Evoli
Traveller
0 comments
Posted 2 years ago
Hello,
We are thinking of going on an Interrail trip in July. We - this is my husband, me and my one year old daughter. We have never traveled during the summer vacations and are a bit unsure about it.
Since we are traveling with child, we don't want to get stranded and stay up one night.
How easy is it to find a place to stay spontaneously in July, especially since you don't have as much flexibility with a train as you do with a car? (We were thinking of a trip to Scandinavia, the UK or Ireland).
Many thanks in advance
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nltrainer
Traveller
1404 comments
Since many years there are numerous sites that allow online booking-or even just to check what places are there and what they cost. Best known is booking.com-even often linked by many airlines and even trainsites, but there are others and some countries also have their very own specific sites. I really do not see why one nowadays has to wait till arrival in some place. Even the usual tourist-info that used to offer this service till not long ago has often stopped doing it or has closed completely-in high-wages country like Scandinavia.
Or use google to best use: google ´name of town-accomodations´ and see what it offers and follow links.
Peter
Traveller
9333 comments
Hello and welcome. :)
The common websites are of course booking.com and airbnb.com
Scandinavia is expensive. As, as you said already, you are not that flexible by train as with a car. You have to take a place to sleep which is close to a railway station. Hotels in Scandinavia might be +/- 150 EUR per night. Couchsurfing could be an option, but with a kid you might prefer "family only" without strangers.
We did it in the first years of our son like this: we skipped the spontaneous way of travel. We selected a train route and travelled it from A to B. Then we booked in advance an Airbnb accommodation for 3 days, before we continued. Therefore it was a planed tour.
Of course there are holiday houses and websites where you can rent them.....
The UK is nice to travel as you can reach a lot of places by train, smaller cities as well.
Ireland is rather "difficult" as there is not such a dense network.
I hope I could help you a little bit. Best wishes, Peter :)
MisterSteve
Traveller
1092 comments
School holidays in England and Wales are roughly last weekend in July to first weekend in September, Scotland runs earlier. July won't be as busy as August, which is likely to be very busy. I would never turn up in a town and try to find somewhere same day in any month but booking previous day (or two) would probably work. The obvious reason why an Interrail/Brital pass holder would do this is to run with the weather forecasts! The key thing about British addresses is that they are laid out for the benefit of delivering the post. In many cases town names are shown because that's where the post is routed through, but the locations may be somewhere rural miles from the town (and station). This nonsense hasn't really been needed for about 50 years because the postcode takes care of the sorting (which is why the town abbreviation at the start of a post code may not seem to be connected to the address). Postcodes in urban areas only cover a couple of dozen addresses and Google Maps can locate them very accurately, in rural areas that many addresses may be spread over a wide area. So, when you don't have a car first check the postcode on the map to see where it lies compared to the station - and don't get excited about a place until you have that answer. Also, if you find an address on a booking site and search it in Google Maps you will probably find it has a pin. If so click it, at tighter zoom levels other options in the area usually appear even if they aren't listed on booking sites!