Thessaloniki to London

Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

Hi and welcome to railcc!

When do you want to travel? Have you already thought about a possible route and/or intermediate stops? How long do you want to travel?

Basically there are two major routes along which you can travel:
1) Thessaloniki - Belgrade - Budapest - Vienna - Munich - Paris - London
2) Thessaloniki - ferry from Patras or Igoumenitsa to Bari, Ancona or Venice - Milan - Paris - London
Of course there are many alterations possible but these are roughly the two routes that you can choose from.

Comparing Interrail to regular tickets:
- you do not need reservations for every train (of course, reservations for high speed trains are usually compulsory)
- Interrail is quite cheap if you consider the "price" of a travel day to the standard full fare
- cheap regular tickets are usually valid on the booked train only and have to be bought well in advance

To compare prices you would first have to think about a rough route you want to travel.
You can then check prices via different booking engines for regular tickets such as [ux]https://rail.shop/omio/[/ux]
If you need help let us know.

Flo

Styliani
Traveller
4 comments

hi,

I have thought about taking the train from Thessaloniki to Bucharest via Sofia as the route to Belgrade is unavailable. I would prefer to use might trains as much as possible. How many days in advance do I need in order to buy rail tickets for night trains?

Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

Please consider that you need overnight stops in Sofia and Bucharest if you choose that route:

Thessaloniki 0655 - 1422 Sofia (replacement bus service between Strimon and Kulata); read more: [ux]https://rail.cc/blog/from-thessaloniki-to-sofia-by-train/[/ux]
Sofia 0900 - 1854 Bucuresti Nord (from June 7 to October 7 direct train, on other dates change in Ruse)

If you are travelling in summer, there is also a direct night train from Thessaloniki to Bucuresti once weekly, leaving Thessaloniki on Sundays from June 9 to October 6):

Thessaloniki 2310 - 1854 Bucuresti Nord (via Sofia)
This train conveys 2nd class seats and a couchette car (six and four berths per compartment).

You can make reservations only locally in Thessaloniki at the train station.

From Bucharest you can travel by night train to Budapest and Vienna; tickets and schedule available online at [ux]https://rail.shop/cfr/[/ux]

For more night trains, have a look at [ux]https://rail.cc/en/night-train[/ux]

If you are travelling in summer and want private compartments I would recommend to make bookings at least two weeks in advance.

Styliani
Traveller
4 comments

thank you for the information and reply. Which route would you suggest which won\'t reply overnight stats at hotel. I will budget for hotels only in France and England. The rest I\'d hope to travel using night trains. I attend to travel in December.

Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

Lot of time until December; also worth noting that from December 15, there will be new schedules for 2020 and changes on many routes are likely.

For now, if you want to continue with night trains from Bucharest, possible routes are:

1) Bucharest - Budapest - Zürich (all by night train); then by Lyria high speed train to Paris and Eurostar high speed train to London
2) Bucharest - Budapest - Prague - Zürich (all by night train); then as above
3) Bucharest - Vienna - Zürich (all by night train); then as above
4) Bucharest - Vienna - Cologne (all by night train); then ICE or Thalys high speed train to Bruxelles and Eurostar high speed train to London
5) Bucharest - Vienna - Venice - Paris (all by night train); then Eurostar high speed train to London

All trains can be found in the link I posted above. :)

Styliani
Traveller
4 comments

ha ha yes I figure I\'ll need until December to save the money I need for the trip. Thanks for links and information. If I take a bus from Sofia Buchurest then I won\'t need to stay overnight. thank you.