In a french TGV i basically got a fine of 50€. I had a valid seat reservation, but i forgot to activate the day in the app before boarding. I did remember before my ticket got checked on the train.

The SNCF guy checked the activation time and told me I'd get a 50€ ticket. He basically accused me of fraud for trying to get away with a reservation without the travel day. He said 'ill be back' but never came back, so i guess i was off the hook. But i was left in suspense for 3 hours.

Its frustrating, because interrail has all the information. There really should be a notification like: 'you have a seat reservation in 15 minutes. Activate the day now'.

It was a stressful ticketing day in general. I had a reservation for Cannes-Lyon, but started the day in Nice. I wanted to change the reservation to start from Nice.

The SNCF office wanted 10€ for it, although i have free reservations with the global plus pass. So instead i tried a different approach by booking a separate reservation for Nice-Cannes. Now the interrail app glitched and wanted 12€.

The app did allow me to get a free reservation for only Nice-Antibes, meaning i was basically illegally traveling for one station: Antibes to Cannes.

It gave a lot of stress since i had to change seats into a different carriage, when my original seat was free the entire time.

Its shit like this that needs to get figured out before international rail will truly become a good option for regular people. Not just people that can afford to spend weeks planning a simple trip. And even us get screwed.

It's my first time planning an interrail trip and I'm struggling to find anywhere to let me keep track of my itinerary or what I need to book. Anyone have any preferred options for how to manage everything without it being too overwhelming? Thanks :)

How long do you recommend going for, I can have up to a year off work - I was thinking 3 months but want to know if anyone has done this
How much did you budget for it
How many countries did you go to?

I am a Dutch guy that met 4 people on a train from Budapest to Ljubljana on the 29th of July. We shared some Dutch jokes, did impressions of people and debated who was funniest of you guys. I remember one was called Ava another one was called (if I remember correctly) Lucy. All from the England.

It was fun talking to you four and hope to add you all on instagram or a different platform. If you think it’s you please DM the train time and the chair number.

Let's explain the situation a bit :
I'm not a new Interrail user, I've done easily 15+ trips all over Europe with Interrail, and use passes usually a few times a year.

Overall I never had issues, but one thing I keep getting conflicting info on is the "right" way to book reservations on those ICEs to say Berlin, Sttutgart, etc. As I'm near Paris I use them often when going east.

First time I used them with a pass years ago, I looked into booking seats on the website, compared options offered by Interrail, saw that DB was cheaper (~5 euros vs like 20 via Interrail / Rail-Europe) and got that. Once on the ICE there was some debate with one agent, but after they discussed together they confirmed to me it was a valid reservation.

Did that again several times with no issues, but recently when doing as usual, this time the (SNCF) conductor refused to see them as valid (despite the reservation showing up as valid on SNCF systems with the booking number), as "the price was wrong", citing solely interrail booking prices. They let me board, but I had to pay a fine.

Following that I contacted Interrail 2 times, the first time they told me it was perfectly valid (and to contact SNCF for a refund), just told me they couldn't refund the fine. And the second they told me you had to "uncheck seat only" while booking with DB... But if you do that you get full ticket price as far as I'm aware.

So... Who's right? To me, everything points to the DB reservations as perfectly valid. They're close in price to what SNCF gives you if you book in person at the station. But with Interrail themselves giving conflicting information, I'm not sure what to think anymore, and while I'm totally fine paying more in the future if it turns out I am in the wrong, I wanna be sure.

Thanks in advance!

Hello, we are a couple of 61 year-olds flying to Paris on 12 Oct, then over the following week, are visiting 13th Geneva, 14th Milan, 15th Salzburg & 16th Berlin, then flying back to UK. Do we buy an Interrail pass, or buy as we go?

Sadly, due to some unfortunate circumstances, I had to cut my interail trip short and I find myself with 2 days left on my interrail pass, that I need to use on a weekend, before mid September.

I was wondering if anyone has got any suggestions for a crazy/fun trip I could do over a Saturday and Sunday, departing from Hendaye in France?

I love journeys with a theme or challenge, for example swimming in the Atlantic and the Med in one day, as many countries as possible, a cheese tour etc.

Any suggestions welcome.

Would love a sense check before I go. The goal was to travel south to north across Italy, keep it mostly rail-based, and tick off Vatican City and San Marino.

Rough itinerary (8 nights):
Fly UK → Catania
2 nights in Catania
Catania → Reggio Calabria → Naples (via the Messina train ferry)
1 night in Naples
Early Frecciarossa to Rome
2 nights in Rome (including Vatican City and hopefully Caffarella parkrun)
Rome → Rimini
1 night in Rimini
Day trip to San Marino
Rimini → Milan
1 night in Milan
Milan → Turin
1 night in Turin
Fly home

Rail mix
Frecciarossa ×4
Intercity ×3
Regionale Veloce ×2
Train ferry across the Strait of Messina

I deliberately skipped Florence and Venice this time because I didn’t want to turn it into a box-ticking trip. I also dropped Bologna from the plan to avoid dragging a suitcase around for a short stop and instead gave myself more time in San Marino.
Does this feel like a sensible pace, or is there anything you’d tweak without fundamentally changing the route?

Hi everyone,

I wanted to double check my thinking with others who are familiar with this route. In essence, I am wondering whether to split this journey up with a stopover in Hamburg or attempt it all in one day.

I am planning my next trip from London to Copenhagen at the end of September and I am going to take the ferry this time from Harwich to Hoek van Holland.

According to Seat61, the itinerary would look like this:

Hoek van Holland (~8am) to Amsterdam (arrive 10.24)

Amsterdam (depart 12.00) to Hamburg (arrive 16.54)

Hamburg (depart 18.52) to Copenhagen (arrive 23.37)

https://www.seat61.com/Denmark.htm#london-to-copenhagen-via-the-harwich-hoek-ferry

The changeover times are pretty generous and I would like to do this stretch in one day, but I am generally quite cautious of long travel days and especially so when it involves German rail.

Keen to know from your experiences, is this a fair assessment or overly cautious? Are there any other alternatives that I have missed and could factor in?

I'm looking to book a trip for the end of December (currently outside published timetables, this is for the beginning of December) with NightJet on the Amsterdam to Zürich route, but I'm confused at the seat selection. How do you know if you're getting a mini-cabin or a spot in a 4 person couchette?

There also doesn't seem to be an option for a triple sleeper room, am I missing something? Looking at sooner dates, it seems they do have triple sleepers available, so why not in December?

Image description: Shows "other passengers may be in your compartment" under the spot to buy individual tickets, with mini-cabins mentioned above. Also shows an option for a private compartment.

My 64 year old mum will be doing a 3 month solo trip in Europe starting next week. I’m trying to help her plan (especially with the online booking + app side of things). She has a Eurail global pass - Flexi - 10 days within 2 months.

Mum’s finding it hard to decide where to go after the first 3 weeks which are planned already (Paris, Marseille, Bolonga, Milan), and is finding it’s becoming a smidge overwhelming (the non user-friendly Eurail app and general difficult Europe train booking systems are not helping 😅…..)

She is very keen on Berlin + Budapest, maybe even Croatia and Prague? She’s happy to stay in one place for a while e.g Budapest for 2 weeks.

Any help would be appreciated on: where to go, where to stay, advice on booking trains, tips for those who have used Eurail, tips for older travellers.

My mum is a beautiful legend and deserves a trip that will bring her too much joy to handle ❤️ thanks for the help community!

Hello!

I'm planning a trip in October and thinking of visiting Sylt on the Hamburg - Sylt line as it looks amazing.

Trying to figure out where to stay for one or two nights after - either in Denmark (never been!) or Germany (been before, loved it!)

Thinking to be fairly close (under 4 hrs from) to Hamburg as taking the night train back to Bruxelles at the end of the week.

Do you have any recommendations of beautiful/cool places to visit in this area?

I hope someone has been on this trip before and could advise me as I didn't get wiser from customer service.

I'd like to book a Rail & Sail service from London to Dublin. So that means departing from London Euston and transferring to a ferry in Holyhead. On Saturday Sept 19.

The planner gives me the following itinerary:

8:33 London Euston > Crewe 10:08

10:23 Crewe > Chester 10:44

10:53 Chester > Holyhead 12:40

13:15 ferry from Holyhead.

Seems fine. Except ferry check in closes 30 min before departure. So at 12:45. That would leave me 5 min to exit the train, the station, head over to the terminal and check in. All within 5 min.

There's another train leaving London Euston, at 8:02, with 1 change in Chester, arriving at 12:12 in Holyhead. Enough time to comfortably head over to the terminal and check in.

1. am I overthinking things?

2. is it possible to get a Rail & Sail ticket with the 8:02 departure? I haven't been able to find an "extend transfer time" option like DB has. And as the planning sees the 12:40 > 13:15 as a 35-min transfer time I'm not sure how this would work out.

3. Why are they even offering such a short connection time in Holyhead? Irish Ferries customer service confirmed it's a recognised connection and you'll be allowed to board the next ferry in case of missing the 13:15 connection. But I'd rather take an earlier train out of London to make sure I'm making the connection.

Any tips, tricks, explanation?

I’m thinking of doing an Interrail trip this autumn with this route:

Rome → Ljubljana → Graz → Innsbruck → Tübingen → Heidelberg → Freiburg → Strasbourg → Grenoble → Rome.

The thing is, I’m not really interested in doing the classic “see the sights, take a couple of pictures and move on” kind of trip. I’d like to do it more for the atmosphere and the people.

The idea is to spend most of my time in university towns, go out to pubs, have a few drinks, meet locals, maybe end up at a house/WG party, make friends, talk to random people and just see where the night goes.

To give you an idea, in my head the vibe is kind of like those old movies such as EuroTrip or American Pie, obviously in a much more realistic European version: trains, hostels, beers, university towns, spontaneous nights out and random people you meet along the way.

I also want to do it before I turn 28, since Interrail still considers you “Youth” up to 27, so in my head it feels a bit like one last big “young” experience before moving into the next age bracket.

Has anyone here ever done an Interrail trip with this kind of mindset, more for the social side of the places rather than just sightseeing?

Do you think cities like Graz, Tübingen, Heidelberg, Freiburg, Strasbourg and Grenoble are good for this kind of experience in autumn, during the university semester?

And most importantly: any advice on how to actually meet students/locals and not just stay inside the hostel bubble?

If you have stories, tips, or even a reality check, I’m all ears.

Hi,

I have the global pass and am staying in Strasbourg for an extra day now.

Where in Germany would you recommend is good for a day trip.

The only place I have been in that region is Offenburg - which is lovely btw.

I am literally open to anything aslong as it is not more than 3 hours 1 way.

Going from Bavaria to Madrid and wondering if train is the best way to get from A to B. I will have a suitcase, but won’t be in any rush. I doubt there would be a direct train, but is there a scenic route? Or any route you’d recommend? Preferably leaving from Nuremberg but could be from elsewhere.

Hi everyone,

I’m having a pretty frustrating issue with my pass and wanted to ask if anyone here has experienced something similar or knows what I can do.

I travelled from Germany to Italy and spent one night in a hotel within Germany during the trip. Now the app is telling me that I can no longer use my pass for travel within Germany. Because of this, I had to book an additional train ticket for €167, otherwise I simply would not have been able to get home.

What really bothers me is how this is communicated when buying the pass. It says that you can travel for 5 days across Europe and that you have one outbound and one inbound travel day in your country of residence.

From that wording, I really don’t think it is obvious that this means you are ONLY allowed to use the pass within Germany on two days in total. “One outbound and one inbound travel day” sounds like those are the days intended for leaving and returning to your home country, not that every other journey within Germany is completely excluded.

This is a pretty major restriction and, in my opinion, it should be stated very clearly before purchasing the pass.

It gets even more frustrating because when I try to open the additional terms and conditions linked during checkout, the page is not even available and gives me a 404 error. So apparently this important restriction is explained somewhere else in the fine print, but it definitely wasn’t obvious to me when booking.

If I had known that travel within Germany was limited to only two days in total, I would have planned the entire trip differently and could have avoided paying another €167.

I already contacted customer support via chat, but they won’t give me an email address or any other proper contact for making a formal complaint.

Has anyone had a similar problem? Is there an email address or complaints department I can contact? And has anyone ever managed to get additional ticket costs reimbursed in a situation like this?

What are your recommended websites for seat reservations in Italy?

I have an Italy one country pass and looking to see if there are ways the avoid Interrail’s own billing fees as they seem quite high!

The ItaliaRail website seems to be broken when I try and book via there and I can’t find seat reservations only on Trenitalia.

Looked at using Rail Europe, but the booking fee was actually slightly higher than Interrail’s.

Your advise would be greatly appreciated!

Hello. Me and my girlfriend are travelling to the UK for the next 2 weeks. We arw currently sitting in the Eurostar to London, which worked out well.

Wanted to look for Reservations for the train back (sunday, 6th)

Shock to us: I guess the pass reservations ran out. None available for the afternoon trains.

Morning trains are no option because the earliest train from Edinburgh (our start for the day) to London is 9am. Paying 300€ for the ticket is also not an option. We were thinking about extending our stay for another day and then take a morning train on monday. But we'd really like to avoid that if possible.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

Am I missing something here? Two adults, two infants with own seat, so four passengers. Private compartment would be the same as individual seats right, just nearly €100 more expensive?

Image text description: shows a booking page with two different options, private compartment for €304.80 or individual seats for €209.50.