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Strubbi
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4 comments

Posted 13 years ago

Hey guys,
I want to do an around europe trip with a 1 Month Interrail ticket. It will be my first Interrail trip
Planned route:
Paris (start), Mont St.Michel, French atlantic coast to santiago to compostella then around Spain to Granada and along the Mediterranean coast trough France and Italy to Rome (via Venice) and from Brindisi to Greece. From Greece I want to travel to Istanbul and then via Budapest and Prag back to Germany (home).

This is my dream route but I'm not sure if this is possible if I don't want to spent 24h a day in the train.
And this is my question:
Is this route possible or not? And if it's not where should I not go?

it would be very nice if you could help me :)

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Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

replied 13 years ago

Hej,

well, that's again a route just the way I like it! Certainly really ambitious, and I am not yet quite sure if it is doable in a reasonable amount of time, but let's have a look, shall we? ;)

Germany > Paris best with a pre-booked EuropaSpezial, either with CNL from Berlin, Hamburg or München or with Thalys from Köln. Then start your InterRail pass the day you leave from Paris.

1 Paris - Mont St Michel
2 Mont St Michel
3 Mont St Michel - Nantes - Bordeaux (- Archachon/Dune de Pyla)
4 Bordeaux/Arcachon
5 Bordeaux/Arcachon
6 Bordeaux - Irun - San Sebastian
Then you have two options; either with direct train inland (quite scenic route) to A Coruna/Santiago or closer along the coast with Euskotren and FEVE to Santiago. The second option would require one or two days more but is certainly worth it.
7 Santiago - Vigo - Porto
8 Porto
9 Porto - Lisboa
10 Lisboa
11 Lisboa - Faro
12 Faro
13 Faro - Sevilla
14 Sevilla
15 Sevilla - Granada (it is rathe complicated to travel along the coast in southern Spain, have a look at the map here > [u]https://rail.cc/en/maps[/u] The best option from Granada is the direct night train to Barcelona; if you want to include more parts of the Southeastern coast (Valenica,...) it is best to travel via Madrid - but we can talk about details later...) ;)
16 Granada - Barcelona night train
17 Barcelona - Marseille/Nice (how far you get depends on whether you want to include the Petit Train Jaune or not - which I would strongly recommend)
18 Marseille/Nice
19 Nice
20 Nice - Genova - Pisa - Firenze
21 Firenze - Venezia
22 Venezia - Roma night train
23 Roma
24 Roma
25 Roma - Brindisi - ferry to Greece (attention when travelling to Greece > [u]https://rail.cc/en/new-trains-from-thessaloniki-to-skopje-belgrade-and-sofia/f5508[/u]) only recommended when international services are reinstated next year!
26 Greece
27 Greece - Istanbul
28 Istanbul
29 Istanbul - Bucuresti night train
30 Bucuresti - Budapest (night train?)
31 Budapest

Hm, you are stuck... :D The above route certainly can be modified so you could get home to Germany - but you will certainly be on a quite tight schedule in any case.

Do you have any must go to places?


Flo 8)

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Strubbi
Traveller
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replied 13 years ago

First: Thanks a lot for the schedule :)

Second: How do I get best from Italy to Turkey if Greece is kind of out of order?

I certainly absolutely want to visit Istanbul, Venice, Santiago, Prag and the Mont St Michel the rest ist more like alright if it fits but not a big problem if it doesn't work...
By the way what is the petit train jaune?

strubbi :)

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Hetman
Traveller
364 comments

replied 13 years ago

between Italy and Turkey you also have Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria so not only Greece.

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Strubbi
Traveller
4 comments

replied 13 years ago

but what is this best route between italy and turkey??? I have no experiences with voyages there...

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Hetman
Traveller
364 comments

replied 13 years ago

and which one is the best? the shortest, the cheapest, with beautiful views, without many changes...?
just choose some route yourself and believe that it was the best!

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Strubbi
Traveller
4 comments

replied 13 years ago

:) well I guess I should do that :)
but do you've got an advices for a route with beautiful views in this area ;)

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Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

replied 13 years ago

1) No problem. ;) Like I said, just a first suggestion.

2) An interesting route would be with the Bari - Bar ferry to Montenegro (no InterRail discounts as far as I know) then spend one or two days in Montenegro, then to Beograd and finally to Istanbul via Sofia. Includes two very scenic routes, between Podgorica and Beograd and between Nis and Sofia.

3) New route, including rough timings and reservation costs if necessary ;)

1) Paris - Mont St Michel (0735 -1110) 6€ plus bus Dol - Mont St Michel
2) Mont St Michel - Bordeaux (0930 - 1815) bus Mont St Michel - Rennes
3) Day trip to the Dune de Pyla (frequent trains Bordeaux - Arcachon take 45min)
4) Bordeaux - San Sebastian (0946 - 1345) 1€ for Euskotren Hendaye - Irun
5) San Sebastian - Santiago (0902 - 2000) 6,50€
6) Santiago
7) Santiago
8) Santiago - Porto (1736 - 2155) 4€
9) Porto - Lisboa (1452 - 1800) 4€
10) Lisboa
11) Lisboa - Sevilla (2230 - 1230) 7€ plus 10€
12) Sevilla
13) Sevilla - Granada (1605 - 1910) 4€
14) Granada
15) Granada - Barcelona (2155 - 0929) 6,50€
16) Barcelona
Now you could do the Petit Train Jaune, have a look at the pics here :arr: [u]https://rail.cc/en/train/latour-de-carol-to-villefranche-de-conflent[/u] However, the scheudules are quite awkward if you want to continue towards Marseille/Nice during the day. What might be possible could be going Barcelona - Perpignan - Latour de Carol - Toulouse and then with night train to Nice but running dates of this train are hard to get...I wont include the Petit Train Jaune for now but if you like it there is surely a way to do so.
17) Barcelona - Nice (0906 - 2032)
18) Nice
19) Nice/Monaco/Antibes/Grasse
20) Nice - Venezia (0753 - 1540) 3€ plus 10€
21) Venezia
I'm going to leave out Roma and the Montenegro route I mentioned above since it seems to be too time consuming - again. :P
22) Venezia - Beograd (2120 - 1218) 16,40€
23) Beograd
24) Beograd
25) Beograd - Istanbul (0750 - 0750) ~10€
26) Istanbul
27) Istanbul
28) Istanbul - Bucuresti (2200 - 1839) ~15€
29) Bucuresti
30) Bucuresti - Budapest(1745 - 0850) 16,40€
31) Budapest - Praha (1125 - 1819)

Germany - Paris and Praha - Germany you'd need regular tickets - but again, the above is just a suggestion so that you'll get a feeling for the distance between all places.


Flo 8)
16) Barcelona

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Strubbi
Traveller
4 comments

replied 13 years ago

you are simply great thanks a lot :)

your suggestions will help me a great lot!!!