I am planing on doing a interail for around 5/6 weeks in september/oktober. Do you got any do's and don'ts? And tips about any not to miss places. I am trying to do a plan, but some stuff needs to be cut. Or should one not do a plan at all and just go with it? What are the opinions and experiences of veteran travellers/interailers?
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do u really wanna spend 5-6 weeks in cities only? Instead of east europe just do some countryside in Germany/Austria/switzerland/Itlay/France. Also more time in Italy tbh
Yeah l am going to do som off shoots in to the countryside for sure. The lines is just a main point of advance so to say. But l like to get the bang for my buck and it is in the east that's the best.
moron
>Zagreb, Bratislava, Ostrava instead of Croatian coast, Krakow and Brno
that's just silly my dude
This.
There's an overnight train between Vienna and Split, but even without it it's the best you can do in the Balkans right now, as other rail connections there are a bit fricked.
>Marseille-Nice-Genova
Beautiful route, you have to make some stopovers, not only for the scenery, but also because of the timetables.
>Milano-Zurich
Try to see if you can do the Bernina route via Tirano, St. Moritz and Chur, no need for the dedicated "express" train, local trains are included in Interrail, less crowded and in the old carriages you can still open the window.
The diffrent colors means diffrent choices on the rail. I have never done this. I don't know how fast 5 weeks goes by in the travel and want to see many things. So it will have to be a European speedrun.
Thanks for the tips man! Is there problems with the rail in former Yugo countries?
There used to be a decent network but the war in the 90s let it decay to a degree where buses are faster.
Croatia and Slovenia have good connections to Italy/Austria/Germany though, so use those for your advantage.
Basic tip: Don't stuff your schedule, you'll regret not spending time in places you liked.
Interrail allows you to be flexible, so try to make sure you can be flexible.
Thanks for all the help man, l will put that in my notes. But it is my first rodeo so l guess somethings one have to learn himself by experiencing it.
Overnight? Maybe overweek.
>Essen
>Katowice
Those are big industrial conurbations, not touristy cities. Still I'd choose them over fricking Birmingham any day.
Updated map. I think l will go the following lines:
Purple
Black
Red
Blue
Green
Yellow
Green
Is is feasible to do in 5/6 weeks in the early autumn and not feeling stressed out?
>Is is feasible to do in 5/6 weeks in the early autumn and not feeling stressed out?
If you plan to check out every city your train route passes on that map (31), you've got about 1 (one) day per city, not even including travel time.
What do you think?
Yea that's not my plan, l should have marked the places where l planned on staying. But l mean if the route is doable?
Doable? Sure. Enjoyable? Depends on how many places you want to spend actual time at. To get the most out of your limited time ideally you'd want to focus on a not too large area that's well-connected. Your route is way too spread out. I understand you want to cram as much Europe as possible into your interrail trip so you can say "I've been there" but it's not it won't exactly be quality travel.
Because it's a poor financial choice. Buying tickets for buses and trains on the spot is almost always cheaper. Interrail is particularly stupid for Eastern Europe (tickets are cheap) and absolutely moronic in the Balkans (no railways in the first place lol). And in a lot of countries you'll still have to make AND pay for reservations for high speed trains even with your interrail pass. France and Italy are notable offenders.
So say you're getting the Interrail Youth Pass for two months. Should be 575 Eurodollars according to the website. Let's assume you want to visit 13 places in 39 days - three days per destination including travel time between places is about as crammed as it gets without being overly stressful in my opinion.
So you're looking at about 45 Eurodollars per train ride between each destination. Flixbus has way cheaper fares than that for virtually any route you could think of, even stupidely long ones like Hamburg-Munich or Paris-Marseille. Even fricking train tickets for Paris-Marseille start at around 50 Euros. And those are expensive countries - the more Eastern Europe included in your itinerary, the less valuable your interrail pass gets.
Interrail is only really good in niche cases financially speaking, and booking tickets on the spot is so easy and cheap these days the MUH flexibility argument is kind of bogus.
Thanks so much for the info man. Will do much read up on more of it. Cheers.
Can someone help me on how to travel in luxury from Brasov to Budapest by rail?
Romanian railways only offers 2nd class, frick them.
The Hungarian rail company shows pics of sleeper cabins that look like industrial laboratory horror movies from the 1980s.
picrel is the "positive" sleeper that I wouldn't mind having
but then the official website of the hungarian mav railways, shows this medical laboratory horror show:
This one probably shows the double sleeper, the medical horror is the triple one. It looks like the same train.
The key to Hungarian and Romanian trains is if you don't get pickpocketed and you got to your destination on time, you are happy. If the toilets don't stink really bad, you are so happy that you tell your friends about it.
If you're gonna expect a certain wall color and a specific mood lighting, you go to Japan.
Btw I had good experiences with the cleanliness of the bedding on Eastern Euro trains, it all smelled and felt fresh, crisp. And the individual bathrooms are not the problem btw, it's just the communal ones where it's weird to find a clean one.
thanks guys. I think I will book the hungarian Ister and just choose the most expensive ticket (i.e. personal sleeper) for maximum comfort
>not booking the cheapest so you can travel with the locals
> the locals
it's romania, the locals are gypsies or other primitive peasant stock
Anyone with any redeeming qualities was killed, deported to the Soveit Union, or emigrated decades ago
the women are still kind of cute, though kind of short, gothy and swarthy
>the women are still kind of cute
They're all in Western Europe though.
Correction, this first photo could actually be the Romanian train, the double couchette or whatever.
Anyhow, if you still want to book the Hungarian one, it's IC472 (Ister). The online booking site is a mess, but it's available in English and it works.
>Do you got any do's and don'ts?
don't use interrail
Why?
I didn't want to be that person, but this. Unless you exclusively stay in France and ride the train every single day, interrail rarely makes any sense. There are these dummies who pretend you're saving oh-so-much trouble by not having to buy tickets separately... But that's just bs.
Okay l get it. But do you have any apps to recommended? Even if it costs a bit more and l have to reserve seats and stuff. I think it can be worth it to have it all in one place.
There's no everything-app because Europe's different railway companies don't really interact much with each other. They will all accept your interrail ticket but that's it. You will have to make reservations and look up train connections on the websites/apps of countries' national railway companies individually. This might be hard for zoomers at first glance but trust me, it's not a big deal.
That's only half accurate. Bookings indeed need to be made on the individual websites of railway companies, BUT bahn.de has all of the schedules of Europe, and not just the European Union but ALL of Europe. So practically you first look up the connections on bahn.de, note down the dates and the codes of the train, and then you book it on the website of the company (which is also listed on bahn.de)
>bahn.de has all of the schedules of Europe, and not just the European Union but ALL of Europe
One remember the golden times of before 2023 when they had the timetables for every long-distance train between Lisbon and Pyongyang.
Don't be fooled by the map. If you want to visit Croatia by rail you will need more than 6 weeks.
It's not the 90s anymore, Croatia has daily overnight trains to Austria, Germany and Switzerland.
get a car or better yet a motorbike. I was given this advice here too and it's spot on. buy a beater for under 1000$ and you're still coming out cheaper at the end than if you would train everywhere. on the plus side with a car you can carry a bunch for luggage, camping equipment and even sleep in it. the only downside is difficult parking it in some cities, but most are ok if you're not a moron. at least in the med area you can mostly find free parking or cheap parking anyways, just lookout for sketchy areas or you will get it broken into if you leave it in italy or any balkanic c**t
I tought about the idea to buy a older RV/motorhome and drive the trip. But then l thought about not be able to have a beer when l wanted during my journey, or having to drive in Paris. I come from a very small town, l would panic hard.
Carry backpacks on your front when in crowded areas.
Anybody ever rode the Ister from Bucharest to Budapest?
I booked a sleeper car but when I boarded in Sinaia there were no sleeper cars attached. They may have added them in Brasov but I am now stuck in some passenger seats. And they're separated from other cars so I can't just walk over to the sleeper.
Nobody speaks English, staff is nowhere to be found, and even if I did find them they don't speak English either
Update: managed to find the sleeper cars and staff still gave me shit for something (time is off? Not 100 euros?).
Unless you're a fluent Romanian speaker take this train at your risk