sarahb
Traveller
14 comments
Posted 13 years ago
Hey,
I'm planning a trip for early September this year and having a few issues! The plan is currently to go for 2 weeks (although we have some lee-way, money dependent! We're both students so trying to do it on a budget without compromising the trip).
We're going to fly to Budapest, then use the train to get to Vienna and then to Venice. We were going to stay just outside Venice and make trips into Venice and to Verona (I've heard that both these places are expensive to stay in, is this right?)
This is the part we have a problem with! We wanted to end up in Switzerland, and I have been advised to go to Interlaken because it's meant to be stunning! But. We would quite like to build Florence into our trip but surely this is too far down to travel back up again to Switzerland?
Also, having looked at trains, we can't seem to get from Venice to Interlaken remotely easily, so where can we go in between? I've been advised Milan because of its centrality but don't have any strong desire to go there so it would literally end up being a stop off. Even then, though, in order to get to Interlaken from Italy we have to travel up to Geneva and then back to Interlaken - the only problem with this being that to fly back home (England) we will have to go back to Geneva!!! Is there any way we can avoid this back-tracking??
Sorry for all the questions, I realise there are quite a few in here, but any help with any aspect would be greatly appreciated!!! It's both of our first time interrailing (beyond a small Italian excursion!) so yeah, any help would be lovely!!! Thank you!!!
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Hi!
First, you will have to choose what pass you are going to take: I would recommend either the 5in10 (in case you have a fixed schedule) or the 10in22 (in case you want more flexibility while travelling).
From Budapest to Wien there are two hourly direct trains, no big deal. Wien to Venezia you could take the overnight train :arr: [u]https://rail.cc/en/vienna-venice-night-train/f3671[/u] If you want to go during the day you have to use the bus between Villach and Venezia so I would not recommend that :arr: [u]https://rail.cc/en/klagenfurt-villach-venezia-bus/f3910[/u]
Alternatively you could try to get a flight to Wien (or Bratislava which is close), then go to Budapest and finally with the overnight train to Venezia :arr: [u]https://rail.cc/en/budapest-venice-night-train/f1387[/u]
Venice is quite expensive, especially if you want to stay in the historical city and not in the new town Mestre on the mainland. But just check rates at rail.shop/hostelworld ;) I would recommend to stay either at Venice or Verona and make a day trip to the other city. Take care not to use the ES City trains as they are with compulsory reservation which is 10€.
Up to now you will need 3 travel days.
Then you could go to Interlaken with one travel day and finally Geneve with the 5th (and last of the 5in10).
Venezia/Verona - Interlaken: Best is to go with regional trains to Milano and change to a EC train towards Bern - Basel. In Spiez you then have to change for Interlaken. The EC has a reservation fee of 10€. However, Interlaken itself is not very stunning, IMO. What is interesting in this area, are the railways to Grindelwald, Wengen, Jungfraujoch - but those are not included in InterRail and single tickets are really expensive :arr: [u]https://rail.cc/en/jungfraujoch/f1841[/u]
I would suggest going via the routes of Bernina and Glacier Express instead: Venezia/Verona - Milano to Pontresina/St Moritz and then finally to Geneve via Disentis - Andermatt - Brig.
:arr: [u]https://rail.cc/en/glacier-express/f1750[/u]
:arr: [u]https://rail.cc/en/bernina-express/f1749[/u]
If you want to include more places (like Firenze ie) it is possible of course but you would then need another InterRail pass since you have already used all 5 travel days of a 5in10 pass. Then it would be a good idea to make a little bigger trip to make best use of the 10in22 pass. :)
If you need more help, just let us know. :)
Flo 8)
sarahb
Traveller
14 comments
Thank you, that's really helpful!
A few things, can you recommend anywhere else in Switzerland to visit and won't cost extra because we have to train to other places? Preferably somewhere that means we don't have to travel up to Geneva in the first place to get there, just to avoid too much backtracking (as we're flying home from Geneva!) Just somewhere where we can relax a bit after visiting all the city locations we are planning on going to!
Secondly, we were thinking of staying in a hostel I've been recommended to, Plus Camping, which is outside Venice? Apparently it's a pain to find initially but after that it's only about half an hour into Venice and then we can travel to verona from there as well? Because I had a look at prices and it seems quite cheap, and means we avoid being in an expensive city location!
We are planning on going for two weeks but we do have a few extra days to play with, so there is room for manoevre! So say we had a bit of extra time, would it be feasible to go to Firenze after Venice/Verona? And then to travel back up, maybe with an extra stop (but probably not as time won't allow I imagine?) before ending up in Switzerland? Open to suggestions to places in Switzerland hehe :)
Thank you so much for your help :) Sarah x