minenes
Traveller
1 comments
Posted 14 years ago
Hello all,
First, thanks for giving us chance to share experiences in this forum . I've been reading suggestions about nearly anything on railing in Europe and unfortunately i'm totally lost and confused. This is why i decided to open this thread, sorry if duplicating the same issues.
Here what i'm planning to do:
-Rome to Florence in early morning
-Florence to Venice at night or in early morning
-Venice to Paris by spending as less daytime as possible
-Paris to Le mont saint michel and back
-Paris to Amsterdam
If i buy these tickets separetly, it costs 370 euros for 2 people.
What i wonder is, if i buy interrail global pass:
- Which vehicles do i have to use to avoid supplements and reservations as much as possible or at least pay the least ?
- can i use interrail while going and returning to/from le mont saint michel?
Thanks in advance.
Peter
Traveller
9333 comments
Hi.
InterRail is a rail pass which has a good value if you travel spontaneously and don't want to be fixed on special discounted tickets with fixed travel dates and times. As the problem is: if you travel on these special tickets on international train connections and you miss one because of a delay, you are often lost and have to buy a normal price ticket instead.
If you only travel for one week, know your exact travel dates and do not want to be flexible, individual tickets - like I said - to special prices are sometimes a better value.
In Italy simply avoid the Eurostar Italia (ES) trains (supplement: EUR 10) and use IC trains (free of supplements).
For France you have to pay supplements on TGV trains. You can avoid them by using slower regional trains.
Simply do it this way:
1) Check [b]train connections[/b]https://rail.cc/en/search-interrail-route
2) Check the [b]supplements[/b] for the types of trains you use: [u]https://rail.cc/en/interrail-train-reservation[/u]
3) Check the [b]country topics[/b] where you find details about how to avoid supplements, night trains, etc... [u]https://rail.cc/en/countries[/u]
Just some examples...
[b]Rome - Florence:[/b]
Roma Termini dep: 0635 | IC train - [b]free[/b] of supplements
Firenze S.M.N. arr: 0944
[b]Florence - Venice:[/b]
Firenze S.M.N. dep: 0647 | Regional train - [b]free[/b] of supplements
Prato arr: 0717
Prato dep: 0732 | Regional train - [b]free[/b] of supplements
Bologna Centrale arr: 0822
Bologna Centrale dep: 0856 | Regional train - [b]free[/b] of supplements
Venezia Mestre arr: 1051
[b]Venice - Paris:[/b]
[u]https://rail.cc/en/venice-milan-paris-night-train/f3675[/u]
Cheapest option: [b]EUR 25[/b] by night train - at the same time you [b]save the money for a hostel[/b].
[b]Paris - Mont Saint Michele:[/b]
The best option is to use a TGV train early in the morning until Rennes.
TGV supplement is EUR 6: https://rail.cc/en/interrail-train-reservation/france/fr
There you can get a bus to Mont Saint Michele (~ EUR 10) or you continue by regional train (free of supplements) to [b]Pontorson-Mont-St-Michel[/b] from where you have a 15 minutes ride to Mont Saint Michele, also by bus (~ EUR 3).
[b]Paris - Amsterdam:[/b]
Avoid the Thalys trains you can travel this route [b]free[/b] of supplements.
[u]https://rail.cc/en/train/paris-to-amsterdam[/u]
Peter :)
minenes
Traveller
1 comments
Dear Peter,
Thank you so much for this detailed answer.