Interrailing with two u/12

[mikado1]

I would love any tips, advice or considerations for a June/July interrailing trip, from those who have done it previously. The online planner isn't the best unfortunately.

Have you looked at Seat61.com? That is fab for all the info you could ever need for planning. Before Covid, we flew to Prague then did Bratislava, Budapest, Vienna, Tirol and Munich. It was great fun. 3 - 4 nights in each place.

Things always goes to Waco at least once. Do not panic.think rationally and make the best of it and get back on track.
be all on board with what you want from the holiday. And what type of accommodation.
little villages or local b&bs in certain place can get you really really looked after.spoilt! But they won’t be signposted on big hotel sites.
things take time,often longer than you think.so give yourself room to breath. But again be on board with all in your party of how fast things will be moving along.
don’t be afraid to stay somewhere cheap and cheerful for a saved up luxury at the next place. A French f1 for the night is great!
have a few days if you can at the end just just wind down somewhere.relax.

Thanks both. Yes have heard of seat61, will look! Yes I'll be ready for the ups and downs. Is going in the summer a bad idea I wonder or is it relatively easy to find a pool or beach stop along the way. Good idea re 3/4 days each and maybe 2 for other spots.

How long would you go for in total?

I thought 2 weeks.

I think the trouble with beach type hotels in the summer is that they normally have minimum booking periods e.g Sat - Sat. Whereabouts are you thinking of travelling?

I was thinking Amsterdam, Paris, Marseilles and maybe into Geneva..

This is a route which involves no flying and finishes at the beach!
Eurostar to Paris
4 nights in Paris
2 nights in Brussels
2 nights in cologne
3 nights in Amsterdam
3 nights in The Hague
Ferry from Hook of Holland

Ooh thank you for that. Looks good. We're coming from Ireland so a day or two in London too perhaps! :)

I liked the idea of going through the Alps by train but perhaps that could be another year.

Its worth remembering that the price of the interrail ticket depends on how many days travelling you do in the allotted period - and that you can't use the tickets on ALL trains - I think France can be a nightmare. Eurostar only allot so many Interrail seat reservations per train so you have to be quite speedy to book. Sometimes it's worth looking at the cost of making direct reservations. My trip mentioned above, some of it first class, came in at less than the cost of the interrail tickets. This year I've done Brussels to Antibes and Brussels to Sestri Levante in Italy - first class return at about 200 euros per person. And unless you want to go to Paris, if using the Eurostar, it's worth looking at changing at Lille or Marne La Vallee to avoid changing stations. Or there are lots of direct trains from Brussels. Direct train from there to Marseille is about 6 hours.

Aside from Seat 61.com, Bahn.de - the german train website is fabulous for timetables and you can search a route easily with stop overs. It tells you all the intermediate stops on that journey too.

Oh thank you MissAmbrosia, sounds like I could do with getting a lot more au fait with it all! Yes, I want to do Paris. I didn't realise that wrt limited number of interrailing tickets and also other/better options. Your routes sound fantastic! Do you have particular advice on how to search or choose accommodation along the way?

We're doing a 10 day holiday this new year going only on trains in 1st class: London - Paris - Zurich - Vienna - Venice - Rome and flying home from Rome. I planned the whole thing out on paper using Seat61, and then bought all the tickets on RailEurope.com which was really handy as you can book each leg of the trip without paying, it's held in your basket for an hour or so until you book everything and then you pay in one fell swoop.

I didn't buy interrail passes, but I think it ended up being the same price in the end - the only thing the interrail pass might have helped with is if we miss a train we could then take the next one without paying again but we don't have any connections (unless the Eurostar is more than 5 hours delayed, in which case we might miss the connection in Paris!)

That sounds wonderful :) I haven't done interrailing BUT we did a train based holiday around Emilia-Romagna back in June when my son was 18 months old. It was brilliant. We visited five cities over eight days and were absolutely shattered by the end of it but it was worth it to have done and seen so much as a family. I'm sure you and your children will have a fabulous time :D

Bugger - just wrote loads and then accidentally shut the window!

Interrail ticket - 2 adults 2 under 12s - between 970 and 1200 euros to cover 2 weeks. Eurostar seat reservation ON TOP - 32 euros EACH - robbery - and that's each way. So 248 euros

So:

London - Paris - 200 euros - but you might get a better bargain.
Paris - Marseille - Ouigo.com - currently as little as 22 euros each less for the kids. Can't look at next summer - but say 100 euros.

Marseille - Lyon - as little as 26 euros and 14 for a child - 100 euros

Skip this bit:

Lyon - Geneva - 29 euros for an adult 14 for a child - 100 euros
Or you could skip Lyon and do it in one go for slightly less. I'm off to Lyon next month though and it looks nice :)

Geneva - Amsterdam - bit of a bugger. Geneva is a bit of an outlier on the train front. Easy from Lyon but not anywhere else.

Lyon - Amsterdam - 100 euros adult 56 kids. So 300 euros - sure could do better than this - change in Brussels.

Amsterdam - Brussels - For everyone 112 euros 2 adults 2 kids (kids under 12 free on Belgian trains)

Brussels - London - about 200 euros.

Eurostar is merging with Thalys in France this month so there might be interesting time table changes and different direct routes!

So with careful booking London - Paris - Marseille - Lyon - Amsterdam - Brussels - London I just found for about 800 euros. Seat reservations would be on top, but you'd also need to pay those for interrail bookings if you wanted to guarantee seats together. So say 20 - euros at least per train (not the Eurostar where they try to rob you) Not really needed for regional train between Brussels and Amsterdam, only InterCitys in France.

For Lyon, you could swap Avignon, or Aix en Provence without making too much of a difference I think. Better for swimming pool options. The trains pass those places. Geneva is a bugger though and will cost you loads more. In 2 weeks I think you'd have plenty. For accommodation I normally use Booking.com - plenty of choice of hotels and apartments.

These are just random dates so only representative - best deals when tickets first go on sale. In France it's 3 months ahead.

Phew. Hope it's useful.

Ideally I would suggest doing this in reverse - so you do the cities, have a long time at the beach and then end up in Paris. But the Eurostar terminal in Paris is chaotic at the moment. It might improve of course. Huge queues we saw when we were at Gare du Nord last month. Brussels is much more civilised.

Thanks so much MissAmbrosia I'll be honest it's a little overwhelming for the uninitiated. Tho I can see Seat61 is an absolute mine of information, there's just so much!! I think I may be better leaving Geneva for this trip? I have heard Lyons a bit industrial. Hugely appreciate your time and ideas. Really like that route. Surprised at the lack of difference in interrailing/non interrailing prices!

www.lyon-france.com/je-decouvre-lyon/sites-et-monuments I was pleasantly surprised when looking at Lyon in more detail. I've driven through it loads of times. The old town looks surprisingly lovely.

Ok that's great to know.