East Interrail: Ljublana - Budapest - Beograd-Sofia-Istanbul

Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

Hej,

if you want to use the 5in10 InterRail, I'd go Switzerland - Italy by train instead of bus. What is your country of residence, Spain or Switzerland?
Otherwise, you probably will be cheaper off with regular tickets:

Ljubljana - Budapest: 39€ (on the direct train which leaves at 0635 in the morning or so)
Budapest - Beograd: 15€
Beograd - Sofia: ~30€

Italy to Ljubljana is not expensive as well, depending on where you leave from Italy.

Sofia - Istanbul by train is not that problematic by train as well as it seems at the moment. The last part of track within Istanbul (Halkali - Sirkeci) will be closed from March, but the remainder, from the border at Kapikule all the way to Halkali, will remain open. If the track maintenance will start over, the bus replacement will only operate between Cerkezköy and Halkali which means that you will have to leave the train at around 6am at Cerkezköy and be able to board it there at around midnight - this is the latest news available.
Sofia - Istanbul is around 20€ plus around 10€ for the sleeper reservation.

Another interesting place to visist might be Graz on the way from Ljubljana to Budapest. ;)


Flo 8)

Barroman
Traveller
6 comments

Wow!!! Thank you very much!!

Actually the idea is taking a free ride to Italia, probably to Milano... The both of us have the residence here in Switzerland, so we cannot use the Interrail here...

So about the first part of the travel, that MILANO-VENICE-LJUBLJANA... Do you think it might be very expensive??

Anyway what you are saying about taking the regular tickets sounds really interesting... We are going to do the travel with a low budget so if we can spare some money with the train tickets it will be fantastic! About this, I've got a small question... That prices you are talking about... is there any website where I can find them? Because the both of us are above 25 years when we are travelling, so the Interrail will be 270€ as you know... And if we can save at least 140€...

Following your calculations, without the travel from Italy (or Switzerland) to Ljubljana is around 110€... So it seems that, if we can found a way to travel from Switzerland (maybe via Italy) to Ljubljana for less than 160€ it looks like interesting...

So, do you think that there is any website where I can check the prices of the train tickets?

Thank you really much!!

Barroman

Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

Hej,

well I'd say if you aer both >26 at the time of travel, dont use the IR ticket - regular tickets will be the way to go!

Some of the prices I qouted can be found on the websites of the different railways you are going to use, if you want, check there. ;)

Milano - Venice advance tickets start from 9€; if you dont stop at Venice, a ticket to Trieste can be as cheap as 18€, depending on the connection you take. (regular fare to Trieste ~37€)
From Trieste then take the Tramway to Villa Opicina (~2€) and a bus/taxi to Sezana. From Sezana, the train to Ljubljana is about 9€.

You can purchase the advance tickets for Italy via our website, see the link below the top menu - that way we get a small comission to keep the servers running. ;)

You see, overall much cheaper than with IR. If you are looking for another stop, you could also think about Plovdiv on the way from Sofia to Istanbul, very nice city (I've just been there about two weeks ago).


Flo 8)

nltrainer
Traveller
1404 comments

Flo has answered already-what I wanted to explain.
As for sites; do not hold your breath, but as a general rule; Prices- IF on www at all- are ONLY given from the national website of the railway of the country your trip starts in-so you have to look after them [piece by piece].
But as all those IRers tend to do the very same trips-captial to capital, we now know them all- the days of some more imaginative travel seem to have long gone!
You MAY consider the balkan Flexipass- 5 days in 1 month-works same way as IR, but ONLY from Serbije/Romania and all countries south/east of there. then you can do much more travel for hardly a Frankeli more. google serb railways for current prices. buy in Serbije/at BGrad station from Wasteels or ZS. in THAT area railways only charge 50% for INTernational tickets as your SBBCFF would do.

Barroman
Traveller
6 comments

Well, well, well... Thank you again very much. I didn't expect that much help you are offering! Thanks!
:D

I have just spent some time doing some research...It's actually cool surfing the web for the train tickets.. And I'm founding some interesting combinations. These are my founds right now, about the travel from Ljubjlana to Istanbul:

Ljubjlana-Budapest, 39€, 0635-1634
Budapest-Beograd, 15€, 1305-2052
Beograd-Sofia, 15€, 2150-0802 (is actually a night train with bed reservation!!)
Sofia-Istambul, 20€ 2030-0630 (is a night bus)

This is just 89€!

Now I'm fighting (not literaly) with the computer. I'm looking for some connections from Switzerland to Ljubjlana. We live near Payerne, near Fribourg in Switzerland.

I have found this:
Zurich-Milano: 27€ the day before we exiting (we have friends at Milano that might give us a place to sleep).
Milano-Venice (if not 9€, it must be ~18€) (2h seing the arrounds of Venice) 0725-1056
Venice-Gorizia, 11€, 1309-1539
Gorizia-Nova Gorica (4Km by feet or 1€ by bus) 40min?
Nova Gorica Ljubjlana, 9€, 1847-2146

All travel Zurich-Istanbul will cost ~160€. So I have saved 110€ (both of us 220€) that we can spend visiting other places (Lake Bled? Maribar? Zagreb? any suggestions?) or just spend them by going to a balneario at Budapest, or other activities in those places!

Actually it's beeing pretty fun searching this things!

I found as well other chance, that could be going Zurich-Innsbruck-Graz?-Ljubjlana, but it's slighty more expensive and I already know Innsbruck (from an Interrail in 2010), and we don't know Venice so...

What do you think? It's suitable?

We are going to this mayor cities because we have some friends/contacts in those places that will host us free! (And luckly will give us some free lunch and so on).

And now that we are talking ;) ... What do you think about having a budget of 15€/day to eat on this holidays plus 5€/day to each one of us? We are not planning going everyday to a hot lunch in a restaurant though we'd like to eat some food of the place. If you have been in these places... have you already wrote like a diary of your travel that I can check up to find some ideas? Do you have any suggestions? I'm (and I will) searching some info, but I'd like to have first-hand info!

One more time: Thanks!

Barroman

P.s. And don't worry, If I can purchase anything from your website, I'll actually do. I think you guys are doing an awesome job here, and I'll be delight to be part of this community. After this second europe-train-travel, I'll try to share also the few things i'll learn after this holidays...

P.s.2: Do you suggest me to take in advance all the tickets? Or to buy them day by day as my travel goes on?

Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

Hej,

glad we can help! And as you've said anyway, it would be great to share some of your experiences you make during your trip as well as hard facts (train ticket prices, reservation prices, changed schedules,...) afterwards. We try to keep all information as up to date as possible but we cannot collect information all around Europe all year, we have to sit at home as well answering questions. ;)

So...on your route I think the only way to buy tickets via our website are those you need for the Milano - Venezia leg. All other tickets I'd just buy on the day as they are not available online anyway and do not have a limited availability or pre-booking time.

As for Zurich - Graz - Ljubljana...well you could get Sparschiene Tickets online from ÖBB which start from 29€ for a seat (more for a couchette/sleeper). This is my train, I am using this quite regularly as it is perfect to start/finish trips to Western Europe (for me). But if you like to visit Venezia, it is certainly better to go via Milano - as I've said before you could also go to Graz on your way to Budapest from Ljubljana. Regular price is ~50€ though, but there are Sparschiene tickets available at ÖBB website starting at 19€.

If you continue to look for prices online you will see that in Eastern Europe standard fares are usually quite cheap, these can be bought on the day and often are about the same price (or even cheaper, depending on what pass you have) than travel days of a rail pass ticket. In Central Europe, where standard prices are usually more expensive (Austria, Italy, Switzerland), an IR pass is good for flexibility, while pre booked ticket such as Sparschiene often are about the same price as a travel day.

Regarding Sofia - Istanbul: I would invest the extra ~10€ and go by train, but that of course is my personal opinion. ;) And you really should consider visiting Plovdiv. If you have free accomodation at Sofia you could leave in the morning, go to Plovdiv (Bulgarian domestic tickets are cheap!), visit the city and take the night train to Istanbul in the evening. I dont know how it works with long distance trains into Tureky but I assume it is the same as with trains and there will be a custom and border control check at the border in the middle of the night so there is not a big difference between the two - except for the extra atmosphere of going by train.

Where have you founf the 15€ for Beograd - Sofia?

Regarding money. 15€ will defnitely be ok in Belgrade and Sofia, also in Budapest and Ljubljana (which are a bit more expensive though), it Istanbul it depends on where you go. But street food is not really expensive either. Restaurants can be, depending on where you go but there are vast numbers to choose from so you defnitely will find some place that suits you. ;)


Flo 8)

Barroman
Traveller
6 comments

Cool! And yes! We will write back when we do our trip, just updating some info, and sharing our experiences!!!

I'll study a bit more these days the chance of going trough Austria. The most important thing should be the cheapest one...

That Plovdiv city sounds interesting... Do you think is better to visit that city instead of Sofia? My friend told me the other day that he has some friends at Bucharest... What would you recomend, Sofia or Bucharest? Bulgaria or Romania??

Look, about this Beograd-Sofia nighttrain I found it here www.serbianrailways.com/active/en/home/glavna_navigacija/putnicki_saobracaj.html] , I did click on E-TICKETS that sends you here w3.srbrail.rs/eticketing/?lang=en. I registered myself, and then I typed BEOGRAD to SOFIA, in the selected date 8 of July.
And this is the info of this train:
Station Arrival Departure
BEOGRAD 21:50 21:50
RAKOVICA 22:10 22:11
MLADENOVAC 23:16 23:17
PALANKA 23:46 23:47
VELIKA PLANA 23:57 23:59
LAPOVO 00:13 00:15
JAGODINA 00:33 00:34
CUPRIJA 00:49 00:50
PARACIN 00:57 00:59
STALAC 01:14 01:15
ALEKSINAC 01:48 01:49
NIŠ 02:16 02:45
BELA PALANKA 03:47 03:47
PIROT 04:37 04:39
DIMITROVGRAD 05:10 05:30
SOFIA 08:02 08:02

Tariff rank of train
SLEEP:Single 3955.00 Rsd
SLEEP:Double 1695.00 Rsd
SLEEP:T3 1130.00 Rsd
COUSHETTE :Bc6 678.00 Rsd
POSSIBLE RESERVATION 339.00 Rsd

I looked online for a converter of RSD to EUR => and it said 15€ for the Double bed, as we are travelling two, we can take two of these beds, maybe one chamber, right??

Maybe there's a problem with the currency convertion... Could you check it please??? But this sounds really nice, traveling by night, with bed, for 15€!

This ongoing week we'll buy our plane tickets from Istanbul to Switzerland. And maybe we'll try to buy the train tickets for Italy as well the soon and cheaper the better. I've heard that Trenitalia has this advanced tickets, that must be bought the day before the travel... Do you think it's risky? We are travelling from 29 June to 14 july (the flight back). More or less our schedule of trips is something like this:

28Jn Zurich Milano
29Jn Milano Venezia
29Jn Venezia-Monfalcone Gorizia
29Jn Nova Gorica Ljubjlana
30 Ljubjlana
1Jly Ljubjlana Budapest
2 Budapest
3 Budapest
4 Budapest
5Jly Budapest Beograd
6 Beograd
7,8Jl Beograd Sofia
8 Sofia
9,10J Sofia/Plovdiv Istanbul
11-14 Istanbul

The dates are not precise. Of these cities, I've already visited Budapest, and my friend has already visited Venezia. The rest are unknown for the both of us. We were thinking about staying more days at Istanbul, and I know for sure that Budapest is a nice city (maybe we can be just stay two days there). And we where as well studing to visit Maribar (in our way to Budapest). My friends have some friends there as well, so...

Anyway, any valutation of this schedule? (Of course, as we are buying the tickets time by time, I guess that we can change the program on our way, but I like to study it, with a lot of variations, as going to Graz, or visiting Bucharest instead of Sofia, just in case).

Barroman

Barroman
Traveller
6 comments

Well, I have a new question for you guys... I hope you can help me once more...

My friend is from Philippines. He has a Philippine Passport with a Visa for Switzerland (Schengen Zone), he and me are being residents here.

So, I am planing going through Serbia, Bulgaria (probably Romania) and Turkey. I wrote to the embassy of each country here in Switzerland. Turkey and Bulgaria has answered. Turkey he has to do visa documents, in Geneve, and about Bulgaria there is no problem as long as he has a visa of Schengen country!! Serbia and Romania haven't answered yet.

Do you know something about this? I heard something somewhere about Transit Visa where going to Romania, that was valid for just 5 days without doing any documents...

More precisely I'm asking you about border controls, and if when the control occur is there any chance to pay any fee is needed... For instance, me going to Turkey, I'm Spanish, I have readed that I have to pay a fee of 15€ but I don't know precisely where do I have to pay for it!

Heelp!

Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

Hej!

I spent half a day in Sofia, half a day in Plovdiv...if I had to choose, I would return to Plovdiv first. But, I think you should also try to visit Sofia, even if it is just for a short time, half a day or so, definitely worth it!
I didnt like Bucharest much to be honest...maybe it is different if you have someone who can show you round, but I liked Sofia more, even though there is not really that much to see in both cities I think. If possible, try to visit both, or all cities. ;)

The night train Beograd - Sofia currently only consists of a Serbian couchette and a Bulgarian 2nd class coach. There is supposed to be a Bulgarian sleeper as well, but it has been suspended for quite some time now and I doubt that it will run anytime soon.
So, just get your ticket in Belgrade at the station plus a 6€ reservation for the couchette and you will be fine. Remember that there will be a border control check early in the morning so you wouldnt be able to enjoy the sleeper anyway.
The price for the sleeper is correct, the info is from the offical website of Serbian Railways. ;) But prices are always quoted for one person of course.

Trenitalia has Economy and Super Economy fares which have to be bought in advance. The sooner you book, the cheaper tickets you get.

If you are travelling Milano - Ljubljana in one day, you wont see much of Venezia I fear, depending on how early you want to get up. But, if you want to, go there, even though you might only be able to walk to Piazza San Marco and back it is really nice...but dont get lost! ;)
Expect a +9 hours journey without a stop in Venezia.

Apart from that, the schedule is totally feasible and also suitable for changes on the rails, while you are travelling: Adding Maribor, staying only two days in Budapest...

Regarding the Visa issue, unfortunately I am no big help here. :(


Flo 8)

Barroman
Traveller
6 comments

Well, thanks againg for all your considerations, and thank as well for your blog entry. I guess I decided to do this kind of trip in the proper time. I promise that, as soon as I'm back of the trip (it will be in July, so...), I will update you about ticket fares, issues, trains, ecc.

I have made some changes already of the trip. The first one is the trip from Montet (where I live, a village near Fribourg in Switzerland) to Ljubljana in Slovenia. I have two different main options:

[b]- Fribourg-Graz, and then Graz-Ljubljana => 77€/person
- Fribourg-Bern-Milan, and then Milan-Venezia-Ljubljana. => 75€/person[/b]

About prices both of them are almost the same. The main difference is that the first one is a simple trip and I'll spent the night in the train, and that I'll arrive at 14.06 to Ljubljana (as I'll be taking the 10 a.m. from Graz to Ljubljana, as is the cheapest). It will let me just three hours at Graz!!! (Sorry!!). Whereas the other one I'll get to Ljubljana at about 21'30, and I'll be spending 3 hours at Venice.

Then, I will stay one/two nights in Ljubljana (doing maybe a trip to Bled or other lake near Ljubljana), and then to Budapest, to be two/three nights. Here arrives the new changing due to the visa issues.

We'll go to Rumania from Budapest, with a Night Train to Brasov (and try to visit Brasov or Bran Castle on the way). Then we'll spend the night in a friend house in Bucharest, and then we were thinkin to take the Bus from Bucarest to Sofia. I saw is cheaper, and as we have a low budget...

In fact, I have done some research, and there would be the chance to go to Ruse (a frontier city of Bulgaria) that is at 1 hour by car from Bucarest. Then take a Night train to Sofia, just for 9€ (a slow train, that will take like 7hours to arrive (enough to a good sleep). So we can save one night of hostel at Sofia, and we can profit more time in Bucharest.

Then we spend a whole day at sofia (just planning a relaxing day), and then try to do the Sofia-Plovdiv-Istanbul. At first I though of taking the Night Bus to Istanbul (just to forget about train issues in Istanbul). But I'd like to stop in Plovdiv. So I have to study this. The fact is that with just 20€ we can go from Sofia to Istanbul by night bus. So, though is going to be a hard travel (night bus...) maybe if we save money it will be nice. [b]Maybe we can take a train go an return to Plovdiv from Sofia beforte the night bus and spend all day at Plovdiv??[/b]

And then we will finish with 4 days at Istanbul!

Then we will take our plane to Basel (Switzerland), and finish our odyssey with a walk in this city!

About the Visa Issues, we discover that Bulgaria accept now people from Schenghen visa without problem (although they are not Schenghen zone) and Romania will not make problem if we just do a transit through their country (as we can prove that we are going out, with a Hostel Reservation, a Plane ticket Istanbul-Switzerland...). We will have just to do his visa (for some Non-EU citizen is necessary to do the Visa before going Turkey), and pay my Visa on the way (As Spanish, I have to pay 15€ there).

I think this will be a nice adventure!!!

P.s. Flow, I understood that you are from Graz, if we take that course, it might be any chance to meet you there? At least to take a beer or something to thank you for your work here!

Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

Hi!

It'd be great to get some feedback after you're back - maybe we even have a blog feature available for everyone by then. :)

77€ pp for Fribourg - Graz - Ljubljana sounds very reasonable, I assume these are some special prices? Where could you buy them - at SBB?
If you decide to go via Graz I'll sure be your guide, unless I am travelling myself. ;)

You can get cheap advance fare tickets for the Budapest - Brasov night train on MAV website :arr: [ux]https://rail.shop/mav/[/ux]
Definitely a very nice train! Have a dinner in the restaurant car in the evening (I had main course plus dessert plus two beer for just 11€ or so), then a hearty breakfast in the morning :) Pictures will follow soon on the blog..

You can see most of Brasov within a few hours; depending on when you want to proceed to Bucuresti you could still visit Bran, when I was in Brasov there were several tours waiting for customers at the station.

Why go to Ruse by bus? The night train to Sofia leaves from Bucuresti. However, it currently consists only of a single old Bulgarian (former German) carriage and is not to be particularly shady. It might not be the best thing to sleep without watching your stuff (but it surely depends on your fellow travellers!). The carriage is coupled to the night train coming from Russia, it should be possible to get beds on that train as well but there were reports of corrupt condcutors so take care. ;)

A day trip to Plovdiv might be a great idea, a single ticket would be just 4€, a return might be even cheaper.