Interrail: 6,379Km and 13 Countries over 7 weeks • Hacker News Board

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

#81

Post by sph » Mon, Jul 13, 2026, 1:32 PM UTC

xattt wrote: post #79

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…

How long was this experience? I have a sense that sleeping outdoors as part of an adventure is getting tarnished by the homelessness and mental health crisis (… which is a separate issue that can’t be appropriately addressed here). I live in a seasonal touristy area and I have to do double-takes as to whether someone is transient, or is just backpacking. The implication here is personal safety. The homeless individua…

Those were the only two times of outdoor sleep in my life to date. The itinerary was Milan - Zurich - Amsterdam - Paris - Biarritz - Modane - back to Italy, sleeping in either hotels or the closest camping site to the train station.

IIRC it was a ticket for 20 days of unlimited travel, which we had to cut short as a friend did get sunburnt so badly to require a hospital stay. Ah, the joys of youth.

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

#82

Post by DemocracyFTW2 » Mon, Jul 13, 2026, 1:32 PM UTC

tokai wrote: post #64

cromka wrote: post #61

"The crew just opened the doors to let a breeze in - very little health-and-safety culture here!" That's a bit presumptuous...

"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.

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

#83

Post by sph » Mon, Jul 13, 2026, 1:37 PM UTC

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.

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

#84

Post by edwinjm » Mon, Jul 13, 2026, 1:40 PM UTC

I did Interrail when I finished studying in 1993. It was a wonderful experience. Visiting foreign countries, meeting people, experiencing crazy things. I can recommend it to everyone (especially as a young adult).

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

#85

Post by hutattedonmyarm » Mon, Jul 13, 2026, 1:41 PM UTC

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…

Interrail also includes a travel day to and from your home country though

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

#86

Post by DemocracyFTW2 » Mon, Jul 13, 2026, 1:42 PM UTC

pchangr wrote: post #15

embedding-shape wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, but then "Inter" = "Borrowed from Latin inter- (“between, amid”), a form of prepositional inter (“between”)". Seems more like parent did Intrarail to me.

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 Luxemburg the rule is practically non-existent on account of the small sizes of their countries, whereas someone from eastern France has to pay for a long-distance ticket across all of France if they want to explore the western part of Europe, and all they get is Spain and Portugal (and Andorra—do they have a train line?) with no way to visit Scandinavia, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Czechia, Slovenia or Germany without having to pay for a cross-country trip through France a second time.

Also the age limitation for European citizens whereas non-Europeans have no such limit.

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

#87

Post by DemocracyFTW2 » Mon, Jul 13, 2026, 1:43 PM UTC

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.

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

#88

Post by jaffa2 » Mon, Jul 13, 2026, 1:45 PM UTC

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.

> Yeah I mean the whole "OMG I have to pre-order my vegan meals??!"

yeah that got me . not sure specifically but it felt a bit weird. Also I appreciate this post is about the interrailing, but it felt after reading all the y did was catch trains for the duration, but no mention of anything that they did or saw in all these places.

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

#89

Post by ignoramous » Mon, Jul 13, 2026, 1:48 PM UTC

jamescrowley wrote: post #23

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?

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.

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

#90

Post by mft_ » Mon, Jul 13, 2026, 1:48 PM UTC

> Would we do a trip like this again? It's certain a lot of travel. We weren't very spontaneous - most of the trip was planned out way in advance, along with hotels. Having 2-4 days in each place is like taking a series of minibreaks, which is delightful. But it can be exhausting. I don't want to complain that my diamond tiara is too tight, but there comes a point where there is such a thing a too much holiday.

This deserves a little more unpicking.

Something that I hear very few people discuss is that not all holidays are equal and you need to be aware of what you really need before choosing.

If you want to see new places, people, cultures, food, whatever - that's one thing. But if you're tired and need to recharge (sadly, this was often my experience in a corporate job - an endless sawblade cycle of work -> recharge -> work -> recharge) then don't go interrailing - go somewhere quiet and plan to sleep and lie around for a week or two. City breaks and events (e.g. festivals, sports, etc.) fall into this category for me - they are fun and make life better, but expect to come home hopefully happier but also tireder than when you went.