Interrail Toddler Tips

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Im at the start of planning a European train adventure with our daughter who will likely be almost 4 when we go. Both my husband and I have done lots of European trains over the years but never with our little ball of chaos🤣 So looking for some toddler travel pros to help me out!

We're planning on traveling from Glasgow to Northern Italy via Germany and back. I would rather do it all by train but not against flying back, so I'd love to hear folks'experiences.

Any advice on planning, destinations, expectations, helpful resources... Would love to hear it all!

Cheers.

Book hotels as close as possible to the main train station at each location. Negotiating the underground/buses with suitcases and a tired or hungry toddler isn’t fun.
Book somewhere with a laundrette, for when your dd has ice cream or pasta sauce down every single top that you’ve packed for her.
Don’t go when it’s too cold. Packing hats, gloves, thermals just adds to what you have to lug around and the cold saps your energy.
Your dd will needs lots of downtime in parks or playgrounds to let off steam, so factor that into your schedule.

Don’t do too long train trip at a time. My Ds has just turned 4, and a 5 hr train trip recently was LONG

We interrailed in Italy two years ago as a family. It was great and the trains were fab but it did cost quite a lot extra as most trains we needed to book at 10 euros a seat (it was August though).

Look at Seat61.com which is the holy grail of train travel. I would be especially careful checking T&Cs of different operators as to whether your 3 yo (free for interrail pass) is actually entitled to a SEAT. On Eurostar for example she would be expected to sit on your lap. I couldn't cope for a longer journey like that. We did a long trip - maybe Prague to Vienna - with a couple with 2 small kids and the kids were sat in someone else's reserved seats - proper ructions when they were asked to move. And the toddler was very bored and sang Baby Shark loudly for much of the trip. German trains (and probably others) I know do family compartments so worth looking to see if you can reserve. Seat reservations for Germany via Bahn.de and Austria & Italy via OEBB.at. If you do the Brenner Pass route into Italy a supplement applies on all the trains, but comes with a seat reservation as I recall.

Good tips here and I second the seat61 recommendation. I've travelled a lot by train with my kids (with my husband and just me) over the years - in Europe and elsewhere. Germany and Austria both have trains with special family/young children compartments: space to move around, maybe a TV screen and - most importantly - everyone's in the same boat and won't get annoyed with you or a grumpy toddler!

If you're changing trains, have a look to see if there is somewhere you can go for a break (a small park, a town square to run around, an ice cream cafe, even just choosing a cake or snack in a station bakery).

We're also up in Scotland and have used ferries links to break up the train travel: Newcastle to Amsterdam is really good and you sleep better than on a train. That said, kids also generally love night trains (have a look at Austrian railways Nightjet trains) and it can be a useful way of covering a lot of ground - as long as you don't plan too much the next day with a wee one!

Northern Italy is a great destination: we've visited Venice (amazing but so busy and hectic) using Padua as a base (also beautiful, but much more relaxed), and some of the train journeys taking in the lakes and mountains are gorgeous. Easy to stop off and sightsee, very child-friendly and the food is brilliant for kids.

If you're going that way, we've also found the main valleys in Austria are well-served by trains and there are often fantastic playgrounds reasonably easy to access (local buses also coordinate very well with the trains). Stop offs can also include cable car rides up mountains.

Good luck with the planning!