Inter-Railing

peustace

Well lads,
Myself and a few mates were thinking of going interrailing during the summer. I was looking at one or two websites about it and was interested in zones D and G (Poland and Italy mainly) for travel. The 2 zone pass is currently at €385. I dont think there's any reduction for being a student but am open to correction!

I was wondering if any of ye have gone on the interrailing holiday.... what did ye make of it? Any tips, ideas for travelling? How much roughly would you be expecting to spend (will be going for 3-4 weeks)?

Cheers
Pa

jackbhoy

Alright Pa,

its definitely much cheaper to buy IR pass if you are under-26, cant remember prices now but was about 30/40% less.

I did it a few years ago for 5 weeks and had great time. You can get by on very little if stay in hostels and see the free stuff in cities (which is usually the most interesting anyway!). You can also take overnight trains to save on accom. costs.

I think the IR pass is amazing value for money and a great experience and hope to do it again myself in the not too distant future.

Some tips from my experience;
- bring good book/music for long hours spent on trains,
- bring eyemask/earplugs for overnight trips/hostels,
- bring a bike lock to lock your pack/case to rails on trains/in stations,
- when going out eating/drinking go to bars/restaurants where you see a lot of the locals, avoid overpriced crappy tourist places.

BTW, if you are passing through Berlin on your trip you should stay at the Circus hostel, its in a great location (2 mins walk from U-Bahn station) and is the cleanest/friendliest and the best hostel I've ever stayed in.

smuid

I did the interrailing thing meself a few years ago and it was amazing. We got the global pass I think, but we did italy pretty extensively and got to poland as well.

Elba in italy is paradise but expensive and rammed, cinque terra further up the coast is worth googling. San Fruttoso (sp?) also. venice I think is worth the hype, we arrived in on a 4am train, only ones on the first water bus of the morning, you really should try and do the same. Pisa's grand, Florence is rammed generally. Did Rome train station for an hour. Poland we were in Krakow, great place. go to Auschwitz I reckon, we chose some saltmines, pretty underwhelming.

Depending on how high maintenance you and your mates are you can save a lot of money. I'd recommend bringin a cheap tent which you can attach to the outside of one of your bags easily enough. It really opens up your options in terms of where you stay. Hostels are increasingly luxurious and expensive and more and more of them don't have cooking facilities but operate their own restaurants which again adds to the cost. also if you get away from built up areas (which we found frustratingly hard to do on an interrail ticket) a quiet beach or whatever is a great place to stay for a coupla days.

Generally speaking people are more receptive to irish people than they are to most foreigners, this can be pretty useful.

solice

Went last year, Zone D, had a great time. If you are going to do two zones make sure you have enough time to see all you want in the two zones. It could work out cheaper to buy a one zone ticket and then pay for the train journeys individually in the other zone.

For example, Cork to Dublin takes the best part of three hours, costs €61 return. Bratislava to Budapest, takes the best part of three hours, cost €15 return, train journeys are quiet cheap!

Unless you actually spend a lot of your time in a train travelling all over, the inter-rail ticket can work out to be more expensive than buying individual tickets.

If you are in Krakow in Poland, I recommend Flamingos Hostel. Good craic, good breakfasts and the staff are brilliant. Its 20 feet from the main square.