Interrailing

Imposter

I'm thinking of going interrailing in a few weeks around bits of eastern europe (more specifically, probably the Croatian coast).

How much have people budgeted per day while interrailing? Was it enough? I know this depends on the country and whether you sleep on trains/in train stations/in hostels/or in 5 star hotels but just looking to hear experiences and ideas.

Any interesting hints or unusual experiences to share?

Tazz T

Try to get overnight trains and sleep on the train you'll save a bomb and get further faster.

DadaKopf

What Tazz said. Also, buy food from supermarkets instead of paying more for proper sit-in meals.

I'm not sure how much you'll need and it depends on what it is you want to do. I went interrailing in Scandinavia, which isn't cheap, and got by on roughly €50 a day, but always budget for more if you want to go to museums or whatever.

Best thing to do is to get The Lonely Planet (much better than Rough Guides) and work it all out before you go (more for here, save there etc.).

PiE

Dadakopf, I'm planning on "doing" Scandinavia in August (mainly Sweden & Finland). Can you tell me where you bought your interrail ticket/how much/how long and how you got there (and back)? Any info you can give would be swell.

Really should've started planning this ages ago :]

Ta...

Sarky

I'd planned to go interrailing two weeks ago, but had to change plans to a load of day trips from a central location when there was no accommodation anywhere else. If you have to stay the night somewhere, make sure you book ahead. A credit card would be very handy in that respect.

As an aside, it seems all the hostels in Zurich are in the middle of a red light district. Coincidence?

[nicK]

how long do yee usually go interrailing for?

Moonbeam

we are going in Sept for 3 weeks,just gettin the inter-railing pass for 12 days though,
we are oging to do zone D Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia,
Prague seems the cheapest place to fly into but no idea where to fly home from,
going to spend a few days in the first and last country aswell any suggestions where would be nice?

ferdi

yeah, i'm going round central/west europe in august for 3 weeks - WOOHOO!!!!

anyways, there are 7+ of us each on c. 50euros a day, we are gonna live like frreakin' kings, YEAh!!!

EUROPE, LOCK UP YOUR DAUGHTERS!!!!!:D

DadaKopf

Originally posted by PiE
Dadakopf, I'm planning on "doing" Scandinavia in August (mainly Sweden & Finland). Can you tell me where you bought your interrail ticket/how much/how long and how you got there (and back)? Any info you can give would be swell.

Really should've started planning this ages ago :]

Ta...

I got my ticket in USIT. Including travel insurance (Option B I think) which insured up to €2,000,000 in health insurance and €2,000 in belongings, it cost €200 for the 12 day ticket.

I was lucky enough to get one of the cheap Ryanair tickets from Stanstead to Malmo-Sturup and got a cheap flight from Dublin to London with Ryanair, too. All together, flights cost around €100. Cheap it was but the layovers were horrendous - first night was 8 hours, on the way back (out of choice) it was a whole day and I was broke so we slept on the floor of Stanstead airport.

I was lucky enough to know people in Scandinavia (Malmo and Helsinki) so staying with them saved a lot of money as did sleeping on trains and ferries. Generally, private hostel rooms cost €30 per night per person but they're mostly clean and very well done. For very little, their breakfasts will feed you for a day if you eat everything you can and stuff some more in your bag.

Interrailing's amazing - trains are my favourite way of getting around the place - but I wish I had a month and more money so I could have spent more than one day in most of the cities.

drrnwbb

Originally posted by PiE
Dadakopf, I'm planning on "doing" Scandinavia in August (mainly Sweden & Finland). Can you tell me where you bought your interrail ticket/how much/how long and how you got there (and back)? Any info you can give would be swell.

Really should've started planning this ages ago :]

Ta...

i interrailed in scandinava back in 2000. and apart from the capital/large cities, there wasnt anything to do. im living here in helsinki at the moment, and there is loads to do. we've had 3 groups of friends stay with us now (including dadakopf) and they have all come pretty much the same routh.. copehnagen to malmo to stockholm to helsinki and then back...

(remember, as the scandinavia interrail ticket isnt valid in denmark.. you can still fly to copenhagen and then get a cheap ferry across to malmo where your interrail ticket is valid.. copenhagen is nice for a few days).

but do as dadakopf said. a few nights in each city, travel overnight on ferries and buses/trains.

for trains aswell you will prolly have to pay a few euros extra as seat reservation per journey. nearly all the trains up here are seat assigned. so you have to pay for that. small though.

for the sweden to finland (or back) look in local papers the few days before hand, they usually have very good deals. get a native speaker to do it for you. its not essential though.

the distances up here are quite big. stockholm to helsinki is 17hrs each way on a ferry. or you can go stockholm to turku/(åbo) and then the train to helsinki (works out at 15hrs)... i could go on and on.

dw

DadaKopf

Yeah buh the trains are really deadly so training it in Scandinavia is the best way to travel. It never seems like 15 hours to Helsinki, or 9 hours from Oslo to Bergen. The Stockholm-Turku ferry is fascinating if you're into anthropology.

PiE

Cheers lads, thats a lot of help.

Kiitos

drrnwbb

ole hyvää

dw

DadaKopf

Originally posted by drrnwbb
ole hyvää

dw

Whatevs.

drrnwbb

Originally posted by DadaKopf
Whatevs.

took you five days to think up that comeback!

dw!