To Inter-rail or Not to Inter-rail?

aishacassiewilliam
Apr 5, 2023
9 min read

Updated: Apr 12, 2023

Spoiler, we inter-railed.

My parents went Inter-railing back in the 80s (cool cats, trend setters!), so I've grown up hearing all the stories of navigating Europe with nothing but travellers cheques, a copy of the rough guide and probably a map? (don't think Google maps was a thing back then). Travelling Europe overland, following in Mam and Dad's footsteps has been something we've wanted to try for a long time so we planned the first leg of our trip to do just that!

I LOVE trains, they're my favourite way to travel - ever been on a train hungover? its FINE - a flight however? pure HELL. Plus, you can have a little train picnic, you sometimes get train pets, you can actually see the views and stretch your legs? Dream. Sign us UP!

I'll preface this post by stating the obvious - Travelling western Europe is not cheap. It's definitely the part of the world we struggled most to stick to a super low budget. Travel itself is more expensive and the interrail pass will put a dent in your travel funds. That being said, the pass can be phenomenal value for money if you use it well, and we really thought the Inter-railing experience was worth it.

There are honestly thousands of blogs dedicated to inter-railing that we've come across that are and were seriously helpful when we were planning our trip (i'll link my faves at the end). But honestly - it's one of those things that only really makes sense when you're actually using it. Despite the wealth of information we found online, we still weren't 100% on how to use it until we actually caught our first train in Spain. I started writing down a few notes on that journey of just some bits and pieces I wish we had known beforehand - so this will be what this post is all about! Less noodles, more practical stuff!

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What is an Interrail Pass?

Which Pass?

7 Travel Days in 1 Month

What is an Interrail Pass?

The Inter-rail (or Eurail pass if you're from outside of Europe) is essentially a flexible train ticket which covers a large proportion of rail networks that cover Europe. There are a variety of different types of Interrail passes, from passes which cover individual countries, different age ranges, different train classes, and all covering various numbers of journeys over various lengths of time. You can buy the pass through the Interrail website.

Which pass is for me?

This is of course totally dependent on the type of trip you want to do. To be honest, this is fairly straightforward to figure out. The Interrail website is pretty clear and has a handy function on the first page to figure out which ticket will suit your trip the best. We had worked out a rough route we wanted to do and went for the Global pass (7 days in one month), which at the time of writing is listed for €264 on the Interrail website. If however, you're wanting total flexibility, there are unlimited travel options covering 1 - 3 months. This essentially means you can travel an unlimited number of times during the selected time period - however this option does come with a heftier price tag (€528 - €711 at the time of writing.)

We went for the cheaper option, the 7 day Global pass, which limits you to 7 travel days within a month. However, this absolutely suited us and the places we wanted to go. I'll outline our route and the decision to buy this pass later on.

7 travel days in a month? what does that even mean?

This wording took me a hot minute to wrap my head around!

This doesn't necessarily mean 7 journeys. Rather you get 7 days on which you can travel, and you can get as far as you like. For example, you could get the train from Amsterdam to Paris in the morning, spend a few hours at the Eiffel tower and then hop on another train in the afternoon to get to Brussels (note, we didn't do this, but its an option if you're on a stricter timeframe and you want to RINSE the pass!).

These 7 days aren't set, you can choose what days you want to travel on, and this is entirely flexible in that month period and you can change your mind as much as you want.

The month long period is 30 days and starts from the day of the first use of your pass NOT from the date of purchase. You have 11 months from the purchase date to activate your pass.

Does that make sense? Hopefully it does x

Sounds Good! Whats the Catch?

SEAT RESERVATIONS.

For us, this was the biggest drawback of train travel around Europe. Think of the Interrail pass as your train ticket - great! that's all you need in the UK! But this isn't the case for a lot of European networks.

You'll need to buy a seat reservation for a lot of journeys in western Europe on top of your ticket otherwise you won't be allowed to board the train! Fortunately, the Interrail app (Rail Planner) will tell you which specific journeys need a reservation and how much you can expect to pay. (Note, not all journeys require a seat reservation - the app will tell you this.) The cost of the reservation isn't included in the interrail pass, however the most we paid was €20 per seat (from Toulouse to Paris) and most reservations were below the €10 mark.

The other thing to consider with seat reservations is that most need to be purchased in person at the train station. If you know the train you are planning on getting - we highly recommend going to the station a couple of days in advance to reserve your seat - especially in the high season. You can reserve your seat at the ticket office in the train station and you will need to show your interrail pass and your passport in order to do so.

Some seat reservations can be purchased online, again, the app will tell you in which countries this is possible!

Deciding whether to purchase a pass

This was our first step in planning our trip. We sat down, decided on which cities/countries we wanted to visit and planned a route. The railway map and suggested routes on the Interrail website was actually super helpful when we were doing this! We then went onto the Trainline and Flixbus and plugged in each individual journey to figure out our travel costs without an Interrail pass. Our plan looked like this:

For us, the overall cost of the trains/buses would have likely worked out the same as if we were to buy an Interrail pass - but the flexible aspect of the Interrail pass won us over and was definitely something we were grateful for when we were travelling! Another great aspect of the pass is that you don't need to only use the pass to get around. e.g. for shorter journeys you can get a bus and save your pass to use for a longer/more expensive journey another day!

So is it worth it?

For us, it absolutely was worth it. There are also quite a few discounts you can get just by having the pass which we definitely made the most of. The pass is super flexible and we were grateful to have been able to change our plans in an instant. Trains and travel in western and northern Europe can be super expensive so we found that we saved money by buying the pass - however this is totally dependent on your route. Trains are less reliable and significantly less expensive in eastern Europe - so we found the pass would not have been too useful in this part of the world!

Practical stuff sorted, so where did we go?

I'll write a more detailed post on each of the individual places we went - but this was the route we followed for the month. The good thing about the Interrail pass is that it is totally flexible so you can easily adapt our route to any plans you may have or places you want to go! Overall we were pretty happy with our plan, but there are some changes we would definitely make next time - you live and you learn hey?

The google map below shows the actual route we took, including our initial flight from London to seville (This map making is all new to me! I can't believe it worked!! - a tech wiz!!) For reference, we started our trip on the 13th April 2022, we activated our passes on the 16th April and took our last interrail journey on the 12th May. Time of year is definitely a super important factor when planning an interrail/any budget travel trip (mistakes have been made, *cough cough summer in Greece!!*)

My Suggested route changes

If you wanted to tag on another city, I would highly recommend Lisbon, Portugal. We went later on in our trip, but would be an easy de-tour from Madrid, or even a good start point if you weren't planning on heading to Seville.
If you're on a limited time frame, I would miss Bilbao and instead take the train to Barcelona. I myself have never been, but I've heard lots of good things. Bilbao in the spring was not the vibe - however it would be a whole lot nicer in the summer!
Again, we liked Toulouse, but its not the most 'backpacker friendly' location. Go straight from Barcelona to Paris and save that extra travel day for another city!
Another city worth tagging on would be Prague. You could head here after Berlin or after Krakow. This is a city I'm sad to have missed - however, top tip - avoid visiting on the weekend! (hostels get BOOKED and EXPENSIVE!)
We had a nice little 2 night stop in Bratislava, however if you weren't super keen on heading here you could just get the train from Krakow to Budapest. Be warned, this is a long journey but I believe you can get a night train!

Like I said, there a loads of suggested routes on the Interrail website, however we found the planning of our own route to be super easy! So go wherever your heart desires!

TLDR - Just give me your top tips!

Remember to check which of your journeys need seat reservations (you can check this on the rail planner app). Make sure to book them a few days in advance if you have a specific time train you're planning to take (especially in the high season).
Don't trust the rail planner app train timetable! You can easily find accurate timetables by googling 'country Rail network'. This should bring up the actual train company's booking website which will show you the most accurate train times. You can even use the Trainline in western Europe to check train times!
Bring your passport when booking your seat reservations. Or at least bring a photo of your passport - even when you're not doing a journey that crosses a border.
Arrive at the train station at least 45 minutes before your scheduled journey. A lot of train stations will do a full airport style baggage scan of your luggage, you'll need to take the extra time this takes into account when planning your journey as well as navigating signs in different languages to find your platform!
Be flexible! Many trains, especially during the high seasons/ popular routes do get booked up - just make sure you have some flexibility in your plans or make sure to reserve your seats in advance!
You don't need to use your pass for every journey you take during the time your pass is activated. For shorter distances use buses or even cheap train tickets rather than wasting a travel day on a cheap journey! (e.g. we did this to get to Zakopane from Krakow).
Keep your eyes peeled for sales on the interrail website! Interrail frequently puts on sales, usually these happen towards the end of the month! You can use your pass up to 11 months after purchase so if you're planning a trip in the near future snag your pass when it's on offer! Even a 10% discount knocks a whole lot off!
Use night trains for long journeys! We didn't do this as none of our journeys were too long! But, boarding your night train before midnight with arrival the following morning will only use one travel day - plus you save on a night's accommodation!
You don't need a paper pass, you can just have a mobile pass saved to your phone! The Interrail website has a super handy guide on how to use your mobile pass. BUT your seat reservations will be issued as a paper ticket - Don't lose this before your journey!
Make use of the other Interrail benefits! There is a page on the interrail website which will show you the benefits available in the cities you're planning on visiting! Our favourite was the 10% discount on any of the Europe's Famous Hostels - not a huge discount, but great for expensive cities like Paris and Berlin!
The Interrail pass isn't worth it in Eastern Europe! Rail networks around the Balkans in particular are unreliable and pretty sparse - the easiest way to get around is by bus (though there are a few exceptions). You can travel Romania and Bulgaria easily by train, but the tickets are cheaper and the Interrail pass doesn't cover much of the networks.

Further info

I hope this post is somewhat helpful to anyone planning an interrail trip! We had the absolute best time and we highly recommend anyone to try rail travel on the continent at least once - seriously the trains are lush!! This is by no means a full scale, all the info you could ever need post, but just some of the main things I wish we had known before heading off!

I personally found the following blogs/websites/pages super useful when planning our trip:

The Interrail Website (Obviously)
The Trainline (For checking train times etc. in western Europe)
Aaron Jarvis' Blog (He's written some super in depth guides on inter-railing and made some really useful videos on youtube too!)