Interrailing

[Fupoffyagrasshole]

Anyone got recommendations for inter-railing routes :)

Trying to plan for September/October 2024!

We are going to be travelling with a 3 year old & 4 month old (no need to tell me we are crazy to even consider it) we have taken our toddler backpacking and she's travelled heaps in her little life and we are very relaxed about travel.

We will be leaving from London so could start off by Eurostar - but could fly somewhere else to start

We will have around 3 - 4 weeks

not sure how many places are realistic - obviously having the kiddies will slow us down a bit (when we were in Asia travelling we only got about half of what we planned to do done and ended up cutting down amount of places to visit as well as we did underestimate the difficulty of travelling with a babs at that time)

be interested to hear others experiences and top tips - THANKS :)

some routes we've looked at so far are

1. London,
2. Paris,
3. Munich,
4. Zagreb,
5. Belgrade,
6. Sofia,
7. Istanbul,

or

1. Genoa, Italy
2. Innsbruck, Austria
3. Divaca, Slovenia
4. Pula, Croatia
5. Zagreb, Croatia
6. Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina
7. Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina
8. Dubrovnik, Croatia
9. Split, Croatia

Are all of the second list served by train ATM? (Or will they be next year?) I was under the impression that trains in the Balkans weren't great at the best of times, and right now there are no international trains in that area ("upgrades", "Covid" stopping immigrants or something 🙄).

4 months old is a great age to be travelling with...3?? May the odds be ever in your favour😬.I have found that even 3 year olds can be incredibly well behaved for really long train journeys- if they're allowed unlimited screen time 😆

I would LOVE to Interrail all the way to Istanbul, and I guess September/ October would be a good time of year to do it. Are you planning on taking the sleeper? So, I'd go for broadly the first itinerary- maybe mixing the odd small town in too, for its more relaxed pace of life? After all, your 3 year old will probably be just as happy bumbling round a park looking at ducks than visiting all the major tourist attractions.

Oh, and I'd definitely start with Eurostar, just make sure you book your passholder reservations nice and early.

The Interrail and Eurail Travellers Facebook group is a mine of great information.

We did paris-lausanne-zurich-budapest-prague-vienna-amsterdam. Next year I want to do berlin-venice-slovenia-croatia. Planning the route was a pita as I had to plan around availability which was limited but it was the anniversary year which may have made it busier

Look at Seat61.com which is the Holy Grail of train travel. I think the Balkan states are really poorly served by trains - but Zagreb/Belgrade should be doable.

We did Prague, Bratislava, Budapest, Vienna, Tirol, Munich and back to Brussels over 3 weeks. That was with a teenager. That was enough stops for me. 2 or 3 nights minimum in each place. I was tempted to add Ljubljana and Lake Bled. So that and Venice might be an alternative to the Austria part. There is the nightjet from Brussels to Vienna 3 times a week now.

Hi OP
Ive been looking at a very similar itinerary to you at the same time !
bosnia is an issue. There are no international rail connections into the country. So what we are looking at is:
Fly to Split and spend 3 nights
Take coach from Split to Mostar and spend 2 nights
Train from Mostar to Sarajevo for 2 nights
Then night bus to Zagreb and onwards taking in Ljubljana, Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna and Salzburg.

you can also get a bus from Belgrade but I wanted to fly from Gatwick as we live in Sussex, I have free parking at the airport with work and there are no direct flights to Belgrade, Zagreb or Sarajevo from Gatwick.

Croatiabus is a useful site :)

Also check your connection prices - you have to pay reservation fees for the Eurostar and lots of the trains. I worked out that I actually only needed 4 trains due to the bosnia connections issue - and the Interrail ticket was more expensive than booking all the tickets separately- I think the 4 journeys I wanted came to 250e for DD14 and me - but the Interrail was nearly double that.
so check that the Interrail saves you money because it might not.
maybe we will see each other on the way :)

In fact your second itinerary is pretty much the same as ours - just the other way round.
WizzAir fly direct from Luton to Sarajevo - you could start in Sarajevo, then head south Mostar-Dubrovnik-split-pula-Zagreb then onwards.The connections from Zagreb are good. There is a bus to Dubrovnik as well as Split from Mostar.

I spent pretty much a whole day researching "how to get in and out of Bosnia" after I realised the suggestion fir "cheapest cities" tour on the Interrail website didn't actually work 😂

Op pop

I mean if you are in London you could look at Luton as an alternative airport. You can fly back from Innsbrück with easyJet

I did all the way to Istanbul and it's brilliant but tbh I wouldn't do it with toddlers - the trains through Romania were a bit interesting... lots with no water at all, and water points along the route out of bottles. If you do it carry A LOT of provisions as they often take twice the time the timetable says once you get further east

L

Apparently there are play carriages on the Bergen line train from Bergen to Oslo family carriage. You could fly into Bergen and then work your way down to Oslo - then Stockholm and into Europe through Denmark - maybe stop at legoland!

Thanks so much everyone - sorry for my delayed response was only signed into mumsnet on my work laptop so only seeing responses now :)

I didn't realise Bosnia might be an issue with train links so thanks for that info @crackofdoom i will keep it in mind when planning route :)

My 2 year old (3 at the time we plan this trip) is really easy going with travel so i hope it stays this way hahah - i did want to cry on our 14 hour flight back from japan though when she stayed awake the whole journey and i had to think of things to do with her to pass the time hhahah

Thanks @YukoandHiro I would love to do more of Eastern Europe as it's the Countries we haven't really travelled yet- but maybe it's a better trip to do without my toddler! good to know about lack of water points etc

This sounds like a nice Itinerary @FanSpamTastic also family carriage = amazing

@DaphneDeloresMoreheadRidesOn ohhh nice that you are thinking of a similar trip! ours has just been a conversation so far - but my husband is going to get 6 weeks paternity and we don't want to waste the time at home - its a great opportunity to get away together for a nice chunk of time!

Not sure i could handle a bus with the kiddies tbh so it's something to consider for sure!

eeeeeeeeep its so hard to decide when theres so many places to see ahha

Need to take some time to actually sit down now and do some proper research

Honestly thanks so much to everyone who responded I had a quick look at seat 61 and it's a brilliant page!

Ohhhhhhh does anyone know about sleeper trains - how would that work with a baby and toddler - assume its bunks - so guess toddler has her own bunk and one of us shares a single bunk with the baby i guess??