jodielaurafinch
Traveller
1 comments
Posted 13 years ago
Hey guys, a group of us did Interrail in 2010, and saw everything we wanted to see and had a great time, and so are planning to go back this summer! We sat last night and did a few hours planning and have come up with a basic route. We know exactly what we want to see in each place, hence why there's a lot of moving on soon after arriving. Let us know what you think!
Itinerary
Day 1: Fly to Barcelona, Spain. Sleep in Barcelona.
Day 2: Spend day in Barcelona, Sleep in Barcelona.
Day 3: Spend second day looking round Barcelona before travelling, Sleep in Barcelona.
Day 4: Get Interrail to Le Tour de Carol, get Le petit train jaune through Pyrenees to Villefranche-de-Conflent, and onto Perpignan (about 4 hours). From Perpignan get Interrail to Avignon (or Montpellier if it gets too late.) Arrive Avignon 11pm and get few hours’ sleep in train station.
Day 5: Set off early and get Interrail from Avignon to Lyon, and across the border into Switzerland, into Bern. Sleep in Bern (hostel or campsite).
Day 6: Spend day looking around Bern, Sleep in Bern for second night.
Day 7: Get Interrail across Switzerland into Austria and get last train towards Salzburg. Sleep in Salzburg or stop before to sleep.
Day 8: Spend day in Salzburg and move onto Salzkammergut. Sleep in Salzkammergut.
Day 9: Spend day in Salzkammergut – house of skulls etc. Sleep again in Salzkammergut.
Day 10: Travel on Interrail down Austria, through Slovenia (possible stop at Ljubljana) and carry onto into Croatia to Zagreb. Go out in evening to look around Zagreb, and sleep in Zagreb.
Day 11: Coach from Zagreb to Plitvice lakes, sleep outside of national park: [u]https://rail.cc/en/train/zagreb-to-plitvice-lakes[/u]
Day 12: Full day exploring Plitvice National Park (around £20), and camp in Plitvice.
Day 13: Coach down to Split, Croatia: [u]https://rail.cc/en/train/plitvice-lakes-to-split[/u] - Sleep in Split.
Day 14: Spend day relaxing in Split, sleep in Split.
Day 15: Second day looking round Split, Dalmation Coast (possible trip to Dubrovnik), Sleep in Split.
Day 16: Interrail back to Zagreb and then across into Serbia, to Belgrade. Sleep in Belgrade.
Day 17: Spend day looking round Belgrade, see nightlife of Belgrade. Sleep in Belgrade.
Day 18: Interrail through Hungary (possible stop in Budapest) and interrail onto Vienna (Austria). Sleep in Vienna.
Day 19: Spend day looking round Vienna, evening in Vienna and sleep in Vienna.
Day 20: Interrail into Poland and across to Krakow. Spend night looking round and sleeping in Krakow.
Day 21: Day trip to Auschwitz (1 hour from Krakow), 9am-4pm, and back to Krakow. Spend evening in Krakow and get night train from Krakow to Prague.
Day 22: Wake up in Prague from night train, spend day looking round Prague. Spend night in Prague.
Day 23: Interrail from Prague across Germany, through Berlin, into Netherlands to Amsterdam. Sleep in Amsterdam.
Day 24: Spend day looking round Amsterdam, sleep in Amsterdam.
Day 25: Interrail to Hook of Holland and Ferry back to Harwich, UK.
Feedback welcomed! Thanks!
Peter
Traveller
9337 comments
Hi.
Looks good.
In Switzerland, stay one night in Bern. From there do a kind of round trip using the route of the Glacier Express - but not the Glacier Express directly (!supplement), use free Regional trains.
Have a look on Bern - Brig. From Here by regional trains via Andermatt and Disentis to Chur. Then continue to Zurich and stay there for one night (good night live).
For Zurich to Salzburg, use a free and direct Railjet train.
In Slovenia skip Ljubljana and stay a night or tow at Lake Bled instead.
Definitely stay two nights in Budapest. :)
Peter :)
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Hi!
Seems like a really ambitious and fun tour, just as I like it. :)
You apparently already planned very well, so I think there wont be much that you would need to change, but let's have a look.
Day 0.1 Fly to BCN
Day 0.2 BCN
Day 0.3 BCN
Day 1 Start InterRail; from what I can see now you are rather unlucky as you wont make it as far as Avignon since you miss the connection in Perpignan for juut some 15 minutes or so...but you could get as far as Nimes still.
However, what you could also do is to get a night train to Paris and then go by TGV to Bern the following morning...this would be a little more expensive as you would need reservations for both trains but it might be more comfortable to sleep on the train rather than at the station...although this can be quite cool as well. ;)
Day 2 From Montpellier/Nimes/Avignon no problem to get to Bern without paying extra via Lyon - Geneve; however if you choose to go via Paris as mentioned above you could be in Bern earlier...at least an hour depending on when you want to get up in the morning to leave Nimes/etc..
Day 3 Bern...if you have seen enough already, you could make a day trip to Luzern :)
Day 4 Switzerland...do you want to go with some mountain railways? Or just straight to Salzburg? The last day train leaves Zürich at 1640.
However, instead of arriving late in Salzburg and spending the night there (or going by night train which arrives at around 4am) you could spend the day in the Swiss Alps and then go with night train to Wien instead of Salzburg.
Like Peter said, the route of the Glacier Express is quite amazing...your route then could look like this:
Bern - Interlaken - Goppenstein - Brig - Andermatt - Disentis - Reichenau-Tamins - Filisur - St Moritz - Filisur - Davos - Landquart - Sargans - Salzburg
or
Bern - Luzern - Arth-Goldau - Göschenen - Andermatt and then as above
However, you would have to pay extra for the part you travel by MGB (Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn): Brig - Andermatt - Disentis or Göschenen - Andermatt - Disentis; with and IR youth pass you get 50% discount for this part. It will be around 10-20€, depending on the route. And as Peter said, avoid the real Glacier Express as you would have to pay a supplement. Instead go by the supplement free regional trains.
Day 5 I'd recommend to go to Vienna right now and skip it at the end of the trip, with the night train you would arrive early in the morning and could spend the whole day in the city, sleep one night (I can recommend Wombats)
Day 6 Go to Salzkammergut (direct train at ~0944)
Day 7 Go to Salzburg
Day 8 Salzburg - Ljubljana via the Tauern route across the Alps; if you leave Salzburg early you can easily make a stopover at Ljubljana (or Lake Bled as Peter suggested) during the day and proceed to Zagreb in the evening
Day 9 Zagreb to Plitvice
Day 10 Plitvice
Day 11 Plitvice - Split
Day 12 Split
Day 13 Split/Dubrovnik
Day 14 Split - Zagreb - Belgrad...unless you want to sit the whole day in the train I'd recommend to go Zagreb - Beograd with the night train
Day 15 Beograd
Day 16 Beograd - Budapest
Day 17 Budapest, then in the evening with night train to Krakow
Day 18 Krakow and day trip to Auschwitz
Day 19 Day in Krakow and then to Praha with night train
Day 20 Praha
Day 21 Praha - Berlin - Amsterdam
Day 22 Amsterdam - Hook van Holland > back home
:) I think this could a pretty cool trip; I hope I did not forget anything since I rearranged it a little.
Flo 8)
jodielaurafinch
Traveller
1 comments
Hi Flo,
We've been trying to find train times etc to match what you mentioned regarding missing our connection in Perpignan. However, when looking for train times to get from Barcelona into France we've found that we can't get from Barcelona to La tour de Carol, as there's no train running from Puigcerda. :((
So instead we thought about going from Barcelona to Perpignan, and then essentially doing le petit train jaune twice in one day going from Perpignan - Le tour de Carol and back again as we really wanted to do the train. We also ran into a problem here as there appears to be no train running from Barcelona to Perpignan until 16.42, and this train only runs once a day.
Could you help us out here if you have any information on getting from Barcelona to La tour de carol/Perpignan early enough to fit in the train?
Thanks,
Jodie :D
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Hej Jodie,
this is a common problem that the online schedules for this area are hard to find.
The trains on the Barcelona - Puigcerda - Latour de Carol line are operated by Rodalies, the suburban network of Barcelona. You will have to look on their website for the timings (not on eg [ux]https://rail.shop/bahn[/ux] or renfe.com), but we also have them on railcc:
:arr: [u]https://rail.cc/en/train/barcelona-to-latour-de-carol[/u]
They all stop in Puigcerda some minutes before Latour de Carol, I will add that stop tomorrow if I have time. ;)
For the Barcelona - Hendaye - Perpignan line, this is a similar problem as the standard travel planners only show the one international train on that route, the mentioned Talgo at 1642. However, there are trains about every two hour from Barcelona to Hendaye (french border), from where you could continue to Perpignan.
I would recommend to go Barcelona - Latour - Perpignan and then stay overnight in the area. Just ask if you need more details. ;)
Flo 8)