Did I schedule things properly?

Hi rvdborgt,

First, thanks a lot for your assistance,

With regard to the first point, I did not mean that I read that I should book separately, but instead that in case of having several passes (which is now my case), the reservations have to be established separately. I read it here: https://www.interrail.eu/en/interrail-passes/interrail-mobile-pass/getting-started

and this is the portion I was referring to: “More than one Pass on your device? Each Pass needs its own trip, so if you've got a few Passes on your device, you’ll need a separate trip for each Pass.” But I am not sure that it applies to our case. I repeat, I created by mistake one pass for two of us, the other one for my wife later. But in fact I now realize that “Pass numbers” are different for the three of us… And when I look at the tickets I received the seat numbers seem to follow each other, meaning that we’ll be together, the three of us. I guess I got nervous without justification…

The second doubt is resolved, since it seems I can activate the pass at any moment. Thanks for the clarification. We will therefore activate the three passes right before the first trip (in Toulouse station).

With regard to connections… I should have consulted here before, because I am not sure I left time enough before the night train from Frankfurt to Hamburg… The TGV arrives just 26 minutes before. I checked and if we missed that train, there would be another one at 2h02, which reaches Hamburg with 1 hour before the depart time towards Copenhagen, which might be time enough ??? But if not, I suppose there will be several other trains later from Hamburg.

I profit to just ask one more thing: would it be possible to “recharge” our passes to continue travelling for 10 days, instead of 7 days, as I did? I mean, any means without having to cancel all trips to proceed again with new reservations... I suppose it is not possible, but in case there is any manner to do it.

Thanks again ! Really kind of you !

Luis

You're confusing the pass (= your ticket) and reservations. You have 3 passes (3 pass numbers). They each need their ow trips in the app. But this has nothing to do with reservations, which are completely separate from the pass.

Could you please show your complete timetable for that travel day? Do you then stay overnight in Copenhagen? Whether a connection is "safe” indeed depends on “plan B” in case you miss it. If there are later trains, then in Germany and Denmark, it’s often no problem, you just take the next one.

You can't add extra travel days to your pass. You can only exchange your pass for another one, as long as you have not activated it.

In fact, I’ve checked timetables in the “Deutsche bahn” site and there would be no much trouble, possibly.

The scheduled arrival to Frankfurt is 22h59, on saturday 12 april, and the night connection to Hamburg departs at 23h24. Pretty short. We might miss it, I guess… But it seems there is a train at 2h02 that reaches Hamburg not much later (7h53) than the first one (6h50). Since I had in purpose left a couple of hours before the next connection to Copenhagen (departure by 8h50), just thinking of taking a breakfast around the train station, we should have time enough. Don’t you think so?

With regard to exchanging our passes to add more days… would that mean that I have to schedule again all trips and do all reservations?

Though I understand that the pass and reservation are different things, the fact is that I had to indicate the pass numbers for “validating”. This is for sure the case for the trip from Stockholm to Narvik, which I had to do directly in the www.sj.se site, and I remember I had to indicate each pass number. Unless exchanging passes did not mofify pass numbers... 

I profit to ask my last two questions, I hope:

1. there is one trip that I don’t know how to secure. In the return trip, we are supposed to arrive to Karlsruhe by 19h09 (22 april). The connection to Strasbourg might be a train at 19h32 (TGV), but probably too short. Otherwise there are others at 20h10, 20h48, 21h07, etc. However, I am unable to reserve any of them (Train non réservable or similar messages). Is there anything I am doing wrong? 
2. I also have a problem to get reductions that might be applicable for a Global Pass owner. Where/how to inform while buying tickets in the SNCF or DB sites that I travel with interrail?

Thanks again for your help !

You say that your phone is 15 years old. Have you been able to download the Railplanner-app? If you travel with a mobile pass you need the Railplanner-app.

Hmmm, Frankfurt-Hamburg is a bit tight for me personally. I’lld go for a bit more buffer there.

Reservations are tied to your name, not to a specific pass. Don’t worry about that, no need to redo them if you change passes.

Your old phone might not work with the rail planner app, but you can have multiple passes on another phone (the one of your daughter for example).

1. Only the 19h32 (TGV) has mandatory reservations. All other options you mentioned are connections by regional trains, where seat reservations are not possible (train non réservable). Just log those train journeys on your pass and board, no seat reservations needed. It might be a good idea to buy the border crossing into France with an ordinary ticket (Interrail until Kehl, then a normal ticket Kehl - Strasbourg), to save you an inbound/outbound travel day.
2. Getting seat reservations is a bit annoying and confusing, differing by country. Use www.bahn.com (select seat reservations only in the search window) when reserving seats on German DB-trains. Use www.raileurope.com and add Interrail as a discount under the rail pass section in the search window for seat reservations in France. As resident of France, there are also a free seat reservations, “parcours d’approche” that you can get only at SNCF-ticket offices. There’s also this community guide to get reservations.

Your travel plans are still not entirely clear to me. Which makes it difficult to advise where to add a bit of extra buffer time, or route suggestions. Where do you start and stop your trip from in France, you start from Toulouse right? And eventually want to get to Narvik and back?

I'm assuming you've put Toulouse -> Copenhagen or Stockholm in one go. For such long journeys it is better to split the search. You'll get better (more logical results).

The 23:24 departure is an ICE: daytime configuration, seats, announcements, people getting on and off. In short: terrible experience at all times but especially during a 40h journey. Avoid at all costs.

I would suggest few options:

- leave Toulouse early, make it to Hamburg by evening, stay overnight

- make it to Basel and board the Basel-Hamburg night train (book couchettes, not seats)

TGV reservations are refundable.

Regarding the return journey, same advice: split the search in smaller legs.

Another point: the timetable south of Karlsruhe is not correct yet. The mainline is closed from 19th to 27th April. Replacement buses will be running.

I'm not sure what's happening with the 19:32 TGV. Some are rerouted. Perhaps one track to Appenweier remains open.

Thank you indeed to all of you.

Yes, I’ll ask my daughter to upload the Planner application on her phone. So there should not be much trouble on that side.

Concerning the trip… I admit I was probably too optimistic, considering journey length. But we’ll have to struggle, we cannot count on extra days. We prefer to stay as long as possible in Narvik, to increase our chances to see Northern Lights...

Just in case, here below our scheduled timetable with connections, if everything worked properly. Unless otherwise indicated, I made reservations for all of them, even when it was said not necessary. In that manner, the 3 of us, we’ll seat together. I paid the extra costs,of course. In parenthesis I show what I found as later options (departure time//arriving time), in case we lost our connections :

Toulouse 8h12 → Paris Montparnasse 12h57

Paris Est 19h07 → Frankfurt 22h59

Frankfurt 23h24 → Hamburg 6h50 (2h02//7h53)

Hamburg 8h50 → Copenhagen 13h38 (10h53//15h38)

Copenhagen 13h44 → Malmö 14h25 (NOT possible to reserve, 4 other trains every hour)

Malmö 16h07 → Stockholm 20h36 (17h07//21h33, 17h14//22h15, 18h07//22h31, etc)

1 night hotel in Stockholm

Stockholm 18h09 → Narvik 12h45 next day

4 days in Narvik and way back:

Narvik 15h11→ Stockholm 10h17

Stockholm 13h25 → Malmö 17h52

Malmö 18h05 → Copenhagen 18h39 (NOT possible to reserve, 4 other trains every hour)

2 nights in Copenhagen

Copenhagen 7h57 → Hamburg 13h02

Hamburg 13h24 → Karlsruhe 19h09 (13h28//9h58, 14h01//19h58, 14h28//20h58, etc)

Karlsruhe 20h11 → Strasbourg 21h34 (NOT RESERVED, 20h48//22h34, 21h07//22h34, etc)

2 nights in Strasbourg

Strasbourg 6h57 → Montpellier 12h52

Montpellier 13h05 → Toulouse 15h15 (14h09//16h21, 15h04//17h18, etc)

From my point of view (but total absence of experience for this type of trip), the major difficulties will be connections indicated in bold letters, especially the first one. 

I don’t understand Brendan’s advice: border crossing into France with an ordinary ticket (Interrail until Kehl, then a normal ticket Kehl - Strasbourg), to save you an inbound/outbound travel day. Normally, we are supposed to reach Strasbourg the very same day that we left from Copenhagen. Do you mean there is a risk to arrive after 23h59 that day?

Once again, I sincerely appreciate your help,

Regards

I’ve just read last commentary by thibcabe. If I understood, we’ll get in trouble once in Karlsruhe. When you say “ The mainline is closed” or that “ Replacement buses will be running”, I imagine you mean between Karlsruhe and some other place in Germany, not to Strasbourg, do you?

Normally, an interrail pass has 2 Inbount/outbound travel days. Which means, that you can take as many trains as you need, to get out of your country of residence. If you spent those two Inbound/outbound (home country) days, you can’t use the pass any more in your own country and you’ll need to buy normal tickets. So best is to use interrail for the most expensive parts.

So you use one to get to Frankfurt on your first travel day. If you get back from the north, and you cross the Border around Strasbourg, it will automatically use another inbound/outbound travel day. But you stop there for two days.

Which means you don’t have any inbound/outbound day left on your pass for further use in France, forcing you to buy normal tickets to get to Toulouse.

You can avoid this by using interrail until the last German station before France (Kehl or Offenburg, in Kehl you can take Strasbourgs trams as well) and buy an ordinary ticket to Strasbourg of a couple of Euro’s, to save your inbound/outbound day for Strasbourg-Toulouse, which is usually rather pricey so better to include that in your interrail.

But: there is a test going on, giving some users 3 inbound/outbound days. If that’s the case, you don’t have to worry about that :)

I’ll check your itinerary as well, but gonna go for lunch first :).

I understand, perfectly clear ! We’ll avoid entering France that night using interrail.

Thanks !

The way up North is very pleasant by train: you see the people, landscapes and languages change slowly but surely, it’s very nice to do, with comfortable trains.

But to be honest, your plans for going are not good. I’lld have the same suggestions as ​@thibcabe . Leave Toulouse early and try to make it to Hamburg, and stay overnight.

It’s already a long travel day, even for the train nerds advising you on this Forum that’s just too much ;). Also, you don’t want to risk 2h in the middle of the night in Frankfurt, it’s not pleasant, sketchy even.

And even if you catched the planned 23h24 train to Hamburg, you spend the night on a day train, with no possibility to sleep in a couchette or sleeper car. You’re going to be exhausted already, before you arrived.

The best advice: get into Germany as quick as possible. Germany has only optional reservations: which mean you can take any DB train without reservation and sit where you want, as long as the seat is not reserved. Trains are also cadanced: every hour you have +/- the same connection. Which makes it sooooo much more flexible and easier to navigate than France with it’s infrequent, non-cadenced (TGV) trains with mandatory reservations. It’s a big pleasure to interrail there, almost any train you see, you can board with your pass.

But Germany’s trains are notorious for it’s delays. www.bahn.com and the DB navigator app will be good friends in order to replan when needed. Make sure you have the DB navigator app the phones before travelling.

My suggestions:

My preferred option:

• Same early Toulouse 6:10 - Paris Montparnasse- 10:56 (time for lunch in Paris)
• TGV Paris Est: 13:53 - Karlsruhe15:39 (Could sell out, weekend train in Easter holiday, book asap via www.raileurope.com , add your interrail pass as a discount in the search window or rebook your seat reservation you might already have)
• ICE Karlsruhe 16:51 - Hamburg Hbf 21:39
• Overnight stay in Hamburg
• Continue as planned with the 08h50 to CPH

Or alternatively:

• TGV Toulouse 6:10 - Paris Montparnasse 10:56
• Metro to Paris Nord (50 min)
• Eurostar Paris Nord 12:18 - Bruxelles Midi/Brussel-Zuid: 13:44 (Expensive and limited seat reservation, try to book asap via raileurope)
• ICE Bruxelles - Midi: 14:25 Köln Hbf 16:15 (only optional reservations)
• IC(E) Köln Hbf 17:13 - Hamburg Hbf 21:14 (with a bit of luck, the previous train to Hamburg has a delay of 5-10 minutes or more, enabling you to change to the ICE 518 arriving an hour Earlier, optional reservations - evening dinner on the onboard restaurant)
• Overnight stay in Hamburg, stick to the same schedule, leaving Hamburg at 8h50.

OR

• Toulouse 6:10 - Bordeaux St. Jean 8:40 (a bit tight of a change, risky. When delayed, ask the staff to stay on board until Paris to continue your journey from there as in option 1 or replan to get to Offenburg)
• TGV Bordeaux St. Jean 8:52 - Strasbourg 14:28
• Regional train Strasbourg 14:52 - Offenburg 15:22 (Regional, non reservable train)
• ICE Offenburg: 15:28 -  to Hamburg via Frankfurt or Fulda (Or wait an hour to get to direct train to Hamburg to limit changes)
• In Offenburg you can get to Freiburg (am Breisgau) or Basel SBB, nice cities to have dinner, stretch your legs and enjoy the city centre and wait for the direct night train to Hamburg. In Basel it leaves at 22:13, in Freiburg at 22:28, arrival in Hamburg hbf at 07:53. Book at least couchette accommodation for a good night’s sleep via www.nightjet.com (add interrail as a discount under the passenger details, but be aware of potential delays, an issue with night trains in Germany).

Your return journey is okay and much more balanced than your going, with some back-up options. A very comfortable and doable itinerary! Double check in two weeks, to check possibly amended schedules or rail replacement busses due to engineering works around Offenburg/Appenweier.

I’lld suggest you also install the DSB-app (Danish railway operator) and the SJ-app (Swedish rail operator). That way you are always up to date. Don’t plan Toulouse-Stockholm in one go, but in smaller pieces. Toulouse-Strasbourg/Brussels/Offenburg, Strasbourg-Hamburg, and so on.

But for longer trips with multiple route options, it’s always a bit of a puzzle, but people here are happy to help in these cases ;)

Amazing !! Are you paid for this work? I am impressed… I now understand the sense of the “full steam ahead” term.

I will follow your advice, also shared by thibcabe. Maybe the first option, we’ll see.

I think I’ve learnt today a few important things about the way Interrail is organized.

It is a pity I did not know about this stuff years ago (I knew it existed, but never got informed...). Not only is a better option for the planet, but also offers many possibilities for visiting calmly great places. I’m thinking for instance of a 2 or 3 weeks trip to visit Italy, or Greece.

Thanks A LOT for being so helpful. Vive l’Europe !!!

You’re very welcome! I just like puzzling challenging itineraries together like yours and try to convince people to go by train 😁.

It’s seems quite challenging at first, but once you get the hang of it after a couple of trips and learn where you need to look for information, it’s an absolutely great way to travel indeed!

Don’t hesitate to post here if something’s unclear or you have further questions!

I’ve succesfully exchanged our passes from 7 day to 10 day ones. I think I even saved a bit money in the process, as a 15% reduction was applied, which I think I did not have before...

I also tried by all means to get a better trip schedule, basically following 1st and 3rd Brendan’s advices. But in the end, I gave up.

As Brendan proposed, we might get to Hamburg earlier. But once there, a different problem popped up: overnight sleeping is too expensive for us. When just considering a 2 km area around the main station, first cheapest offer was about 200 Euros... I even considered shared rooms for 6-8 people that are proposed by some hotels, but still 50 Euros/person the cheapest (150 total, a bit more with extra fees), an ammount that we won’t pay to stay over 8 hours in rush surrounded by guys like me snoaring like hell😊.

The trip via Basel or Freiburg appeared therefore as a good option/idea, since we might spend that night sleeping. Yet I was unable to find tickets for the three of us on the www.nightjet.com site. There appears a message “insufficient available accomodations”. Only works for a single one, but still here the price indicated (which is the same regardless of whether I indicate “interrail pass” as discount or not) is too high (219 Eur).

I give up.

I just profit to try to get some informaton on another point. I was wondering where there might be services offered in train stations to allow travellers to “get rid” of backpacks/luggage for a short time. For instance, once in Hamburg or Copenhagen, we might like to spend 2 or 3h for breakfast or lunch, or just to stretch legs or to just breath some fresh air. I think there are sometimes kind of lockers, but is this general? Moreover, is there anything dedicated to interrail travellers? By the way, how much might it cost?

Thanks of course in advance !

Yes, most big stations have luggage facilities. For Germany, put your station name into https://www.bahnhof.de for details. (Lockers are Schließfächer). Eg in Hamburg it’s €2 or €4 for 6 hours.

There are no special facilities for Interrail

Seat61 has a more general guide: https://www.seat61.com/luggage-lockers-at-stations.htm

The night train is sold out now (or rather only 1 berth left). 

Please really consider spending the night in a hotel. Otherwise by travelling 60h non-stop on busy trains you will be digusted by trains, I'm not joking. This is not the goal of an Interrail trip!

Hannover has 99€ rooms right next to the station (Novotel). That would break the journey.

Or Celle, Lüneburg,... anywhere on the mainline.

Yes, there are lockers at these stations. Usually around 5€. You can find info by googling "Hamburg station lockers". ;)

EDIT: what's your route on Sunday 13th April? You should have enough time to do Hannover - Hamburg - Copenhagen - Malmö - Stockholm.