Interrailing Summer 2015

Junokevv

So basically, myself and 4 other friends are planning to go interrailing this summer and there's now talk of a few others wanting to join in ( :mad: ), so I'm just looking for a bit of advice from people who have gone before. :pac:

Firstly, is 9/10 people too big of a group for things to run smoothly?

Secondly, some of my mates want to check out Norway/Sweden. Just wondering if people think that they are worth the extra trek and cost involved?

And lastly, how much spending money would you need to cover yourself with regards to accommodation, food, nights out, activities etc for 3 weeks?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated :pac:

Geuze

Norway = extremely pricey.

Sweden = pricey, not too bad - like Dublin prices.

D_s

I went interrailing with a group of 9 summer 2013.

It's totally feasable, just stay organised and plan in advance. Your main obstacle with 9 people will be finding hostels, so book them well in advance. We left the 2nd of July I think, and we had all of our hostels along our route booked by about February. A big group can be good fun, one thing I liked was that wherever we went, we had a party. As in, with 9 people, you can walk into an empty club on a weekday night and you've enough people that you can get some sort of an atmosphere going, maybe even attract more people into the club. Of course apart from the sleeping and trains, you can split up into smaller groups to explore, so you're not constantly lugging a small tour group around with you.
Also, with a large group there's always someone new to talk to so it doesn't get claustrophobic.

I can't answer your Norway/Sweden question. We went Krakow - Prague - Munich - Frankfurt - Amsterdam - Paris - Barcelona - Madrid - Lisbon - Albufeira.

Money-wise, East is Cheap, the further west you go thee higher the prices are (Possibly excluding nordic countries in that statement). In Prague you can live on well less than a tenner a day if you're not drinking/clubbing at night. Honestly if you use the hostel kitchens and make your own food, you can live pretty cheaply anywhere. Another advantage of a decent size group is economies of scale when food shopping. You can make a very nice, large meal with ingredients that cost like €30, but split 7, 8 or 9 ways that comes out pretty cheap for a fantastic dinner. A few of us split into what we called "Food Groups" or 4 or 5 based on our food preferences who would pool our money for cheap group meals and rotate who cooks/cleans.

In short, wherever you go, you can live on €10 a day for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks if you're frugal. We had one guy who's budget allowed for about €15/€17 a day including drinking/clubbing. He managed it, partly because what he went over budget in Barcelona and Paris on, he saved in Krakow and Prague. Much fewer places have entry fees on the continent, and regardless nearly everywhere's cheaper than Dublin!

Hostel prices for us ranged from €10/night in Krakow/Prague to I think €33 a night in Amsterdam, and probably averaged about €20 a night. Shop around and book early for good deals.

Hope that helps!

Eroticplants

Howdy, sorry to hijack the thread but does anyone have any experience of Copenhagen? I'm thinking of going over on Thursday for 3 nights and then heading off where ever the wind blows but I've read it's quite expensive for food, drink. I'm going over mainly to buy clothes and stuff so if you've any first hand experience lay it on me.

Junokevv

Thanks a lot, really helpful.

Our root is looking fairly similar to your's, any recommendations/things to do in Krakow, bar Auschwitz? Not sure what to expect.

Quarks

Did any problems arise with language barriers?