jbatman
Traveller
1 comments
Posted 8 years ago
Hi everyone!
I'm planning my first interrail by June and I would like some suggestions about routes, cities, duration and which interrail pass I should buy.
I live in Portugal so I will fly from and to Lisbon. Preferably the start and the end of the trip should be in places with easy (and cheap) airplane connection to Lisbon.
The first draft of the trip is:
Paris - [b]Brussels [/b](Bruges, Antwerp) - [b]Amsterdam [/b]- [b]Berlin[/b] - Dresden - [b]Prague [/b]- Krakov - [b]Budapest [/b]- Bratislava - [b]Wien [/b]- Ljubljana (Lake Bled) - Venice - [b]Florence [/b]- Nice - Barcelona
I figured that I might have chosen too many cities, so I marked in bold the obligatory ones.
I would like to use the night trains as much as possible and for now I found these: Prague - Krakov, Krakov - Budapest, Wien-Ljubljana.
Does anyone have any tips about this route? Are there any other cities that I should bisit instead of the one I've chosen? Did I go over my head with the number of locations selected?
Thanks
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Hi!
How long do you want to travel?
Since 2016 the Interrail offer has been renewed and almost all passes are now valid one full month: [u]https://rail.cc/blog/interrail-whats-new-in-2016/[/u]
I suppose that the 10 or 15 days in one month might be the best options for you.
Brussels can be done in one day, so if you have time I'd recommend going to Bruges, Antwerp or also Gent. Can be done as a daytrip from Brussels if you prefer staying at the same hostel for two nights.
Brussels - Amsterdam: [u]https://rail.cc/blog/amsterdam-brussels-train/[/u]
Amsterdam - Berlin: [u]https://rail.cc/blog/amsterdam-berlin/[/u]
Berlin - Prague: [u]https://rail.cc/blog/berlin-prague-train/[/u]
Krakow is a great place, if you have the time, go there! Also, you could use night trains to get there and leave. :)
Budapest - Bratislava - Wien is straightforward and easy to do; direct trains from Budapest to Bratislava every two hours, direct trains from Bratislava to Vienna twice hourly, although only one of them runs from the central station (the other from the suburb of Petrzalka). No reservations required.
Wien - Ljubljana: There is no direct night train...have you been looking at the connecting service via Salzburg? I would recommend that...
Ljubljana - Venice: No direct train service, best option is to travel to Nova Gorica (Bled is on the way from Ljubljana), then cross the town on foot or by bus to get to the Italian part and take a train form Gorizia Centrale to Venice.
Venice - Florence: Hourly high speed trains, 10€ reservation.
Florence - Nice: This might take a bit of planning as many changes of trains are required.
Nice - Barcelona: Again, many changes needed and a very long trip.
We are official partners of interrail.eu - 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! :)
Flo 8)
jbatman
Traveller
1 comments
Thanks for your help.
I'm traveling 23 to 25 days.
You're right about the Wien-Ljubljana night train. The one that I saw has a connecting service through Villach (I checked the trains in the Rail planner app).
As you said that the part of the trip between Florence an Nice is quite difficult, do you have any suggestion for some places between these two cities? Or maybe scrap that part of the trip and add some other cities earlier in the trip?
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Yeah, you have to be careful and look at possible changes of trains along the way. ;)
Florence - Nice is possible by high speed train to Milan, then with IC train via Genova to Ventimiglia, from there local train to Nice. Watch out not to take a direct Milan - Nice EC Thello trains as these require an expensive ticket/reservation.
Another option would be to go to Pisa, then along the coast via La Spezia - Cinque Terre - Genova - Ventimiglia - Nice.