Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Interrail: 6,379Km and 13 Countries over 7 weeks

shkspr.mobi

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 156 posts

Re: Interrail: 6,379Km and 13 Countries over 7 weeks

#91

Post by DemocracyFTW2 »

foresterre wrote: post #39
edent wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The passes were about €500 each for first class. Each reservation was €3-€15. The overnight ferry was about €100 each.

In addition, there's about 2x year a 25% sale and you have a year to activate the passes. The in southern Europe (e.g. France, Spain, Italy), required seat reservation is most common and most expensive. I don't mind requiring seat reservations, but that it is separate from the ticket price and significant (eg 15€/seat reservation in Italy), feels like price gouging. It also feels different from say the optional (and…

> It also feels different from say the optional (and way lower priced seat reservations in German ICE's)

One has to add that most of the time when you buy a single ticket in Germany you have to (pay through the nose and) buy a ticket that is good for one specific train. Miss that train and your ticket is gone. This used to be different before the reform of the Deutsche Bahn after 1989; you used to buy a ticket for a 'communication' (connection between endpoints), not a specific train. TBF in like up to 200% of all cases Deutsche Bahn will route the wrong train in the wrong direction to a wrong station hours after the schedule in which case your Zugbindungsfahrausweis will fall back to work as a pre-reform ticket valid on all trains in that direction (sometimes even including an upgrade if an ICE is all there is, I think).

Re: Interrail: 6,379Km and 13 Countries over 7 weeks

#92

Post by pchangr »

DemocracyFTW2 wrote: post #86
pchangr wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OMG.. are we really doing this? T_T It’s just the marketing term…. “Interrail One Country Pass allows unlimited rail travel within one participating country, excluding the holder’s country of residence.” It’s a way of reinforcing eu identity.. they call it interrail because it connects you to other cultures or societies or whatever you want to call it

> allows unlimited rail travel within one participating country, excluding the holder’s country of residence One of the things that always bothered me because it's such an arbitrary rule and has hugely different effects for people from different countries. Like, people from Switzerland or Belgium can easily move around all over the place after a short domestic trip. For a few lucky fellers from Lichtenstein or Luxemb…

I’d argue that most residents would likely have access to better offers locally. As for the age limit, I think it just lets you get a cheaper inter-rail, which is subsidized by the DiscoverEU. AFAIK, you can always buy a full interrail pass for all countries. And yes, non eu people can buy eurail.: but that one is much more expensive than the equivalent interrail, I think. Maybe I’m wrong about the last one tho

Re: Interrail: 6,379Km and 13 Countries over 7 weeks

#93

Post by mxmilkiib »

DemocracyFTW2 wrote: post #82
tokai wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Was a little strange seeing cables dripping down from the ceiling" The whole text is full of these weird takes on the most banal things.

Yeah I mean the whole "OMG I have to pre-order my vegan meals??!" thing. Back in the day we had to WALK to school and when on a trip we brought along our hard-boiled eggs and meatballs wrapped in aluminum foil.

WALK to school?! back when I were a lad, we had to CRAWL to school! what a great workout it was! and, for our packed lunches, we'd have a hard-boiled potato with a dod of ketchup, and some breadcrumbs if we were lucky, and we enjoyed it!!

Re: Interrail: 6,379Km and 13 Countries over 7 weeks

#94

Post by basisword »

sph wrote: post #74

Interrail used to be more popular years ago among young adults who had just finished high school. I did it with a few friends at the time, and it was an incredible experience of self-reliance, patience and just complete freedom. My best memory is sleeping under the stars outside the train station of Biarritz, France, on a mild summer night next to the Atlantic Ocean. Such a refreshing sleep. The next night we did the…

I think it was much more popular before budget airlines became so big in Europe. When you can fly to most European cities for < €50 at anytime of the year taking lots of weekend breaks is affordable even for students.

Re: Interrail: 6,379Km and 13 Countries over 7 weeks

#95

Post by immmmmm »

sph wrote: post #83
immmmmm wrote: post #56

I just love long rail trips, often do Switzerland-Tunis via Palermo to see my in law family. Best trip ever was Tbilisi-Zurich via Batumi, ferry to Odessa Kyiv and Vienna.

Train travel is so great, even in the crappy trains. Just turn up at the station, sit down, and enjoy the sights. You don't even need a seatbelt. I wish to see high speed maglev transportation to supplant air travel in my lifetime.

Or maybe just change our habits, travel less and slower.

Re: Interrail: 6,379Km and 13 Countries over 7 weeks

#96

Post by hvb2 »

basisword wrote: post #94
sph wrote: post #74

Interrail used to be more popular years ago among young adults who had just finished high school. I did it with a few friends at the time, and it was an incredible experience of self-reliance, patience and just complete freedom. My best memory is sleeping under the stars outside the train station of Biarritz, France, on a mild summer night next to the Atlantic Ocean. Such a refreshing sleep. The next night we did the…

I think it was much more popular before budget airlines became so big in Europe. When you can fly to most European cities for < €50 at anytime of the year taking lots of weekend breaks is affordable even for students.

You don't see as much though, and your options are more limited still. And the options you do have are likely more touristy as a result.

As always, the most easy to reach places will have the most people. I would say that's not what you're going for in such a trip.

Re: Interrail: 6,379Km and 13 Countries over 7 weeks

#97

Post by hvb2 »

pantalaimon wrote: post #63
haunter wrote: post #57

For single countries though the Interrail not worth it, or more like make your own research For example in Hungary we have an unlimited pass for ~53€ a month, valid on all trains and multiple public transport options (almost everything in Budapest included) https://bkk.hu/en/tickets-and-passes/prices/hungary-pass-ful... Whereas a 3 days in 1 month Interrail pass is 79€ https://www.interrail.com/en/interrail-passes/on…

Same for Germany, we have the 63€/Month Deutschlandticket. It's only valid for regional trains (but also all local buses, subway and tram systems) though, so for long distance travel you have to switch trains a lot.

That's a very recent addition though. And a heavily subsidized one at that.

I think this would be more for people that are doing a many week (3 or more) trip. At that point I think most people would want to see more than 1 country in Europe as they're so different

Re: Interrail: 6,379Km and 13 Countries over 7 weeks

#98

Post by leoedin »

DemocracyFTW2 wrote: post #87
ricardobeat wrote: post #7

> very little health and safety There is this thing called “common sense” :)

Yeah, complains about stale too-warm air on the train and complains about staff airing the train during stops. This way you can't lose an argument either way.

It's not a complaint. It's a comment. That would never happen in the UK - so it's interesting to see a different approach in different countries. It's obviously higher risk - there's no door to stop someone jumping out the train. Whether it's better or worse is left to the reader to decide.

Similarly - I was once on a train in Italy which stopped at a station with platforms shorter than the train. We discovered this when we opened the door to find a big step down onto gravel. That's not something that happens in the UK.

The biggest difference of course is that the UK has much higher train doors. So an open door without a platform is very high off the ground. Perhaps that's why we have a different culture around it.

Re: Interrail: 6,379Km and 13 Countries over 7 weeks

#100

Post by FinnKuhn »

basisword wrote: post #94
sph wrote: post #74

Interrail used to be more popular years ago among young adults who had just finished high school. I did it with a few friends at the time, and it was an incredible experience of self-reliance, patience and just complete freedom. My best memory is sleeping under the stars outside the train station of Biarritz, France, on a mild summer night next to the Atlantic Ocean. Such a refreshing sleep. The next night we did the…

I think it was much more popular before budget airlines became so big in Europe. When you can fly to most European cities for < €50 at anytime of the year taking lots of weekend breaks is affordable even for students.

When you turn 18 the EU gives away a lot of free tickets. And free beats even the cheapest flight.

Great program for young people to learn more about other countries I made use of as well.

Post reply on HN