Hello all, Myself and my lovely new wife are on our honeymoon, interrailling around Europe. So far has been amazing. But we've a train booked from (12.15) Firenze to Napoli on Sunday (and are planning on traveling on to Sorrento). We've found out there are train strikes but struggling to find any more information than trains may or may not be running sometimes. Does anyone know how to get any information on this? Thanks

Ok, thought I was all sorted but was doing some checking and as I recall for the journeys I'm looking at it was Seat reservations optional.

I thought I'd just look on OBB and its saying ticket not available for the journeys I'll be hoping to use. They're in mid June, so time isn't an issue...they include; Villach to lesce bled Lesce bled to Ljubljana Ljubljana to Celje

Hoping I'll still just be able to rock up and get the trains...or am I stuffed?

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As a follow-up to my previous post, here's an update on day 92 of my trip. Today I reached the end of my first 3-month pass, so it seems a good time to post :) In the last two weeks, I ventured into the Balkans, which means the number of trains decreased dramatically, and I had to take way too many buses. Hence the Interrail map would not look great, so here's my GPS trace instead.

Again, the full map and full account of my travels are on my website. Here are the list of only the cities where I slept, not all the one I went to, picking up the trace from my previous post:

🇷🇴 Sighișoara → București → 🇧🇬 Велико Търново → Банско → Благоевград → 🇬🇷 Θεσσαλονίκη → 🇲🇰 Гевгелија → Скопје → 🇦🇱 Elbasan → Durrës → Tirana → Lezha → Shkodra → 🇲🇪 Prčanj → Bar, Crna Gora

That brings the total to 62 cities where I slept, 26 countries visited and where I took a train, but most importantly, in Greece I took my 200th train of the trip! (including trams, metros, etc...)

So far my experience in the Balkans:

🇧🇬 Easy, trains are slow but network is rather good. Love it. Narrow gauge track from Септември to Банско is great!

🇬🇷 Sadly for timing reason I stayed only one night. I only took the train Σέρρες-Θεσσαλονίκη. Very slow but enjoyable. But I had to take buses to enter and exit Greece.

🇲🇰 Completely failed my stay here. I left the bus at Гевгелија to finish the travel by train. However, the afternoon train DIDN'T EXIST, despite what interrail, the Macedonian rail website and a paper on the abandonned station building said... It was the day before the presidential election, so I'm not sure if it was exceptional. I wanted to take the next train, at 4:45 AM, but I didn't wake up... So I just took a 5-min train in Скопје, to a suburb station.

🇦🇱 YES! I managed to take BOTH Albanian trains, the Elbasan-Durrës one that only runs on Friday to Sunday, and the Laçi-Shkodra one that runs only on Tuesday. It's an experience to do for sure, with half the windows broken or simply missing, it's a miracle they run. A trip is less than 2 euros, so it doesn't matter that they aren't in the Interrail.

🇲🇪 I've only done Bar, Crna Gora-Podgorica this morning, but I will do the full route to Београд in multiple steps soon.

Does anyone have any recommendations on small towns and villages to travel to when interraling, I don’t plan on going to many major cities as they’re more expensive and more touristy. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Felt spontaneous and have decided that I most probably want if nothing else a 7 day Interrail this summer. I’m living in northern Sweden which is the most annoying thing in all of this. I have nothing really planned but have I’d like to visit countries like Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Germany. My thought of budget is around 680€ which includes the ticket.

Any tips and thoughts around this? Does it sound doable?

I've booked Eurostar trains for 2 adults and 2 children through Interrail because it didn't work through other websites. It was successful, I've submitted all our details including ages of each passenger to Eurostar. Then I contacted Eurostar to book disability assistance for myself. Someone from Eurostar told me that the third party who booked our tickets has booked 4 adult tickets and therefore our children could be refused travel for having an incorrect ticket. She asked me to contact Interrail ASAP regarding this and I am losing my mind out of stress. I don't understand this one bit! Even if they got adult tickets surely only we are at loss for paying more for the reservation? All their details are on the tickets so they match the passports? How could this be a problem?

We are leaving in a few days and I'm going crazy with worry. Has anybody had the same problem? I'm waiting for Interrail to get back to me, as well as for the person from Eurostar to respond to these very questions but I really don't understand and don't know what to do in case we were really refused travel. Each of us has a valid pass for their age. All the details have been submitted to both interrail and eurostar. What is the problem then?

Apologies in advance if I sound mega dumb. But ive been trying to book my first ever trip using the global pass and i am quite perplexed. When i choose the route thru the eurail app, it asks me to reserve seats- which i did thru the obb website. Now how do i link the two? Do i just show my pass generated ticket or the seat reservation?

Hi guys, so I have the global interrail pass and I'm looking to take a train from Milan to como one of the days. Everyone seems to say that it's important to book a ticket in advance. Will i still be let on with my interrail pass if the train is full or should I purchase a ticket?

Thanks!

Hello! I plan to book a OBB train from Budapest to Vienna in August but it won't give me an option to reserve seats. It did say this, however:

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Does this mean I don't need to reserve anymore as it comes with the ticket? Will they be the ones choosing the seat for me?

I plan to do Paris —> St. Moritz —> Wien this summer on a single travel day.

Taking the railjet and I just see seat reservations optional but when I load obb I see this 10 Euro seat thing or I have a ticket already option with a 3 euro to reserve

any words of advice/recommendations/suggested changes for my current interrail trip? much appreciated <3 takes place over a month starts and ends in Paris

We need to get from Santiago de Compostela to Madrid on June 9. We complete a trip with Backroads Travel and will be dropped off at SCQ at around 130. There's a direct Alvia that departs around 5P and arrives in Madrid after 8, and an earlier Avant which has us changing to AVE in Ourense and arriving Madrid at 640P (and is shorter over all) but the connection time is 3 minutes! I suppose they wouldn't offer this itinerary if it was an issue? We only have 2 nights in Madrid with one full day on the 10th before we head home on the 11th, so I'd love to get in at a decent hour.

Hi!
I am trying to reserve a seat for a FT 155 train from Graz to Ljubljana on June 21st via the ÖBB website. I have chosen one-way-ticket option and Interrail pass as a discount, but when trying to continue to the payment, I receive a following message:
"No Ticket Required

You indicated that you already have a ticket for this route or you are trying to book a ticket for a young child - young children travel free of charge but need to be accompanied."
Aren't there any seats left or what is the issue? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Hello! If anyone can help me I would appreciate it (: if I buy a pass and add my children it looks like they are free but I am assuming I pay the child’s fare for my children if I happen to book a high speed train etc. TY!

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Hi there, when having to book through a different company does this make my interrail pass essentially useless?

I'm trying to book a couple of double sleeper beds on this train (30 June 20:40). I'm using OBB which shows availability, total cost €188.

My issue is that I can't get the booking to complete. I get right to the end of the process, make a payment, then get an error message that the beds can't be reserved.

Any ideas?

Hi everyone! I'm traveling on a Eurail pass soon, and I'm hoping to take the AVE high-speed train from Marseilles to Barcelona on June 3rd. Since I'm in the US, I'm not able to book a reservation at a Renfe office, and my understanding is that DB cannot sell reservations for international AVE trains (please correct me if I'm wrong). Does anyone know if the Marseilles-Barcelona high-speed train is likely to be full on a Monday in early June, or if I might have a chance of getting a walk-on reservation?

I have a backup route using regional trains, but it would be really nice to make the trip in 4 hours :)

It's my first time ever taking European trains and I'm quite confused. I have the EURail pass and would like to travel from Berlin to Gdansk in 2 weeks (specifically the EC59 route).

I've tried to get a seat reservation on so many platforms: EURail, RailEurope, OBB, DB, CD, and PolRail, and I have not had any luck. Here are some of the messages the sites give me:

• EURail: Prices unavailable

• RailEurope: Seat reservation has to be done at station

• OBB: Ticket not available

• DB: Reservation cannot be made

• CD: Find out the price by calling/emailing/going into the office

• PolRail: Shows me a price and lets me put my payment information, but they only ship paper tickets to Poland. This isn't useful for me, since I won't be in Poland beforehand

I initially thought the seats might have been sold out, but I checked a bunch of other dates in the next two months and got these same results. I wasn't sure if seats really sold out months in advance, or if this was some kind of booking error. Also, the fact that PolRail seems to sell seats indicates otherwise.

Anyone have any advice on how to get mobile tickets? Another option I considered was trying to go in-person to the Berlin station--however I'm only getting to Berlin a week before departure and I don't want to leave it up to chance like that.

Thanks so much!!

I have a train from Koeln (Germany) to Wuerzburg at 8:44am that is "Seat Reservations optional" and another train right after from Wuerzburg to Vienna HBF at 11:34am that is "Seat Recommended". I don't know if these are busy trains or not. Can I get away without reserving a seat on both?

Also, from Vienna to Belgrade/Bucharest.. I notice these trains take a long time to get to those 2 destinations. My final destination is Istanbul because I fly out of Turkey on May 20th. Are Eastern European trains not high-speed or do a lot of detours. From Vienna to Belgrade/Bucharest, they're both like 20 hour train rides. I'm just trying to get to either destination and closer towards my final destination of Istanbul. Or if anyone can give me another place to stay between Vienna and Istanbul in between that's pretty cheap for Airbnb. I'll being staying whichever city for a few days before heading for Istanbul... Just want some other thoughts on how to navigate this part of EE.

Hi everyone,

I am planning on taking the Bernina Express together with 2 other friends from Chur to Tirano on July 11. We all have interrail passes and are planning on seating in the Allegra unit where we don’t need to book seats. Is there a chance that the whole unreserved unit will be taken? How early does the train arrive at the platform to make sure we’ll have seats (ideally together)?

Thanks for your help!

Hey guys. Myself along with 8 others are going interrailing this summer via the interrail pass. We have booked all but one train. It says there is no availability from Zagreb to Split (June 29th 22:30-06:51) originally when planing we chose to book all of our trains 60 days before our last train ride which will be Zagreb to split. When doing research it said this train could be booked 60 days before departure (30th April 2024). However we can’t seem to book it. Is it because it is a night train? As the same train the following day is. Available to book which is a daytime train. Thanks

My first trip to Europe was in 1999, my next was 2005. Both trips I used a Eurail pass and the trains extensively.

On more recent trips I have gone to the UK and Ireland and rented cars to get around so have ben out of the train 'loop' for a long time.

On all posts I read in this sub and other travel subs here, everyone seems to only travel on the High Speed direct trains.

Do regional train routes no longer exist?

I know high speed trains are obviously faster, but doesn't that come with more cost and if you have a Eurail pass, then you need a reservation for these?

I know many travelers have more money than time, or just no time and no money, so they are looking for the fastest way to get from point A to point B. So is this why no one takes regional trains that might have more stops and be a bit longer, or do regional trains just no longer exist.

I just think that as someone who has traveled before with more time than money, one way to stretch my budget was to use the cheaper train lines (ie regional trains)that still got me from point A to Point B. Bonus if they were late night or overnight b/c then I could use them as free rolling beds.

Just curious.

I am going to Germany (hopefully) this June and am considering the Eurail pass, and am looking at train routes right now to follow Scotland's national soccer team to a few matches.

So I'm from Spain and I'm thinking of doing a week trip to the Balkans. As I am from Sevilla, the starting point would be either Venice or Vienna, which has direct connections from my city, and we would like to go 7-8 days to some places in the balkans, preferably to the coast, visiting maybe Split, Mostar, Sarajevo and some places in Montenegro, Albania or Macedonia. We don't have any plans in mind, so for us any help or possible plan would be cool.

Is there any particular route you would suggest, or any plan already available? Is what I'm thinking possible (not visiting everything of course)? As I have seen, there are not many international trains through west balkans, so is suitable for us the interrail pass or would it be more interesting for us just buying buses?

Thanks in advance!

I’m planning on going from London to Paris and then one further city for a week I have off in May. The prices on the Eurostar website seem really expensive compared with flying .

Is there another site I can get discounted tickets or last minute cheap tickets.

Alternatively is there a week pass or something and would it be beneficial?

Any other tips you’d advise Thank you

Hi everyone, wanted to add my experience using the pass to get from Italy to Slovenia (Ljubljana) with no reservations.

This morning (Wednesday), I left from Venice to Ljubljana. The first leg of the journey is into Trieste, which is often available and easy to plan on the Rail Planner app.

On the app, there’s 2 daily scheduled trains running to Ljubljana from Trieste, at 9am and 7pm. However, these times didn’t work for my hostel check in, so I did some more digging on forums and such.

There’s a 3rd train that leaves daily at 12:50pm, run by OBB, an Austrian rail company covered by the global pass. However, this time never shows on the Rail Planner app for whatever reason.

I manually added this trip to my pass and it worked just fine. It’s a beautiful journey through the Slovenian countryside. Note: there is a €2.60 euro supplement for pass holders that can be paid on the train once your pass has been shown. No reservations are required. It also has bike storage if that’s your thing.

Hope this might help someone looking to get from Italy to Slovenia! There’s tons of details about this journey by The Man in Seat 61.

Hey guys, i have some questions regarding my planned Interrail-Trip.

My Route is: Start: Leipzig -> Vienna -> Bratislava -> Budapest -> Bucuresti -> Sofia -> Thessaloniki -> Athen -> Bari -> Verona -> Leipzig

So first of all i have the Global Pass 2nd Class Adult and i have planed to travel for 4 weeks.

1. Iwant to know your opinion which of these cities might be worth staying more then 1 or 2 days and which cities are not so great.
2. I plan to take the ferrie from Patras to Bari. If my information is correct, the ferrie is included in the Global Pass and i only need to book a cabin right?
3. Generally speaking, every Nighttrain i take i probably only need to book the cabin right? 2nd Class Global Passes dont have acces to free cabins right?
4. Any tips in general, since its my first interrail-trip and i'am traveling alone?

I would love to hear some answers and thank you really much in advance!

Edit: i did not meant cabin, i meant a couchette, bed. english issnt my native language, so i'm sorry

Some routes have sections where it says "Ready to board" does that mean a seat reservation is not possible or just not necessary?

There is no spot to purchase a reservation on the first two legs of the journey, but I am nervous that this will mean I may not get on the train.

https://preview.redd.it/ogw9e2v94txc1.png?width=1256&format=png&auto=webp&s=6e69f35eb39ca44b03ce4e8326f1507d2b20288f

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I'm trying to find a route from Copenhagen to Split which only uses a single travel day, I found a very promising route which ends on a night train. The issue is that the train leaves HOEJE TAASTRUP at 23:57 so wouldn't 23:57 - 00:00 be considered a travel day? in which case the entire route would be 2 travel days? if so is there any way I can activate the travel day three minutes later, as to avoid using the extra travel day?

https://www.interrail.eu/en/book-reservations?t=1721728807000&ol=Copenhagen+%28Denmark%29&ov=8600626&dl=Split+%28Croatia%29&dv=7876660&vl=&vv=&ar=false&rt=&tt=&mc=&mct=1