Inter railing as family

[MsTSwift]

Anyone done this? Have grown up sensible 11 and 13 year old girls who are climate conscious and we don’t want to fly but love adventure. Would it be crazy to interrail to istanbul? Would be summer 2020. Reckon we could wangle month off work. Unlimited rail ticket for a month about £250 each

I haven't done it as a family, just as a "young adult" many decades ago.
Sounds fab. I mean, I'm not sure I'd be heading for Istanbul, but Inter railing with a couple of teens, who have chosen to do so, sounds great

I have done Munich to Ankara. Arriving in Istanbul at 8am by train was amazing.
Mine are much smaller than yours but I’m hoping they have the temperament for rail travel as this would be an amazing trip.

Sounds great! Just bear in mind sleeper cars if railing overnight - make sure to book beds together and I'd be going for a private birth.

We took our brood interrailing last summer. Best holiday ever. Paris, Swiss Alps, Italian Lakes, Venice, Vienna, Brussels, home. Yes to booking out a carriage in sleepers, we used interrail reservations and got to share with a nice Japanese tourist with stinky feet! Planning is such fun. Do recommend the interrail booking service, and their app, makes things so much easier than wrestling Austrian websites. It was such an adventure!

We’re going with an 11 year old and 8 year old this summer (kids under 12 are FREE!). Flying to Croatia and working our way back from there. This article inspired us: www.theguardian.com/travel/2018/may/05/interrail-train-europe-austria-italy-slovenia-venice-germany-austria

thank you. May re consider Istanbul and aim for Athens as can sit on beach for a few days to recover! We very excited! Who needs planes anyway. I did interrail when I was a student with a long forgotten boyfriend but we just did Italy but was unforgettable

Istanbul is a much nicer destination to aim for than Athens - why end your adventure somewhere grotty?! Sounds great! We do quite a few multi centred rail trips but haven't inter railed since I was 19. Go for it!

How safe is it? I've just been on the thread where loads of people were saying about how unsafe hotels were Reckoning that people would break into rooms to attack a small child. I don't think this by the way. But I would definitely be wary of potential for theft or worse whilst in the railway sleeper carriage at night. I guess sleep with your money and documents attached to you?

Breaking into hotel rooms to attack small children?! Never heard anything so completely ludicrous!! You have your small child in the room with you & the doors are locked. When I inter railed many (many as I'm really old!) years ago our carriage was robbed at night in what was then Yugoslavia & people who'd kept their passport & money in rucksacks lost them so as the PP says, keep money & valuables on you when you sleep. Other than that precaution, I don't think you'd be in the least unsafe.

We're planning this in three years' time with much younger children so following with interest.

Try www.seat61.com for some really useful info on the sleeper trains.

We've done done lots of European rail trips with toddlers and the journeys were fine, I'm sure older kids will love the adventure and the ability to plan your route as you go. We plan to go for 5 weeks and let the kids choose which country to go to next, following the good weather and working our way back to the UK.

I think the planning will be a big part of it! Our kids aren’t little by next summer 11 and 13 and quite grown up so no problems there. Struggling to rein in dh though we want to travel east down to istanbul but back via Italy might be abit much. We want to avoid places we have already taken kids to (Berlin Vienna) . As a family Berlin has been our best city break by far

It's not unlimited for a month at that price - I think you can have 5 or 6 travelling days over a month with an interrail pass at that budget. Second Seat61 for invaluable advice. We are doing Prague, Bratislava, Budapest, Vienna, Innsbruck, Munich in July and it was actually cheaper to buy the tickets individually. Some bargains to be had booking up front. We've managed first class for some of it too.

We're doing it this summer for 2 weeks with a 9 and 10 year old. Flying to Berlin then travelling to Copenhagen,Stockholm,Oslo and finishing in Bergen. I'll let you know how we get on!

Another vote here for Seat61 - it’s a brilliant website. We had a fantastic time travelling by rail in Europe - a great family experience. We reserved tickets and seats in advance, not wanting to stand on busy daytime routes, and that worked really well. Looking out of the window at the scenery, listening to music or an audio book....a really relaxing and enjoyable way to travel! It’s a good idea to get some rail travel brochures...Railbookers, Great Rail Journeys etc and look at their itineraries for inspiration!

I just did this over Easter with DD (11)! We went to Istanbul via the Balkans and it was so fab. A lot of travelling but we really enjoyed it and saw some amazing places. Istanbul is amazing. In Italy, we hired a car for a few days - a bit extravagant when you have an interrail pass but the trains in Turkey aren't that extensive. We drove through Aegean Turkey to Marmaris and then got a ferry to Rhodes and then to Athens and back via ferry to Venice (big reduction with an interrail pass). Would highly recommend it! And - as others have said - The Man in Seat 61 is amazing - so useful and inspiring.

Sorry, why did I put that we hired a car in Italy?! I meant in Istanbul! Plenty of trains in Italy.

We are doing the full deal in 4 weeks time. 6 weeks, no flying, train from Yorkshire around 8 countries. Kids are 7 and 9. It is so exciting, the only bit that is currently freaking me out is the journey from Ljubljana to Budapest is a minimum of 9 hours. I’ve booked hotels everywhere and I know it won’t be perfect but it will be an adventure. No night trains for us while the kids are little but that is a personal choice.

No done interailing but a couple of years ago when kids were 6,8 and 10 we got a sleeper train from Paris to Nice. We paid extra to ensure that we had a 6 berth cabin to ourselves and didn’t get a random person in with us!!
Kids loved it, especially the 6 year old who was train mad.
Was the worst nights sleep ever though!!

Enjoyed a month inter railing. Once in Italy, got ferry to Athens. Then to Greek islands. Didn't have time to go to Istanbul. It was August, extremely hot ! Saved money, by sleeping on trains & visited cities during the day.

We haven't done interailing as a family but have had a few long overnight train journeys with DC. Prague to Krakow had the added excitement of half the train splitting in the middle of the night to go to Budapest. It was a relief to wake up in the right country!

Lismum that is so interesting as that’s exactly what we would like to do. Cannot decide between heading for Athens or Istanbul

But looks like both doable. Two girls similar age as yours and hope to have a month

Save the Interrail ticket for Western Europe, and buy local tickets for Eastern Europe where they're much cheaper.

This sounds like a great trip. I live in Slovakia, we don't have a car and we take our baby in trains and buses all of the time. I'd definitely do some price comparison for buying tickets rather than inter-railing - train travel in this region is easy and all of the websites have English versions and even apps in English. Check out Regiojet and other companies that cross borders and also coaches are often super cheap and pretty comfy with on board entertainment on some - look at regiojet and Flix for coaches. Also, Deutche Bahn are great for trains and planning journeys and you can use them for EU tickets not just German although you have to phone them for non-German tickets - super helpful though. Good luck (and I totally recommend a foray into Central Europe) where the summers are glorious and life is relatively inexpensive but very modern! It's been well over 30 here today and we'll be heading to the lake at the weekend! You don't have to head as far as you think to hit the sun.

Due to a massive cockup with DD's Interrail ticket I ended up buying her point to point tickets through The Trainline.

My advice is to plan your journey, then price it up through The Trainline as well as it may be cheaper. Also, bear in mind that Interrail tickets restrict the trains you can travel on. DD took over 8 hours to travel from Paris to Amsterdam, involving 4 trains because her travelling companion had an Interrail ticket. A Trainline ticket would have meant a 4 hour journey with no changes.

My dad worked for the railways so my sister and I had travelled extensively round Europe by train by the time we were the same age as your children. They will be fine.