Interrailing

tech

has anyone been lately? thinking of heading off 4 2 -3 week in Aug!

monument

tech wrote: »

has anyone been lately? thinking of heading off 4 2 -3 week in Aug!

Just after doing three weeks... have any questions?

tech

loads! ::)

how did you get on ? did you or just travel much, how many zones? did you travel alone?

Where did u stay ? if you dont mind me asking did you spend much

Meet many people?

See many nice sites, did you stay in cities for long or just pass through ?

monument

tech wrote: »

how did you get on ?

It was brilliant. I've went from having not seeing much of Europe to visiting countries in the west, central, and east of Europe, as well as one Nordic state.

did you or just travel much, how many zones?

I don't think zones are still in use... had 22 day global pass which I could use on any day within that. I went the full green hog and left the hassle of flying to others, and kept to cities. My trip went as so:

- Copenhagen (4 nights)
- Vienna (one night)
- Prague (4 nights, stayed an extra night)
- Berlin (3 nights, including 1 in the train station for an early train)
- Warsaw (2 nights)
- Bratislava (12 hours)
- Budapest (2 nights, was only staying one, but realised after falling behind my lose plan I was trying to rush another city in before Paris)
- Paris (3 nights)

My planning was relatively loose. Before leaving I planned only Copenhagen and Paris (as well as the Eurostar - which isn't included, although there is a discount - back to the UK to get SailRail home). My Interrail ticket was only up to Paris. I think I then planned up to Berlin when in Copenhagen. Then planned from most of the rest in Berlin.

I ended up doing something around the idea of what I had in my mind when leaving, but the freedom was good. You can plan as much or as little as you want, whenever you want.

As I've said else where: I won't include other cities in the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, and France that I mealy switched trains in and might have popped my head outside the train station for less then an hour.

did you travel alone?

Yes, I did. Staying in hostels - unless you've got social problems - you should be able to make friends easy enough. But the hostel can something help or hinder in this. I ended up meeting a mixture of other people on their own and people in groups.

Where did u stay ?

Hostels booked on, or something just found on, http://www.hostelworld.com/

if you dont mind me asking did you spend much

A bit more than I meant. Around €2,000. When I had planned somewhere closer to €1,500. But it's still not bad for three weeks.

Meet many people?

Loads, from Australians to New Zealanders, from Americans to Canadians (probably more of the latter), two Swedes, some Irish, a few other, and even a few people from the countries I visited.

See many nice sites, did you stay in cities for long or just pass through ?

Seen loads of sights - some of the offbeat thing were the best things tho... from playing a drinking game with two Danes in a bar in Copenhagen, to caving -- the crawling and climbing type, rather than the walking type -- in Budapest.

As for staying in cities for long - see above. I think I got a good mix. But I would add planning too much in advance will lock you down a lot. But be warned there are cities like Paris where hostels need to be booked in advance as they are so busy. But as it is apparently the most visited city, it would be an extrema example.

One last thing three sites to keep in mind are...

As mentioned...
http://www.hostelworld.com/

Invaluable advice on using trains in Europe, read it!...
http://www.seat61.com/

Searchable European timetables in the one place (but the very odd time it can be wrong)...
http://www.bahn.co.uk/

BuffyBot

tech - no need to reanimate the dead threads from 2006

Splitting this off into the Independent & Youth & Student Travel forum where there is a ton of threads on this topic

nick23

monument wrote: »

- Vienna (one night)

http://www.bahn.co.uk/

Was Vienna expansive at all (drink and food wise)? Im heading off in 2 weeks with 12 guys. One of them wants 2 visit Vienna but we want to stay away from it if its going to be expensive!

chele

ul have plenty of money, as long as ur not wasting money on dining out all the time and buying knick knacks for ppl back home

chele

Vienna is pretty and steeped in culture so its worth going to