Interrailing - anyone else??

[mikado1]

Getting ready to book our interrailing tickets, two dc u/12. Not 100% ok route as yet. Is anyone else planning or has anyone done it before that might have any advice? Looks fantastic.

We did nearly this but Munich vs Berlin. It was a fab trip.

Think about how many places you want to see, or, how many nights you want to spend in each place.

I like planning these!

You could go from Paris to Berlin;
Evening train to Karlsruhe, nightjet sleeper to Berlin

Berlin to Budapest;
Euronight sleeper direct

Budapest to Venice;
Budapest - Vienna, Vienna - Venice sleeper

Venice back to Paris and home!

2 or 3 nights in each place, plus the adventure of sleepers.

Ooh I'll look at that one thank you! 😃 Too hot in the summer, do you think? And I'm wondering if just easier to fly home from a different city?

Flying back from a different city is another option.

If that's too hot, you could always go North;

Brussels to Hamburg

Hamburg to Helsinki by overnight boat

Boat Helsinki to Tallinn

Tallinn to Stockholm by overnight boat

Stockholm to Hamburg sleeper train

Hamburg back to wherever...

I've just started thinking about inter-railing with a 12 and 15 year old (4 of us altogether). I think we would do 2 weeks ideally. Can anyone advise/estimate on the likely cost of a trip like this?? We would do hotels/airbnb and would like to travel south to Barcelona or Italy.

Where do we start?!

Ooh, this thread has been resurrected, yay! 😊
I've booked our trip for Easter now! Cornwall- London- Brussels (2 nights)- Innsbruck (2 nights)- Venice (2 nights)- Rome (4 nights)- Genova (2 nights)- night sleeper Nice- Paris (1 night)- London- Cornwall!

One big snag was not being able to get Interrail reservations for couchettes on a Nightjet sleeper train from either Brussels- Vienna or Stuttgart- Venice (and I was trying a good 3 months in advance). So we will have to do a 9 hour daytime trip all the way across Germany from Brussels- Innsbruck 😬. Luckily DS2 (7) will sit happily for hours if he has enough reading material, so I'm going to load up a Kindle with hundreds of books for him.

Hilidayhope about £1500 for transport and accommodation. However, DS2 does get a free Interrail pass. Our accommodation is a 50% split between Booking.com and AirBnB, and I managed to get us somewhere for an average of £50 a night everywhere- except for Innsbruck, which is really pricey. But all our accommodation is miles from the city centres, although all easily reachable by public transport.

Oh whoops Hilidayhope just us 3 though

Ahh I so almost booked similar for this summer but scaled back slightly and have booked Rome/Venice with train in between. Have a 5 year old and two teens and the older two wanted a bit of European culture. I'm slightly worried about having so many separate elements booked which could be affected by strikes/whatever however it just feels so much more exciting
than a week on a beach.

If it goes well may be revisiting the thread for next year. @crackofdoom please report back!

Yeah MMM, I'm simultaneously all about supporting workers' right to withdraw their labour, and absolutely fucking bricking it that the RMT will call a strike for our departure or arrival days ! 😱

It's worth checking out train tickets of where you're going to see if it's cheaper without an interrail card, I know they sound great they're expensive and trains are probably very cheap in Eastern Europe - also you're not getting the Eurostar (which I'd imagine would make it a lot more worthwhile). We went to Amalfi in the summer and got a train from Salerno all the way down to Sicily - 6 or 8 hours I think - and it was something like 20 Euros each. DS is 17 but your kids might be free as well. Definitely worth looking at as the pass can make you feel obliged to go from place to place without hardly stopping to get maximum money's worth within a certain amount of days.

How do you deal with your luggage not being a pain? I travelled in Switzerland recently on the train and getting luggage on and off was a big enough pain and that was simply going from the airport to the hotel?!

velvetyorange one small rucksack per person 😆

Ooh following! I'd love to do this

Planning to do 12 nights in June with adult DD. We need to get booking but keep changing my mind about the route, she's happy to go with whatever. Am currently planning london - Germany (quick stop) - Solvenia (Ljubljana and Lake Bled) - Croatia (various places) - Bosnia - Thessaloniki - Sofia - fly home.

Planning on a couple of night trains, hostels, hotel, air BnB, whatever really!

Whether it actually happens or not remains to be seen

That sounds like it would be worth buying tickets separately, Eastern and Central Europe are generally very cheap for tickets. And the night trains will need to be booked separately anyway.

Sounds great though!

Have you checked there are trains to all those places leakingtoilet? I know for some reason there have been few international trains in the Balkans for several years (some said it was Covid, but apparently they haven't run since before Covid).

As always Man in Seat 61 is the go to place for information.

Thanks for resurrecting!! I didn't want to be too needy and clueless and was still waiting to firm up dates! I know now, so we're first two weeks July or end Aug. Lovely to see different routes...and I prefer the ones above but we've been to Italy and Spain so looking still at Paris-Amsterdam-Berlin and would love somewhere with a coast or even lakes etc for a few days of sun and swim.. Only two weeks, might be hoping for too much?! Hoping to book within next week!

Yeah, I reckon Italian and Spanish cities might well be too hot in summer anyway 😬

Hey, isn't swimming in the lakes around Berlin quite a popular thing? Or maybe try the German Baltic beaches? 🤔

That sounds amazing!!

Found this thread yesterday and have spent a lot of last night on seat61. I would be travelling on my own with a 10&12 year old. I am thinking of doing a couple of major cities Paris, Berlin, Rome and then back to Holland to stay near dunreil?? and then either back via Eurostar or ferry. I can do it over a period of 2-3 weeks in summer.

Does this seem like a reasonable use of an interrail ticket or very expensive use of it? I want to do something where DC get to see some areas of Europe, but not so much that it becomes a chore.

My greatest worry is being stranded at night at a railway station with two tweens.

Ooh v similar to me so! 😃

@mikado1 how is it pricing up for you? Is it mega expensive? I was hoping to get all overnights and train tickets covered for around £1500 or a bit more if we stay in dunrell I know you have two under 11 (and travelling as a 4?) so costs are slightly different. I wouldn't want to share with anyone else because of ages of DC.

Finally getting round to organising this. So w we're looking at Lyon, Paris, Bruges, Amsterdam, Berlin. Half considering tagging Geneva onto Lyon. Two weeks. Any opinion on those choices or whether we start in Lyon or Berlin? Looking at 3/4 days in P/A/B.