archerw03
Traveller
0 comments
Posted 14 years ago
Hi,
I realise there is already a lot of posts about this but there are a few things I'm still not certain of! I will be part of a group of 3 18 year old boys looking to keep the costs as low as possible. With that in mind, we want to explore the possibility of night trains. As far as I understood, the global pass that you pay for covers your train costs and you can just hop on and off any train which belongs to the Interrail network but after having read some of the other posts, it seems that isn't the case. Could anyone possible explain how the fares work i.e. what is covered by your pass, when or if I need to book on the trains I want to go on and whether night trains follow different rules to daytime trains.
Also, if we were to sleep on the trains, do you have to book cabins on the trains and if so, how and when do I do that? I know a lot of these questions have probably already been answered and I sound like a real idiot but I need it clearing up!
Thanks in Advance
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Hi!
You are right, there are certain trains which you cant use for free with your InterRail pass - these are trains with compulsory reservation which are listed here: [u]https://rail.cc/en/interrail-train-reservation[/u] Usually these are high speed and night trains and those compulsory reservations apply to every kind of ticket, not only InterRail.
Concerning night trains: Most of them, especially in central and western Europe have compulsory reservation as well. You will find most of the European night trains listed in the country boards of our forum .
Usually they offer three different types of accomodation - sleepers (expensive, most comfortable, including breakfast and washing facilites in the cabin), couchettes (less expensive than sleepers, usually 4-6 beds per cabin) and regular seats (cheapest, sometimes there are reclining seats which are more comfortable - if you want to travel cheap, the seats are the best option and comfortable enough).
If you check out the country boards where the different night trains are listed you will find both timings and the prices you will have to pay extra for the different kinds of accomodation.
Using night trains is a smart way to move around - if you get a seat you save quite some money compared to a hostel but will wake up in the morning in another city; couchettes are usually the same price as a hostel - again with the benefit of waking up at a new place; sleepers are quite expensive, like hotels but offer a high-class standard of accomodation. :)
Hope that helps for now - dont hesitate to ask if you have further questions. ;)
Flo 8)