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Hello fellow travelers :)

Munich - Bari - Athens - Tirana - Pristina - Skopje - Belgrade - Zagreb - Rijeka - Ljubljana - Venice - Munich

That’ll be my route for September. I've done a lot of research over the past few days and I think the Balkans will be an adventure to travel with Interrail. There will certainly be some routes on which I won’t use my Interrail ticket and will take the bus.

But this will also be my first Interrail trip, I've never been to the Balkans so I have no experience at all.

With sales coming to an end and the special 1€ refund upgrade ending at midnight, I wonder if it is better to travel with a mobile pass or the paper pass?

The routes in the Balkans are currently closed due to Covid and it will be difficult to predict how it’ll be in September. I am hoping for a chance to travel a lot by train. I also want to remain flexible and see myself asking about the travel routes/conditions for the next day on site.

So would the mobile pass or the paper pass be the better choice for my project? I am quite unsure when choosing the Mobile Pass, as almost half of my journeys cannot be found in the app. I would have to add them manually which I think will be a problem and a challenge. And for the ferry (Bari - Patras) I don't even have a clue how to handle it.

On the other hand, I would be able to save almost 30€ with the mobile pass and I like to save whenever I can :wink:

I look forward to your opinions, recommendations and maybe even tips for the Balkans :)

Sophia

I prefer the paperpass  as you have always something as proof your valid Railpass (some conductors are not able to check the QR Code)  ontop you have with the paper pass something as souvenir to remember your journey

So would the mobile pass or the paper pass be the better choice for my project? I am quite unsure when choosing the Mobile Pass, as almost half of my journeys cannot be found in the app. I would have to add them manually which I think will be a problem and a challenge. And for the ferry (Bari - Patras) I don't even have a clue how to handle it.

There is no difference in validity between the paper and the mobile pass. In case of difficulties in scanning the QR code, the information is also available in human-readable form in the app, below the QR code. In September, after being available for almost a year, I would expect most railway staff to know that the mobile pass exists and how to deal with it.

Further, adding journeys manually is not difficult. The app always offers to add a journey manually at the bottom of the list of connections or if it doesn't find any connections you will only see the possibility to add a journey manually. Then you just need: arrival/departure station names, countries and times.

More importantly, however, is whether you intend to take international night trains and if so, which ones. In a night train, you normally give your ticket (=Interrail pass) and reservation to the sleeping car attendent, so they can give them to the ticket inspectors for checking whenever needed. However, the mobile Interrail is on your mobile phone and you don't give that to the sleeping car attendent. That means that, whenever after crossing a border there's a new ticket inspector, you could be woken up for a ticket check by the new ticket inspector. The doesn't happen on ÖBB NightJet trains (because ÖBB is responsible for ticket checks on the whole journey) but may be different in other night trains.

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