Inter Railing

sound_wave

Hey all, Myself and a few buddies are thinking of going inter railing this summer for a month or so, anybody done this? How did ye get on and how much in total did it cost? Anyone else with any info post too!

Thanks

acid

Check out whether its cheaper to fly or not, with the number of budget airlines around it may well be. I was thinking about interrailing a few years ago, but just got flights instead - worked out around the same price but avoided long boring train journeys.
There are few things worse than a 10 hour train trip.

Also I'm nearly sure that seat reservations, sleeping cars and other supplements are not included in the interrail ticket.

Whereabouts are you thinking of travelling to?

sound_wave

interesting idea about the flying, ill check it out. We were thinking eastern europe, chez, croatia, poland etc...

acid

Not so many budget flights available in Eastern Europe, but train travel there is very cheap - eg in Hungary the maximum train fare (over 500km) is about 12 euros.

Imposter

Originally posted by acid
Not so many budget flights available in Eastern Europe, but train travel there is very cheap - eg in Hungary the maximum train fare (over 500km) is about 12 euros.

But on the other hand in Croatia there is very little in the way of trains and I don't think buses are covered in the interrail pass.

rs

Did a similar trip last september

Flew into prague with aer lingus.

Then went to Berlin, Krakow, Budapest, Zagreb, Zurich, Vienna, and back to Prague again.

You can do eastern europe pretty cheaply. Food is cheap enough. Get a good "Europe" guide book. Also, buy the rail timetable book from Usit. It's hard to read, but it's great for plannin the journey. Just get one copy between you. it's about 20 euro.

Some things we learned.

1. Carry as little cash as possible, just some euros in case of an emergancy. Put money on your credit card and take it out as you go from place to place. Credit card exchange rates are better, and it's safer not to carry cash.

2. Get overnight sleeper trains whenever possible (you have to book them) You'll want the cougettes as they are the cheaper ones, there are 4-6 beds per compartment. You have to pay an extra 15 euro or so in eastern europe, but it saves one night's accomodation, and a wasted day sitting on a train. People do get robbed on overnight trains, so be careful. Most sleeper compartments have their own conductor, so they are slightly safer and the doors usually lock. If the doors don't lock tape them closed with duct tape. This works really well. Gaurd your passport and your cash more than anything else. We put them in our pillow cases and slept on them.

3. If you have the money, stay in private rooms instead of hostels. They cost about 20-30 euro per person in berlin, krakow, budapest. They are much more comfortable and less noisy if you can budget the extra few quid. You can usually book them once you arrive at a city at the local tourist office. A decent guide book will tell you where.
I can send you a list of all the places we stayed if you want.

4. Only buy the zones you need on the pass but be careful, if you travel through a country that is not covered by your pass, they will charge you for it, and get very upset about it We did not realize that our passes did not cover slovenia (which we passed through on the way to zurich), and they freaked out and threatened to chuck us of the train. Luckily we had our emergancy euros.

It's a fantastic trip if you are fairly careful, but a disaster if you get mugged or robbed.

Also, I think the pass covers busses in croatia, but the transport services are pretty bad and we got stuck in a horrible place called reijka. Make sure you plan well and leave early in Croatia, in case you miss a connection or something goes wrong.

You can survive pretty well for about 40 - 50 euro a day in most of eastern europe. 60 - 80 should have you staying somewhere decent each night and eating reasonably well.

ToxicPaddy

Originally posted by rs
....Put money on your credit card and take it out as you go from place to place. Credit card exchange rates are better, and it's safer not to carry cash.

One thing you have to worry about here is that any money you have added to your
credit card is not insured.. so if your card is stolen and used, the credit card company
will only cover whats been spent on the card if it goes into debit..

Now this is what I was told for my Visa card by the bank, it may be different with
Amex and Mastercard.. but its definitely worth checking out..

Tox

rs

Originally posted by ToxicPaddy
One thing you have to worry about here is that any money you have added to your
credit card is not insured.. so if your card is stolen and used, the credit card company
will only cover whats been spent on the card if it goes into debit..

Now this is what I was told for my Visa card by the bank, it may be different with
Amex and Mastercard.. but its definitely worth checking out..

Tox

I Was not aware of this, but it's certainly worth checking. You don't have to preload your credit card with cash, but most credit card companies will charge you interest on the money you withdraw from the day you withdraw it.

ToxicPaddy

To be honest, I knew nothing about it either and as far as I know its not something
that the credit card companies like to advertise either..

The only way I found out was that I mentioned it in passing when I was getting my
credit card and the guy in the bank picked up and it and said it to me... otherwise
I wouldnt have been any the wiser..

Tox