Interrailing after Leaving Cert?

earwax_man

Hey guys,
A group of 4 friends including me are thinking of going interrailing after the leaving cert in July. I know that tickets can be expensive; but if we were to go for 3 weeks, what would you recommend to go, see and do?

We'll use Ryanair from Dublin for cheap flights; but what route would we take?

This was my route so far for 3 weeks (please correct for your opinions!)
Dublin > Stockholm > Copenhagen > Amsterdam > Berlin > Warsaw > Prague > Budapest > Ljubljana > Zagreb > Belgrade > Sofia > Home.

Or something much more simpler in something of this order.

How much money would I need to have to do this for 21 days? Obviously doing stuff on the cheap is necessary; but when 4 are doing it, costs would be lower than just one person.

Carl Sagan

http://www.interrail.net/english/overall_costs.php I don't know how accurate that is though. I'm starting to look into it myself.

bren2001

earwax_man wrote: »

Hey guys,
A group of 4 friends including me are thinking of going interrailing after the leaving cert in July. I know that tickets can be expensive; but if we were to go for 3 weeks, what would you recommend to go, see and do?

We'll use Ryanair from Dublin for cheap flights; but what route would we take?

This was my route so far for 3 weeks (please correct for your opinions!)
Dublin > Stockholm > Copenhagen > Amsterdam > Berlin > Warsaw > Prague > Budapest > Ljubljana > Zagreb > Belgrade > Sofia > Home.

Or something much more simpler in something of this order.

How much money would I need to have to do this for 21 days? Obviously doing stuff on the cheap is necessary; but when 4 are doing it, costs would be lower than just one person.

I went interrailing after my Leaving Certificate two years ago and I would completely recommend it.

Firstly you want a travel 10 in 22 days ticket. If you are travelling by day then this is fine but if you are travelling by night make sure the train departs after 7 as if it departs before this time it will count as 2 days travel. Don't buy your ticket from USIT as they will charge you an insurance on your ticket of approximately an extra 100e. Buy it from the link in the post above.

Your route is far too long for 3 weeks. It means you are travelling every 2nd day or by night (and you dont really sleep on those trains). You will be far too tired. Reduce your route to about 6 places. I'd advise to cut out places like Ljubljana as they are madly expensive.

As far as money is concerned I did it on 50e a day, this included my hostel. I found that to be a bit too tight as in the expensive cities we could only afford to eat at night i.e. when we were drinking. 75e is what I'd recommend.

Book your hostels before you go to each city. I would book them about a month before you leave as you are left with the expensive hostels if you leave it much closer. This gives you time to finalize your route. Don't go to a city without a hostel being booked as you won't know where the centre is and all that.

The one thing I regret about interrrailing was not planning what to do in each city. We spent too much time planning our route and when we got there didn't really know what to do. If you can't find stuff to do there on the internet you probrably won't enjoy the city itself.

The best thing we did was go to a concert Vienna. We got there the morning of the concert to get tickets and were told to come back later. Subsequently we found the tour bus and meet the Arctic Monkeys. Eastern European crowds are brilliant.

dory

You're starting with some very expensive cities there! Also, I'm not sure about costs being lower with a group. I've always found the opposite. That while you're trying to save money someone decides they would like a nice meal out and you all end up eating more. You'd want to really make sure you're all on the same page with regards budget.

For 21 days I would say about €1500? You'll need about €20 a night for some countries, then food and drink. And the price of the flights and train.

emememem

defo agree with the concert idea, if you could even finish up with szgiet in budapest, its so worth it. best craic ever.

only thing i'd say is your plan seems a little hectic, you need to take into account hangover days and the days you spend trying to find places. dont try and cram too much in you'll enjoy it a lot more. some days you wont have the energy to do the whole tourist thing.

earwax_man

Heh; I never have drunk alcohol and never will

Which cities would you go for so? I only wrote down a few in a basic order. Maybe cut out nordic countries; and concentrate on northern europe and eastern ^^

Carl Sagan

earwax_man wrote: »

Heh; I never have drunk alcohol and never will

Which cities would you go for so? I only wrote down a few in a basic order. Maybe cut out nordic countries; and concentrate on northern europe and eastern ^^

Have a look. on www.wikitravel.org and other sites at some cities around Europe and pick a few that you and your friends like the look of.

bren2001

earwax_man wrote: »

Heh; I never have drunk alcohol and never will

Which cities would you go for so? I only wrote down a few in a basic order. Maybe cut out nordic countries; and concentrate on northern europe and eastern ^^

I went Paris - Amsterdam - Berlin - Prague - Munich - Vienna - Rome - home

Paris was terrible.

Amsterdam was brilliant. We met up with a few friends and it was crazy.

Berlin is excellent. Although we only stayed one night and ended up in a gay bar. Took us a while to figure it out.

Prague was truely terrible. We stayed just outside the old square and we were constantly being followed and being urged to go in lap dancing clubs and what not. Funny at first, annoying after a day.

Munich was terrible. There is nothing to do. We got so bored we went to see Ice Age 3.

Vienna was just for the arctic monkeys, didnt see the city.

Rome is expensive but excellent. We didn't really go out during the night as a friend sprained his ankle.


Another note while you calculating your expenses, the interrailing ticket only covers the cost of the train, you still have to pay to reserve you seat. Usually about 6e but for night trains try and book in advance i.e. when you get to the first train station book ahead for all your night trains. They dont have many seats and the beds are about 75e to reserve.

earwax_man

Right. So how about this?

Dublin > Amsterdam > Berlin > Warsaw > Kraków > Budapest > Belgrade > Home

Those places are varied enough for 21 days; and it gives enough time in each place

It would be nice to go to a good concert during our trip. So I'll have to check out what would be on during the summer

I'll do more research on pricings over the next while to get a better understanding of what is pretty much involved in planning this. Thanks for the link to the travel wiki! ^^

bren2001

earwax_man wrote: »

Right. So how about this?

Dublin > Amsterdam > Berlin > Warsaw > Kraków > Budapest > Belgrade > Home

Those places are varied enough for 21 days; and it gives enough time in each place

It would be nice to go to a good concert during our trip. So I'll have to check out what would be on during the summer

I'll do more research on pricings over the next while to get a better understanding of what is pretty much involved in planning this. Thanks for the link to the travel wiki! ^^

Right amount of cities but you'd wanna check train time. A lot of them look like 12 and 13 hour trains. If you are comfy to sleep on a chair on a train its alright. I personally hated the night train. Found it very dodgy. You can use www.bahn.de to check.

Pigwidgeon

If you left it until August, you could try go to a festival while you're there. European festivals are much better and much cheaper than oxegen/electric picnic. For example, Pukkelpop in Belgium last year was €145 which included camping, same length as oxegen, it was unbelievable.

That's my plan anyway, go inter railing for a few weeks and finish up with Pukkelpop. It's just an idea for you anyway.

emememem

defo try get krakow in, its an amazing place and considering its not a huge place there's a lot of stuff to do. orange hostel was brilliant there.
its like the galway of poland.

we went budapest, krakow, prague, munich, brussels (for a festival) did it in 2 weeks. was tiring enough.

i'd agree with prague, totally over rated, people are rude, its expensive and we got bed bugs.

i've heard great reports about slovenia so try there.

you could go the opposite direction and finish up in brussels for pukkelpop which is what we did, it was amazing. highlight of the trip

eurokev

I did it a few years ago. group of 4 of us. We had the same extravegent plans as you but it just didnt work out at all, and we just planned as we went, booking hostels from one city to another before we got there without any problem whatsoever.

You are looking to do way to much in the first place, try and spend as little time on the train as possible with 2 max long journeys the rest about 3hrs max.

Heres what we did

Amsterdam- I personally didnt like it but i can see why ppl would. I felt like a small fish in a big pond, never really felt safe. TO DO- sex shows, heineken experience, coffee shops, anne frank van gogh etc

Prague- ****e, went there for the ireland match. Ripped off by a taxi driver as we were not sure of the conversion rate.

Krakow- great city, dirt cheap. lots to do. Visit auswitz, really sad but so memerable

Interlaken- Best place Iv ever been. Its like an extreme sports village. Just look it up. so so brilliant and beautiful.

Munich- Crap. just a big industrialised concrete metropolis

Berlin- Brilliant and beautiful. some great tours on offer

Nice. Good but expensive. Beach right on the edge of town. You can get a short train to st tropez for the day and hang on the beach with all the millionaires

Barcelona- didnt like it. was there during the festival. Theft is rife and again i never felt safe at all

These are not in the right order I think but we went around in a circle

I went for just over 3 weeks.spent about 1800 altogether. so so happy i did it. great expeience

Advice : keep the journeys short. When you get to one city try and find out immediatley about the trains you want to take to go to the next city to avoid panic. some have to be booked in advance. I would avoid night trains personally. you need proper sleep to make the most of the holiday. Have a credit card so you can book hostels from place to place. Your plans will change I can garauntee it. I would personally stay away from the big big tourist cities rome paris etc... very expensive and not great tbh.

Really hope you decide to go ahead with this, its the trip of a lifetime, so much better then the leaving cert holiday to ibiza or somewhere crap like that