InterRailing - Scotland to Italy ?

[ARoomSomewhere]

Can anyone who knows about InterRailing advise please? I looked at Man in Seat 61 & it looks very complicated? I was hoping to travel from Scotland to Italy in next 3 months, stay 2 weeks & possibly return (or maybe via plane, depends on costs). Me, an 18 & 21 Yr old. All of us have some mobility issues (not wheelchair users, more fatigue) so might have to take it slower than usual

Any advice (other than: 'are you mad?'!) welcome ..

I did interrail to Italy in 2007 but at the time (no idea about now) you couldn’t use the interrail pass in your home country (the whole uk) or for the channel tunnel so I had to book trains all the way down to Dover, faff with the underground, get the ferry, and pay for all of that separately. Also there was often a fair walk to hotels in various cities. The Man in Seat 61 was the go to site for advice back then, too. Takes me back… I think planning is the most important thing for a trip like this. And budget a bit more than you think you need.

@WallyWasEre Thank you x

That’s no longer the case, travel in your own country on the day you leave the country is included. So if you can travel down from Scotland and get Eurostar in one day then it’s all included. Same coming back.

does mean you can’t get that far into Europe. Seat61 says you can get to Milan in one day from London, but I can’t do that even though I’m not that far from London, as my earliest train doesn’t arrive early enough for me to get an early Eurostar (esp given the check in times at St Pancras). However I now just incorporate a night in Paris, usually arriving early enough to have most of the afternoon there. And then I can get further into Italy the following day - I’m usually going to Italy. A night in Paris might be good if you want to take it slowly. I usually stay in a hotel near to the station I’m leaving from the following day as that makes it easier for an early departure.

you do need to make sure you’ve reserved a seat, which you have to pay for in addition to the interail pass, and there is usually a limited number of seats available for interrail tickets, so you do need to book ahead for the main long distance trains esp in the summer.

it is not the cheapest way to travel - the first time I decided to do it to Milan I nearly backed out when I checked the price of EasyJet to Milan - but I combined it with seeing other things and the journey through the Alps is lovely.

As said by pp, if you can get on the Eurostar after travelling from Scotland the same day you can use your outbound travel day. You still need to pay a fee of c. £30 each to travel on the Eurostar. In Italy trains are not that expensive though, and if you want the fast long distance ones you need to pay for a reservation on top of interrail ticket. It may well be worth getting a cheap flight to Milan and buying just an Italy pass, or looking what the individual trains might cost. It depends where you want to go and how many stop offs. We did Brussels, Innsbruck, Rimini, Bari, Monopoli, Verona, Munich, Brussels a couple of years ago and it was worth it for the Interrail pass. Mainly because of cost of German trains as I recall. In previous years we flew to Prague and did Eastern Europe and Austria and it was much cheaper just booking the trains direct. Seat61.com website is fabulous for info. There's supposed to be a new night train from Brussels to Milan starting this summer.

We went to Turin from Edinburgh a couple of times - first time using the sleeper to London (never again, expensive and sleepless) then Eurostar to Paris, change stations Gare Du Nord - Gare de Lyon for train to Turin, arriving same evening. Follow the instructions from Man in Seat 61 and you can't go wrong.

Second time we stayed overnight in London and actually got some sleep, so enjoyed the trip rather more. In stitches overhearing a young US couple speculating whether the Channel Tunnel went all the way to Paris.

If you have a specific destination(s) in mind rather than spontaneous flitting about, then it can be more economical just to buy advance tickets which include reserved seats. In Italy, as people have said, these can be quite reasonable, even the high speed trains, with first class often only a few euros more.

The trip through the Alps is stunning, and it is wonderful to see the change from northern to southern France, and then into the mountains, all from the comfort of your seat.

I think this would be quite feasible. I looked into doing something different but from the south of England to Germany and possibly other locations. For us, it was more cost-effective to buy point to point tickets (and to fly back). But with Interrail, the options were basically either that day 1 is in the U.K. and includes the Eurostar at a reduced price, or that you get yourself to London, onto the Eurostar and day 1 of the pass starts on the other side.

As a heads up, you may be aware but you can prebook assistance with Eurostar. I would strongly recommend this - we did it in 2024 and they were amazing when all trains were cancelled on the way back. In London, it got you past queues to reduce need for standing but no separate waiting area. On the return from Paris, it included access to a separate waiting area with loos, which was a godsend when all services were suspended for several hours. The staff in Paris were not helpful to walk-ins - you did need to have pre-booked this.

I think it will work out more expensive than just booking normal tickets. Interrailing only makes sense if you're traveling nearly every day. With fatigue issues you'll be exhausted packing and unpacking, and you'll only be able to stay in hotels near stations which are often bad parts off town far from the tourist sites. It's pretty straightforward to get to Italy by train from Paris. Just pick a destination or two.

Sometimes interrail is cheaper, sometimes individual tickets. Don’t forget that you can get an interrail ticket that just gives you 4 or 5 days travel, not travel every day. I sat and costed up both ways for 4 days travel, and for what I was doing interrail came out cheaper, but not by very much. Cheapest would have been to fly to Italy and then use trains, which I did for one of my trips this year, buying train tickets as and when I wanted.

https://int.bahn.de/en

try this web site

you will have to decide if you want to travel to London ( stay overnight or travel overnight ) and the tunnel or - my preference - take a ferry - not sure if the rosyth ferry will be open or if you have to go to Newcastle

First off, I would fly direct from Scotland to Italy if you have no real issue with flying, and then concentrate on the Italian corridor of trains that go from Milan to Venice which are cheap, plentiful and don't take that long You could fly into one and then out of the other. The flight is 2.5 hours, the alternative by train must be exhausting and expensive. You then have, at your choice, Milan (LIN is far better than MXP, but there is a direct train from MXP), Bergamo (airport to Central station is about 20 mins out by bus although it gets packed, old town (where you need to go) also bus-able, taxi from airport around 25e, then further along the corridor you have Beschia (it is OK, nice enough, but the least of the Italian corridor cities) then you have Peschiera del Garda (Lake Garda), then you have Verona (touristy to the death, but nice enough, train station is a good walk in or cab, the airport is miles out), then you have Padua, nice enough in it's own right, but if you get one of the buses from near the station (and there are plenty) you can also go to Abano Terme in about 25 mins. This is a spa resort. It is fairly boring if you are after culture, but it is a complete dream if you are wanting some decent relaxation and therapy in spa pools. Then you have Venice once you get back on the train at Padua. The airport at VCE is a bit of a ballache, but there is a bus that goes from the main transit area. I could definitely spend 2 weeks doing that corridor with more time in Lake garda and Abano Terme just to keep the price acceptable. (verona, venice and milan have eye watering hotel prices). You can go on the trenitalia website to cost your trains, but they are buttons in prices compared with any interail gig. HTH xx

I think it’s up to OP - personally I find flying more exhausting than the long train journeys and the train is also part of the experience/ holiday. Beautiful scenery , the odd stop off at an amazing city , meeting new people - you don’t do it for speed of travel ( unless using one of the new sleepers )

the cost of trains in Europe is surprisingly low but the cost getting to Europe by train or ferry will be higher than flying - but that’s still usually the choice I make

This is exactly the type of holiday we have, though we travel from Liverpool. Planet Rail books all our train tickets, transfers and hotels based on our dates, where we want to stop and how long we want to stay in each place. Be aware on some trains first class no longer includes food and beverages; there is now class above it.

You could do a price comparison (check out the price of single tickets on a site like RailEurope), but given that an Interrail pass covers the train from Scotland to London and back, it may well be a better deal.

(Every time I've done this from Cornwall, Interrail has worked out cheaper. I do have younger DC- 10 year old DS2 is still eligible for a free child pass, and we are tied to school holidays when normal tickets are more expensive, but even when I went to Amsterdam last March just with XP it was £50 cheaper to buy a 4 day pass than single tickets!)

I would imagine that with mobility issues it would be easier to take the train the whole way, rather than dealing with getting in/ out of city centres and airports. Taking the train may take longer, but boy is it more relaxing! You may want to consider changing trains somewhere that isn't Paris for ease, though, unless you specifically want to visit Paris- it's like London, where you have to cross the city to change trains. Lille or Brussels, for example.

I think that you have to book disabled assistance with each train company separately. There are various Interrailing Facebook groups that are useful for this.

Oh sorry, just re read your OP...looks like you wouldn't have to book disabled assistance, which is good, as it does look a bit of a faff.

There are various routes into Italy, as a browse through Seat 61 will have shown you. The quickest also cop a hefty reservation fee, as you have seen!

Would you do a sleeper train? One of my preferred routes is- arrive Paris mid afternoon, make my way to Gare d'Austerlitz and take the Intercite de Nuit sleeper train to Nice , then in the morning it's a quick local train across the border to Ventimiglia, where the Italian trains begin. Possibly not the least tiring though, what with crossing Paris and getting on and off a couple of local trains to wherever you want to visit first in Italy. But good if you want to break the journey with a night in Paris or Nice, OR if you want to have a mammoth first travel day! The part of the journey along the Cote d'Azur is also very very beautiful.

You could also take the Eurostar to Brussels, and spend the night there/ push onto Cologne (which I prefer), then the next day make your way to Stuttgart and get a Nightjet sleeper to Venice.

I can give you more information about both these routes, but this is already quite a long post!

There is a train from Paris to Milan that only takes 6-7 hours.

So I think I would go with:

Scotland to Paris, day one. Overnight in Paris. Get the train to Milan on day two, or it also stops at Turin.

Do you have a particular place in Italy you want to visit? Milan is a massive interchange so you could get to plenty of places from there but obviously if you want to go along way down Italy it will be time consuming. I think you'll need to spend at least 2 days each way getting there and back. Personally, if I can, I prefer to keep my train journeys under 6-7 hours a day, and ideally under 5, because otherwise I find I am not able to enjoy seeing the places I am visiting.

Thank you all.
I should have said: flying is (currently) out. Uk Sleeper trains out (£££ & no sleep but 'forrin' ones may be better?). I use double crutches & 1 YP has fatigue issues so this is ambitious as we actually want to get as far as Malta ...

So, I wondered:

Scotland to London. PI overnight.
Eurostar to Paris. (overnight? preferably not)

Then head for Venice via a scenic route.
(not thought through as you can tell !)
Down to Rome.
Head for ferry port South of Rome
Ferry to Sicily.
Ferry to Malta.

7/10 days relaxing with family.

Reverse.

I have up to 3 weeks availability but £ is not limitless so that will be the decider re limits.

Now, I'm going to carefully read your advice !

You can also get the train to Sicily, either sleeper from Northern cities, or daytime from Rome/Naples It uncouples and drives onto a special ferry which is great fun. From Naples it was very cheap, under 15 euros each, to Catania or Palermo.

If you're Interrailing, you need to get out of the country on your first day, as you only get 2 UK travel days. So, to Paris, Brussels or Lille on the first day. Should be do- able! (Eurostars don't run at night btw- the last to leave St. Pancras are early evening).

How we got to Venice Interrailing a couple of years ago was :Travel day 1- Cornwall- Brussels. 2 nights in Brussels. Travel day 2- Brussels- Innsbruck (a long day- 9 hours!) 2 nights in Innsbruck. Day 3- Innsbruck- Venice, changing in Verona (about 6 hours I think, across the beautiful Brenner Pass).

If you wanted to cut travel time down you could try the Stuttgart- Venice sleeper?

I too sleep badly on a UK sleeper train (because it gets into Paddington so sodding early!), and agree that they're extortionate! The Nightjet trains are....medium pricey. You have to pay an Interrail supplement per bunk, starting at about 40 euros pp I think, depending on type of accommodation. Mr Seat61 has ALL the info. It's possible to book out a 4 bed compartment for the 3 of you. The French domestic ones are....cheap and cheerful, maybe a bit cramped and spartan for you?

There is also a domestic sleeper train the ENTIRE LENGTH of Italy- Milan- Palermo (the famous one where they put the train on the ferry!). I don't know about prices/ accommodation (I think it's pretty reasonable) but Mr Seat61 does.

The Paris- Milan TGV is definitely the fastest option- I just tend to avoid it because you have to pay another 30 euro Interrail supplement pp and I don't want to do that after Eurostar!!

I should add that although I've never got a good night's sleep on the Night Riviera- for all it costs- I've slept like a log in a very cramped 6 berth compartment on the Intercite de Nuit from Paris- Nice, and on Romanian sleeper trains from Vienna- Brasov and Bucharest- Budapest. I'm sure the fact that the latter two both arrive at lunchtime has something to do with it.