thomaskenc
Traveller
3 comments
Posted 9 years ago
Hi all! :)
My girlfriend and I are planning a 1-month interrail trip this summer. We would like to visit both Madrid and Greece.
This is a rough plan for how we see our trip could be - do you guys have any experience and advice, or other travel plans similar to this one?
Is it possible?
Copenhagen
Amsterdam
Paris (or something else on the way)
Madrid
(if possible Portugal as well)
Cannes (or something else on the way)
Croatia
Greece
Budapest
Prague
Berlin
Copenhagen
Looking forward to hear your advice!
All the best,
Tom
Wouter
Traveller
102 comments
Hey there,
There are alot of routes pre made. Have a look around with the train routes.
Copenhagen - Amsterdam isn't more being served with the CNL. Here are some other connections:
[u]https://rail.cc/en/train/copenhagen-to-amsterdam[/u]
One Copenhagen (ICE) via Hamburg (IC) and Osnabruck (IC) to Amsterdam.
If there's time, make sure you see some more than Amsterdam only. Cities as Utrecht and Rotterdam are worth it as well :)
To get from Amsterdam to Paris there are several ways as well.
[u]https://rail.cc/en/train/amsterdam-to-paris[/u]
The first possibility is, logical, to take the TGV, Amsterdam - Rotterdam - Antwerp - Brussels - Paris. (Reservation required. (15-25euro)). This is the fastest way for sure.
To have some more fun traveling there, there are ways to get there in one day by only IC trains.
Melona
Traveller
10 comments
Hi,
Your route seems okay but it might be a bit difficult at some points. What pass do you want to get? You could get a 10 in 22 days pass, but that would mean staying a bit shorter than a full month (or you would have to buy seperate tickets for the beginning or end of your trip). A 30 day pass is a bit more expensive but would give you a bit more flexibility and options.
I think visiting these countries within a month is quite ambitious, because you have some very long train rides and putting extra cities in between will make your trip longer. I will try to give you some advice on this route, though.
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Copenhagen - Amsterdam - Paris - Madrid seems fine to me. You could stop in Barcelona on the way from Paris to Madrid. Might be nice to walk around in the city for a few hours and then get back on the train for the last few hours of the trip. Or, you could stay there for a few days and then move on.
For Amsterdam - Paris you could take the super-fast TGV, for which you will have to pay extra, or take slower IC trains (see Wouter's post).
About going to Portugal: If you have the time you could go there, but this will mean you will move away from your next stop and that might be a bit tricky. Travelling to Portugal from Madrid also takes quite long so I wouldn't suggest just going there for a day.
The trip from Madrid to Cannes is quite long (at least 11 hours, with multiple switches). A different city, like Marseille or Valence, might be easier. Also, you would again pass Barcelona on this trip. You could take a ferry from Barcelona to Italy, but I think this is not included in the interrail pass.
After this, it all depends if you really want to go to Croatia. Croatia is quite hard to reach from Italy by train, and the train connections in and around Croatia are not great either. This would take a lot of time, and the same thing can be said for the trip from Croatia to Greece. A different option would be going down through Italy and then taking a ferry to Greece (to Patras).
Greece - Budapest is a very long trip (will probably take you over a day). You could stop in some of the Balkan countries on the way.
Budapest - Prague - Berlin - Copenhagen is fine again.
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Going to both Madrid and Greece might be quite difficult, especially when you also want to go to some other cities further North. I would suggest skipping Greece as it's quite far away from the rest of your route and hard to reach, or creating a different route from Copenhagen down to Greece and therefore skipping Madrid. Another option would be going to Madrid by plane, travelling to Greece by train and taking a plane back from there (or the other way around). This gives you a bit more time to stop along the way and visit other cities on the route. It also creates the possibility to go to Portugal.
[b]What I would do:[/b]
If you really want to go to both Madrid and Greece, use the last option. It might be a bit more expensive because of the flights, but it would be a nice trip. The route would be something like:
(Denmark -) Madrid - Barcelona - Marseille - La Spezia (Cinque Terre) - Rome - Naples - Brindisi - Patras - Athens - Crete (- Denmark).
If you want to save money by just using the pass I would probably do something like:
Copenhagen - Amsterdam - Paris - Madrid - Marseille - Milano - Vienna - Budapest - Prague - Berlin - Copenhagen.
Both of the routes can be done with a 10 in 22 days pass.
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For creating different routes you could check the interrail map: [u]http://railcc.interrail.eu/sites/interrail.eu/files/documents/interrail_map_2015.pdf[/u]
It's pretty useful, but it doesn't say where trains stop etc. For that you can use the rail planner at [ux]http://plan.rail.cc[/ux]