Interrailing in Europe

joxer05

hi,
myself and a few of my friends are thinking about interrailing this summer after the leaving cert.

we are not sure which zone to pick. can anyone recommend a zone and the best places to see and stay? how much money would you need a day? which is best: sleeping on train/hostel/camping? where should we avoid, etc?

sorry for all the questions any help is apprecited.

Gordon

This is the correct forum for your thread, please don't post it on 5 other forums again.

joxer05

Any info about must see locations aswell!

blocparty

hey im pretty much in the same boat as you except im a first year college student.

we're thinking of going at the end of august for a month to all zones. prob gonna go to eastern europe rather than western.

i would like to hear peoples experiences and must see places cause ive heard a few stories of places that i must goto and croatia is one of those places

Ruu_Old

I got mine here click European Rail passes and read on. Have fun now

shroomfox

Definitely go camping, it's the cheapest way to go. Bring tents and gear anyway, because if you don't like it you can hostel it. Camping works out from about 5-10 euro where hostels can be about 10-30 euro depending on where you are. I went for a month and did the whole of europe and spend about 1200 euro on expenses (not including my ticket) so about 40 euro a day should do it? This was four years ago though, so you'd probably need more.

blocparty

ya camping does seem like the cheapest way to go alrite. you said bout €40 a day but can i ask what month you went for and if went east or west.

blocparty

just to give you an idea of the places we were thnking of traveling to

start in amsterdam then onto
cologne followed by
hamburg then fly to
stockholm then back to
hamburg and make our way to
prague then onto
bratislava and then to
budapest and onto
zagreb and onto
ljubljana and then to
venice and then fly to
barcelona and then over to
faro to my friends dad and then back to
cork!

i know that sounds very ambitious and that plan will have to be revised. thankfully ryanair to the places where it makes sense to fly like venice to barcelona. how does this planned route sound to everyone? are we missing places we def need to goto?

ya-what-now?

Hey,

I'm going inter-railing to all zones for the month of june! I've yet to buy my ticket but plan on getting it in the next week or so!

One thing I'd advise, not htat I'm speaking from experience but still, maybe lower down the amount of places you're planning on going to because at that rate you're no longer gonna be in the place than you'll have to leave it again! Like yourself when we first started planning the trip, we wanted to go everywhere....let's face it, the ticket covers some ground, but in order to get a feel for the places you visit ya should maybe stay at least 2/3nights in each place!

The route we're "planning" on taking goes like this...

Fly to Paris(with ryanair...ends up €20 including tax)
Paris-Brussells
Brussells-Amsterdam
Amsterdam-Berlin
Berlin-Krakow(also visiting Auschwitz)
Krakow-Prague
Prague-Vienna
Vienna-Venice
Venice-Rome
Fly home from Rome!

Now that's even bound to change but that's the plan en ce moment anywhoo! But with that route we figure we've at least 3 nights in each place!

Oh yeah and any tips on hostels/sights/bars/attractions etc in those places would also be greatly appreciated here

shroomfox

I'd avoid Venice and go to Florence instead. Haven't heard good things at all about Venice but Florence is kicking and it's pretty close by.

I've done it twice now. First time went in August and did:

Flew to Brussels Stayed in Belgium for two nights
On to Paris for a night
Down to Bordeaux
Over to San Sebastien in Northen Spain (Cool little town with a beautiful harbour, radiohead were playing but we thought it was a tribute band and turned down ticket)
Got the coast train along the riviera in France over to Nice
Down to Florence for a few days
Couple of my friends popped down to Rome for a day
Then up to Munich for a few days
Hit Prague (This was 2002 and the famous floods started the next day, place went crazy, we had a beach party in the hostel, nearly got evacuated by helicopter)
Escaped Prague (literally) and headed to Amsterdam
Blew all the rest of the money and flew home.

The next time I didn't get an interrail ticket, went hardcore (in June) and fluffed it around the place. Only went to Amsterdam, Zurich, South Germany, Vienna and Paris though. (We got a flight from Amsterdam to Zurich for 25 euro and there was nobody on the plane, which was weird. The plane was also...completely pink.)

I'd seriously consider leaving Amsterdam til last if you're flying back through Brussels because it's one of the most expensive places to do anything in. Of course, neither of you guys are doing that so fair enough.

Also, thinking about it now, 40 euro a day is a little bit tight (it's definitely a lower limit anyway). I was running pretty low by the end. Deffo get a credit card for emergencies if you don't have one (but do use it for emergencies, not for beer like me, stupidest thing I ever did). If you're planning on getting drunk every night you should probably adjust for that - although if you do it on the cheap you'll be grand. Also, don't forget that you won't be able to camp everywhere and sometimes you'll feel like getting a hostel just for a break from camping. Camping's great fun (and some of the places on the continent are amazing, with swimming pools, markets, pubs and all kinds of facilities), but it's nice to get a bed sometimes.

Blocparty, I'd be careful with flights (unless you're really, REALLY fricking rich and you don't mind blowing a grand extra). It's not even because of the cost of flights themselves really, but you'll have to book them now to get a decent deal (probably). That means you're rushing to get to places to get to flights so you're on a timetable the whole time. It also means that you can't do one of the best things on one of these kinds of holidays which is just hearing of some random place and heading off to it for a few days.

Don't count on keeping your plan as soon as you start. Kind of similar, I know, but I remember us all sitting down at a map and drawing lines everywhere and going "here, here, here, here" and we didn't do any of it. The first time I went I did about 10 places and to be honest, it was a bit much (there was eight of us, which was too many anyway). We were just rushing everywhere all the time and it wrecks your head a bit when you just want to relax sometimes. You'll like some places and want to stop there a bit longer and so on. Of course, it all depends on what kind of holiday you want. I enjoy legging it around loads, but it will get to you after a while.

Oh, also: AVOID TOUTS. They're the people who come up to you at train stations offering you accomodation. First off, they charge you extra for the hostel because they get a cut, and secondly you can end up with some dodgy accomodation. Either go on the internet the day before you get to a place and book something online, or head straight to the tourist info when you arrive and ask for some phone numbers and brochures. (I ended up staying at this weird cult place once, don't let that scare you, this kind of **** just happens me.)

Anyway, I'm totally rambling here, I'll put up more if this is of any use to ye! And it's all my opinion as you know, I'm sure you'll find any amount of people that disagree with most of the stuff I've said here.

gilroyb

Two years ago I did

Prague- Good fun

Krackow- Good fun, but if you get the train to it, be careful and try and avoid the night train, I ended up on the night train and wouldn't do it again. Also, I'd advise going here to see Auschwitz, it's a unique experience. Something that will stay with you well after the holiday.

Bratislava- seems to have really cheap accommodation, that's about as exciting as the city gets in my experience.

Budapest- Great place, bit more expensive than the others, but really good atmosphere. The Paris of the East apparently. If you can find it, go to 'Sir Lancealot' restaurant, amazing food, amazing experience. I'd also advise staying in the 'yellow submarine' hostel, good place. The thermal baths are worth visiting as well. Also, if you're interrailing, Budapest DOES NOT equal Bucharest.

Zegreb- bit of a hole, nice people, but not that much to it.

Dubrovnik?- I didnt make it down this far south, but a large number of people told me it was the best part of their trip.

Pula- Small town on the Croatian coast, good for relaxing. For some reason it reminded me of Delphi adventure centre, but without the rain (and the adventure centre)

Lubjana?- Really nice little town/city, great fun.

Venice- I liked it, it doesnt have much of a nightlife.

Florence- I didn't like it.

Naples- Great fun. South Italy generally seemed better than Northern

Rome- Very enjoyable city.


Try and give yourself plenty of time. I'd also advise going as far east as you can, cheaper and nicer people. If I was to undo one country it would be Italy, not that it was bad, but not as good as rest.

blocparty

well that was the plan after everyone had picked a place they wanted to go. this is the new plan

start in amsterdam then onto
cologne followed by
prague then onto
budapest and onto
zagreb and onto
ljubljana and then to
florence and then home to
cork!

i think this is a more reasonable plan allows us to go with the flow almost and i think everyone would say that the places you dont plan end up being the most fun.

must look into dubrovnik

gilroyb

By the way, the clubs in Budapest are great. There are outdoor, cheap beer. Like being at a music festival, but fairly much the middle of town. Think one of them is called Rio?

ya-what-now?

Does anyone know where ya can get the Thomas Cook train timetable book thing which is the supposed bible for inter-railing???

molloy123

Thinking of going for 3 weeks after my finals. How much money does anyone whos been reckon itll cost roughly? Also, not being smart, stupid or a pig with the next question. But what is it like pulling eastern and central european girls?

Random

Couple of us are going at the end of June for 18 days. So far we're looking at...

€200 - flights there and back
€300 - train ticket
€??? - hostels .. maybe €10-€40 per night ? no clue.
food, beer, etc

e38418

http://www.interrail.net/index2.php?language=en

this site gives ya a good idea of what you're in for. hopefully in june ill be in some god for saken place with just enough money for beer and a smile on my face

ya-what-now?

Well I've booked my flights for the month...flying to Paris then flying back from Rome at the end of june!

Just to let everyone know that I got really cheap flights yesterday on the Paris booking that went up in price today, so if any of ye are planning on booking flights soon, do it! We saved ourself €40!