Inter rail route help

HeadPig

Hi, there's 2 parts of europe I want to see and I'm finding it hard to reconcile them in one trip, especially with an inter rail pass.

I'd like to see Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, as well as Lavia, Lithuania and Estonia. I'd also like to see Kiev and Krakow. Any ideas for a route, ideally within the 21 day pass that allows for 10 travel days? Or should I just cut my losses and choose one or the other? Getting a flight between them will not be cheap, so maybe I should just pick one region and do that more leisurely?

LionelNashe

I can't answer your exact question, but I'd recommend a copy of Europe by Rail . I got one in Easons 12 months ago and found it very helpful. It has about 50 routes in it that you can pick from or combine to get you from A to B, which might help you with some of the route.

I bought the same Interrail pass that you are thinking of (€400 because I'm over 26), but in hindsight it was an unnecessary purchase. I went through Hungary, Serbia, Macedonia, Bulgaria & Romania, and a lot of the time there were no trains, or in the case of Bulgaria they were on strike, so I was using buses anyway. Even if I had been on trains for the whole trip, I think that the train prices in south east Europe are cheap enough that you're much better off buying individual tickets as you go.

Civilian_Target

LionelNashe wrote: »

I can't answer your exact question, but I'd recommend a copy of Europe by Rail . I got one in Easons 12 months ago and found it very helpful. It has about 50 routes in it that you can pick from or combine to get you from A to B, which might help you with some of the route.

I bought the same Interrail pass that you are thinking of (€400 because I'm over 26), but in hindsight it was an unnecessary purchase. I went through Hungary, Serbia, Macedonia, Bulgaria & Romania, and a lot of the time there were no trains, or in the case of Bulgaria they were on strike, so I was using buses anyway. Even if I had been on trains for the whole trip, I think that the train prices in south east Europe are cheap enough that you're much better off buying individual tickets as you go.

agree! for the countries you want, I'd skip on the pass. i did a similar trip years ago, fly into Athens, up to Ljubljana, across the south of Poland into Ukraine, over to Kiev, south to Odessa and then back up to Warsaw... great route but unless you're doing it in spring, I'd start in Warsaw and finish in Athens. it's also a long trip, i took 5 weeks!

BlatentCheek

From my own experiences around ten years ago all travel from Montenegro north to Split in Croatia was by bus with no train alternatives at the time

ballynamona

There is only one train line in Montenegro. It comes from Belgrade, through Podgorica and onto Bar on the coast. There is no train link from Montenegro to Croatia or to BiH.

I agree, skip on the pass. Trains are generally cheap where they exist in those countries, but won't cover all routes. Dubrovnik would be a good flight destination to hit Croatia, BiH and Montenegro. I would say pick one region and do it more leisurely. You could easily spend 2 weeks in the afore mentioned countries and not be bored. Montenegro's interior is supposed to be amazing, most visitors go to the coast.

Rasmus

Transit by train in the Baltics is useless for the average traveller - if you want to have fun though, it is do-able. No need for the pass though as it is affordable and you will invariably by supplementing certain routes with bus legs.
It might be worth your while getting a pass for the Poland - Ukraine region (not sure what the regions are, it's been a while) as their trains are not as cheap as LT, LV and EST.
You could get a local train from Sestokai (south of Vilnius) to Suwalki (Poland) to get on their network. This route is also a popular scenic route akin to the Trans-Sib, albeit much shorter!
It then won't be difficult to get a train or flight from Kiev to Zagreb or even Budapest. If you have a few weeks this trip is very easily done, even all on public transport.