tamar9
Traveller
6 comments
Posted 7 years ago
Hi all,
As being the queen of changing plans I finally made a decision: exit plan from most northern to mosth southern station in Europe, our new and final plan is to travel from the North Sea to the Black Sea. With our 10 days in 1 month travel pass we are trying to travel from Amsterdam to Varna in Bulgaria and back. We will be travelling in February (and yes we know it\'s the coldest month of the year) and we have 28 days for travel.
Because we travel with a 4 year old we don\'t want to rush things. The rough route would be something like Amsterdam- Dusseldorf/ nighttrain to Vienna and from there further on. We would like to return with the Night Train from Inssbruck to Dusseldorf.
Are there any recommandations of must see cities/towns in between? Bucharest, (is the night train from Vienna to Bucharest recommended?) Maribor, Zagreb, Belgrade. Brasov and Plovdiv are on our wish list but I\'m not sure if I\'m overlooking things.
Cheers!
Tamar
Flo
Traveller
10723 comments
Hi,
good to read from you again. :)
The Düsseldorf - Vienna/Innsbruck night trains are certainly a good option to start/finish your travel; however reservation fares for 2017 are not public yet and the ÖBB night trains are usually rather expensive for Interrailers. It might make sense to start your trip with the Berlin - Budapest night train.
The Vienna to Budapest night train is certainly quite memorable for its long journey time; both sleeping and couchette cars are of a very decent standard so definitely a good option to cover that long stretch.
Alternatively, you could think about the Budapest - Brasov night train which also carries a Hungarian restaurant car and consists of older sleeping and couchette cars which might be more of a eastern european adventure kind of trip (but nothing to be afraid about, I used this train already and the coaches were in good shape).
From Bucharest you would then have to take the single daily train into Bulgaria to get to Ruse, from where you can get a train to Varna.
Plovdiv is a must, have a look at the Old Plovdiv Hostel. :)
Maybe also make a stopover at Veliko Tarnovo.
From Sofia there will only be a day train to Belgrade in 2017. From Belgrade you can go to Zagreb; then on to Maribor however Slovenia\'s capital, Ljubljana, is certainly more interesting. Also, Graz (my city) is not far and really beautiful (also in February, haha).
From Graz (or Maribor/Ljubljana) you could then finish off your trip with a beautiful day trip through austrian alpine landscapes to get to Innsbruck.
Flo 8)
tamar9
Traveller
6 comments
Thanks for the advice and the warning for the obb reservation fares. If it\'s too expensive we will choose the Berlin option ( visiting Berlin is always a good idea ;)
Can\'t wait till february!
Flo
Traveller
10723 comments
You can expect fares similar to these:[u] https://rail.cc/en/interrail-night-train/duesseldorf-vienna-en-421/43[/u]
Berlin - Budapest night train: [u]https://rail.cc/en/interrail-night-train/berlin-budapest-en-477/53[/u]
tamar9
Traveller
6 comments
wow! exit OBB plans. One night with 3 persons will cost us 250 euro\'s! Bye Bye Vienna: Berlin here we come:-) Thanks for the advice
Flo
Traveller
10723 comments
The thing is that currently there are only 3bed deluxe compartments available on the Düsseldorf - Vienna train. From December 2016 there will be other sleeping cars in use which also have 3bed economy compartments; the fare for a bed then should be around 50€.