inter railing europe june 2010

byrner51

Hi all me and my friend are inter railing this summer starting in june.booked flights one way into brussels on the 7th of june with aer lingus only cost 50 euro and ordered a 1month global european train pass for 399.

basically im just posting here looking for opinions,advice,suggestions and anything people can throw at me

so the plan is staying in brussels for 2 nights then heading to amsterdan ive booked hostels in advance for them two cities but after that i was going to book as im going along.has anyone any experience with this would i get a hostel booking a day or two before arrival at my next destination?i would like to do it this way as it would give more freedom incase we want to spend an extra day or two in a city but my only worry would be everywhere being booked out.

i have a route roughly planned-brussels,amsterdamn,hamburg,berlin,prague,krakov,bratislava,budapest then depending on how much time we have left on our train passes would like to get into croatia and head back up through slovenia finishing in austria.

time is not an issue really as im qualifying as an electrician the end of april so my employer is letting me go due to the lack of work(im lucky to be finishing my apprenticeship!).so basically ill have no commitments at home and ive saved alot of money for this trip saying that id like to do it as cheap as possible to fund future travel plans.

would love to hear from people with experience of inter railing europe to give me a few tips on what to bring,places to stay/see and how to go about booking hostels(in advance or as your going along).also would love to hear from people that are going inter railing this summer and where they plan on going etc.

Thanks in advance to anyone that takes the time to read this and reply

miss5

Hi, I'm going this year with some friends, I know people who have done it and
absolutely loved it. Do you have a route yet?

http://forum.interrail.net/

http://www.usit.ie/travel/interrail_home.html

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054932419

I found these very helpful.

byrner51

hey thanks for the reply and the links there very helpful thanks a mill!

ye ive a rough route planned flying into belgium then headin through netherlands germany czech republic bratislava hungary crotia and austria but anything can change thats the great thing about the global pass

have you any route planned yourself?

Civilian_Target

No point in using your interrail card in eastern europe, it's cheaper to just buy train tickets as you go. You say you have a lot of time, why not do Belguim, Holland, Germany and maybe France on the card, and then take another few weeks in Eastern europe at the end?

edunne2010

Checkout the following sites!


www.hostelworld.com

www.anoige.ie (if you become a member u can save some money as some IHYF Hostel charge non-member extra per night

www.hihostels.com


www.tripit.com handy to keep all your flight and hostel bookings if booked via Hostelworld etc as an itinerary

Hope this helps!

byrner51

ive been to france before a few times just more intrested in doin as much as eastern europe as i can.i was in austria a few weeks ago and a one way ticket from vienna to innsbruck cost 50 euro its not really that cheap in my experience.

when my pass runs out if im stayin on ill pay for the trains as im going along might just stay in my fav place for a few weeks after ive done all the travel.


thanks very much for the links ed i appreciate it.

just a quick question for yas do ya think im better off booking hostels all in advance or booking them as im going along??

miss5

Hi, I'm hoping too do prague, paris, rome, berlin, switzerland and maybe vienna.

Once you have access to inernet cafe's you would be fine too book but the
best hostels are booked up well in advance.

http://www.hostelworld.com/

I would advise you to sleep on the trains as the journey can be extremely
long from what I have heard.
Your route sounds great.

Valmont

I always preferred hostels.com and I would advise you to not sleep on the trains. I awoke one night to a small fat man rummaging through my friends bag in our supposedly locked compartment and another night we had 3 fully armed Slovakian soldiers banging on our door shouting for us to open up for security checks. Stay in the hostels and you will meet more people and have more fun and most importantly, will have a decent nights sleep!

You should book the hostels 1 or 2 days in advance. I used that rule even at the height of tourist season and never had any problems. If there are some really popular hostels you may want to book even earlier. You should stay in the Wombat hostels whenever you can, they are by far the best places I stayed in. Stay away from hostelling international at all costs; you will be sharing rooms with high school kids and some of these places have curfews. I have stayed in two and they were both terrible. There was no banter at all.

Considering you are going for a fair while, did you consider travelling down to the Balkans at all? Belgrade and Sarajevo are really cool cities with lots to do. I can recommend you some awesome hostels which do very cheap tours around Bosnia (15 euro for the day!) These places are quite off the beaten track too which can be good sometimes if you're sick of bumping into Irish people on every street corner! The best advice I could give you would be to keep your plan loose, you may meet some people and travel with them for a day or decide to stay a week longer in some places etc. Good luck.

empirix

this will not be cheap, that is if you intend partying most nnights, we done it many years ago, was brilliant but expensive - enjoy!!

miss5

Hi, I found these useful it's basically accounts of different peoples experiences.
Might be of use to you.

http://www.solotravel.org/inter-rail-europe-story.htm

http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/transport-international/interrail/249464/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A907463

I asked my friends and they said you would be fine booking hostels a
couple of days in advance, Although if you are certain of routes and dates
it would be one less thing to worry about if you had it sorted.

WanderlustQueen

My friend and I went interrailling for a month 2 years ago, it was the best holiday I've ever had!

We were doing it on the SUPER cheap and still had an absolute blast.
We slept on trains and had no problems apart from the odd mosquito, we got the overnight from Berlin to Krakow and Krakow to Prague. I'd just suggest you sleep with your handbag in your bed with you, its actually really nice to be rocked to sleep! One crap experience was the train from ljubljana to Budapest in August, the train was SO FULL we had to sleep in the aisle in a jampacked smoking carriage, ugh! but the reason for that was the Sziget festival, unless you plan on going to the festival don't go near Hungary around the time its on!

We had a few aggro passport checkers in Croatia and Hungary alright but they just woke us up, stamped the passport and moved on, not much of a fuss really.

As for the hostels, we booked Amsterdam in advance cos they fill up quick. In Berlin, Prague, Krakow, Ljubljana, Split and pretty much anywhere else we stayed, we just asked at the tourist info place at the train station who were able to do all the phoning around for us and get us the best deal. Nowhere was ever fully booked.

In western Europe you have to pay suppliments to get on the train, so they're worth checkin in advance but the further east you go the less of a ****e anyone gave! We randomly jumped on and off trains with no hassle. Except in Zagreb to split, you had to get a special ticket at the trainstation, I think thats cos its a local train.

A hidden gem we discovered was Český Krumlov in the Czech Replublic, its an amazing little town with a castle with bears, amazing food, bats in the bars, even whitewater rafting! (even if the water was far from white, ha)
Its south of Prague on the train, past České Budějovice (the place they make the beer)

My advice to you is to not plan too much, take each day as it comes and decide along the way where you wanna go cos you might meet people you wanna hang out with. But deffo go to southern and eastern europe, they really are amazing!

Eliot Rosewater

As Valmont said, booking accommodation as you go is the way to go. Just be very careful with the booking. A few times I booked wrong dates and it was an absolute pain. Arriving in Paris and trudging around for an hour only to have the receptionist laugh at me for booking a week too early.

I used to like hostelworld.com. Then I went to Berlin and stayed in a kip of a hostel. I wrote a scathing review. Hostelworld.com then edited it down to appear nicer, and I got personalized bollox excuse from the owner. Boo!

The best advice I would give you is to visit Slovenia!! Its so nice there. Ljubljana is great, but the highlight is Lake Bled which is a great place to chill out. I stayed in this unbelievable hostel which had only opened a month or so before we arrived. Such a great experience. The owner was fantastic. I really cant stress Lake Bled and that hostel enough.

I'm jealous of you now. I'd love to be going interrailling again, just don't have the money.

Civilian_Target

Eliot Rosewater wrote: »

I used to like hostelworld.com. Then I went to Berlin and stayed in a kip of a hostel. I wrote a scathing review. Hostelworld.com then edited it down to appear nicer, and I got personalized bollox excuse from the owner. Boo!

Same... (not in Berlin though, in Venice)

byrner51

thanks very much to everyone who has replied the info and suggestions have been very helpful great group of people on here
if i win the lotto ill look after everyone who replied

takamichinoku

empirix wrote: »

this will not be cheap, that is if you intend partying most nnights, we done it many years ago, was brilliant but expensive - enjoy!!

Could it be pulled off for €2000-3000 overall for 4-6 weeks?

byrner51

taka sorry i took so long to wb to your pm just replied there.
it could easily be pulled off on that budget.i think its gonna cost me between 2500-3000 but im sure it could be done cheaper
inter rail pass is 399
flight to brussels 60
rough price of hostel per night is 20
then if you eat out everyday that will cost more but most hostels provide cooking facilities etc.

rebel105

Went interrailing for 8 or 9 days a year ago, we just did Budapest, Prague and Krakow. In Budapest, we asked at the Tourist Office at the train station there and they said we should look at renting an apartment rather than a hostel (Loads of hungarians rent out bits off their own apartments to make extra cash)...so we said we'd check it out anyway. Turned out to be this totally random apartment, painted random colours, had all these random knick-knacks everywhere, but it was really big (there was an orange painted grand piano in the room and still room for a couch and two beds!) and had 4 double beds which accomodated the 8 of us. It also had a bathroom and a small kitchenette and best of all was on the main street in Budapest, Vaci Utca. The randomness of it was nearly one of the high points of our trip and it was way more central than the hostel some people we met were staying at. So I would say dont always book in advance cos things like that make your trip so much more fun! We got the night train from Berlin to Budapest and had no problems with it. We stayed at the PlusPrague hostel, which was a little out from town but really clean and there was a bar and restaurant that had great deals. With your trains make sure you dont have any changes late at night or dont arrive into any of the train stations late if you can, some of them are well dodgy! Also while your up, in Brussels, Amsterdam etc Luxembourg would be cool for a half a day to a day stop, its small but kinda cool!

Have fun!

byrner51

thanks for the info rebel appreciate it.thats really kool that yas got the apartment in budapest never even thought of things like that.you say make sure theres no changes on the trains at nigt do you mean switching trains for the journey?ive heard of trains that split apart an go seperate destinations pretty scarey ha.i was thinkin once your on a train say from amsterdam to berlin thats where your goin.anymore info on the trains?
i have the global pass for 1 month got it for 399 still havent recieved it in the post yet.
also where do i get timetables for the european trains
thanks again

rebel105

I think we possibly used Raileurope.co.uk but to be honest I cant remember...sorry! On our way to Krakow (during the day) a train separated, but as fair as I can remember the conductor or whoever had us well warned.

Re train stations late at night....when we were going from Budapest to Prague we had a choice between something like a 5/6 hour train (arriving at 2.30am or so) and a 10 hour train (where we would've had to pay extra if we wanted a bed, and it wouldnt have been that comfortable), so we decided that we'd get the shorter one, book a hostel in Prague and get a decent enough nights sleep when we got there. Mistake! Arrived into the train station in Prague close on 3am, it was quite busy, there was a sandwich counter/shop thingy open and all but incredibly dodgy ....as in we asked them at the shop where to get a taxi from, and they escorted us to the place! in retrospect, it was really stupid and asking for trouble (homeless people, junkies, you name it!)

Also be very wary of taxis in prague. ALWAYS get one from the official queue (try and agree a price at the start)...it may cost more but people dont give out about them for nothing, they are really dodgy.

g5fd6ow0hseima

byrner51 wrote: »

taka sorry i took so long to wb to your pm just replied there.
it could easily be pulled off on that budget.i think its gonna cost me between 2500-3000 but im sure it could be done cheaper
inter rail pass is 399
flight to brussels 60
rough price of hostel per night is 20
then if you eat out everyday that will cost more but most hostels provide cooking facilities etc.

I was thinking something like this for a 22 day ticket

ticket (22 day pass) - 309
flight into Charleroi - 40
hostels 22 x 20 - 440
daily allowance 20e - 400
_____
1189

plus 50e per week for piss up / reservations etc... extra 150

so thats still under 1500 for 22 days. Am I in dreamland? Id be going on my own and probably could count on my hand the number of drinks id have.

byrner51

leif i dont think your in dreamland at all
i think you could certainly pull it off on that budget some hostels are actually even cheaper than 20 a night depending on the size of the dorm your in.from what ive seein on hostelworld.com if your willing to sleep in a room with more people its cheaper.
as for drinkin if your not gonna be out getting plasteredevery night then you will be fine.20 a day budget seems reasonable enough

nmull

Some great help in this post!... Me and four friends are heading the 28th of June, keeping a blog let me know what you think here, love some feedback,

interrailing10.blogspot.com

Our route is Krakow-Prague-Berlin-Hamburg-Amsterdam-Paris-Biarritz-Barcelona

byrner51

kool ill keep an eye on that :-)
im headin off the 7th of june ill also keep yas updated

g5fd6ow0hseima

im headin off on my own on the 9th June for 22 days, the route is:

Brussels - Amsterdam - Munich - Vienna - Budapest - Bratislava - Prague - Berlin - Copenhagen

byrner51

Yamileth Odd Handshake wrote: »

im headin off on my own on the 9th June for 22 days, the route is:

Brussels - Amsterdam - Munich - Vienna - Budapest - Bratislava - Prague - Berlin - Copenhagen

your route is very similiar to ours
we will be two days ahead of you though leavin on the 7th
7-9 brussels
9-11 amsterdam
11-13 berlin
then after that we are heading to prague,krakow,budapest,bratislava,zagreb and split

might bump into you in one of the cities :-D

byrner51

does any1 know the link to the official site for european train timetables??
thank you

munchkin_utd

your best bet is the german rail website www.bahn.de which has all intercity trains on the continent in its dynamic timetable system.

its nearly the handiest over paper timetables as sometimes its hard to make out what trains are relevant on a paper timetable with all the various exceptions and whatnot in the notes. On the electronic timetable you slap in your route and date and it tells you the possible connections.


BTW: bratislava is nothing to write home about and i'd reconsider that leg if i were you. Theres more to see in Carlow than it. Vienna is 60km down the road and much much more to see and do there. Proper city with palaces and nightlife. And has direct train connections to Zagreb. And direct to Budapest.

g5fd6ow0hseima

munchkin_utd wrote: »

BTW: bratislava is nothing to write home about and i'd reconsider that leg if i were you. Theres more to see in Carlow than it. Vienna is 60km down the road and much much more to see and do there. Proper city with palaces and nightlife. And has direct train connections to Zagreb. And direct to Budapest.

I might do just that.

fakearms123

I was interrailing two years ago with a friend for a month using the interrail ticket, we budgeted €2000 for the trip, this trip could be done with less money if your smart about things. Our route was Berlin(flight)-Prague-Budapest-Zagreb-Split-Dubrovnik-Bari(ferry)-Florence-Munich-Amsterdam-Leuven(festival)-Brussels(flight). We spent so much time in Croatia because it was the most beautiful place, I intend on going back to Dubrovnik especially for a week or two soon.
You are better off booking accommodation on the way, drop into any internet cafe on your way for an hour at max and book your hostels through www.hostelworld.com, this is the only website i used and its the best. You can get hostels for cheaper than €20 per night, trust me!
In terms of finding out about train timetables, the website we used throughout our trip was http://www.oebb.at/en/.

Some advice:
This never happened to us but we were told to be aware of unmarked taxis

Reasons why you shouldnt book all your hostels beforehand is because you may find yourself changing it as you go along

Don't be afraid to take boats/ferries to places, we took a ferry from dubrovnik to bari and sat on top on the ferry with a few beers and sunbathed the whole journey, was the most peaceful moment of the trip

Those train tickets are you life for that month so protect them, we were sitting in a beer garden full of thousands of germans in munich watching the euro 2008 final and used my train ticket as a beer coaster, my friend was smart enough to take it off me at that stage

Take advice from fellow travellers on the way, we were told about lake bled too late in our trip, just one of the regrets

oh and have fun!

Subber08

Where can you get train ticket prices?? I want to see is interrail pass worth it

Zonda999

Subber08 wrote: »

Where can you get train ticket prices?? I want to see is interrail pass worth it

Going interrailing this summer and trust me thats easily said than done, i've found for some easter european routes, gettin some pricing info is near impossible, just doing it at the moment actually and can't seem to get a standard price on a train from budapest to zagreb, for example. Your best bet is to type the route into google and see what comes up. What area of europe are you looking to head toward? I've done a good bit of searching and i might have some prices..

Subber08

Kind of taking it as it comes but possibly something like

Berlin - Prague - Vienna - Zagreb - Split - Dubrovnik - Budapest - Krakow