Interrail with teens

[overwhelmedbyitall]

We're thinking of interrailing through Europe for a couple of weeks with 12 and 14 yr olds. Only ever interrailed alone in my twenties. Husband hasn't and obviously kids not either.

Does anyone who's done it have any tips or recommendations?
Thinking maybe through France to Italy for a few days and back through Austria/Germany/Belgium but open to any ideas!

Following out of interest

Have you been OP?
I've just booked to go after DS's GCSEs finish. He's train mad, so is planning the route, but would be great to get tips/ recommendations from people who have done it before

We did a short bit - UK to France to Italy to Switzerland. Absolutely beautiful scenery that you can actually enjoy. DD was under 3, so it was great as she wasn't strapped in a car seat all the time, and could walk around on the trains. From what I recall of Switzerland there were marvellous hiking trails etc (DD was too small). No tips as such, but I think it's a brilliant idea and I wish you luck.

Seat61.com website is the holy grail of interrail travel. It's worth knowing that Eurostar passes get booked up very quickly so you should start there when you know when you went to travel. In France there are compulsory reservations on most of the high speed/long distance trains so this can add up.

Some trains e.g between Austria and Italy have an additional supplement you need to pay. German trains have been notoriously unreliable in recent times so you need to build in lots of flexibility.

You might be best getting the teens to plan it. In a lot of ways it doesn't really matter where you go when interrailing, it's about feeling how big a continent is and the act of travelling. Get them to plan a route on a map and do some googling about the stops. They'll learn a lot about geography and you might get some surprises.

My favourite train routes are Paris to Nice, Zürich to Salzburg, Cologne to Stuttgart, and Valencia to Barcelona. There are all sorts of little places along the way that you'd never normally stop at.

Yes, this is the plan
He's got one more exam and then it's his job to plan the route. We've got the tickets in and out of Europe booked. I'll make sure he's looked at seat.61 (and I'll do the same!)
He loves trains, so he's keen to see how many countries we can get to. I don't think there'll be much sightseeing, but maybe we can do that another time...

That sounds like an amazing idea. For those that have done it before, What sort of budget would be needed for this?