Eurail/Interrail Travel: The Best Way to Experience Europe
It’s been just over a week since our first ever Interrail trip came to a close. Our two week journey spanned across five cities belonging to five different countries, beginning in The Netherlands and ending in Hungary. The trip took us halfway across the European continent, and now for the first time we truly feel like we’ve seen the place in the world we chose to call home.
Map of our two week Interrail trip. Beginning in London and ending in Budapest.
It was one of the most amazing and memorable, yet challenging trips of our lives. We learned a lot from our mistakes, and loved everything else in between!
We wanted to share our experience and a few helpful tips and tricks to inspire your first, (or next) European train trip!
Tip #1: Plan ahead.
Getting straight to the point here. Planning the details of this trip turned out to be much more stressful than anticipated, (and it definitely didn’t have to be).
Both the Interrail and Eurail pass, (Interrail being for EEA residents, Eurail being for anyone else), only provide you with the ticket to physically board the train. In most cases this will be all you need.
However, a number of countries require seat reservations at an additional cost. These countries include France, Italy, and Spain.
We highly recommend you factor these seat reservation costs into your travel budget and account for which trains you’ll need to make a reservation for.
We also recommend making a seat reservation even if they are not required, especially if you’re traveling during peak tourism seasons. The trains get crowded quickly and you definitely don’t want to end up standing for hours!
The reservations will range anywhere from €10 ($11) to €50 ($55) each, €10 for the optional fares, and moving up towards €50 if you book a required seat last minute.
In total, we each paid an additional €119 ($130) for seat reservations.
It is a very real possibility to get each individual train ticket cheaper without the Interrail/Eurail pass, BUT getting the pass does provide you with extreme flexibility that the individual tickets do not. If you’re planning on being in Europe for two weeks or longer, and want to keep your options open, the interrail pass is a MUST!
Tip #2: Give yourself more time than you think you need.
Some trips have transfers. If you need to make one, make sure to give yourself ample time between trains. We made this mistake and cut it way too close on our trip from Paris to Munich, as we didn’t realize until day of that we were transferring in Mannheim, Germany with only a 13 minute gap. Our train leaving Paris was delayed 30 minutes due weather and we spent the ride to Mannheim preparing to stay the night in the wrong city.
Miraculously, the train in Mannheim was delayed just long enough for a mad rush of us to sprint from one platform to the other, and we made it on, but had stand for awhile before the train cleared out at the next stop. Luckily we randomly jumped into the bar car, and enjoyed a German beer to pass the time :)
I know this probably sounds stressful. But hey, thats what makes it an adventure. Looking back at it writing this now, it actually lead to a lot of laughs, and one of the funniest and most memorable parts of the whole trip!
Tip #3: For interrail passes only!
The 5 day interrail pass give you Inbound and Outbound trips that allow you travel days to take as many trains as needed in and out of your home country. These can be used at anytime during your trip, but you can’t travel through your home country twice. So be careful about how you plan your route!
Now that we’ve got our lessons out of the way, let’s talk about what made our interrail journey so amazing. And why we will definitely be doing it again!
Here’s 5 reasons why the benefits 100% outweigh the positives:
#1: The Speed
It is SO MUCH FASTER than flying. The stations are located in the middle of the cities, there’s no 30+ minute drive to and from the airport. There’s no security. You just go to the platform and get on the train. We played it safe, getting to each each station half an hour early, and were able to get drinks and snacks, take our time, and get comfortable for the journey ahead. This beats the 2 hour security line by MILES!!
Sidenote: Trains going into or out of the UK have security, so you should arrive an hour early for these!
Pro Tip: Check hostels or hotels that are close to the train station to really maximize your time and save on stress :)
#2: The Scenery
It’s beautiful. Like really beautiful. We got to take in the sights of rivers, mountains, farmland with huge windmills — and most importantly — lots and lots of cows! Our favorite leg of the trip was between Munich and Salzburg, where you run along the spine of the Austrian Alps. Both sides of the trains have passengers glued to the windows gawking at the beauty of the sights.
#3: The Comfort.
You definitely have a lot more space than on a plane. The seats are wider, you can get a table, and its easy to get up and move around. During the aforementioned Austrian Alps section we were jumping from side to side to cash in on photo ops!
Pro Tip: If you’re in second class on coach five, it will show up on the train car as 25. Similarly, first class on train seven would be 17. That definitely took us a few minutes to figure out!
#4: Lower Stress
We found that traveling by train was overall less stressful. There are no long security lines or wait times, the seats are easy to navigate, and 98% of the time, the bathrooms in the train cars are clean! Caroline really dislikes airplane turbulence and there is never any risk for that while on the train. We really felt more comfortable and had the space to rest our legs, have a snack, and play some card games. We also enjoyed a free shot courtesy of a dining cabin kitchen crew. Would that happen on Ryanair?? NEVER!
And most importantly…
#5: The Cost
In total we paid around £350 ($440/€410) each for our 5 travel days, including seat reservations. That comes out to around £70 ($88/€81) per trip. It’s so much cheaper than flying, and a lot better for the world too! If you stay in non-required seat reservation countries, you can easily knock £100 ($125/€116) off the cost of the trip!
You also get a much better feel for Europe as a whole, as you get to truly see the beauty of the continent. It’s also amazing how fast cities turn into open green space compared to the US, where the suburbs sprawl endlessly.
Pairing these with the fact that you don’t have to spend 2-3 hours getting to an airport, going through security, and dealing with the general stress of flying, it really is an amazing deal.
We loved our first interrail trip, got our most extensive overview of Europe to date, and saved a ton of time and money when compared to flying. We will definitely be making another train trip across Europe soon, and we recommend that you do too.
Happy travels!
Caroline and Joe :)
