fIyinghedgehog
Traveller
2 comments
Posted 13 years ago
Hello everybody.
A friend of mine and me want to go on interrail this May. We live in Germany and want to travel through Europe. Our plan is to start in the Netherlands travel down to Belgium and France. It is sure that we will end up in Venice because we've already bought our flight tickets back to Germany from there.
The question is: Is it realistic to go straight to Portugal Lisbon without making any long stops in Spain then see a little bit of Portugal, then again travel straight back through Spain to the French cities like Avignon and Nice then to Florence Italy Rome and Venice?
Netherlands and Belgium could be left out.
Is this a realistic route? Should we take 10/22 or 22/22?
Greetings from Germany.
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Hi!
Lisboa is not that far away: Paris 1550 - Lisboa 1031 with change of trains in Irun :arr: [u]https://rail.cc/en/night-train/irun-lisbon-th-313/73[/u] If you dont mind a longer trip you might even start in the morning somewhere in Benelux to go to Paris and then continue directly towards Lisboa. :) Or think about a short stop in Paris which is quite a beautiful city... ;)
In general, three weeks sure is fine for your route...however I would recommend to go to Portugal rather quickly and then work your way back to Germany. That's always a good rule to go to more far away places first instead at the end of the trip, just in case something unexpected happens you wont be stuck somewhere far away from home.
It might be a good idea then not to spend too much time in Benelux, however, think about making one or two short trips to Amsterdam, Antwerpen, Brugge at the beginning. For example you could start at Amsterdam, spend one night there then go to Antwerpen/Brugge, put your luggage in a locker and spend the day there. In the evening on to Paris for one or two nights and then straight to Lisboa. :) If you dont want to spend the night in Paris you could also go to Irun with overnight train from Paris, then on to San Sebastian to spend the day at the beach. In the evening take the night train to Lisboa. The only problem then is that there are no luggage lockers at San Sebastian station so you would have to carry your backpacks with you the whole day (we did that in 2008...).
The fastest way back to France from Portugal would be the night train Lisboa - Madrid :arr: [u]https://rail.cc/en/train/lisbon-to-madrid[/u] then on to Barcelona with AVE. From Barcelona you can reach Avignon within a day with regional trains without having to pay for extra reservations. Maybe also think about including the Yellow train in your route from Barcelona :arr: [u]https://rail.cc/en/petit-train-jaune-latour-de-carol/f1343[/u] but then you probably would have to stay an extra night somewhere, ie at Perpignan.
From Nice travel along the Mediterranean coast to Roma first. Then work your way up to Firenze and finally Venezia. I think you will be doing fine with a 10in22, that depends a little bit on how much places you want to visit.
Flo 8)
fIyinghedgehog
Traveller
2 comments
Thank you for your quick and very helpful respond!
But we are still not sure if the 10/22 ticket will be enough. Portugal seems so far away. And we fear that by getting trough spain twice and working our way trough france to italy will cost us more then these 10 days. How long did you need to get to Portugal?
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Hi!
I've been to Portugal twice:
In 2008 we took the morning TGV to Irun and continued to San Sebastian. Spent the day there at the beach and took the Sud Expresso to Lisboa overnight. :arr: Two travel days needed, travel time ~28 hours
In 2010 I took the afternoon TGV to Irun and continued directly with the Sud Expresso to Lisboa. :arr: two travel days needed, travel time ~19 hours
Whether you go with the 10in22 or 22continuous is your decision...I think the trip is possible with the 10in22 but in case you want to make more daytrips or have some spare days in case you want to change your plans you might think about the 22continuous as well.
Flo 8)
fIyinghedgehog
Traveller
2 comments
And what is the best route from lissabon to france (cote d'dazure)?
Peter
Traveller
9333 comments
Hi.
There are the two options:
1) back by the Sud Expresso in direction to Bordeaux. From there by day or night train (Corail) to for example Nice.
[u]https://rail.cc/en/interrail-night-train/lisbon-hendaye-th-310/74[/u]
[u]https://rail.cc/en/interrail-night-train/france/fr[/u]
2) Lisbon-Madrid: night train. Madrid-Barcelona: day train. If you have the time, include the Petit Train Jaune crossing the Pyrenees. Then continue to Nice.
[u]https://rail.cc/en/train/lisbon-to-madrid[/u]
[u]https://rail.cc/en/train/marseille-to-nice[/u]
[u]https://rail.cc/blog/little-yellow-train-video/[/u]
Peter :)