Anyone want to help me plan my Interrail holiday?

[Curlybrunette]

Good morning,

I wondered if anyone could help with a suggested rail itinerary. We want to interrail around Europe next July. We have 3 weeks.
The countries/places we’d really like to go to are:
Belgium
Germany (not Hamburg, we’ve been before)
Krakow
Switzerland or Austria (though really this is for lakes and mountains so I guess there are lots of places with these!)
Italy

We’d like to go to Croatia but I don’t know if this is too far travel time wise in a 3 week trip with all those other places.

We did consider if it was a bit much to do these places in the time we could then fly home, but really we’d prefer to do it all on the train.

Any advice much appreciated :-)

Firstly - have you found the Seat61.com website? If not - you need to see it. It is the holy grail of train travel. If using the Eurostar - you have to pay a booking fee of £30 each way and there are only a limited number of interrail seats on each train. It might be worth just paying for normal tickets if you can get an advance bargain. Croatia is really bad for trains - the coastal part at least. I would go as far as mayb Ljubljana and Lake Bled. Krakow is really out of the way compared to the rest of your locations, but you could go via Berlin or Prague ( I think there is a sleeper train). Or you can get the Nightjet from Brussels to Vienna.

I (personally) would do something like:

Brussels/Bruges/Gent or Ypres
Nightjet to Vienna
Ljubliana / Lake Bled
Venice
Ligurian coast (La Spezia)
Milan or one of the lakes to meet up with the route of the Bernina express
Zurich / Strasbourg
Cologne or Rhein valley
Back to Brussels

Disclaimer - I didn't actually check any of the routes - just a general rough plan

I think Krakow will be the tricky one. Is that a deal breaker?

That's too much in 3 weeks. Especially if you are wanting to train back to the uk. Can you do krakow and Croatia in a separate trip?

You could do:

Brussels - 2 nights
Frankfurt - 2 nights
Munich - 3 nights
Garmisch - 1 night
Innsbruck - 3 nights
Lake Garda (day trip to verona) - 5 nights
Venice - 3 nights
Bologna - 2 nights and fly home

Brussels
Zurich
Then go slowly through Germany back to Brussels

Thanks for your ideas.

It is Krakow that's causing the problem, it's so far East! Unfortunately it's one of the places DH really wanted to go to. I think it would be easier if we didn't though. I've made a couple loads and loads of different itineraries and might do one without Krakow to show him how much better it would be time wise without going there.

I'm conscious of us coming back absolutely shattered and not remembering anywhere properly as we've rushed so much from place to place.

Surprise him with a trip to the Christmas markets in krakow then book your inter rail trip in January once he's got it out of his system. Job done.

An absolute waste of time trying to get there in 3 weeks and bypassing so many fabulous places. He's crazy

Brussels (2 nights)
Cologne (2 nights)
Frankfurt (2 nights)
Munich (4 nights)
Verona (3 nights) - via the Brenner pass which is very scenic
Milan (3 nights)
Geneva (3 nights)
London

Or

Brussels (2 nights)
Cologne (2 nights)
Berlin (4 nights)
Warsaw (2 nights)
Krakow (3 nights)
Vienna (3 nights)
Munich (3 nights)
Paris (2 nights)
London

Oh that second one could really work Fivemoreminutes1 no Italy but some lovely places, thank you :-)

I've basically been sat on my bum all day looking at it today and have just emailed a couple of rail travel companies asking what packages they could put together.

DIY it! You can use trainline for all of those trips. It's so easy to do.

Keep journey time to less than 3 hours and don't underestimate the ball ache of checking in and out of places. Give yourself enough time to do what you want to do and actually see things.

I would definitely not be starting in London and ending in Paris. Why miss Italy and beautiful Austria for fucking mayhem in the middle of the Paris olympics? Madness

Karrpt I hadn't even thought about the Olympics being on, though if I could get tickets to something it could be quite cool.

Otherwise yes would be better to come back via Brussels/Amsterdam

Though you said about keeping the journey time less than 3 hours. I think that would be quite hard to do, it would massively reduce the places we'd be able to visit in the 3 weeks.

I am quite looking forward to a sleeper train, we've never done that before so could be a good way of travelling to a new place and passing the time.

Thanks :-)

You could easily do the itinerary I posted with the 3 hour thing.

You seem to be romanticising the train element of it and forgetting that you're trying to cram a hell of a lot of distance in just 18/19 days since you're avoiding flying.

Trains in the places you want to visit are regular, fast and efficient but in the end they're just trains. Many of them don't even have buffet cars and you have to hunt down a (reluctant) official to unlock the toilets 😏. Not good when you feel ill, trust me.

Is ticking off destinations more important than actually seeing and experiencing them?

According to The Man in Seat 61 (I second @MissAmbrosia 's recommendation for this website) the Arlberg pass is worth seeing - catch a train from Zurich to Salzburg or Vienna. Or if you are doing Switzerland go to Interlaken and catch the cogwheel train up the Jungfrau. I did this when I interrailed in my 20s (although only as far as Lauterbrunnen), and it was spectacular. I think it has to be bought separately though, it may not be part of the interrail ticket - it's been a while since I did it...

Arlberg pass journey is a long one though, about 8 hours to Vienna. Personally I love train trips, its part of the experience, so I wouldn't limit myself to three hours! If I did that in this country I wouldn't get very far - Glasgow to London is over 4, Glasgow to Mallaig is over 6 and on some of the most uncomfortable seats I've been on, but also with some of the most spectacular scenery, so it was worth it to me.

I don't necessarily limit to 3 hours, we have done 7.5 from Munich to Venice in the past. But when you've only got 3 weeks and are trying to cram in as much as the OP - krakow and Croatia, London and Belgium, Italy and the mountains in Austria, and Germany 🤪. It's possible, but not necessarily as enjoyable as it could be.

You can get a lot further in 3 hours or so in central Europe than you can in the uk and Glasgow to Mallaig is a prime example of that.

I'm currently on a rail holiday with my teens (18 and 16). We went to Berlin then train to Prague (4 hrs) amd are now on a 7 hr train from Prague to Krakow. So far so good- trains quite fast, busy but ok. After Krakow we are going to Warsaw.
I would recommend a minimum of 2 nights in each place just to not constantly be on the go!
Enjoy...,..