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rubenfreitas
Traveller
9 comments

Posted 10 years ago

Hello everybody.
Glad to know that such a help exists on the matter of rail travelling. I'm new to all this subject, and me and some of my friends are intending to make a rail trip to Amesterdam but we have a couple of difficulties because it's the first time for us so we have no idea on where to start, where to go, where to stay and so on.
Theres another matter that it's our budget (In total, we have like 1500€ to spend for 3 persons. Note that this money it's to be used on trip costs, food, everything included let's say).
We are planning to do this from 1st August until 15th August if the budget let us do so, if not, then from 1st until 8-9th August.

Thank you all in advance for the patience to read this.

Regards, Rúben Freitas.

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Peter
Traveller
9333 comments

replied 10 years ago

Hi Rúben.
Amsterdam and Paris on your way are expensive cities.
Did you had already a look on hostel prices:
[ux]https://rail.shop/bookingcom[/ux] / [ux]https://rail.shop/hostelworld[/ux]
You have several options...
Portugal - Barcelona - Little Yellow Train - Nice - free Alps crossing ( [u]https://rail.cc/blog/zurich-milano-albula-bernina/[/u] ) - Berlin - Hamburg - Amsterdam - Paris - home
On this route you pay extra for Lisbon-Madrid-Barcelona and Paris-Portugal. See information in the train schedules: [u]https://rail.cc/en/search-interrail-route[/u]
And please buy your official Interrail passes via the railcc partner link [ux]https://rail.shop/interrail[/ux] to support the forum and the free information on the railcc website. Thank you.
Peter :)

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rubenfreitas
Traveller
9 comments

replied 10 years ago

Hi Peter,
Thanks for the reply.
Im checking on that matter of the hostel, found some quite cheap in fact.
Some quick questions:
- Those numbers on the train schedules are for the days (like 1=monday, 2=tuesday, and so on) right?
- The taxes applied on some trains are paid at the time of the departure, right?

I'm now doing a little excell file with the trains to catch and time, do you think you can give me a feedback about it then?

Sure, i'm at favor to support such a good cause as the one from this site. It has all information needed. :D

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Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

replied 10 years ago

Hi!

- Yes, 1 = Monday, 7 = Sunday
- No, you have to pay and get reservations in advance; this is usually done at a ticket desk at stations, for some trains it is also possible on ticket machines or online.


Flo 8)

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rubenfreitas
Traveller
9 comments

replied 10 years ago

[quote]Hi!

- Yes, 1 = Monday, 7 = Sunday
- No, you have to pay and get reservations in advance; this is usually done at a ticket desk at stations, for some trains it is also possible on ticket machines or online.


Flo 8) [/quote]

Thank you.

Other question, at a point in the trip I will have to catch a train from Perpignan to Nice, can i take this one [u]https://rail.cc/blog/barcelona-marseille-nice-train/[/u] from Perpignan to Nice then right?
And then from Nice, how do I catch the free Alps crossing to get to Berlin?

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Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

replied 10 years ago

Yeah, you can take that connection.
To look for other detailed schedules, use a schedule planner: [u]https://rail.cc/en/search-interrail-route[/u]

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rubenfreitas
Traveller
9 comments

replied 10 years ago

Ok, so I made this myself but I would be much gratefull if someone could confirm as I may have missed some point or so.
I created a excell file.

www.dropbox.com/s/lqo4naff62zr9tw/Inter.xls

Much thanks guys for your help so far.

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Peter
Traveller
9333 comments

replied 10 years ago

Hi.
Please post schedules here in the forum and not in external links - as I won't open external links and files.
Peter :)

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rubenfreitas
Traveller
9 comments

replied 10 years ago

I don't know how to work with the schedule site that's why I made this one by hand. :|

EDIT: Still, here is my hand made schedule.

LINK TIMED OUT

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rubenfreitas
Traveller
9 comments

replied 10 years ago

Got more one question, the departures and arrivals are based in which timezone?

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Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

replied 10 years ago

Hi!

Timings are in local time.

Your route looks good - you are going to travel a lot on each day I see and virtually travelling in one go through to Amsterdam. :)

Do you have bought all reservations marked Y already? I am curious about the 9€ reservation for Perpignan - Barcelona since this is an AVE/TGV Elipsos train coming from Spain.

You might take a break in Alp Grüm and/or Ospizio Bernina when travelling from Tirano to St Moritz to enjoy the mountain scenery. St Moritz itself is not that interesting to spend almost the whole day there. You could also extend your stay in Chur which has a nice old town. On the other hand, if you do not want to visit Chur, you could leave the train from St Moritz to Chur in Reichenau-Tamins already and get a train to Disentis/Mustér there which would get you to Disentis one hour earlier.
For Brig - Zürich no reservation is needed. If you want to enjoy another line through the Alps use a regional train from Brig via the Lötschberg to Spiez instead and change there to Zürich.

Where are you going to sleep?


Flo 8)

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rubenfreitas
Traveller
9 comments

replied 10 years ago

Hi Flo,

So it means that the schedule times are based at my timezone (London, Dublin in this case), right? So i can totally trust on my watch to dont be late without changing the time? xD

Yea, as the time is short, we are trying to spend most time on the places we focus visiting. :D

About the route I have made some changes:

LINK TIMED OUT

Those 2 days that say sleep probably we wont. Might go all night stand xD As for the stay in Amsterdam we will camp or meet a friend of ours that lives there.

Regards,
Rúben Freitas.

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Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

replied 10 years ago

No, local time means local time in each country. ;)

I cant read the new image, sorry, too small...

Oh and please consider:
To support the free information and the forum on railcc, please be fair and buy your official Interrail pass via our railcc partner link: [ux]https://rail.shop/interrail[/ux]
Thank you! :)

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rubenfreitas
Traveller
9 comments

replied 10 years ago

Oh ok, but anyway the schedule from the site its made that if, for example, we depart from barcelona at 8:00am goin to paris, the arrive time it's already changed according to the destiny timezone or i still need to make the conversion? (sorry to be such a pain but I have to make sure that I understand everything clearlly so I dont mess up my journey). :os

Just press the image and the original size will appear.

I will buy from railcc, i'm just waiting for the end of the month so I will have money to do so. :D

The reservations then I can make them too already, for those that it's possible to do online, correct?

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Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

replied 10 years ago

Timings are in local time so you only have to adjust your clock when going to another time zone. If you travel from one time zone to another, the departure and arrival times are always stated according to the local time zone, for instance:

[u]https://rail.cc/en/train/paris-to-lisbon[/u]

Timings from Paris to Ciudad Rodrigo are in the local time zone (UTC +1) as are timings from Vilar Formoso to Lisboa (UTC).

Oh, I am sure it did not work before...even more ambitious plan than before! :D
I would not recommend to plan with the quite tight connections in Belgrade in both ways...you have the risk of missing the connections.

Thanks for supporting - you could already make reservations, but if you are going to do so via [ux]https://rail.shop/acprail/reservation[/ux] I would recommend to wait until ordering your ticket to save on shipping costs.

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rubenfreitas
Traveller
9 comments

replied 10 years ago

Oh great, understood now. :)

Oh, 1 hour of waiting in Belgrade connections it's not enough? :|

I was checking some things... some reservations I will have to do at the local ticket line as I understood, right?
I was trying to check reservation for example from Paris to Mennheim and at the schedules it said I had to pay 13€ for fee and in the reservation link you sent me its asking for 17.5€. Why the 4.5€ plus?

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Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

replied 10 years ago

The 1 hour in Belgrade cannot be enough at some times...you cannot really preview that though.

Reservations via rail.shop/acprail/reservation can be more expensive due to extra handling fees. Please note that this is a service provided by our partner ACP and railcc does not get anything from these sales.
Standard way to make reservations is at the ticket desk of a station.

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rubenfreitas
Traveller
9 comments

replied 10 years ago

Zagreb to Belgrade has only one train direct so I will have to go and risk it.

I understand Flo and I respect that, but I will have to do the reservations at the ticket desk then. Maybe just do the reservations for those that i have very less spare time to be going to the desk take care of. I will be doing the trip with a low budget so I need to save has much money as I can. Still, the Interrail Pass I will be buying from here, that's a sure.

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Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

replied 10 years ago

Like I said, railcc does not get money through selling reservations through rail.shop/acprail/reservation - it is just an extra service we are able to offer.
We rely on people buying their actual InterRail tickets through [ux]https://rail.shop/interrail[/ux] though, so thanks for supporting. ;)

Regarding Belgrade...I know, you have to alternative to get from Zagreb to Belgrade and have to risk the connection.