Inter-railing in May - idiots guide?

[54isanopendoor]

I have the chance to take my kids on a trip in May. We've never been 'abroad'.
I have almost no money so the only way I can think is Interrailing & hostels.

Can anyone advise how to begin to devise a schedule & ideas of costs?
I'd need to start in Edinburgh & would like to end up in Malta (a long way!)
Ideally having a day or 2 in Amsterdam, Genevea, Venice/Florence, Rome/Sicily.
I can go anytime in May, ideally for 2 weeks (or till £ runs out)

I had a quick look at Man in Seat 62 but it seemed quite complicated?

That looks like way too much for a 2-week trip - try to narrow it down to a smaller region so that you have time to actually stop and relax for a day or two in some of your destinations. Alternatively, aim to get to a specific destination and then fly back to the UK from there. Look at occasionally using night trains if possible so that you get from A to B without wasting a day travelling, and you save the cost of an overnight hotel.

The Man in Seat 61 is the guru for all things regarding European trains, so think of a few itineraries and then see what he recommends.

There are some trains you cannot go on- was on a high speed Brussels to Cologne train a few years ago and someone inter railing had to leave at Liege. Guard was considerate and did not charge any extra fare.

Makes your proposal even less achievable, sorry if I dampen your enthusiasm.

Yes, Maninseat61 is the place to go.

That route looks too ambitious for 2 weeks. Also, you might consider going towards Eastern Europe, as things are generally cheaper there. In addition, you may not need to buy Interrail tickets, as the local tickets are cheap, just book your initial route from Edinburgh, maybe via Brussels and Amsterdam. Then perhaps a sleeper to Prague. You could even get the sleeper from Prague to Budapest.

Sleepers can help you have more time in the places you're visiting, and save you money on overnight stays.

Then you could go via Vienna to Paris say - https://www.seat61.com/international-trains/trains-from-Budapest.htm#Budapest-Paris

And back home.

That's pretty much just 2 days in each location, so it's still quite rushed, but great if you enjoy the actual travelling part.

Getting from Edinburgh to "Europe" to start your journey will also take up time if you try to do it by train via London and Dover or Harwich.

Either look at the Newcastle to Amsterdam ferry, or consider flying on a budget airline - there are several places that could serve as a starting/finishing point for the trip around Europe that can be quickly and cheaply reached from Edinburgh or Glasgow airports.

@HannibalHeyes @Havanananana @LlynTegid

THANK YOU!

Thinking further:
I can take up to 4 weeks, but assumed my budget would only cover 2.
Ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam sounds great.
Amsterdam to Geneva (teen wants to go to Cern).
Then Geneva to Venice (if possible)
Florence to Rome. Rome to Sicily or direct to Malta. Fly home.
Night trains great as saves on hostel costs.
I've not travelled for years (& am ambulant disabled & not very confident)
Is there a way of planning it all out so it is as foolproof as possible?
(I expect you could use an agency but they'd charge me)
Not sure how best to budget for food each day?
(happy with very basic / streetfood)

Switzerland is particularly expensive, so even basic food will cost more there.

Use Man in Seat 61 to check for the routes you want to take - and for sleepers check which days they run on, as they don't all run every day - and plan your route for the days you want. I would set up a spreadsheet, and you can then fill in the prices and dates and work out what is practical.

Then look at this page which will tell you which website you should go to to book each leg. He gives you the local site which will charge you the cheapest. Unless you want to go for the Interrail, but note that not all trains are valid for Interrail, particularly the sleepers.

Sadly, if you're on a budget Amsterdam, Switzerland, Venice and night trains are all probably bad ideas. Sleepers are nice in theory but day trains and hotels are usually cheaper (and they get booked out and have a habit of not running on the night you need them).

The Newcastle—Amsterdam ferry is nice but it will probably be cheaper to fly to Amsterdam. Price both up, because fares fluctuate. The Netherlands is small and the train service is great so you could save a bit of cash by staying outside Amsterdam.

Amsterdam to Geneva is about 8 hours changing in Paris. Geneva to Venice is 10 hours. You may want to break these journeys unless your kids are very patient.

What you have suggested is not a cheap holiday, so I hope you have the budget. You are staying in expensive cities at peak season and you are booking at quite short notice. Also you will be exhausted with only one or two days in each city and a full days travel in between.

how old are your children? Do you have to fit around school holiday dates ?

If you are starting in Edinburgh then it’s much quicker and cheaper to fly to Amsterdam with one of the budget airlines, especially if you can travel with personal item only. Having only a small bag each will help you on the trains.

Have you looked at how inter rail tickets work now? You only pay for a certain number of travel Days within a set period, so you need to plan very carefully.

If you find it too confusing to research and book then you are going to find it even more confusing and stressful to do. If you are not very confident and haven’t been abroad before and have disabilities then TBH I’d chose a much simpler itinerary for your first trip.

In fact, unless Amsterdam is an absolute must, I’d be tempted to skip it and fly straight to Geneva (easyjet do EDI-GVA in May for £36) and spend your two weeks making your way slowly through Italy to Malta. But you have many options.

With the greatest respect, you are probably going to struggle if you are on a budget, and it is your first time doing something like this.
As well as the "5 days within a month" interrail pass being 239e per person, you are asking for the dearest cities to go to, and they are long difficult miles apart, you will inevitably have to spend nights in these cities and even hostels can be £30 plus per night per bed at the very cheapest, you will also have to add any booking fees onto the train, which can be tough financially, and unless you are absolutely on it with your planning you will find it hard. On the upside, there are plenty of cheap flights out of Edinburgh if you decide to do one or two countries and move about on their normal trains. Hope this helps xx

If you have two children then you're going to be spending £250 just on passports, and you will need to budget £120 per day for the most basic accommodation and food anywhere, more like £150 in Amsterdam and £200 in Geneva. And the advance booking that getting good prices involves will require military-grade planning of rooms and train timetables.

Really, I'm not sure if this holiday is going to be a lot of fun (or healthy) for the children, partly because of the general lack of fun if they can't have a Coke or an ice cream, and partly because you may well be stressing about money the whole time. When you say "until the money runs out", what are you going to do at that point if you're halfway down Italy? How will you cope when you arrive at 10pm in a city where you don't speak the language and discover that your hostel is a £50 taxi ride away?

Could you fly to the place you most want to go to and then travel to one or two more places from there? Either by train or air?

I recommend Budapest, there is loads to do! And it's considerably cheaper than Italy etc. And Berlin is supposed to be brilliant for teens. May is a great time to travel, not too hot or busy.

I'd pick no more than 3 or 4 destinations. Airbnb can be cheap, worth checking out.

I would maybe look at well established routes or narrow down your journey to where you most want to go.

We are going to Sicily for a week its a massive island far too much to see properly or travel round even in a week. So I would maybe omit Malta and Sicily from your itinerary.

Maybe say do a few places in Italy in 7-10 days. Or a friend did Berlin, Prague, Budapest and Vienna in 9 days. I would maybe leave Malta and Sicily out of this trip.

This doesn't sound do-able or fun for anyone. Keep it simple so less stressful for you all, remember it will also be hot/warm and travelling and traipsing around is not enjoyable..I'd pick one central place, fly there, use that as a base and then plan day trips from there...currency/language barriers/heat/scheduling, why make it so difficult for yourself?

Thank you for the input @BlackForestCake @HannibalHeyes @Havanananana @LlynTegid @Morewineplease10 @RoseHarper @TUCKINGFYP0 @ToothFairy2023 @novocaine4thesoul

I can see I need to re-think.

Perhaps someone can help?

I've not travelled for 25 years. I'm ambulant disabled. I do get tired.
Two teens (19 & 16) who have ASD. They get tired. We're not confident. BUT...
We have passports. We took the ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam last month for an overnight & day trip. We LOVED it..

The trip MUST include Malta (rellies there, one of whom is helping to fund trip)
I think, in total I can raise (with rellies help) a max of 3K. I know it's not a lot.

This may be my only trip with my Dc so I am very keen to make my £ 'work'.
I've seen a lovely AI place in Malta (Seabank hotel). But 7 days would be 2.5K!
Hence the dream of making my 3k (ish) go further / travel around a bit.
But, if that's unrealistic & we can only to to Malta then I'd prefer to stay longer & would happily self cater. I'd like to be in the Valetta / Sliema area (rellies).

Would AirBnB be a good place to look do you think?

We can travel anytime in May at all. Ideally for 14 days.

(we can fly from Edinburgh or London)

Flights will probably be cheaper after the first bank holiday in May and before the second bank holiday as the flights will be cheaper.

A flight from London will be cheapest but maybe easier in terms of less time consuming to travel from Edinburgh, Glasgow or Newcastle. Mid May the temp shouldn’t be too bad.

As you absolutely have to go to Malta, that rather rules out Inter-rail. You'd be far better off looking for flights from the UK. Use Skyscanner and think about weekday flights (if there are any) as these are usually cheaper than weekends.

Also, as you have relatives there, why not use their local knowledge and contacts to find accommodation? Can they help to find the "unknown gems" that only the locals know about - a family-run B&B, or an annex or apartment that can be rented privately etc. that would never be found otherwise and that might help to make your budget go further?

Booking.com is great for searching for apartments, likely less costly than a hotel. Also allows you to budget food costs, you can have a fee cheaper meals, pasta, bread and cheese etc to manage costs. Will be do-able in your budget, flights first, then accommodation.

You can’t interail to Malta, it’s an island. The ferry from Sicily to Malta will likely cost more than just flying direct from Edinburgh.
Unfortunately £3k isn’t a huge amount for 3 adults (16 and over is often adult prices), and so you aren’t going to get much out of travelling here there and everywhere

Fly direct, stay Just in Malta for 10 days in a nice bed and breakfast style hotel or rent an apartment on booking.com. That’s going to take up most the budget tbh.

If you want to do a train trip it’s better booking separate tickets and booking in advance. But trains take a long time to cross long distance so either stay north Europe, or you fly down to somewhere and work your way back. But not too far. And not places like Venice on a budget. Stick to lesser known towns