Good for them. A few years ago I traveled from France to Thailand almost entirely by train (plus three buses and a boat). It's possible. You need time, not necessarily lots of money. Adventure is guaranteed.
Interrail used to be more popular years ago among young adults who had just finished high school. I did it with a few friends at the time, and it was an incredible experience of self-reliance, patience and just complete freedom.
My best memory is sleeping under the stars outside the train station of Biarritz, France, on a mild summer night next to the Atlantic Ocean. Such a refreshing sleep.
The next night we did the same, sleeping under the stars outside the train station of Modane, France, very high up in the Alps. Definitely didn't sleep as well with the cold air and weird looks.
How long was this experience? I have a sense that sleeping outdoors as part of an adventure is getting tarnished by the homelessness and mental health crisis (… which is a separate issue that can’t be appropriately addressed here).
I live in a seasonal touristy area and I have to do double-takes as to whether someone is transient, or is just backpacking.
The implication here is personal safety. The homeless individual could be unpredictable due to mental health, whereas the backpacker is likely to be neutral.
Those were the only two times of outdoor sleep in my life to date. The itinerary was Milan - Zurich - Amsterdam - Paris - Biarritz - Modane - back to Italy, sleeping in either hotels or the closest camping site to the train station.
IIRC it was a ticket for 20 days of unlimited travel, which we had to cut short as a friend did get sunburnt so badly to require a hospital stay. Ah, the joys of youth.
I think it was much more popular before budget airlines became so big in Europe. When you can fly to most European cities for < €50 at anytime of the year taking lots of weekend breaks is affordable even for students.
All true. Also: Weekend holidays involving flights are a completely unsustainable and irresponsible form of tourism given the climate crisis. Not that anyone much cares.
The best part of interailling for me was turning up to a major train station, looking at the giant departure board, choosing an enigmatic destination and just getting on the train. No booking or reservations or even planning at any point.
Quite a few countries (France, Spain, Italy for starters) require seat reservations in advance for any long-distance/high-speed trains now. And worse, they have a quota for passes, so even if the train has space, you might not be able to reserve a seat and therefore get on the train. A real shame as it makes it far less flexible than before.
For Switzerland, that's only true for the special tourist train panoramic carriages on the route, there are normal trains running on the same routes, too, that don't require reservations.
> But, as you get older, there's a certain joy in making plans in advance.
Am I the only one who feels the opposite? I used to take great care in making plans, knowing what's up ahead, knowing what I should know and so on. Spontaneous moments like "Lets go to X" were very infrequent. Nowadays, as a Proper Adult, I much more like going places without knowing anything about them, with as little plans as possible, figuring out what the place is from the people I meet there, and only start reading about the place once I'm there.
I fall somewhere in the middle these days- I really like knowing in advance that I have a place to sleep each night and that I have a way to get there, but then just do whatever I feel like in the moment for everything else.
I never really planned in my youth, however as I'm older I have more responsibilities and planning in advance. We've just booked part of our summer family holiday for example
> however as I'm older I have more responsibilities
Yeah, same here, I guess that's why I'm opting for less planning, not more. I guess some people are just wired differently, that's what makes the world so interesting probably :)
Thanks, great to know. I hear you on at least knowing where you might sleep. Age 18-23 even this isn't that critical, when 'beach' or 'park' are viable answers.
For faster/intercity trains, it is still like that in Switzerland, Austria, Germany, The Netherlands, UK, Ireland, Denmark, Norway and most of central and eastern Europe [0]
France, Italy, Spain, Portugal & Sweden require seat reservations, as do most international services
Making reservations varies from easy to a complete pain
Note that doing that in Ireland for intercity will result in you being _severely_ overcharged. Dublin to Cork is like 20 euro if you book in advance; I think if you buy the ticket in the station it’s over 60!
It’s fine for commuter stuff, of course, but I assume that’s the case everywhere.
Same for Germany, we have the 63€/Month Deutschlandticket.
It's only valid for regional trains (but also all local buses, subway and tram systems) though, so for long distance travel you have to switch trains a lot.
That's a very recent addition though. And a heavily subsidized one at that.
I think this would be more for people that are doing a many week (3 or more) trip. At that point I think most people would want to see more than 1 country in Europe as they're so different
I wonder if they took the new "Rail Baltica" through the Baltics? That was one of weaker links in the train route - I used a bus between Vilnius and Riga.
It took a bit of hacking, but most of the data was from the Eurail/Interrail Planner app. I used that book the tickets and it had an HTML export feature - showing your route on a web page - and I stripped the route from that.
> Would we do a trip like this again? It's certain a lot of travel. We weren't very spontaneous - most of the trip was planned out way in advance, along with hotels. Having 2-4 days in each place is like taking a series of minibreaks, which is delightful. But it can be exhausting. I don't want to complain that my diamond tiara is too tight, but there comes a point where there is such a thing a too much holiday.
This deserves a little more unpicking.
Something that I hear very few people discuss is that not all holidays are equal and you need to be aware of what you really need before choosing.
If you want to see new places, people, cultures, food, whatever - that's one thing. But if you're tired and need to recharge (sadly, this was often my experience in a corporate job - an endless sawblade cycle of work -> recharge -> work -> recharge) then don't go interrailing - go somewhere quiet and plan to sleep and lie around for a week or two. City breaks and events (e.g. festivals, sports, etc.) fall into this category for me - they are fun and make life better, but expect to come home hopefully happier but also tireder than when you went.
I remember that there had been a discussion about providing free Interrail tickets to all EU citizens at some age (18 or 19 maybe?), which I found a brilliant idea. I don't know whether this actually ever materialized, though.
In the middle of my doctorate I had a mini-crisis of "I'm not smart enough and I'm never going to manage this", got mononucleosis, and decided the cure was the US equivalent (the USA Rail Pass: https://www.amtrak.com/tickets/departure-rail-pass.html).
I spent weeks and weeks traveling around the US. The Amtrak system is much maligned but you get to move at a slow pace and see the country and meet people (some of which you would prefer to have not met).
I highly recommend doing it if you want to get a sense of the scale and diversity of the US.
During this trip, at the recommendation of a friend, I read (or tried to read) a number of "American classic" books which I would finish and then leave on the train for someone else to read. Catch in the Rye, Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, ... The only book I couldn't finish was, ironically, On The Road which I found utterly tedious.
I would love to take an Interrail, eg to visit France, but it's x days in one month (8 days is 292€ per person) and doesn't match my travel habits. I would prefer to make short travels everyday rather than long travels 8 days of the month.
For small trips through France you'll probably get cheaper without this pass. When I'm in vacation I do 2-3 days in a city than move on. If I exclude Milano-Lyon, I don't think I ever payed more than 40€ through France and I did Lyon, Paris, Rennes, Brest, Nantes, Bordeaux and a few other cities. The only thing is that I book way in advance.
When I returned from Germany, two months ago, the lady next to me was amazed that I payed Munchen-Verona 37€ while she did 100+.
I did Interrail when I finished studying in 1993. It was a wonderful experience. Visiting foreign countries, meeting people, experiencing crazy things. I can recommend it to everyone (especially as a young adult).
Just like with the Erasmus program, it’s a transformative experience. It immunizes you against the BS you see on the internet about countries and people, be it the hype or fear mongering kind of BS. I did Greece-Bulgaria-Turkey many years ago back in college and since can just turn blind eye to the stuff Turks may say about Greeks and vice versa with no effort.
Just doesn't trigger me, I have seen the non-touristy parts of those countries on my journey and neither the hate nor the hype rings a bell. It's one of those low-key super successful government stuff. Maybe something like that should exist on global scale.
> Maybe something like that should exist on global scale.
Would certainly change things, e.g. the US looked far less glamorous when I actually visited it*, but there's a lot more variation in certain parts of the world than between nearby parts of continental Europe, e.g. Nairobi not only had some very nice looking newly built stuff (the first pictures for the city on Google Maps seem to be glamour shots), but also this: https://www.google.de/maps/place/Nairobi,+Kenya/@-1.2442837,...
* landed at SFO, even just the literal bed in the hotel room was larger than some entire rooms I've stayed in, then I look out of the windows and think "1980s parody of Butlins in 1960" ("Hi-de-Hi!" was part of my childhood TV).
I Interrailed through Northern and Eastern Europe 20 years ago when it was mostly used by students? It was amazing and I really think it brings europeans closer together. Glad it is still around!
That wouldn't surprise me. "your worst train experience" still would, unless the person only taken trains in Europe. But the world is big, and some places are just on a different level. Ever taken a train in India? I'd like to hear those people complain about the German train experience :)
The problem with Indian rail is the eccentric booking system. All intercity trains are booked out days or weeks in advance. This is because Indian Railways deals with excess demand not by varying the prices (yield management) but rather by allowing people to cancel reservations at no cost, with a waiting-list system for latecomers. I suppose it allows poor people to travel cheaply by planning in advance, but then so would yield-management pricing. A bit of a mystery.
I guess it depends on what you expect.
If you expect the train to be on time .. yes, India is much better than Germany. ~80% trains delayed 15 min or less vs Germany 36% trains delayed 15 min or less.
It can get pretty bad when your train is delayed so you miss your connection and now you’re stranded in a random town waiting for the next train .. which is coming .. at 5am the next day. Or you can take the regional and hopefully make it in 12 hours with 3 connections instead of your original 4 hour leg. :D
If you expect a comfortable and quiet experience, then I’d agree with you, Germany can be a much nicer experience.
> I guess it depends on what you expect. If you expect the train to be on time .. yes, India is much better than Germany. ~80% trains delayed 15 min or less vs Germany 36% trains delayed 15 min or less.
I won't defend DB too much here but saying that 64% of trains in germany are delayed more than 15min is just plain wrong. The official statistics put it at 40% for 6min or more for long distance trains and 11% for regional trains in 2025[1]. I think if there would be 15min statistics, DB would be on a sinilar level to India for long-distance. Not something to be proud of, but not as desastrous as you paint it.
Though, maybe I misunderstood? Do you have sources for the indian numbers?
I remember from my interrail planning that big parts of Europe are not nice to visit due to too slow trains. I heard EU wants to fix this though
German train delays are not a big blocker because you normally plan a whole day train travel to go from A to B and being one or two hours late is not too bad.
Actually no. German trains are often late, true, but outside of that its actually very nice. There are a lots of lines and lots of collections. The only time its a bad idea is if you have a real time constraints.
Not all countries have a rail pass and not all countries offer a 100% discount pass. And even less offer a 100% discount on all trains and for non residents
> OMG.. are we really doing this? T_T It’s just the marketing term….
Quick one-off jokes that commentators on HN take way to literally and start a whole diatribe about? I mean, apparently :D Relax, it's only a joke, I have no issues with Interrail and use it myself from time to time too... Not sure I'd agree it has anything to do with European or EU identity, but anyways, I guess some do :)
> allows unlimited rail travel within one participating country, excluding the holder’s country of residence
One of the things that always bothered me because it's such an arbitrary rule and has hugely different effects for people from different countries. Like, people from Switzerland or Belgium can easily move around all over the place after a short domestic trip. For a few lucky fellers from Lichtenstein or Luxemburg the rule is practically non-existent on account of the small sizes of their countries, whereas someone from eastern France has to pay for a long-distance ticket across all of France if they want to explore the western part of Europe, and all they get is Spain and Portugal (and Andorra—do they have a train line?) with no way to visit Scandinavia, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Czechia, Slovenia or Germany without having to pay for a cross-country trip through France a second time.
Also the age limitation for European citizens whereas non-Europeans have no such limit.
I’d argue that most residents would likely have access to better offers locally.
As for the age limit, I think it just lets you get a cheaper inter-rail, which is subsidized by the DiscoverEU. AFAIK, you can always buy a full interrail pass for all countries.
And yes, non eu people can buy eurail.: but that one is much more expensive than the equivalent interrail, I think.
Maybe I’m wrong about the last one tho
I just love long rail trips, often do Switzerland-Tunis via Palermo to see my in law family. Best trip ever was Tbilisi-Zurich via Batumi, ferry to Odessa Kyiv and Vienna.
In practice, those are two different types of train travel. The former exists only in countries with a rail heritage. Where countries are genuinely trying to replace air travel with high-speed rail (credit to them, it's much more sustainable), the new train stations are alas a bit like airports for trains. You generally can't just turn up and hop on. In China you can't even get into the train station without a booking.
In the UK I've never seen a train open its doors directly to the tracks. We also have lots of warning not to cross the tracks except by bridge or tunnel.
Yeah I mean the whole "OMG I have to pre-order my vegan meals??!" thing. Back in the day we had to WALK to school and when on a trip we brought along our hard-boiled eggs and meatballs wrapped in aluminum foil.
> Yeah I mean the whole "OMG I have to pre-order my vegan meals??!"
yeah that got me . not sure specifically but it felt a bit weird. Also I appreciate this post is about the interrailing, but it felt after reading all the y did was catch trains for the duration, but no mention of anything that they did or saw in all these places.
WALK to school?! back when I were a lad, we had to CRAWL to school! what a great workout it was! and, for our packed lunches, we'd have a hard-boiled potato with a dod of ketchup, and some breadcrumbs if we were lucky, and we enjoyed it!!
In addition, there's about 2x year a 25% sale and you have a year to activate the passes.
The in southern Europe (e.g. France, Spain, Italy), required seat reservation is most common and most expensive.
I don't mind requiring seat reservations, but that it is separate from the ticket price and significant (eg 15€/seat reservation in Italy), feels like price gouging. It also feels different from say the optional (and way lower priced seat reservations in German ICE's (high speed rail)). I rather pay for a "high speed rail supplement" instead of seat reservation haha :).
I interrailed last year through Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Italy and Switzerland.
In Germany I was lucky, I only had a small delay on the way back.
Austria was exceptional in everything. On time, modern trains and facilities. I guess the food on the train was expensive and bland, but I've never seen a train where that's different.
Slovenia was the weirdest and had the most delays. Train cars for which I had seat reservations consistently didn't exist or arrive. They use old stock, but that also made it kind of fun and there were great views. I couldn't rely on the time table though.
Italy has lots of high speed rail, but required (paid) seat reservations. The problem is that for almost any medium-long distance there's no slower speed alternative. The normal speed stock is fine (can be taken to go to smaller cities) and was generally on time.
Trains in Switzerland are exceptional too. Funnily enough, I did have fairly significant delays 2/5 times.
As a Slovenian I’m always impressed when tourists take the train and make it through the country without huge delays or replacement bus service. The trains here are just awful, the main line (Koper-Ljubljana-Maribor) is the worst. Lots of construction work that never seems to end. There are still Yugoslav cars in use occasionally on some more remote lines.
> It also feels different from say the optional (and way lower priced seat reservations in German ICE's)
One has to add that most of the time when you buy a single ticket in Germany you have to (pay through the nose and) buy a ticket that is good for one specific train. Miss that train and your ticket is gone. This used to be different before the reform of the Deutsche Bahn after 1989; you used to buy a ticket for a 'communication' (connection between endpoints), not a specific train. TBF in like up to 200% of all cases Deutsche Bahn will route the wrong train in the wrong direction to a wrong station hours after the schedule in which case your Zugbindungsfahrausweis will fall back to work as a pre-reform ticket valid on all trains in that direction (sometimes even including an upgrade if an ICE is all there is, I think).
Yeah, complains about stale too-warm air on the train and complains about staff airing the train during stops. This way you can't lose an argument either way.
It's not a complaint. It's a comment. That would never happen in the UK - so it's interesting to see a different approach in different countries. It's obviously higher risk - there's no door to stop someone jumping out the train. Whether it's better or worse is left to the reader to decide.
Similarly - I was once on a train in Italy which stopped at a station with platforms shorter than the train. We discovered this when we opened the door to find a big step down onto gravel. That's not something that happens in the UK.
The biggest difference of course is that the UK has much higher train doors. So an open door without a platform is very high off the ground. Perhaps that's why we have a different culture around it.
The UK also has the third-safest railway in Europe. Some of that will be the result of a safety culture which prevents staff from overriding a door lock.
Is interrail still a thing? It was popular in Europe back in the 70s and 80s, when young people could buy a interrail pass. Many of my older relatives (now in their 60s) did that back then, but it was more or less dead when I was old enough in the early 00s. By that time, budget airlines had become a thing, and summer/party trips to Spain / Mediterranean started to dominate my peers' summer vacations.
"more or less dead when I was old enough in the early 00s"
Think it was just your peer group then. It's still very much a thing. Did it in my youth twice, once at 16 years once at 18 around 2010. I know my cousin who is >10 years younger than me also did it sometime in the last 5 years. Among my peers it was fairly common but it was not done by the majority. If I'd have to guess I'd say 10-20% did it at some point towards the end of highschool.
We also did party trips but that's just a different kind of trip and doesn't really mean the other thing is dead.
Yes, very much still a thing. We saw Interrail travellers of all ages. Lots of students going on a big adventure - but a decent number of more experienced travellers seeing the sights.
When I graduated uni in the late 2010s it was still quite popular. Budget airlines have made trips to southern Europe a lot more popular/feasible for a boozy weekend with mates, but for people who want to go backpacking for a month or two Interrail still made a lot of sense, at that time at least.
I've used Interrail every time I want to travel a longer distance across Europe by train. Spares me some of the stress of dealing with interruptions since I can often just hop on the next train. Unless it's fully booked...
I did it in 2010 and I think the majority of my friends have done it over the years. At least around that time it still seemed very much alive for people in the UK.
How do you handle seat reservation refunds? That was our most annoying experience with the Interrail app - a booking fee on top of the reservation, but little support when those trains were delayed or cancelled.
> Eurostar St Pancras is dangerously crowded and needs tearing down
Agreed. It's horrific. They need to get rid of some of the shops, knock through, and double or triple the size of the departure lounge. EES has made it even more chaotic.
We do this all the time in the UK - give too much space to retail. You can understand why though - we spend like crazy at airports and railway stations.
I did a first class Interrail earlier this year, not planning much, not staying in hostels. It was quite stressful as unsurprisingly Paris, Milan, Florence etc are popular and expensive places! Trying to chase good weather was annoying as it was a terrible winter in much Europe - we had all this flexibility but didn't want to go anywhere as everywhere was cloudy and rainy.
We ended up abandoning it half way through, when we were in southern Spain during the terrible week of multiple derailments. We aren't religious but we took that as a sign to head home
I'm still committed to trains but I wouldn't repeat the experience. I would base myself somewhere with good trains, stay somewhere a bit cheaper, and do day trips via train
Good for them. A few years ago I traveled from France to Thailand almost entirely by train (plus three buses and a boat). It's possible. You need time, not necessarily lots of money. Adventure is guaranteed.
Interrail used to be more popular years ago among young adults who had just finished high school. I did it with a few friends at the time, and it was an incredible experience of self-reliance, patience and just complete freedom.
My best memory is sleeping under the stars outside the train station of Biarritz, France, on a mild summer night next to the Atlantic Ocean. Such a refreshing sleep.
The next night we did the same, sleeping under the stars outside the train station of Modane, France, very high up in the Alps. Definitely didn't sleep as well with the cold air and weird looks.
How long was this experience? I have a sense that sleeping outdoors as part of an adventure is getting tarnished by the homelessness and mental health crisis (… which is a separate issue that can’t be appropriately addressed here).
I live in a seasonal touristy area and I have to do double-takes as to whether someone is transient, or is just backpacking.
The implication here is personal safety. The homeless individual could be unpredictable due to mental health, whereas the backpacker is likely to be neutral.
Those were the only two times of outdoor sleep in my life to date. The itinerary was Milan - Zurich - Amsterdam - Paris - Biarritz - Modane - back to Italy, sleeping in either hotels or the closest camping site to the train station.
IIRC it was a ticket for 20 days of unlimited travel, which we had to cut short as a friend did get sunburnt so badly to require a hospital stay. Ah, the joys of youth.
I think it was much more popular before budget airlines became so big in Europe. When you can fly to most European cities for < €50 at anytime of the year taking lots of weekend breaks is affordable even for students.
When you turn 18 the EU gives away a lot of free tickets. And free beats even the cheapest flight.
Great program for young people to learn more about other countries I made use of as well.
You don't see as much though, and your options are more limited still. And the options you do have are likely more touristy as a result.
As always, the most easy to reach places will have the most people. I would say that's not what you're going for in such a trip.
All true. Also: Weekend holidays involving flights are a completely unsustainable and irresponsible form of tourism given the climate crisis. Not that anyone much cares.
The best part of interailling for me was turning up to a major train station, looking at the giant departure board, choosing an enigmatic destination and just getting on the train. No booking or reservations or even planning at any point.
Is this not possible any more?
Quite a few countries (France, Spain, Italy for starters) require seat reservations in advance for any long-distance/high-speed trains now. And worse, they have a quota for passes, so even if the train has space, you might not be able to reserve a seat and therefore get on the train. A real shame as it makes it far less flexible than before.
For France, Spain, and Italy, only the inter-country and the high speed rails (TGV, Renfe, Iryo, Frecciarossa etc) require reservation?
In Switzerland, some of the touristy intra-country routes (ex: Tirano-Chur, Interlaken-Lucerne) may require (a rather expensive) reservation.
For Switzerland, that's only true for the special tourist train panoramic carriages on the route, there are normal trains running on the same routes, too, that don't require reservations.
Yes. The app makes it really easy to do that. In our last trip we did it a few times.
But, as you get older, there's a certain joy in making plans in advance.
> But, as you get older, there's a certain joy in making plans in advance.
Am I the only one who feels the opposite? I used to take great care in making plans, knowing what's up ahead, knowing what I should know and so on. Spontaneous moments like "Lets go to X" were very infrequent. Nowadays, as a Proper Adult, I much more like going places without knowing anything about them, with as little plans as possible, figuring out what the place is from the people I meet there, and only start reading about the place once I'm there.
I fall somewhere in the middle these days- I really like knowing in advance that I have a place to sleep each night and that I have a way to get there, but then just do whatever I feel like in the moment for everything else.
I never really planned in my youth, however as I'm older I have more responsibilities and planning in advance. We've just booked part of our summer family holiday for example
> however as I'm older I have more responsibilities
Yeah, same here, I guess that's why I'm opting for less planning, not more. I guess some people are just wired differently, that's what makes the world so interesting probably :)
Thanks, great to know. I hear you on at least knowing where you might sleep. Age 18-23 even this isn't that critical, when 'beach' or 'park' are viable answers.
It’s usually cheaper to book in advance. In particular if you want cheap seats on the Eurostar you have to books months in advance.
I used to do this but with Flixbuses and Ryanair. Back then one could fly from Frankfurt am Main to Milan for 15 euros.
For faster/intercity trains, it is still like that in Switzerland, Austria, Germany, The Netherlands, UK, Ireland, Denmark, Norway and most of central and eastern Europe [0]
France, Italy, Spain, Portugal & Sweden require seat reservations, as do most international services
Making reservations varies from easy to a complete pain
[0] https://www.seat61.com/how-to-use-an-interrail-pass.htm
Note that doing that in Ireland for intercity will result in you being _severely_ overcharged. Dublin to Cork is like 20 euro if you book in advance; I think if you buy the ticket in the station it’s over 60!
It’s fine for commuter stuff, of course, but I assume that’s the case everywhere.
For single countries though the Interrail not worth it, or more like make your own research
For example in Hungary we have an unlimited pass for ~53€ a month, valid on all trains and multiple public transport options (almost everything in Budapest included) https://bkk.hu/en/tickets-and-passes/prices/hungary-pass-ful...
Whereas a 3 days in 1 month Interrail pass is 79€ https://www.interrail.com/en/interrail-passes/one-country-pa...
Same for Germany, we have the 63€/Month Deutschlandticket. It's only valid for regional trains (but also all local buses, subway and tram systems) though, so for long distance travel you have to switch trains a lot.
That's a very recent addition though. And a heavily subsidized one at that.
I think this would be more for people that are doing a many week (3 or more) trip. At that point I think most people would want to see more than 1 country in Europe as they're so different
Same for Luxembourg, except it is all (train, bus, tram) free. You can only see so much though.
Interrail also includes a travel day to and from your home country though
It has that name for a reason though
Did a trip like this a few years ago. Highly recommended, if you have the opportunity!
Wanted to do a write-up like this, but only got as far as the map,
https://kenschutte.com/europe-2023/
I wonder if they took the new "Rail Baltica" through the Baltics? That was one of weaker links in the train route - I used a bus between Vilnius and Riga.
its still in progress https://www.railbaltica.org/progress-today/
Did you use some specific tools to collect the data to be displayed on that map?
It took a bit of hacking, but most of the data was from the Eurail/Interrail Planner app. I used that book the tickets and it had an HTML export feature - showing your route on a web page - and I stripped the route from that.
> Would we do a trip like this again? It's certain a lot of travel. We weren't very spontaneous - most of the trip was planned out way in advance, along with hotels. Having 2-4 days in each place is like taking a series of minibreaks, which is delightful. But it can be exhausting. I don't want to complain that my diamond tiara is too tight, but there comes a point where there is such a thing a too much holiday.
This deserves a little more unpicking.
Something that I hear very few people discuss is that not all holidays are equal and you need to be aware of what you really need before choosing.
If you want to see new places, people, cultures, food, whatever - that's one thing. But if you're tired and need to recharge (sadly, this was often my experience in a corporate job - an endless sawblade cycle of work -> recharge -> work -> recharge) then don't go interrailing - go somewhere quiet and plan to sleep and lie around for a week or two. City breaks and events (e.g. festivals, sports, etc.) fall into this category for me - they are fun and make life better, but expect to come home hopefully happier but also tireder than when you went.
I remember that there had been a discussion about providing free Interrail tickets to all EU citizens at some age (18 or 19 maybe?), which I found a brilliant idea. I don't know whether this actually ever materialized, though.
Yes
https://youth.europa.eu/discovereu_en
Cost breakdown?
EDIT: found it https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48889922
In the middle of my doctorate I had a mini-crisis of "I'm not smart enough and I'm never going to manage this", got mononucleosis, and decided the cure was the US equivalent (the USA Rail Pass: https://www.amtrak.com/tickets/departure-rail-pass.html).
I spent weeks and weeks traveling around the US. The Amtrak system is much maligned but you get to move at a slow pace and see the country and meet people (some of which you would prefer to have not met).
I highly recommend doing it if you want to get a sense of the scale and diversity of the US.
During this trip, at the recommendation of a friend, I read (or tried to read) a number of "American classic" books which I would finish and then leave on the train for someone else to read. Catch in the Rye, Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, ... The only book I couldn't finish was, ironically, On The Road which I found utterly tedious.
I would love to take an Interrail, eg to visit France, but it's x days in one month (8 days is 292€ per person) and doesn't match my travel habits. I would prefer to make short travels everyday rather than long travels 8 days of the month.
Edit: global passes let you travel everyday of your pass, with passes of up to 3 months: https://www.interrail.com/en/interrail-passes/global-pass
For small trips through France you'll probably get cheaper without this pass. When I'm in vacation I do 2-3 days in a city than move on. If I exclude Milano-Lyon, I don't think I ever payed more than 40€ through France and I did Lyon, Paris, Rennes, Brest, Nantes, Bordeaux and a few other cities. The only thing is that I book way in advance.
When I returned from Germany, two months ago, the lady next to me was amazed that I payed Munchen-Verona 37€ while she did 100+.
I did Interrail when I finished studying in 1993. It was a wonderful experience. Visiting foreign countries, meeting people, experiencing crazy things. I can recommend it to everyone (especially as a young adult).
Just like with the Erasmus program, it’s a transformative experience. It immunizes you against the BS you see on the internet about countries and people, be it the hype or fear mongering kind of BS. I did Greece-Bulgaria-Turkey many years ago back in college and since can just turn blind eye to the stuff Turks may say about Greeks and vice versa with no effort.
Just doesn't trigger me, I have seen the non-touristy parts of those countries on my journey and neither the hate nor the hype rings a bell. It's one of those low-key super successful government stuff. Maybe something like that should exist on global scale.
> Maybe something like that should exist on global scale.
Would certainly change things, e.g. the US looked far less glamorous when I actually visited it*, but there's a lot more variation in certain parts of the world than between nearby parts of continental Europe, e.g. Nairobi not only had some very nice looking newly built stuff (the first pictures for the city on Google Maps seem to be glamour shots), but also this: https://www.google.de/maps/place/Nairobi,+Kenya/@-1.2442837,...
* landed at SFO, even just the literal bed in the hotel room was larger than some entire rooms I've stayed in, then I look out of the windows and think "1980s parody of Butlins in 1960" ("Hi-de-Hi!" was part of my childhood TV).
I Interrailed through Northern and Eastern Europe 20 years ago when it was mostly used by students? It was amazing and I really think it brings europeans closer together. Glad it is still around!
Prediction: Germany is going to be your worst train experience.
Prediction: You haven't trained a lot outside of Europe if you think the training experience in Germany would be "your worst train experience".
Worst during the interrail trip. It was for me and it wasn't even close.
> Worst during the interrail trip.
That wouldn't surprise me. "your worst train experience" still would, unless the person only taken trains in Europe. But the world is big, and some places are just on a different level. Ever taken a train in India? I'd like to hear those people complain about the German train experience :)
The problem with Indian rail is the eccentric booking system. All intercity trains are booked out days or weeks in advance. This is because Indian Railways deals with excess demand not by varying the prices (yield management) but rather by allowing people to cancel reservations at no cost, with a waiting-list system for latecomers. I suppose it allows poor people to travel cheaply by planning in advance, but then so would yield-management pricing. A bit of a mystery.
I guess it depends on what you expect. If you expect the train to be on time .. yes, India is much better than Germany. ~80% trains delayed 15 min or less vs Germany 36% trains delayed 15 min or less. It can get pretty bad when your train is delayed so you miss your connection and now you’re stranded in a random town waiting for the next train .. which is coming .. at 5am the next day. Or you can take the regional and hopefully make it in 12 hours with 3 connections instead of your original 4 hour leg. :D
If you expect a comfortable and quiet experience, then I’d agree with you, Germany can be a much nicer experience.
So it’s really about what you value, I guess
> I guess it depends on what you expect. If you expect the train to be on time .. yes, India is much better than Germany. ~80% trains delayed 15 min or less vs Germany 36% trains delayed 15 min or less.
I won't defend DB too much here but saying that 64% of trains in germany are delayed more than 15min is just plain wrong. The official statistics put it at 40% for 6min or more for long distance trains and 11% for regional trains in 2025[1]. I think if there would be 15min statistics, DB would be on a sinilar level to India for long-distance. Not something to be proud of, but not as desastrous as you paint it. Though, maybe I misunderstood? Do you have sources for the indian numbers?
[1] https://eisenbahn.de/geramond-vgb/jahresbilanz-2025-puenktli...
doesn't it say quite a bit about the german train system when you have to compare it to india to make it seem not that bad?
Not at all, India is great at many things, I think this comment might say more about you than what you replied to or trying to say :)
I remember from my interrail planning that big parts of Europe are not nice to visit due to too slow trains. I heard EU wants to fix this though
German train delays are not a big blocker because you normally plan a whole day train travel to go from A to B and being one or two hours late is not too bad.
Actually no. German trains are often late, true, but outside of that its actually very nice. There are a lots of lines and lots of collections. The only time its a bad idea is if you have a real time constraints.
I try and avoid connecting trains. With each connection you only have about a 50:50 chance of success.
But the problem is: everybody doing a trip with a transfer has real-time constraints.
With Interrail, that is doable. You’ll have to mostly plan for overnight stays in large cities, but that’s what most Interrail users want to, anyways.
Well overnight stays in small towns and sleeper trains are worth experiencing on Interrail too!
Yeah saw that one coming from a mile.
Germany is quite predictable compared to some other countries.
It is predictably bad. I think I'm 5/5 for my last few trips with big delays or even cancellations of legs.
I wonder how much more exhausting could have been if they decided to go much southern in Italy, where the service can be much more degraded
I went on my first Interrail trip last year. It was a single country trip though. Can absolutely recommend it!
Is it Interrail if it's just in one country? Isn't that just a normal rail pass then? :P
Not all countries have a rail pass and not all countries offer a 100% discount pass. And even less offer a 100% discount on all trains and for non residents
Right, but then "Inter" = "Borrowed from Latin inter- (“between, amid”), a form of prepositional inter (“between”)".
Seems more like parent did Intrarail to me.
OMG.. are we really doing this? T_T It’s just the marketing term….
“Interrail One Country Pass allows unlimited rail travel within one participating country, excluding the holder’s country of residence.”
It’s a way of reinforcing eu identity.. they call it interrail because it connects you to other cultures or societies or whatever you want to call it
> OMG.. are we really doing this? T_T It’s just the marketing term….
Quick one-off jokes that commentators on HN take way to literally and start a whole diatribe about? I mean, apparently :D Relax, it's only a joke, I have no issues with Interrail and use it myself from time to time too... Not sure I'd agree it has anything to do with European or EU identity, but anyways, I guess some do :)
Sorry you're being downvoted for your harmless and jovial asides. Really, downvoting is almost always toxic IMO, I wish HN would turn it off.
> allows unlimited rail travel within one participating country, excluding the holder’s country of residence
One of the things that always bothered me because it's such an arbitrary rule and has hugely different effects for people from different countries. Like, people from Switzerland or Belgium can easily move around all over the place after a short domestic trip. For a few lucky fellers from Lichtenstein or Luxemburg the rule is practically non-existent on account of the small sizes of their countries, whereas someone from eastern France has to pay for a long-distance ticket across all of France if they want to explore the western part of Europe, and all they get is Spain and Portugal (and Andorra—do they have a train line?) with no way to visit Scandinavia, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Czechia, Slovenia or Germany without having to pay for a cross-country trip through France a second time.
Also the age limitation for European citizens whereas non-Europeans have no such limit.
I’d argue that most residents would likely have access to better offers locally. As for the age limit, I think it just lets you get a cheaper inter-rail, which is subsidized by the DiscoverEU. AFAIK, you can always buy a full interrail pass for all countries. And yes, non eu people can buy eurail.: but that one is much more expensive than the equivalent interrail, I think. Maybe I’m wrong about the last one tho
I just love long rail trips, often do Switzerland-Tunis via Palermo to see my in law family. Best trip ever was Tbilisi-Zurich via Batumi, ferry to Odessa Kyiv and Vienna.
Train travel is so great, even in the crappy trains. Just turn up at the station, sit down, and enjoy the sights. You don't even need a seatbelt.
I wish to see high speed maglev transportation to supplant air travel in my lifetime.
In practice, those are two different types of train travel. The former exists only in countries with a rail heritage. Where countries are genuinely trying to replace air travel with high-speed rail (credit to them, it's much more sustainable), the new train stations are alas a bit like airports for trains. You generally can't just turn up and hop on. In China you can't even get into the train station without a booking.
Or maybe just change our habits, travel less and slower.
"The crew just opened the doors to let a breeze in - very little health-and-safety culture here!"
That's a bit presumptuous...
In the UK I've never seen a train open its doors directly to the tracks. We also have lots of warning not to cross the tracks except by bridge or tunnel.
"Was a little strange seeing cables dripping down from the ceiling"
The whole text is full of these weird takes on the most banal things.
What's banal to you is exotic to me.
I've seen tourists in London marvel at the most commonplace thing - and I think that's delightful.
I love to see tourists in my American city marvel at squirrels.
Yeah I mean the whole "OMG I have to pre-order my vegan meals??!" thing. Back in the day we had to WALK to school and when on a trip we brought along our hard-boiled eggs and meatballs wrapped in aluminum foil.
> Yeah I mean the whole "OMG I have to pre-order my vegan meals??!"
yeah that got me . not sure specifically but it felt a bit weird. Also I appreciate this post is about the interrailing, but it felt after reading all the y did was catch trains for the duration, but no mention of anything that they did or saw in all these places.
WALK to school?! back when I were a lad, we had to CRAWL to school! what a great workout it was! and, for our packed lunches, we'd have a hard-boiled potato with a dod of ketchup, and some breadcrumbs if we were lucky, and we enjoyed it!!
Any estimate on how much would the trip have cost? Just Interrail price
The passes were about €500 each for first class. Each reservation was €3-€15. The overnight ferry was about €100 each.
In addition, there's about 2x year a 25% sale and you have a year to activate the passes.
The in southern Europe (e.g. France, Spain, Italy), required seat reservation is most common and most expensive.
I don't mind requiring seat reservations, but that it is separate from the ticket price and significant (eg 15€/seat reservation in Italy), feels like price gouging. It also feels different from say the optional (and way lower priced seat reservations in German ICE's (high speed rail)). I rather pay for a "high speed rail supplement" instead of seat reservation haha :).
I interrailed last year through Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Italy and Switzerland.
In Germany I was lucky, I only had a small delay on the way back.
Austria was exceptional in everything. On time, modern trains and facilities. I guess the food on the train was expensive and bland, but I've never seen a train where that's different.
Slovenia was the weirdest and had the most delays. Train cars for which I had seat reservations consistently didn't exist or arrive. They use old stock, but that also made it kind of fun and there were great views. I couldn't rely on the time table though.
Italy has lots of high speed rail, but required (paid) seat reservations. The problem is that for almost any medium-long distance there's no slower speed alternative. The normal speed stock is fine (can be taken to go to smaller cities) and was generally on time.
Trains in Switzerland are exceptional too. Funnily enough, I did have fairly significant delays 2/5 times.
As a Slovenian I’m always impressed when tourists take the train and make it through the country without huge delays or replacement bus service. The trains here are just awful, the main line (Koper-Ljubljana-Maribor) is the worst. Lots of construction work that never seems to end. There are still Yugoslav cars in use occasionally on some more remote lines.
> It also feels different from say the optional (and way lower priced seat reservations in German ICE's)
One has to add that most of the time when you buy a single ticket in Germany you have to (pay through the nose and) buy a ticket that is good for one specific train. Miss that train and your ticket is gone. This used to be different before the reform of the Deutsche Bahn after 1989; you used to buy a ticket for a 'communication' (connection between endpoints), not a specific train. TBF in like up to 200% of all cases Deutsche Bahn will route the wrong train in the wrong direction to a wrong station hours after the schedule in which case your Zugbindungsfahrausweis will fall back to work as a pre-reform ticket valid on all trains in that direction (sometimes even including an upgrade if an ICE is all there is, I think).
Wow that's a fantastic deal. I seem to remember it was about £280 in the 90s for standard class, 30 day unlimited.
TIL there is a Stockholm to Helsinki ferry.
I’ve done Helsinki Talinn and that was great.
> very little health and safety
There is this thing called “common sense” :)
Yeah, complains about stale too-warm air on the train and complains about staff airing the train during stops. This way you can't lose an argument either way.
It's not a complaint. It's a comment. That would never happen in the UK - so it's interesting to see a different approach in different countries. It's obviously higher risk - there's no door to stop someone jumping out the train. Whether it's better or worse is left to the reader to decide.
Similarly - I was once on a train in Italy which stopped at a station with platforms shorter than the train. We discovered this when we opened the door to find a big step down onto gravel. That's not something that happens in the UK.
The biggest difference of course is that the UK has much higher train doors. So an open door without a platform is very high off the ground. Perhaps that's why we have a different culture around it.
The UK also has the third-safest railway in Europe. Some of that will be the result of a safety culture which prevents staff from overriding a door lock.
https://international-railway-safety-council.com/safety-stat...
Is interrail still a thing? It was popular in Europe back in the 70s and 80s, when young people could buy a interrail pass. Many of my older relatives (now in their 60s) did that back then, but it was more or less dead when I was old enough in the early 00s. By that time, budget airlines had become a thing, and summer/party trips to Spain / Mediterranean started to dominate my peers' summer vacations.
"more or less dead when I was old enough in the early 00s"
Think it was just your peer group then. It's still very much a thing. Did it in my youth twice, once at 16 years once at 18 around 2010. I know my cousin who is >10 years younger than me also did it sometime in the last 5 years. Among my peers it was fairly common but it was not done by the majority. If I'd have to guess I'd say 10-20% did it at some point towards the end of highschool.
We also did party trips but that's just a different kind of trip and doesn't really mean the other thing is dead.
No, I just imagined the trip…
Yes, very much still a thing. We saw Interrail travellers of all ages. Lots of students going on a big adventure - but a decent number of more experienced travellers seeing the sights.
When I graduated uni in the late 2010s it was still quite popular. Budget airlines have made trips to southern Europe a lot more popular/feasible for a boozy weekend with mates, but for people who want to go backpacking for a month or two Interrail still made a lot of sense, at that time at least.
I've used Interrail every time I want to travel a longer distance across Europe by train. Spares me some of the stress of dealing with interruptions since I can often just hop on the next train. Unless it's fully booked...
I did it in 2010 and I think the majority of my friends have done it over the years. At least around that time it still seemed very much alive for people in the UK.
Interrail is sometimes cheaper, specially as a student. Otherwise it’s usually still cheaper if you want to go to multiple stops
746,000 Interrail passes sold in 2024
https://www.interrail.com/en/magazine/did-you-know/rail-reca...
Self promotion, support a long time HN reader and get your pass via https://allaboard.eu/eurail or https://allaboard.eu/interrail
It’s actually more affordable via us, as prices are net and we do free refunds. Loosing the Stripe fee but it’s worth it.
How do you handle seat reservation refunds? That was our most annoying experience with the Interrail app - a booking fee on top of the reservation, but little support when those trains were delayed or cancelled.
We do sell seat reservations (https://allaboard.eu/book) and some are refundable but most are not. Depending on the operator.
Delay or cancellation compensation is different. You can then contact our support and we’ll help with making that claim.
> Eurostar St Pancras is dangerously crowded and needs tearing down
Agreed. It's horrific. They need to get rid of some of the shops, knock through, and double or triple the size of the departure lounge. EES has made it even more chaotic.
We do this all the time in the UK - give too much space to retail. You can understand why though - we spend like crazy at airports and railway stations.
I did a first class Interrail earlier this year, not planning much, not staying in hostels. It was quite stressful as unsurprisingly Paris, Milan, Florence etc are popular and expensive places! Trying to chase good weather was annoying as it was a terrible winter in much Europe - we had all this flexibility but didn't want to go anywhere as everywhere was cloudy and rainy.
We ended up abandoning it half way through, when we were in southern Spain during the terrible week of multiple derailments. We aren't religious but we took that as a sign to head home
I'm still committed to trains but I wouldn't repeat the experience. I would base myself somewhere with good trains, stay somewhere a bit cheaper, and do day trips via train