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Hello everyone:)

 

I've done interrail a couple of times by now, always had great experiences, but I always had 1 rule: never travel through France. High-speed-trains there all need expensive reservations while in germany that's not the case (and traveling from Belgium it's thus important to save a lot of money).

But having done interrail a couple of times by now I'm thinking about going somewhere else, like France, Spain and Portugal, might be a nice change of scenery. I was looking at the 'rail network guides' in the app and there is stated that TER and Intercity trains are without mandatory reservations in France. So I thought let's give that a chance:)!

The problem here is when I look for connections: where are these trains? Turning off high-speed rail in the app gives no results. I don't mind slow travel, sometimes prefer it when I have the time, but I just can't find these trains? Has someone taken the trains in France with Interrail before or do some french people know how to find them? All experiences are welcome! :)

Thanks in advance!!

 

PS: i'm not planning to travel immediately but when the strikes are over haha.

Unfortunately Intercity trains also have mandatory reservations (10€) in France…

You could travel by TER trains only, for example Paris to Bordeaux :

  • Paris-Austerliz - Orléeans 09:19 - 10:27
  • Orléans - Tours 10:38 - 12:04
  • Tours - Poitiers 12:14 - 13:39
  • Poitiers - Angoulême 16:18 - 17:31
  • Angoulême - Bordeaux 17:45 - 19:10

Eastern and south of France are a bit better.

 

Spain has mandatory reservations on almost every train (and it can’t be booked online...) :

Portugal is hard to reach from Spain (via Vigo or Badajoz or by bus).

All in all they’re the worst countries for Interrail. Switzerland is the complete opposite : frequent trains with lots of capacity and no reservations at all.

A quick way is to select no reservation required in the Interrail planner. If it doesn’t show any trains split the routing into likely change points.

e.g. Lille to Lyon shows several train routings with TER trains.

Lille to Nice shows a roundabout routing via Brussels to Frankfurt and then down the Alps to Italy, down to Ventimiglia and then in to the Cote D’Azur, all without reservations.

If you wanted to go to Spain you could search Lille to Cerbere (The Fr/SP border with connection to BCN). 

Although the latter 2 take in excess of 24 hours it does show the routings with regional trains.

But having done interrail a couple of times by now I'm thinking about going somewhere else, like France, Spain and Portugal, might be a nice change of scenery. I was looking at the 'rail network guides' in the app and there is stated that TER and Intercity trains are without mandatory reservations in France. So I thought let's give that a chance:)!

Er, well, you just found an error. Intercités have mandatory reservations, except for a few. Not sure where to find the list of which ones only have optional reservations, but I believe the DB planner will show it correctly.

Some Normandy TERs have mandatory reservations for travel to/from Paris. That's implemented incorrectly in the timetable though because SNCF send incorrect information and say reservation is mandatory for any journey on these trains except just from/to Paris.

The problem here is when I look for connections: where are these trains? Turning off high-speed rail in the app gives no results. I don't mind slow travel, sometimes prefer it when I have the time, but I just can't find these trains? Has someone taken the trains in France with Interrail before or do some french people know how to find them? All experiences are welcome! :)

In the rail planner app, you can search for trains without mandatory reservations. But I don't trust the app and the SNCF planner is cr*p, so I usually just use the DB planner and turn off ICE and EC/IC.

Thanks a lot guys!:)

Seems I will review my plans then haha. If I'll do the TER trains I will have to do some research in advance and I'll buy the country pass instead of a full pass I think.

@thibcabe why is Portugal hard to reach from spain? Like it's their only neighbour? Haha 

 

Very helpful, thanks!!!

Because railways are pretty much inexistant between the 2.

The useful Hendaye - Lisbon night train has been discontinued.

There are now 2 trains per day between Vigo and Porto and 1 daily train between Badajoz and Entroncamento (maybe 2 in summer). That's basically it.

Madrid - Lisbon is a full day of travel.

Fortunately a high-speed line should open in the next few years...

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