Length needed in each country

  • 3 January 2022
  • 6 replies
  • 290 views
Hennie May Cole

Hello, I am currently planning an interrail trip for August! I was just wanting a little bit of advice about how long to spend in each place? For example, I was going to buy the 10 travel day pass and travel for 3 weeks, I have 10 places down to visit, averaging 2 days in each place (so travelling to next place every other morning/evening) Here is my preliminary itiniary, does anyone know if this will be doable at all? Or is it worth taking out one place or so just to lengthen it out slightly? Just don't want to be stressed moving lots from one place to another! Thank you so much!

 

6 replies

E
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Hi Hennie,

To my mind this itinerary looks both restrained and well-proportioned. It’s true that you’d always be able to get more out of a place if you stayed for longer, but an Interrail trip is more of a tasting menu. After all, all sorts of people think nothing of flying to a European city for a 24-48h minibreak (look at the viewing figures for Channel 4’s Travel Man), and all that you’re doing here is stringing lots of those together in a much more eco-friendly way. If you’re left wanting to return to a place for a deeper dive, think of that as a good thing.

One way to feel happier about limiting the length of your stops is to try out smaller cities which don’t lay down quite such a formidable gauntlet of must-sees, and which it would feel more natural to contain within a 1-2 day stopoff. If you go to openstreetmap.org during your planning phase and select the Transport Map filter from the bar on the right of the screen, you can see which places happen to lie along the main railway lines in the vague direction you want to head in, and then dive headlong into Wikivoyage/Lonely Planet to see if they look like interesting finds.

Best of luck!

Hennie May Cole

Hi Hennie,

To my mind this itinerary looks both restrained and well-proportioned. It’s true that you’d always be able to get more out of a place if you stayed for longer, but an Interrail trip is more of a tasting menu. After all, all sorts of people think nothing of flying to a European city for a 24-48h minibreak (look at the viewing figures for Channel 4’s Travel Man), and all that you’re doing here is stringing lots of those together in a much more eco-friendly way. If you’re left wanting to return to a place for a deeper dive, think of that as a good thing.

One way to feel happier about limiting the length of your stops is to try out smaller cities which don’t lay down quite such a formidable gauntlet of must-sees, and which it would feel more natural to contain within a 1-2 day stopoff. If you go to openstreetmap.org during your planning phase and select the Transport Map filter from the bar on the right of the screen, you can see which places happen to lie along the main railway lines in the vague direction you want to head in, and then dive headlong into Wikivoyage/Lonely Planet to see if they look like interesting finds.

Best of luck!

Hello, thank you so so much for this!! Was so helpful and reassuring 😊 I think I shall stick with this timetable then, along with planning specifically what to see in each place! Really appreciate your comment 🙌🏼

M
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Userlevel 7
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NOte that IF you do not want to take the trips inside the UK=your own country to reach airport, your 10 days wont work. Also some sections are in fact quite cheap with bus or buying locally. From M to Bp you can also use an overnight train.

B-lava has not really that much to offer-shorten time, OR skip it for Wien, or change it for a more nature-loving stay at Poprad/Tatra mountains and go by bus from there to Krakow.

Also note that the pass is not limited to just 10 trips, but 10 travel DAYS and you can thus use any nr. of trains in the system on that day-so you could also make stops en-route.

seewulf
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As @mcadv  said maybe have some stops on the way ;) For examplie between Zuerich and Munich a Stop in Lindau and/or Bregenz

Exchange Bratislava for Vienna and visit Bratislava as daytrip from Vienna and catch then maybe the Nighttrain to Krakow ;) as Bratislava to Krakow is a timeconsuming Route.

To save reservation fee´s i recommend to go from Luxembourg via Germany to Zuerich. For example Luxembourg - Koblenz and catch in Koblenz the Eurocity to Zuerich. (You pass the famous & scenic Mosel & Rhine valley ;) )

In my experience it´s to much stops for to short time and there is no stop to relax. As suggested by @EdM i recommend to place some smaller Cities/Villages to relax and get new energy for the quite exhausting sightseeing days in the bigger ones.

Why fly? if you reduce your destinationsyou maybe you get the travelday´s to travel from Bristol via London to  Brussels (direct Eurostar from London)

and on the return journey catch the Eurostar from Amsterdam through Brussels to London & then further to Bristol  (Berlin - Amsterdam are connected by direct trains every 2 hours :) )
or catch the Ferry from Hoek van Holland to Harwich and then by train to Bristol. Maybe @Superalbs can share few experiences as he starts even from the West of UK ;)

I´ am not working for Eurail or Interrail i just share my knowledge here. Please ask in the Community and not via private message as this is the fastest way to get an answer. I prefer English/German/ Czech for my answers. In case of Reservationquestions please share some details like Route, Date, Trainnumber as otherwise we can just provide general advices or answers
M
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Userlevel 7
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Plan should be fine, but as others already pointed out - I’d add 1-2 smaller towns in between, to make it a bit less mainstream and also a bit away from the crowds probably. And yeah 2 days Bratislava are too much I think (except if you wanna drink a lot of beer etc.), better go to Vienna as suggested already from others.
Also 2 days in Luxembourg are more than enough I think. Maybe go to Vianden castle for one day? Public transport in Luxembourg is for free, so you won’t need any travel day and also not to pay for bus or train :)

If you wanna have some more diversity in your trip (means not only cities), maybe add one mountain place in it? E.g. instead of Zürich go to Interlaken (Berner Oberland), or go from Zürich to Innsbruck (way more scenic than Zürich-München railway). From Innsbruck you also have direct trains to Budapest or many connections with only one change in Salzburg or Vienna...

And I agree with @seewulf - why not making the whole trip flightless? :) Will be even a bigger adventure - whole Interrail trip with 0 flights ;-) and regarding price… if you have to pay for luggage so or so, it won’t make a big price difference usually

So or so, enjoy your trip!

Hennie May Cole

Hello @MartinM @seewulf @mcadv @EdM

Thank you so so much for all of your advice, this has been super helpful and really appreciate this!! I agree with the flights, would add more stress to the trip which I don’t want!

thank you all for taking the time to give me advice 😊 x

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