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

shkspr.mobi

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

#101

Post by bluebarbet »

hvb2 wrote: post #96
basisword wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

All true. Also: Weekend holidays involving flights are a completely unsustainable and irresponsible form of tourism given the climate crisis. Not that anyone much cares.

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

#102

Post by ks2048 »

Did a trip like this a few years ago. Highly recommended, if you have the opportunity!

Wanted to do a write-up like this, but only got as far as the map,

https://kenschutte.com/europe-2023/

I wonder if they took the new "Rail Baltica" through the Baltics? That was one of weaker links in the train route - I used a bus between Vilnius and Riga.

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

#103

Post by rsynnott »

gib444 wrote: post #27
jmkd wrote: post #10

The best part of interailling for me was turning up to a major train station, looking at the giant departure board, choosing an enigmatic destination and just getting on the train. No booking or reservations or even planning at any point. Is this not possible any more?

For faster/intercity trains, it is still like that in Switzerland, Austria, Germany, The Netherlands, UK, Ireland, Denmark, Norway and most of central and eastern Europe [0] France, Italy, Spain, Portugal & Sweden require seat reservations, as do most international services Making reservations varies from easy to a complete pain [0] https://www.seat61.com/how-to-use-an-interrail-pass.htm

Note that doing that in Ireland for intercity will result in you being _severely_ overcharged. Dublin to Cork is like 20 euro if you book in advance; I think if you buy the ticket in the station it’s over 60!

It’s fine for commuter stuff, of course, but I assume that’s the case everywhere.

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

#104

Post by Symbiote »

leoedin wrote: post #98
DemocracyFTW2 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The UK also has the third-safest railway in Europe. Some of that will be the result of a safety culture which prevents staff from overriding a door lock.

https://international-railway-safety-council.com/safety-stat...

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

#105

Post by bluebarbet »

embedding-shape wrote: post #31
Milner08 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worst during the interrail trip. It was for me and it wasn't even close.

> Worst during the interrail trip. That wouldn't surprise me. "your worst train experience" still would, unless the person only taken trains in Europe. But the world is big, and some places are just on a different level. Ever taken a train in India? I'd like to hear those people complain about the German train experience :)

The problem with Indian rail is the eccentric booking system. All intercity trains are booked out days or weeks in advance. This is because Indian Railways deals with excess demand not by varying the prices (yield management) but rather by allowing people to cancel reservations at no cost, with a waiting-list system for latecomers. I suppose it allows poor people to travel cheaply by planning in advance, but then so would yield-management pricing. A bit of a mystery.

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

#106

Post by phreeza »

ignoramous wrote: post #89
jamescrowley wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite a few countries (France, Spain, Italy for starters) require seat reservations in advance for any long-distance/high-speed trains now. And worse, they have a quota for passes, so even if the train has space, you might not be able to reserve a seat and therefore get on the train. A real shame as it makes it far less flexible than before.

For France, Spain, and Italy, only the inter-country and the high speed rails (TGV, Renfe, Iryo, Frecciarossa etc) require reservation? In Switzerland, some of the touristy intra-country routes (ex: Tirano-Chur, Interlaken-Lucerne) may require (a rather expensive) reservation.

For Switzerland, that's only true for the special tourist train panoramic carriages on the route, there are normal trains running on the same routes, too, that don't require reservations.

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

#107

Post by bluebarbet »

embedding-shape wrote: post #18
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

> OMG.. are we really doing this? T_T It’s just the marketing term…. Quick one-off jokes that commentators on HN take way to literally and start a whole diatribe about? I mean, apparently :D Relax, it's only a joke, I have no issues with Interrail and use it myself from time to time too... Not sure I'd agree it has anything to do with European or EU identity, but anyways, I guess some do :)

Sorry you're being downvoted for your harmless and jovial asides. Really, downvoting is almost always toxic IMO, I wish HN would turn it off.

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

#108

Post by raphinou »

ks2048 wrote: post #102

Did a trip like this a few years ago. Highly recommended, if you have the opportunity! Wanted to do a write-up like this, but only got as far as the map, https://kenschutte.com/europe-2023/ I wonder if they took the new "Rail Baltica" through the Baltics? That was one of weaker links in the train route - I used a bus between Vilnius and Riga.

Did you use some specific tools to collect the data to be displayed on that map?

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

#109

Post by bluebarbet »

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.

In practice, those are two different types of train travel. The former exists only in countries with a rail heritage. Where countries are genuinely trying to replace air travel with high-speed rail (credit to them, it's much more sustainable), the new train stations are alas a bit like airports for trains. You generally can't just turn up and hop on. In China you can't even get into the train station without a booking.

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

#110

Post by ks2048 »

raphinou wrote: post #108
ks2048 wrote: post #102

Did a trip like this a few years ago. Highly recommended, if you have the opportunity! Wanted to do a write-up like this, but only got as far as the map, https://kenschutte.com/europe-2023/ I wonder if they took the new "Rail Baltica" through the Baltics? That was one of weaker links in the train route - I used a bus between Vilnius and Riga.

Did you use some specific tools to collect the data to be displayed on that map?

It took a bit of hacking, but most of the data was from the Eurail/Interrail Planner app. I used that book the tickets and it had an HTML export feature - showing your route on a web page - and I stripped the route from that.
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