Skip to main content

Hi everyone,

I have a few questions about payments with the passes and the stops.

I am planning on backpacking through France this Summer and I am trying to figure this Interrail thing out. 

When I plan a trip in Plan-your-Trip on your site and in the app, many transfer options are given. All stops and transfers that have to be made, are they all covered by the pass? Including the price displayed next to it? (often 13 euros).
I can also see an Interrails railway map on the website, but only big known cities are mentioned there and not all the other small stops that are named in Plan-your-Trip. What is this map good for and do I have to pay separately for trains that do not fall under those big stops? Is it possible to see all the routes you can take in Europe?

Hope someone can help me.

Thanks in advance!

x

Isabel

In FRance nearly all trains are run by the state SNCF and thus about all trains and they serve thus about all stations/gares, are included. SNCF has local/regional trains named TER-NO REServ even possible and thus completely ´free=included´ but most 1st time tourists aim for those superfast hi-speed TGV trains-these MUST be REServed-cost is 10€-if lucky in quota-or else 20€, and this site also charges 2€ extra fee-which you can avoid by booking direct -in person, by fone or at a machine in FR into SNCF. The very few overnite trains from Paris to the south also have couchette=bunkbeds, these cost 21,50 extra.

This does NOT always apply to trains going over its borders and it may also be quite diferent in other countries.

The maps are just global guidance-and in fact often outdated or wrong. Use the planner-better that of sncf or bahn.com (german rails-works for all of EUR)as these are far better updated. You can safely accept that each major and 99% of minor towns/cities have a gare and a service-of sorts. FR/SNCF as such in comparison is not noted for very frequent services.

Here is some useful information from the experienced travellers in the Community regarding both planning, reservations and activation of pass and travel days. 

 Planning

The rail planner is normally not up to date, as it only is updated once a month, so to be sure of the time table you better check the timetable and availability on the websites of the national railways. The bigger national railways, like DB (Germany) SBB (Switzerland) and ÖBB (Austria) cover several countries. 

 Reservations 

The advice from the experienced travellers in the community is to use other ways to make reservations than the Interrail/Eurail website.  You can look at the guide in the link:

https://community.eurail.com/train-connections-reservations-47/how-to-get-reservations-105

If you, after having looked at the guide, have questions about how to make specific reservation, please give your travel details (departure date, time and route) preferably in a new topic, and you will get advice.

Please note that Interrail/Eurail charges an extra fee of 2 EUR per person and train in addition to the fee for the seat reservation.

 Activation of pass

During the activation process, when you choose the start day of the validity of the pass, the first day of the validity period is automatically made a travel day, even if you don't enter a journey, the advice is therefore not to activate the pass before the first travel day as you only can deactivate the pass before 00.00 on the day the validity starts. If your travel plans change in the last moment you will loose travel days if you have activated the pass in advance.

It can be wise to make a test and activate the pass with a start date well in the future and then deactivate the pass immediately, just to see that everything works.

 Activation of travel day

The advice from the experienced travellers in the community is also never to activate a travel day, that is connect a journey to your pass, until just before boarding the train, otherwise you might loose a travel day if your travel plans change in a late stage  You can't delete a travel day in the past. A travel day can only be deleted until 23.59 CET the day before the travel day.

In FRance nearly all trains are run by the state SNCF and thus about all trains and they serve thus about all stations/gares, are included. SNCF has local/regional trains named TER-NO REServ even possible and thus completely ´free=included´ but most 1st time tourists aim for those superfast hi-speed TGV trains-these MUST be REServed-cost is 10€-if lucky in quota-or else 20€, and this site also charges 2€ extra fee-which you can avoid by booking direct -in person, by fone or at a machine in FR into SNCF. The very few overnite trains from Paris to the south also have couchette=bunkbeds, these cost 21,50 extra.

This does NOT always apply to trains going over its borders and it may also be quite diferent in other countries.

The maps are just global guidance-and in fact often outdated or wrong. Use the planner-better that of sncf or bahn.com (german rails-works for all of EUR)as these are far better updated. You can safely accept that each major and 99% of minor towns/cities have a gare and a service-of sorts. FR/SNCF as such in comparison is not noted for very frequent services.

Thank you so much for your reply and answering all my questions!

Hope you have a great night and a good summer travel :)

 

Isabel

 

 

Reply


Terms and Conditions & Privacy Policy