3 ms·

They really screwed up interrail, I'm not sure why. When I was 18 I got the 1-month interrail ticket, I think it was either all zones, or most of them, together

by tinco 6y ago

They really screwed up interrail, I'm not sure why. When I was 18 I got the 1-month interrail ticket, I think it was either all zones, or most of them, together with a friend, at 350 euro per ticket. We went from Leeuwarden (north of NL) to munich, to milano, to bari, then the boat to greece, to athens, thessaloniki, istanbul, back to thessaloniki, then north to sofia, bucharest, brasov, budapest, vienna, munich, back to leeuwarden. We both had a budget of 1000 euro, we skipped quickly through the rich countries, staying longer in the poor countries. If you've got kids coming of age looking for something cool to do, I highly recommend this, I think it was formative and really filled in some blanks in my head, growing up in a super rich country obviously doesn't give you a particularly complete view of the world. On the way we met kids from the states and canada as well that I suppose were on eurail passes. This was 15 years ago, I've been told it's no longer attractive to do the 1-month pass. I worked a simple data entry job after high school to save up for it. I'd recommend sponsoring the ticket for your kid if you can! I think restricting the budget was also a good idea, for us it was all we could afford, but it forced us to look for cheap spots, we only camped maybe 4 days in the whole month, in countries like hungary and romania it turned out the difference between camping and staying in a cabin was like 2 euro per night. edit: they actually reintroduced the 1 month free travel pass, it's 500 euro so not that much more expensive.

usr1106 6y ago
> They really screwed up interrail, I'm not sure why. Railways were a public service in Europe. Profit was not a goal. Trains were not that full often, so carrying a few youth did not make a difference. Nowadays they all have some kind of business thinking (how successfully is a different story). Long distance trains in France and Germany at least have lots of business travellers. So they don't want backpackers travelling a lot and paying little. Maybe we should lobby for subsidies in EU context. They even had some free tickets for 18 year olds some years ago, so they might understand the usefulness. Doesn't need to be free, but at least better prices and conditions than currently.
- codethief 6y ago
  > They even had some free tickets for 18 year olds some years ago They still do: https://europa.eu/youth/discovereu_en https://europa.eu/youth/discovereu_en
owenversteeg 6y ago
Yeah, the current price on the Interrail site for under-28 is 503 euros for a month. That'd be great for unlimited rail travel through Europe, but then you realize you have to pay extra for many of the trains you'll want to take. For example, you want to take a night train? In Spain you'll pay a €35 surcharge for a bed, in France 19-25€, for any international OBB Nightjet 34€ [0]. You want to take a high speed train? The TGV will set you back either a 10€ or 20€ fee (the 10€ seats sell out earlier.) In some countries you can travel mostly freely within the country (e.x. the Netherlands, no registration or fees or anything required, just scan the pass and get on the train) but in those countries there are almost always cheaper unlimited passes of various length, or excellent deals available if you're slightly flexible. I think a lot of people have the fantasy that they'd turn up in a train station somewhere and just jump on the train to Paris, or Amsterdam, or Berlin, or Barcelona or what have you. The reality is that all of those trains are high speed and require reservations, and those reservations sell out or increase in price if you want to get them last minute. If you do want to live that experience you'll be better served by a truly unlimited national pass, or something like France's Carte Jeune, which is a discount card currently available for 25€, and provides solid discounts on French and some international trains. Now, if you don't care about exactly how you get somewhere, or how fast you're going, and you'll be visiting 20 countries and you don't want to mess with 20 different discount cards and train websites in different languages, then Interrail/Eurail is perfect for you. You'll pay a moderate premium over what you'd pay with a pile of discount cards or subscriptions, but it'll save you a world of complexity. You won't be able to just step onto the train Amsterdam to Paris, but you can step on the train to Antwerp, from there to Lille, Lille to Amiens, Amiens to Paris. In a way, that's also more true to the style of old Interrail many remember from the 70s-80s, before high speed international trains even existed. That will cost time, though. Some routes are the same speed or similar with regional or high speed trains (41 minutes vs 1:10 for Amsterdam-Rotterdam, 1:58 vs 2:14 for Antwerp-Lille etc), some routes are short enough it doesn't matter much, but a lot of the longer distances will take a while to cross. Crossing the 1000km of France will take you at least an entire full day of slower train travel, while the TGV will take you from Paris to Marseille in 3 hours, 4:30 from Lille to Marseille. If you want to see how much you'd spend in reservation fees with an Interrail/Eurail pass, this is the page: https://www.interrail.eu/en/plan-your-trip/reservations/reservation-fees https://www.interrail.eu/en/plan-your-trip/reservations/rese... [0] https://www.interrail.eu/en/plan-your-trip/reservations/reservation-fees/night-train-reservation-fees https://www.interrail.eu/en/plan-your-trip/reservations/rese...

by tinco 6y ago

usr1106 6y ago

> They really screwed up interrail, I'm not sure why. Railways were a public service in Europe. Profit was not a goal. Trains were not that full often, so carrying a few youth did not make a difference. Nowadays they all have some kind of business thinking (how successfully is a different story). Long distance trains in France and Germany at least have lots of business travellers. So they don't want backpackers travelling a lot and paying little. Maybe we should lobby for subsidies in EU context. They even had some free tickets for 18 year olds some years ago, so they might understand the usefulness. Doesn't need to be free, but at least better prices and conditions than currently.

codethief 6y ago
> They even had some free tickets for 18 year olds some years ago They still do: https://europa.eu/youth/discovereu_en https://europa.eu/youth/discovereu_en

owenversteeg 6y ago

Yeah, the current price on the Interrail site for under-28 is 503 euros for a month. That'd be great for unlimited rail travel through Europe, but then you realize you have to pay extra for many of the trains you'll want to take. For example, you want to take a night train? In Spain you'll pay a €35 surcharge for a bed, in France 19-25€, for any international OBB Nightjet 34€ [0]. You want to take a high speed train? The TGV will set you back either a 10€ or 20€ fee (the 10€ seats sell out earlier.) In some countries you can travel mostly freely within the country (e.x. the Netherlands, no registration or fees or anything required, just scan the pass and get on the train) but in those countries there are almost always cheaper unlimited passes of various length, or excellent deals available if you're slightly flexible. I think a lot of people have the fantasy that they'd turn up in a train station somewhere and just jump on the train to Paris, or Amsterdam, or Berlin, or Barcelona or what have you. The reality is that all of those trains are high speed and require reservations, and those reservations sell out or increase in price if you want to get them last minute. If you do want to live that experience you'll be better served by a truly unlimited national pass, or something like France's Carte Jeune, which is a discount card currently available for 25€, and provides solid discounts on French and some international trains. Now, if you don't care about exactly how you get somewhere, or how fast you're going, and you'll be visiting 20 countries and you don't want to mess with 20 different discount cards and train websites in different languages, then Interrail/Eurail is perfect for you. You'll pay a moderate premium over what you'd pay with a pile of discount cards or subscriptions, but it'll save you a world of complexity. You won't be able to just step onto the train Amsterdam to Paris, but you can step on the train to Antwerp, from there to Lille, Lille to Amiens, Amiens to Paris. In a way, that's also more true to the style of old Interrail many remember from the 70s-80s, before high speed international trains even existed. That will cost time, though. Some routes are the same speed or similar with regional or high speed trains (41 minutes vs 1:10 for Amsterdam-Rotterdam, 1:58 vs 2:14 for Antwerp-Lille etc), some routes are short enough it doesn't matter much, but a lot of the longer distances will take a while to cross. Crossing the 1000km of France will take you at least an entire full day of slower train travel, while the TGV will take you from Paris to Marseille in 3 hours, 4:30 from Lille to Marseille. If you want to see how much you'd spend in reservation fees with an Interrail/Eurail pass, this is the page: https://www.interrail.eu/en/plan-your-trip/reservations/reservation-fees https://www.interrail.eu/en/plan-your-trip/reservations/rese... [0] https://www.interrail.eu/en/plan-your-trip/reservations/reservation-fees/night-train-reservation-fees https://www.interrail.eu/en/plan-your-trip/reservations/rese...