inter railing

max_power

I know there has been previous posts aboout this, so if im going over old ground, sorry!!! I've looked through a lot of the old posts and just have a few more practical questions more than anything? To peple who have been obviously.

Our route at the moment is very rough and open to suggestion, but the plan seems to be to fly into Amsterdam-Paris-Biaritz-Florence-Venice-Rome-Ferry to Greece-Islands-Croatia then it all kind of falls apart!!!! and hopefully Prague and Budapest! It sounds pretty ambitious to me, and with the organisational skills of me and my mates probably pretty unlikely.

-Anyone have any insight into similar routes? What would the timescale be like?

-How many people did you go with? meet up with others along the way? any difficulty in doing this?

-where did you fly into/out of? did you have your return flight booked before you left?

-Money..We're planning on gettin the global ticket, should be gone for a month, all 18-20 age group, probably end up spending more on going out than food, anyway, just wondering what people budgeted a day? Roughly like, not expecting it to the cent!

-As i said, we're all 18-20, so we're looking for lively destinations, any suggestions? Cheap ones would be nice.

-How did other people go about organising it with their mates?

-Any no go areas or bad experiences?

-And any other bits of wisdom you feel like sharing? We're probably going the last 2 weeks in August and first 2 in September so if anyone knows of any interesting festivals or the like we should catch along the way it'd be great.

-Thats all my questions for now, i'll stop annoying you.

max_power

anything?

max_power

eh?

Random

I've got a similiar thread here mate and have had some fairly useful replys so far.

Any input you had is welcomed

deffo

Hey Max i may be able to help you on your route. we worked our way from Eindhoven in Holland (ryaniar flies to there) and worked our way to rome via croatia. We decided eastern europe as we were in colloege and had limited funds avaiable to us. We got the multi zone pass as for the area you can cover its worth the money.....right then, you could do this trip back ways.

We firstly went to eindhoven to frankfurt. Nothing to see in eindhoven and theres no hostels in the place at all, so we hot footed it to frank furt could be about 3-4 hours on the train. As we were only starting out we didnt check what trains the interail ticket covers and we had to pay a suplement. Once bitten twice shy and we were sure to keep and eye on the restof the train. We stayed in frankfurt for a couple of days, we stayed in a hosteling international hostel, note thati have been in a couple of their hostels and theya all had cerfews, and they look big and amzing as hostels go but they tend to be sh*t . Loved frankfurt though
From frankfurt we went to Prague. Prague is beautiful and of all the cities we went to it probably had most to see. its swamped in history, and it really got me hooked on sight seeing for the rest of the trip. Cheap food and beer off the main squares too. stayed in elf hostel. Best hostel of the trip, absolutly brilliant craic agus ceoil, but that all depends on the guests at the time, but it came recomende from other backpackers we met on route.
From prague we went to viennaonly stayed here a day so i wont judge it but it looked nice, however it was like any other western city, busy and expensive.
We went from prague tom Krackow Kracow is my joint favourite city. absolultly brilliant. had some great nights out there, full of backpackers. While there we went to the two main attractions, a the salt mines (good to see not amazing) and the second day auschitz concentration camp. We got a guide at the train staion who brought five of us for 50 euro and showed us all 3 camps, he was excellent a real local knowledge. The place is very depressing but nothing is off limits really. Something you should go see to see how lucky we have it.from there we went to vienna
Vienna to braislava its only about an hour on the train from vienna so its a nice short trip. Dont knopw if your a fella or a girl but if your a fella you will be in your element, you can try your damdest but you are not going to find a bad looking woman in this city. It nice quite city on the danube. We were here at the weekend, and there was a great buzz around the city centre, you can get a quality 3 course meal for the price of a mcdonalds. And the price of a opint is about 40 pence in the city centre, if your partial to a tipple.
Bratislava to Budapest next. Budapest is a very big city, extremly busy and in the summer it can be quite hot with the dead heat of a big city. Lots to see here, shop around for deals on food etc as budapest is not the ceapest place on the planet. While there we wen to the baths. They are basically outdorr pools with hot springgs,they are a good place to relax for an afternoon after dragging your rucksack around europe. These ones were in the city park and are in most guide book, i think its about 5-10 euro to get in.
Good nightlife here too, watch out for pick pockets etc, nothin to get worked up over though.
Budapest to Lake balatonLake balaton is a lake where hungarians go on holidays too. wE just jumped off a train in a place called revlop. a tinty village, like youd see around ireland, but it did have a hostel, amazingly enough where we met other backpackers. You will never see a lake as calm as this in you life, it weird. Anyhow, try this place but it is very quite and apart froma bike ride or a swim there nothing nmuch else to do.
Balaton to Split/HavarAbig long train journey down to split in croatia next. we jumped of a train and on to a ferry to the island of hava. in croatia you will be innondated with people offering you apartment to rent and we did this also, was as cheap as a hostel. We camped a night there. the heat was awful so if your hardcore try it. This place is fantastic, absoloutly beautiful beyond words. lots of you people as well. We hired out a little boat and travelled around the neighbouring islands as well. Faqntastic place. recomend it. we were there in june supposedly better in july august even!
Havar to DubrovnikDubrovnik was my favourite beautiful city lots to see and do great nightlife a nice beach as well and bvery reasonably priced too. Very impresive too. BTW we got a ferry down to here and it wasnt too dear.
Dubrovnik to rome we got a ferry to ancona in italy overnight and then to rome where we flew home

So if ya tried that back ways its something to work of. youl have ag reat time. Eastern europe is fantastic nicer than western in IMO. Real bvalue for money and lovely people, who welcome would embarres "ireland of the welcomes"