Fuksibuksi
Traveller
2 comments
Posted 1 year ago
Hi.
I want to make an interrail trip for one month. Im starting in London. My trip will be in those cities. London, Paris, Barcelona, Milan, Venice, Bologna, Florence, Venice, Mostar, Sarajevo, Skopje and Istanbul. Which pass should I get and what will you say about the route? Will it be possible and how will you make the route within those cities?
MisterSteve
Traveller
896 comments
By train Mostar and Sarajevo are very difficult to reach, Skopje is cut off from Serbia so is basically impossible. Istanbul has a very limited international service and can only be reached via Romania when it does run. The rest are possible but this all seems like a random list. Do you live in Europe?
Fuksibuksi
Traveller
2 comments
I live in Denmark but I will be starting in London. Is there no way to reach istanbul from Bulgaria? So its impossible to make this route with those cities?
MisterSteve
Traveller
896 comments
You have to go via Bulgaria. But at latest reports (and what sense I can get from the serbian website) you can't reach there via Serbia, only the route via Romania is possible. Large parts of the Serbian network seem to be suspended. Exact information about the Istanbul train is hard to find, this is on the Bulgarian website and it has been reported here that the Bucharest service is one or more direct cars that attach to other trains to give a direct service. https://p.bdz.bg/www/s/o/sofia-istanbul-sofia-2-2911.pdf
Flo
Traveller
10723 comments
Hi!
Possible itinerary:
1) London - Paris (either with Eurostar, or with a ferry)
2) Paris - Barcelona (personally, I would take the night train to Latour de Carol or Portbou and continue from there - this would require two travel days but you could also buy the ticket for the regional trains from the border to Barcelona locally)
3) Barcelona - Milan: possible within one day via Lyon but personally I would either go by ferry to Livorno or Genova or make an intermediate stop in Marseille or Nice
4) Milan - Venice - Florence - Bologna
5) Bologna - Ancona, then ferry to Dubrovnik
6) bus (not included in Interrail) to Mostar
7) Mostar - Sarajevo
8) bus (not included) to Skopje, probably via Belgrade, check at busticket4.me or getbybus.com
9) bus (not included) to Sofia, then train (see link above) to Istanbul
Flo
Fuksibuksi
Traveller
2 comments
is it covid 19 that makes it difficult to find transportation in Eastern Europe? Will it be more possible in the future?
Flo
Traveller
10723 comments
No, most things are not covid related. Serbia has been and still is renovating most of its railway network for a few years now and due to the bad state of the current tracks these works usually mean that no trains run at all during reconstruction (and buses are also faster than trains on the remaining network).
Serbia being the main hub in this area (with connections to Hungary, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Bulgaria and Romania) this means that connections to and between these countries are severly restricted.
The suspension of the Sofia - Istanbul night train was mostly due to covid though.