Planning your Interrailing trip can be an exciting but equally overwhelming time. Here
are some tips to help make planning your trip as smooth sailing as possible!
Understanding what you want from your trip
Choosing how long you plan to travel for, which cities you’d like to visit and
planning a general budget for your trip are all key factors to consider before
committing to planning
Passes and seat reservations
The Interrail.eu website will be your best friend for planning this trip, with all
the information you need to understand how passes and seat reservations
work
Choosing the correct pass is vital, as they vary in length and price.
Understanding how many travel days you will need is important to understand
before booking your pass, in order to avoid wasting money on extra travel.
Seat reservations, an important part of the booking process. Booking an
Interrailing pass is not enough in many cases and it’s important to do your
research on whether a seat reservation is required. I personally found that
trains in Italy all required them , and for longer trains I wanted to guarantee I
would find a seat. To cover myself, seat reservations were the easiest way,
costing around £5 per reservation, so definitely something to factor into the
budget.
Seat reservations also sell out on popular trains, so knowing ahead of time
which trains you plan to get will help to avoid disappointment.
Route planning
This can take careful consideration, in order to avoid backtracking. Google
and TikTok were helpful tools in understanding common routes and make the
most out of our passes.
Another tip is planning night trains, an easy way to save on accommodation
for the night and make the most of your time in the cities.
Accommodation
Don’t fall into the trap of just booking hostels because they appear cheapest.
We found that for a group of 3, sharing AirBnBs actually worked out
significantly cheaper.
Although if travelling alone or looking to socialise with other travellers,
researching hostels that are known to be sociable is also important, as not all
hostels will have that vibe.
Packing
Packing light, you will thank yourself later. Trekking across cities and
constantly travelling, the weight of your bag is highly important, even if it
means packing less clothes than you’d like.
Pack the essentials, chargers, power banks, travel adaptors and water bottles
and leave the things you don’t think you’ll need.
Your Interrailing trip is what you make of it, but planning is so important to ensure
that you achieve everything you want from your trip. Happy travelling!