hostels.

i know not what you asked, but check they have travel insurance, and understand what it covers (ie not hiring scooters etc) .

Some articles that may help.

www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/europe-travel/how-to-plan-a-european-interrailing-trip-8rfvfd8h3

https://www.imjustagirl16.co.uk/interrail-budget-how-much-does-interrailing-cost/

www.savethestudent.org/travel/a-guide-to-inter-railing-europe.html

https://www.byway.travel/journal/what-is-interrailing

nouse.co.uk/articles/2026/04/22/thinking-of-interrailing-here-are-my-highlights

My son has just done this for 3 weeks, thru France, Switzerland, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Chechia,and Hungary, I think that’s it.. Had a fantastic time btw. He spent approx £800 during, and I think about £1000 prior to leaving, on interail pass and accommodation bookings, incl airbnbs and the odd hostel. I would say it’s useful to know you sometimes have to pay a reservation fee for trains on top of interail pass. And remember to activate card on travel days or you get a £50 fine!! (in Switzerland). They were a group of 4, ate out more days than not but also bought and made a few pasta type simple meals in airbnbs. None of them drink much, so not much spent there. Activities like boat trips etc added up but basically they wandered around towns and cities, swam in lakes, visited national parks and paid for some v long bus journeys too, on some legs of journey. Might have been more money spent before they left but was in dibs and drabs so I can’t really be sure as some he paid for, some I did. Hope your dd has fun!! There was A LOT of v detailed planning!

It really depends how long they are going for and where they are going.

DS is doing it right now - he says he’s spending about £50 per day in cheaper places, more in the pricier spots (this doesn’t include accommodation). They’re definitely cooking in hostels some nights to keep their costs down. I’m not sure how much his rail pass and accommodation was, but that was all paid in advance.

£1,800 sounds a bit light, but DS is away for a month.

I’d encourage her and her friends to do the research and look into costs of passes, accommodation, seat reservations, likely cost of daily spending money for food/drinks etc. See what their ideal trip is likely to cost and work back from there.

Agree with others €100 a day sounds about right. The passes are often on offer for black friday

Thanks for all the info, really helpful and I will share with DD. She feeling a bit annoyed at the moment because a lot of the hostels they've looked at make you select a private room, which is more expensive, if one of the group is under 18, and she will be :-( It's pretty tough on these summer borns.

We spent more than that 20 years ago. In June the hostels are often fully booked so she might need to stay in hotels. You need to reserve on the ICE which adds cost. If you go anywhere like Vienna or Paris, the museums cost a small fortune. To be fair, it was the first time I'd been to mainland Europe so we did everything and weren't terribly frugal. It did give me the courage to emigrate though!

Did you mean TGV? You don't need to reserve on most ICE trains.
The Seat61 website is amazing for information about booking, planning, transfers, reservations etc, and the Europe By Rail book (new edition just out) is also great.

You don't need to reserve the ICE, but especially on night trains you really don't want to travel 10h in the corridor. TGV, Eurostar & Thalys you need to reserve. NightJet couchettes also need reservation. I've forgotten about the rest.

I did 11 days travelling around Europe last year (flew into Pisa, out of Zurich, trains everywhere else including a sleeper) and I found it much cheaper to buy the necessary rail tickets than use an Interail pass. I even took one 3.5-hr journey first class (only €7 more than standard).

I stayed in a mix of hotels and capsule hotels (which are more like hostels but individual compartments with one single or double bed - the Salzburg one was fabulous). I ate out for some meals, made my own for others, and did the whole thing for £1400, including visiting some places that charged entrances.

It really depends on where she's going, I think, as to whether £1800 is sufficient.

Depending on which countries she has in mind, she could look at the Meininger hostel chain, they're in cities/near stations so ideal for interrailing and have kitchen facilities and decent breakfasts to fill up on - I've stayed in a few (Berlin Amsterdam and Budapest), usually in rooms for 4 or 6 and found them good

I'm interrailing right now! The global passes are great value IMO as they include UK travel and Eurostar (though you do add a reservation fee) on your inward and outward journeys. They are also often 10 or 15% off and as they're valid for 12 months you can grab them when they are on offer. Obviously it entirely depends on how much actual train travelling you intend to do - seat61 is good at advising on whether interrail or point to point tickets or other possibilities are best.

This is the same for DS’s group. They’ve quite liked it though, they’re all in a room together and say it’s just like a big hotel room. They’ve used Airbnb in some places as the 18 year olds in the group could book those.

My dd is about to go next week for three weeks. I think she has budgeted about 100 euros a day but this includes everything. They have found that airbnbs work out cheaper than hostels, so have mostly booked those- eg a room in a shared house with a shared kitchen and she said with her and her friend sharing a room they have paid about £30 each on accommodation per night. Their priority is having somewhere with a kitchen so they can knock together some pasta and cereal etc and cut costs down. She got the interrrail pass a while ago as it was on sale before Christmas and they are valid for a year I think.