skywayshighways
Traveller
13 comments
Posted 10 years ago
Hello all, my family is planning a trip to Istanbul, and afterwards I'd like to explore Europe using the Interrail pass for 2 weeks (although I could push it to a few days extra).
I might be too ambitious here, but in those 2 weeks I'd like to travel from Istanbul to Budapest, Vienna, Prague, Berlin and Amsterdam, then back home to the UK. I'm keeping it quite loose for now as I know the list seems exhaustive for just 2 weeks.
For the Istanbul to Budapest via Sofia/Belgrade route, I've noticed there are many closures and bus transfers. Can anyone offer any insight into my options here? Should I avoid the bus-train-bus-train etc route from Istanbul and get a flight to Budapest instead?
Ideally I'd like to make the most of my Interrail pass and experience a train across Eastern Europe, but I'm not sure how likely this is in the short time I have.
Thanks for any help!
nltrainer
Traveller
1404 comments
IR is a bad choice-money wise for this. IF you can prebook and thus tie you in, it can be done lots cheaper. But then most UKers seem not to worry too much about overspending, seeing the regular Qs here.\Its right with many rail-replace buses (as BR/ATOC also delights in anyweekend), at least till end of year. If thats worrysome-up to you. There are also many Direct and in fact much more comfy buses IST-Sofia/Bucuresti. and around. In general trains via Serbije are in dire state-suffering from endless delays. No money to keep tracks in shape.
But as such the trip is perfectly feasible: as a rough estimate you need about 3 overniters (the first) plus 3 daytrips and the short BP-Wien trip.
Flites IST-East EUR are not that many-they are a plenty to all those towns with millions of Turkish labourers. WIZZair is like the Ryan for East-Eur, and many TR airlines serve IST- like pegasus, sunair, corendon. Due to the general low fares locally, IR is a bad choice for East-Europe.
skywayshighways
Traveller
13 comments
Hello nltrainer, thank you for your informative response!
I think I might take a flight from Istanbul to Budapest and work from there as I have a limited time... money is not a big issue right now if I am honest, but of course I would like to do the trip sensibly.
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Hej!
Do you already have anything fixed?
In fact the train trip from Istanbul to Sofia/Bucharest currently is very complicated and tiresome including long distances covered by rail replacement buses.
If there are reasonable offers for a flight from Istanbul to Bucharest you could take a night train from there to Budapest (or make a stop at Brasov first and take a night train from there) - this would be the perfect experience of a Eastern European night train, including sleepers and a restaurant car. :)
The remaining route can be done very easily with direct trains covering each leg of the trip.
InterRail could be an interesting option however you might also go with regular tickets which you can buy online in advance for cheaper fares.
Flo 8)
skywayshighways
Traveller
13 comments
Hello flo, thanks for the helpful reply.
I haven't got anything fixed - I was hoping to be quite flexible with how long I spent in each city/country which is why I was thinking of the interrail option! I actually had a bad experience of booking things in advance when I went to USA - ended up spending a lot of time in places I didn't really want to stay in, and vice versa for the places I liked.
So I was hoping for a bit more flexibility this time with the interrail pass, but maybe I'll have a quick look at what is cheaper too. That would be sensible :)
Thanks all again for your help.
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Well...the IR pass would give you a certain flexibility, however it has best value on a trip where you do not spend too long at each place (2/3 days in average)...but since you are limited to a 2 week timeframe (this is including Istanbul?) a 5in10 IR pass could be an option.
If you take a flight to Istanbul - Budapest, you would need just 4 of the 5 travel days to cover all train trips to Amsterdam and would have one extra day remaining for a spontaneous day trip or an extra destination.
Also, if you would want to include a classic eastern European night train, you could take the Bucuresti - Budapest train: [ux]https://rail.cc/en/interrail-night-train/bucharest-brasov-arad-budapest/euronight-472-ister/121[/u]
However, you would then need to buy an extra ticket from Bucharest to Busteni, the first stop after 1900 (not yet shown in the above timetable, sorry) to make use of the 1900 rule from there: [u]https://rail.cc/en/interrail-night-train[/u]
However, there are currently no online reservations possible for this train at rail.shop/acprail/reservation so I dont know if you feel comfortable having to rely on gettig reservations locally just a few days before the departure.
If you would fly straight to Budapest, you could still use night trains on your route if you wish, however you would then have to rearrange the order in which you want to visit each city. My personal recommendation would be either Wien - Berlin or Praha - Amsterdam, however the latter is said to be cut back to Köln from the timetable change in December and you would again have troubles with the 1900 rule.
You might also think about adding Krakow to use your 5th travel day.
If you want to compare with regular train tickets, please have a look at our affiliate links:
Budapest - Wien: [u]https://rail.shop/mav[/ux]
Wien - Praha: [ux]https://rail.shop/oebb[/ux] or [ux]https://rail.shop/bahn[/ux] if you would want to book a through ticket to Berlin with a break of journey in Praha (overnight stay possible, cheaper overall fare possible compared to two separate tickets for each journey)
Praha - Berlin: [u]https://rail.shop/cd[/ux]
Berlin - Amsterdam: [ux]https://rail.shop/bahn[/ux]
If you choose InterRail, please buy off our affiliate link as well: [ux]https://rail.shop/interrail[/ux]
Thank you - if you have further questions, just ask. :)
Flo 8)
skywayshighways
Traveller
13 comments
Hi Flo,
Thanks ever so much for your thorough reply - much appreciated. I have put these plans on hold for now as fortunately I was offered a new job (!) so my holiday times are a bit shorter. But I will certainly follow this when I plan this in the future.
Thanks!!
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Congrats on the new job! :D
No prob, if you will have time for a longer trip, just come back to this topic.