interrailing 2012

Hi Maccerrs,

I went interrailing a couple of years ago, similar route to yourself.

Warsaw
Krakow
Prague
Bratislava
Budapest
Zagreb
Split
Ljubljana
Venice


Must sees are Krakow and Prague... avoid Warsaw and Bratislava.

I found the best thing to do when arriving in a city was to book into the biggest room you can find (8/10 bed dorm) in a hostel. We met loads of people this way which made for some great nights out!

As for the route all we did was book a flight over and back, we had a very rough idea of where we wanted to go in between that. It gives you great freedom to stay as long as you want if you like a city. Then whenever you get tired all you need to do is pick a city, book a hostel online and go!

The Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable book comes in very handy too. It gives you every train time that you will need, great for planning trips the night before.

Great experience overall... well worth it!

We went for around 4 weeks.

We actually spent our time around Split in a small town called Trogir, it was a nice town about 20 mins away but there wasn't many tourist around. It was the relaxing beach part at the end of our trip.

I'm thinking about going post LC this year. My question is, is it at all maneagable with a large group? I mean 8 or 9 people. I'm very concerned it will ruin the trip but I can't see how we could cut numbers any further, it just doesn't seem possible.
Is it even worth going with numbers like these?

2. Should I opt for the 22 day ticket our the 10 within 22 days ticket? My gut says the full 22 day ticket but could we get by on 10 days of trains?

3. Is booking hostels in advance, from web cafes, etc. convenient? Would I require a credit card? What are the odds we will be unable to fin a hostel any given night?


Any help is appreciated

Brid2012 wrote: »

Hi,
Me and my friends are going inter-railing this summer too.
With regards to booking hostels as you go, it would be great allowing you the freedom to stay somewhere longer if you really like a city. But i have found that a lot of the top rated hostels are booking up already.

We're thinking of doing our route as;
Brussels 4th (for two nights) of June
Amsterdam 6th (for two nights)
Berrlin 8th (for two nights)
Poznan 10th (for two nights)
Krakow 12th (for three nights)
Prague 15th (for two nights)
Vienna 17th (for one night)
Budapest 18th (for three nights)
Lake Bled 21st (for three nights)
Hvar Island 25th (for four nights)
Split 29th (for five nights)

We also wondered if we were skipping any great cities?
We have talked to a good few people who have been inter railing before and they suggested some hostels they thought were amazing;

Berlin - Circus hostel
Budapest - Grandio party hostel
Krakow - Greg & tom hostel
Budapest - Grandio party hostel

Sounds like a good plan. I'd definitely give yourself a couple more days in Vienna though, it's great. I'd be tempted to stop in Hamburg instead of Poznan on the way east, it's a great party city. Similarly, I'd take one of your weekend Bled days and spend it in Ljubljana - another great town, Metelkova there is definitely worth a visit, and if your into hostels, there's one in an old soviet jail that's supposed to be great

Brid2012 wrote: »

Hi,
Me and my friends are going inter-railing this summer too.
With regards to booking hostels as you go, it would be great allowing you the freedom to stay somewhere longer if you really like a city. But i have found that a lot of the top rated hostels are booking up already.

We're thinking of doing our route as;
Brussels 4th (for two nights) of June
Amsterdam 6th (for two nights)
Berrlin 8th (for two nights)
Poznan 10th (for two nights)
Krakow 12th (for three nights)
Prague 15th (for two nights)
Vienna 17th (for one night)
Budapest 18th (for three nights)
Lake Bled 21st (for three nights)
Hvar Island 25th (for four nights)
Split 29th (for five nights)

We also wondered if we were skipping any great cities?
We have talked to a good few people who have been inter railing before and they suggested some hostels they thought were amazing;

Berlin - Circus hostel
Budapest - Grandio party hostel
Krakow - Greg & tom hostel
Budapest - Grandio party hostel

If your going to bled I's highly recommend taking a short tip up to Lake Bohinj and go up on the cable car up the mountains, mind blowing stuff!

http://maps.google.ie/maps/ms?msid=210000107712378830012.0004b898c8244acb28a91&msa=0&ll=46.280885,13.909721&spn=0.104758,0.264187


Couldn't resize the pic!

maccerrs wrote: »

hello, i'm maccerrs and this is my first post.
I am going interrailing and to euro 2012 this summer with 3friends.
a bit of information on us, we'll all be 20 or 21 at the time, are looking for places with great nightlife but we also want to see some of the culture.
i know there are plenty of threads about interrailing but i was hoping to get some feedback and tips about my specific trip.
I would really appreciate anyone who has experienced interrailing or similar trips to give me any feedback/tips/ideas you have.

here's our provisional plan:

• fly to berlin on june 6th (3nights)
• over to Poznan, poland (3nights seeing ireland vs croatia)
• up Gdansk (3nights seeing Ireland vs Spain)
• thats it for us at the euros and now interrailing, first to Krakow (2nights)
• then Budapest for 2nights
• Zagreb (1night)
• Split (2nights)
• Zrce beach,Pag Island (2nights)
• Ljubljana (1night)
• Lake Bled (2nights)
• Munich (2nights)
• Finishing in Prague (2nights then fly home)

what do you think of that route? too much? not enough time in certain cities? are we leaving out any great cities? we are open to any suggestions!

we are thinking just over 2000euro everything included should get us by, bearing in mind we don't mind cooking our own meals, staying in cheaper hostels, drinking the cheapest beer ha etc...

we would really appreciate any help you could give us

This is going to be a long message so here i go:P i honestly wouldnt be too sure that 2000 would be enough especially if your including flights & rail ticket. Prague amazing,great nightlife make sure to check out the pub crawl and the five story nightclub Berlin is brilliant great sights to see during the day and if your just into a decent run of the mill club then i would advise the matrix, if your more house/trance id say the weekend club. the generator is a great hostel in berlin. Lake bled is GREAT, activities there may be expensive enough so budget for it (white water rafting, cannoning) great mexican restaurant there called chilli i think. and as for PAG best place ever, ended my trip here. I suggest you give Pag more time. we did and we were so glad ended up staying for 5 nights... skipped zagreb and had day trip to ljubljana best decision we ever made, you will not want to leave pag. nice appartments cost 20euro ish a night. all day parties on the beach, all night parties on the beach Zrce, cant actually stay at zrce, but novjaila is like a 2euro/10min bus journey away. amazing acts play every year at clubs on zrce Avicii, tiesto, paul van dyke, sweedish house mafia .... hope this was helpful

As above the generator is a great hostel. Dubrovnik was my favourite city I've been to but its a bit out of your way as you're not going that far south in Croatia. 2000 seems like it could be a bit tight especially if you're going to the euros as prices for everything will be increased...

We just turned up, there doesn't seem to be any hostels there at all... its all apartments and hotels and campsites if you were interested in camping. You could prob do some searches online for apartments to rent though,as it was very busy when we arrived in aug, we just went to the tourist centre in the middle of the Novjalia and they sorted us out but sadly we had to spend our first night in a hotel as there was no apartments available that night!!

Like i said in previous posts pag island is kind of like ibiza and zante and so on... we choose to end our trip here and spent 5 nights... it was amazing. lake bled is a must...

also, where did you fly home from? did u book your returning flights before the whole trip?

Oh also trip cost something like--
300 euro flights return dublin - amsterdam, zadar - dublin.
train ticket i think about 250euro
spent roughly 1,400E in 3 and a half weeks.

hey i was lookin at hostels in peg island and they seem very expensive and only two came up. can anyone recommend a hostel which is close to the 'fun' etc and is cheep-ish. budget is around 20 to 30 per day