Interrailing

[SemperEadem]

Thinking of going interrailing next summer, has anyone on here done it before and have any tips or stories to share?

[MikeyT]

I don't even know what it is.

[SemperEadem]

Basically traveling around Europe using a rail pass.

[I am Rod Hull]

I don't even know what it is.

Neither did I, I thought it was some kind of euphemism...

[Monk]

Yes I have done it a couple of times. I bought tickets individually rather than an interail, allows more flexibility and is often cheaper. Check first.

Best sites for this are

www.seat61.com

www.raileurope.co.uk

If you interrail you have to pay add on fares for overnight sleepers and premium trains such as Eurostar.

In terms of route I went all the way to Istanbul. The best train I took was from Ploce in Croatia to Sarajevo in Bosnia. Definitely worthwhile.

The RailJet from Munich to Vienna and Budapest was a very impressive modern train.

The two routes I did were:

London-Paris-Nice-Monaco-Genoa-Pisa-Florence-Venice-Zagreb-Dubrovnik (bus)-Sarajevo-Belgrade-Sofia-Istanbul

London-Paris-Munich-Vienna-Budapest-Zagreb

Well worth it. Make it happen

[jonlcfc1990]

Do you have any sights or events you want to see in particular? any football? (Italy footballing holiday) Still one of my greatest memories of europe

[SemperEadem]

Cheers Monk, yeah i have been put off buying an actual interail ticket due to add of fares. But will now look at those websites, cheers for the information.

[SemperEadem]

Would like to see some football yes, but the problem is I will be doing it after my university exams so will miss the season really. Not going over for the Euros but will obviously find bars to watch the games in. Would really like to do a footballing holiday in the future maybe in France and Italy.

[jonlcfc1990]

IMO There is certainly some great football being played in europe and When it comes to holidaying you'd probably enjoy Italy Great landscapes great architecture and great history mostly welcoming people with great food (who doesnt like italian) I went to Lucca and from there travelled to Pisa Rome and Milan all brilliant. Hope this helps i used rail lines also and italy was very reasonably priced.

[Monk]

Thing is you're spoilt for choice, there is just so much to see. The next one I'd like to do is Lisbon to Moscow, fairly easy and is the far west to the far east of the continent.

One of my life ambitions is to take the train from Edinburgh all the way to Singapore. Currently a gap across Cambodia, but there is a rail line being built right now. One day.

A short tip - Paris is a pain to change in. If you are going east I highly recommend going via Brussels.

Another cool way to finish a rail trip is in Calais, Antwerp or Rotterdam and take the ferry back.

Fire me a PM if you have any questions, I'm a bit of a geek on planning this kind of trip.

[Monk]

Would like to see some football yes, but the problem is I will be doing it after my university exams so will miss the season really. Not going over for the Euros but will obviously find bars to watch the games in. Would really like to do a footballing holiday in the future maybe in France and Italy.

If you are going around the time of the Olympics make sure you book your ticket to and from the UK asap else you'll pay through the nose for it.

[Bugg]

I went Interrailing this summer.

Travelled Brussels-Cologne-Munich-Ljublijana-Pula and had a great day in Pula (beautiful city, I'd recommend going)

Then on the way back Travelled from Pula-Ljublijana-Villach stopped for a few days in Villach and went to the City vs Bursapor game in Klagenfurt (about 20 minutes from Villach) then travelled to Munich with another few days in Hannover and Then back to Brussels.

But yeah, I would seriously recommend it, the inter-rail pass is great value for money for the amount of places you can visit for the price.

EDIT - And Monk, you aren't entirely correct by saying that overnight sleepers don't count as part of the interail as my overnight sleeper from Munich-Ljublijana counted as part of the ticket.

[Monk]

I went Interrailing this summer.

Travelled Brussels-Cologne-Munich-Ljublijana-Pula and had a great day in Pula (beautiful city, I'd recommend going)

Then on the way back Travelled from Pula-Ljublijana-Villach stopped for a few days in Villach and went to the City vs Bursapor game in Klagenfurt (about 20 minutes from Villach) then travelled to Munich with another few days in Hannover and Then back to Brussels.

But yeah, I would seriously recommend it, the inter-rail pass is great value for money for the amount of places you can visit for the price.

EDIT - And Monk, you aren't entirely correct by saying that overnight sleepers don't count as part of the interail as my overnight sleeper from Munich-Ljublijana counted as part of the ticket.

Good point, there are some that are included, just depends on the route.

This page tells you exactly what is in or out of inter rail passes

http://www.seat61.com/InterRail-pass-guide.htm#Country%20by%20country%20InterRail%20pass%20guide

[Monk]

Wasn't sure if to put this into the 'self employment' thread or this one... but I hope some of you will find this useful or interesting.

 

I have spent the last 3 months developing a global search website for overland travel - it includes not only european rail trips, but also tours and ferrys all around the world. Just launched the site last week.

 

Check it out at www.epicrailtrip.com... I know some of you who I have on facebook may already have seen it but thought it may be useful as questions on rail trips seem to crop up quite frequently in General Chat.

 

Try out some longer distance trips - eg London to Singapore or New York to San Francisco.

 

Enjoy - and I would love to hear feedback good or bad.

[Vlad the Fox]

I went interailing back in 95 I think it was. Fantastic experience, naked Danish girls, drug searches, Munich beer festival, hiding from police in Munich metro station, walking from a still poverty ridden east Berlin to the west was a real eye opener especially seeing the changes to the east when I went back a few years later, saving some girls from being duped into drug smuggling out of morocco. Barcolona, the alps, Managing to talk a bouncer into letting us into a private function in a club in Amsterdam only to find it full of speeding skin heads, I had long hair at the time and I think there was some sort of Nazi get together in the town. I could go on, fantastic days.

[ealingfox]

Wasn't sure if to put this into the 'self employment' thread or this one... but I hope some of you will find this useful or interesting.

 

I have spent the last 3 months developing a global search website for overland travel - it includes not only european rail trips, but also tours and ferrys all around the world. Just launched the site last week.

 

Check it out at www.epicrailtrip.com... I know some of you who I have on facebook may already have seen it but thought it may be useful as questions on rail trips seem to crop up quite frequently in General Chat.

 

Try out some longer distance trips - eg London to Singapore or New York to San Francisco.

 

Enjoy - and I would love to hear feedback good or bad.

 

Fantastic idea mate, looks great - will definitely be sharing this. No results for the one journey I will be doing this summer though 

[Monk]

Thanks! What journey did you search for?

[Vlad the Fox]

One of the most memorable trips I had was the train ride up the alps, clear sunny day so the views were fantastic as we wound our way up stopping at the little villages until we reached chamonix, not sure which station we left from but it was a little one at the foot of the mountains if anyone knows as I would love to ride the route again.

Switzerland was also pretty impressive, travelling from geneva to nuremberg I think.

[Alexikokopops]

Is it wrong that I'm intrigued by the algorithm you use to find the routes? All I can think of is a near optimal shortest path one but the number of nodes must be MASSIVE. I could be barking up completely the wrong tree though, I haven't looked at that kind of thing for about five years

[James.]

I tried London to Tokyo / Seoul / Mumbai and didn't get any results. Are those definitely not possible? Pretty sure Mumbai is.

 

Anyway great idea that is mate, good luck with it.

[Monk]

Thanks James. I am missing the ferry connectors between Japan China and Korea so that would be why it's not working for those yet. It's on my list of fixes! Similarly I have lots of train routes within India but I think I am missing a connecting train into India from China etc. will all be fixed soon.

Alex - currently the site has 3m routes but that will grow significantly soon. It's huge.

[Monk]

Is it wrong that I'm intrigued by the algorithm you use to find the routes? All I can think of is a near optimal shortest path one but the number of nodes must be MASSIVE. I could be barking up completely the wrong tree though, I haven't looked at that kind of thing for about five years

Thing is, it's not about the shortest path like it is for flying. It's about the most interesting path that goes through the countries you want to visit.

Managed to keep the data set manageable by not displaying timetables and prices. Maybe a future addition but the database would get truly massive.

Hope others find the site useful please shout if you find more issues.

[ealingfox]

Thanks! What journey did you search for?

 

Zagreb to Pula - I understand the Croatian Railway Network is pretty poor though so maybe that was it.

[Monk]

Zagreb to Pula - I understand the Croatian Railway Network is pretty poor though so maybe that was it.

I'm pretty sure that there is no train line between pula and Zagreb. Similarly the main train line finishes at Split and for Dubrovnik you need to take a bus.

Thanks for this though - I will add the bus into the next update I do.

[Carl the Llama]

Pula is the Romanian word for penis.

 

Just thought you should know.