pete_stephenson6
Traveller
4 comments
Posted 17 years ago
Hi
Me and 3/4 mates are going to buy either an interrail 30 (or possibly 22) day global continuous ticket :D . We're 17/18 years old and are intending to travel after we've done our A level exams and before we begin university.
As we are obviously pretty new to the whole thing, can anyone give us any idea how long in advance we need to start organising this and how much in terms of booking trains do we need to do in advance. Am very confused by mentions of surcharges etc, if anyone could give us a quick idiots guide to the whole thing would be much appreciated. Also if anybody would like to recommend any places to visit then feel free!
Cheers!
Pete
Mummibae
Traveller
10 comments
The planning really depends on who you are. I have just come home after one month of travel, and before I started, I hadn't planned anything, and it turned out fine. A few things I found out, though:
It's good to plan where you are going the next day, find out when the trains leave and if you need to make reservations. If reservation is necessary, then book it the day before. It can be quite stressful to stand at the station and find out that all trains are overbooked (this is most likely to happen in weekends or by the end/beginning of the country's holiday).
If there's a certain hostel you will like to stay at, it may be a good idea to book that as well. But I didn't book anything, and I found something pretty easy everywhere I went, even in Rome.
Hope that was just a little help for you. I think the whole system is quite easy, just relax and enjoy yourself. And remember to make space for improvisation. You may meet some other travellers who you want to travel with for a couple of days, and then I think it's quite annoying to have made too meny plans.
Good luck!
pete_stephenson6
Traveller
4 comments
Thanks for that! It is reassuring that we dont have to do too mkuch in the way of booking trains beforehand, just get the ticket and go. We have an approximate route as there is four or five of us and we all want to see various places, but for me once I've done france, spain, Italy, Austria and Switzerland I'm easy as to where we go. BTW, did you go on your own and if so what was that like??? Also how long in advance did you buy your interrail ticket??
Thanks again!
Pete
Mummibae
Traveller
10 comments
Yes, I did go on my own. You can see under other themes and then girl travelling alone. I have written something about my experiences in that topic just as I started it.
And I just bought my interrailticket the same day as i started my travel. The only problem with that was that the ticketoffice didn't open until 8 in the morning, and I was there half an hour before, but apart from that it is no problem. And if you haven't bought you ticket before you go, if something happens and you can't for one or the other reason go until a day or two later, it's no problem. Generally I am a bit against having too much planned, as you can probably hear :))
[b]Country information: [/b] [u]https://rail.cc/en/countries[/u]
[b]Booking reservations: [/b] [u]https://rail.cc/en/interrail-train-reservation[/u]