Inter-railing route ideas

ermo1990

Hi Everyone

I'm going to be inter-railing alone starting from the 9th of July where i'll be flying to Paris to begin, and I was just wondering if anyone here has any advice or experience in inter-railing especially when it comes to figuring out a route.

So far i'm planning to go from Paris to maybe Brussels, then to Amsterdam but i'm not sure if thats the best way to go, or if i should reconsider the route entirely. I've gotten a 22 day continuous pass so im hoping to get as much travelling in as possible. Any suggestions on a full route from start to end or any sort of advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks guys

P_1

Watch out for the SNCF (French railway). They insist that you book a seat even if you have an interrail pass (and this can be quite pricey).

Trains from Belgium going onto Amsterdam are a bit tricky too as some of them have crazy booking fees. Best tip is to head east from Paris and if you're going ito Amsterdam to go from Germany

imfml

I inter-railed for 3 weeks about 6 years ago, and was alone for 1 of the weeks. From Amsterdam we went through the night to Munich, which was definitely worth the visit, although looking back I would have liked to stop in 1 or 2 other German cities.

The 3 best tips I have:

If you choose to go to Vienna, check the public holidays in August first. We spent a weekend there when everything was closed. Good fun at the hostel, but didn't get to experience the city properly.

Visit Ljubljana and a day trip from there to Lake Bled is nice, Venice is a good stop to do after that. South of Venice it is just too hot in July/August in my opinion.

For my week alone I fancied something different after 2 weeks of late nights. I went on a less traveled route into Switzerland to Bern. It's a beautiful city with plenty to do and an amazing river to swim in from the citys main park. Jumping off a bridge into a crystal clear river in a capital city doesn't seem right, but was a highlight for me. QUiet at night but I found a nice place to meet people without ending up doing shots!

ermo1990

Thanks for the replies guys, some great tips so far but there's another thing thats really confusing the hell out of me. im using this route planner site to work out what trains need reservations or whatever and i came across this little detail when change overs for trains were involved "TGV ordinary tariff for travelers"?? TGV being the rail company.

for example im going from Paris to Brussels with the inclusion of 3 change overs. the first train departing from Paris requires no reservation, but the following change overs state the message above. does this mean i need to book and reserve a ticket or seat for each TGV train that is apart of the change over to Brussels??

sorry if it sounds confusing but i cant make any sense of it :S