DeMoNx
Traveller
6 comments
Posted 13 years ago
Hi everyone.
We (3 people :) ) are currently planning our first Interrail trip with the 10 in 22 days ticket. Presumably we are going to start our trip between 19-21th August and until now we came up with this route:
Cologne - Paris[b] (THALYS)[/b]
Paris - Marseille
(we want to stay some days near a nice beach at the Côte d'Azur/French Riviera)
Marseille(?) - Nice
Nice - Milan (is going to be just a stopover I guess)
Milan - Rome
Rome - Venice
Venice - Beograd
and maybe if we still have some time left Beograd - Vienna
and then we still have to figure out how to get out of Austria and back to Cologne the cheapest way possible ;)
I thought the other day it might be better to turn the route around (start in Vienna and end in Paris) but then we still would have to pay the ticket from Cologne to Vienna as the interrailticket isn't valid in your homecountry. :/
maybe if you have a good idea you can help us :D but I'm afraid that there's just no other way than buy a Vienna - Cologne train/plane/whatever ticket or maybe if we get lucky to find a ride.
Now we still have some other questions regarding our tour:
1. We know we need a reservation for the Thalys:
[u]https://rail.cc/en-type-country/thalys/thalys-thy/41[/u]
Can we buy the Comfort 2 PASS 1 for 33 Euros although our Interrailpass isn't valid in Germany or do we need another reservation type?
2. Our biggest problem so far is the question of accommodation. we're planning on spending most of the nights in hostels and we don't want to book many nights in advance so that our flexibility isn't limited.[b] Has anyone experiences with couchsurfing involving 3 persons?[/b] It would be a nice alternative in the expensive capital cities and its an opportunity to meet people.
When you look on the couchsurfing sites there are plenty of people offering space for 3 or more people but I don't know if everyone is so fond of hosting 3 people at the same time ;)
3. Has anyone been at the côte d'azur? Our second trip doesn't necessarily has to end in Marseille as we want to spend some time at the beach. Does anyone know a nice little village accessible by train from Marseille? Or do you possibly even know any good hostels/camping places/... at the french Mediterranean coast?
I think it might be quite crowded there at the end of august and we don't really know whether it might be a good idea to atleast book an accommodation at the coast (if we find one :P ) before we start the trip.
so long
thanks for reading ;)
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Hi!
1) As far as I know you can get a Pass 1 reservation for the Thalys from Köln with a German InterRail pass plus a regular ticket for Köln - Aachen; if you start only from Aachen you should be able to get a Pass 2 reservation. Best is to go to Köln Hbf and ask there for the reservations.
I'd not recommend to travel with the expensive Thalys anyway - there are cheaper or even free alternatives available, albeit with a longer travel time; have a look at this topic :arr: [u]https://rail.cc/de/reiseroute-frankreich-spanien-portugal-interrail/f6363#p24596[/u]
2) I have no experience with couchsurfing myself but if someone offers accomodation for 3 people why not just go there? :)
3) If you want to spend time at the Côte d'Azur, continue from Marseille to Nice. From St Raphael the railway line runs all the time along the coast so you can easily reach many nice villages in the area: Grasse, Antibes, Villefranche,... and also can go to Cannes and Monaco. Trains usually run at least every 30 minutes so you can stay at one city several days and make day trips to other places. We've stayed at the HI Hostel Mont Boron in Nice in 2009 which was really nice since you have a perfect view over the city from its rooftop terrace. Only downside was that it had a curfew at midnight and you have to walk a little bit when no buses are running anymore.
Some other thoughts about your route... ;)
- Paris to Marseille and on to the Côte d'Azur is of course best by direct fast TGV trains. However, these require a 6€ reservation - which are only available in a limited number, it can happen that SNCF wants 18€ for a reservation! :(( In that case, you can get the not 100% official reservations as described here :arr: [u]https://rail.cc/en/interrail-train-reservation/tgv-sncf/42[/u]
If you stop in Marseille, dont use TEOZ or TGV to travel onwards to Nice, instead use the ~2 hourly TER/Intercités trains.
Nice - Milan or Nice - Roma: [u]https://rail.cc/en/train/nice-to-milan[/u] or [u]https://rail.cc/en/train/nice-to-rome[/u]
If you decide to go to Milano, best option to Roma is then with a fast AV train :arr: [u]https://rail.cc/en-type-country/eurostar-alta-velocita---frecciarossa/trenitalia-av/50[/u] - 10€ reservation required! There would be also some connections by slower IC trains but I'd recommend the AV
Roma - Venezia: As above, there are the fast AV trains :arr: [u]https://rail.cc/en-type-country/eurostar-alta-velocita---frecciargento/trenitalia-av/49[/u] but also some slower and cheaper alternatives available: :arr: [u]https://rail.cc/en/train/rome-to-venice[/u]
Venezia - Beograd is best with the direct night train :arr: [u]https://rail.cc/en/night-train/venice-belgrade-en-441/b-413/169[/u]
Beograd - Wien: Either by direct night train :arr: [u]https://rail.cc/en/night-train/belgrade-vienna-d-340/346/51[/u] or during the day via Budapest
For your way home, you could think of travelling via Praha and Dresden and try to get a cheap EuropaSpezial ticket from [ux]https://rail.shop/bahn[/ux] for the part in Germany. Or travel Wien - Salzburg and try the same for the rest in Germany. There is also a direct night train from Wien :arr: [u]https://rail.cc/en/night-train/vienna-duesseldorf-en-420/44[/u] for which you can get cheap advance tickets if booked early from ÖBB.
Flo 8)
DeMoNx
Traveller
6 comments
thanks for your advices :) should be a great help in our further plannings
the ÖBB Vienna - Cologne route looks quite promising. regarding the thalys we're gonna have to think about the alternative route if the price gets too high but its nice to get into the train in cologne and arrive 3 hours later in paris :P .
about the TGV reservation we're going to inform ourselves a little more as we don't really have a clue yet when and where it is best to reserve. but we certainly wouldn't have any bad feelings paying 6 euros for a nonstop connection from Paris to Marseille.
I like the idea of going directly to Nice more and more cause as I heard Marseille isn't really pretty at all?!
but sounds like a good thing to stay in Nice and make daytrips to the surrounding cities and beaches and I'm going to look into the Mont Boron hostel. thx for the tip.
I'm going to talk about these things with my railmates and if we come up with some more questions I'll post them here :)
DeMoNx
Traveller
6 comments
one more question:
how can we reserve a night train from venice to beograd (online)?
[u]https://rail.cc/en/train/venice-to-belgrade[/u]
Peter
Traveller
9333 comments
Hi.
Only possibility is to order online at the website of the Italian national railway company. Select GLOBAL PASS as option. Pay online. And pick it up at a ticket machine in an Italian railway station.
Peter :)
DeMoNx
Traveller
6 comments
thanks.
trenitalia wants a 7-digit Card Number when I choose the GLOBAL PASS option. any idea to which one they are refering to?
and another question :(
can the Beograd - Budarest nighttrain be reserved online at the ÖBB website?
[u]https://rail.cc/en/night-train/belgrade-vienna-d-340/346/51[/u]
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Hi!
- As far as I know it will be enough just to enter 0000000 as card number.
- You can not make online reservations for InterRail at the ÖBB website. You could try our partner :arr: [ux]https://rail.shop/acprail/reservation[/ux] or buy it at a station.
Flo 8)