InterRail Forum

[Peter]

FIRST InterRail tour - STEP-BY-STEP guide


To get a first impression, to have a little guide on "how to plan and start your first InterRail tour", just read here.

Persons with an European passport or a stay longer than 6 months in Europe can travel by INTERRAIL.
All others have to buy an EURAIL ticket which is nearly the same like InterRail:
www.eurailer.net


1) Think about the cities, regions, countries you want to see. Europe is very big. You can not do it in one tour. You will get a lot of impressions. And you still have some more years to travel. Visit a lot - but not too much.

2) Use Google-maps to get an overview of cities which are on your way. Fix some destinations you definitely want to see. But don't be fixed to much in detail. Keep a bit of freedom. Maybe you meet other travellers in trains or hostels and you join them for some days. That's the InterRail feeling: "to be free".

3) Calculate the number of days you want to travel or you will need to travel the journey you selected. In most cases the INTERRAIL GLOBAL passes will be the best solution for you when travelling more than 2 countries. These passes are available in:
- "5 travel days within a period of 10 days" (5 in 10)
- "10 travel days within a period of 22 days" (10 in 22)
- "15 days continuous"
- "22 days continuous"
- "1 month continuous"

To buy official InterRail tickets send to you by 24/48h express and secure mail on business days - and at the same time to support our InterRail project, the forum and all the work - buy your ticket via:
www.railpass-shop.com

Interesting for the "XX days in YY days" tickets: ONE travel day is from 0001h in the morning until 2359h at night and you can use as much trains in as much countries as you want. Fill in the travel days within the period the pass is valid manually when ever you need them.
There is a special nice rule for night trains:
1900h-rule-night-train-t1024.html
Note that you can not use the InterRail pass in your country of residence - you only get a reduction:
http://www.interrail.net/english/countr ... idence.php

4) Use the route planer to find out connections:
rail-timetable-europe-train-schedule-t1025.html

5) Have a look at the country topics of this forum to find special city-to-city connections and to get the information about night-trains:
interrail-countries-f54.html

6) Some trains require supplements - check it and avoid them if you want to save money:
http://www.interrail.net/english/supplements.php
Supplements for night trains are listed at the country topics here at the forum. Always calculate like this: using a night train save the night in the hostel.

7) If you know the exact dates, book your hostels in advance... but not too much - to stay flexible. For example Hostelworld is a good booking website even with rankings.

8) Concerning reservations for special trains like for example night trains read here:
reservation-supplement-european-train-t1561.html

9) And if you like this forum and website, support it: buy your official InterRail ticket via:
http://www.railpass-shop.com
The delivery is by secure mail and 24-hours-express in the UK, 48-hours-express in the rest of Europe on business days. Thank you.


Peter