Interrail Ticket- worth the money?

kelloggs · 26-05-2006 07:23PM #1

hi,

goin interrailing for july. starting in warsaw, ending in istanbul. most probably would get the 22 day ticket. but i've heard from a few people that if your gonna spend most your time in countries like romania,bulgaria,serbia, bosnia etc then you don't really get much value from the ticket.

anybody got any insights on this? i did see catherine thomas on the tv a while back travelling first class in romania for €6! how'd she swing that!!

WellyJ · 26-05-2006 07:30PM

kelloggs wrote:

hi,

goin interrailing for july. starting in warsaw, ending in istanbul. most probably would get the 22 day ticket. but i've heard from a few people that if your gonna spend most your time in countries like romania,bulgaria,serbia, bosnia etc then you don't really get much value from the ticket.

anybody got any insights on this? i did see catherine thomas on the tv a while back travelling first class in romania for €6! how'd she swing that!!

We flew to Brussels,

Then from there moved to Lille, Paris, Strasbourg, Nuremberg, Prague, Bratislava.

Then back through Germany and flew home from Amsterdam,

TBH with you,

I think it probably cost more for the ticket than the individual train journeys would have cost,

So in my experience i dont think its worth it to be honest mate,

Good luck whichever way you do it, it really is a great experience

WellyJ

breadmonkey · 27-05-2006 09:46PM

I probably only just got the value out of my ticket and did a LOT of travelling. Having said that, it's so handy having the ticket so you can hop on trains at will. It would be a pain in the ass trying to figure out where to buy tickets, how much they cost etc. especially in countries where people don't have much English.

WellyJ · 28-05-2006 12:36AM

breadmonkey wrote:

I probably only just got the value out of my ticket and did a LOT of travelling. Having said that, it's so handy having the ticket so you can hop on trains at will. It would be a pain in the ass trying to figure out where to buy tickets, how much they cost etc. especially in countries where people don't have much English.

Well to be honest even with the ticket you still have to go to the ticket offices to let them give you a seperate ticket for each train journey,

Also you have to pay for this too, it guarantees you a seat on the train, without it you end up standing (happened to us from Paris to Strasbourg, not an enjoyable experience).

I would say skip the ticket and buy them as you go,

But thats just from my experience last summer

kelloggs · 28-05-2006 06:26PM

interesting insights lads much thanks. does appear you need to be doing a serious amount of travelling to get your money back. might just give it a miss so and pay as i go. also leaves open the option of getting bus journey's as well, which judging from the amount of times i've heard stories about slow trains probably is quite a bonus.

paulocon · 28-05-2006 10:44PM

Well Kellogs,

Like others said, depends on the amount of travelling you intend to do.

We got the boat over to Le Harve, then down through Paris onto Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Venice, Rome, Nice, Monaco, Barcelona and back to Paris (I think that was the lot).

Ticket was great cause it meant you could hop on and off trains - chanced our arms on trams and all with it (cue blank expression when caught in the wrong!)..

Best spent money ever. Great experience and would love to do it again (kids would dictate not!). Wish I'd gone off the beaten track somewhat - sounds like that's what you plan to do.

Enjoy!!

breadmonkey · 29-05-2006 10:03AM

Well to be honest even with the ticket you still have to go to the ticket offices to let them give you a seperate ticket for each train journey,

No you don't! Only if it's a train you have to pay a subsidy on.

breadmonkey · 29-05-2006 10:04AM

Also, some train journeys can be grueling. The only way to make sure you sleep is to either get some sleeping pills or get LOCKED. Seriously.

accensi0n · 29-05-2006 10:49AM

The ticket isn't worth it in my experience.

kelloggs · 29-05-2006 04:07PM

so many conflicting opinions! well theres gonna be two of us, maybe one should buy and the other not, we'll do exactly same trip and come up with some empirical findings on the value of interrail tickets!

off beaten track does sound good. i've been told transylvannia is deadly to visit so hoping to spend some time there, imagine its not great for trains though, i'm probably wrong though.

Interrail Ticket- worth the money?

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