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In July me and my lad are going for a trip about Europe. He has his head set on Berlin and a couple of other big cities.
Looks like Interail might be a good option. Seems like it might be more fun and flexible than taking planes.
Tell me about what you did wrong when you did it!
Last July we went London-Amsterdam-Berlin-Dusseldorf-Cologne-Brussels-London by train. Stayed in Airbnbs except in Dusseldorf where we got a hotel on my IHG points. It was a great couple of weeks. Didn't do Interrail, just booked the trains via loco2.com.
Bookmarked.
We're thinking of something similar this year but done zero research so far.
Ignore the touts at the rail stations who try to get you into their hotels.
Hotel receptions are often much smarter than the rooms.
Get the TGV from Paris to Lyon. It's ace.
Enjoy.
Get the TGV from Paris to Lyon. It’s ace.
Did that for a biking holiday around the Parc du Volcans; Eurostar to Paris, change to TGV, quiet and comfortable all the way.
I’ve done a bit more reading up on seat61.com.
Seems we might be better off booking advance train tickets, as the fast inter city trains Eurostar, ICE, etc need booking reservations of about €30. And our plans will be fairly well set.
Might fly to Prague first and train it back home.
We looked at interail and also Germany only passes but went for advanced booking as it was cheaper. This was for a city break/walking holiday in Germany. Went over on the boat to Rotterdam and trained from there (apart from bus from ferry terminal to Rotterdam station)
Much like UK, train prices vary with time of travel and first class is sometimes only a few euros more as it includes seat booking.
Also, as per UK, advance tickets are non-transferable so if you miss you train you can be charged the full fair - which can be well over 100 Euros for an ICE. This happened to an American in our carriage.
We managed our tickets through the Deutsche Bahn app - online ticket checking and live train updates was useful.
Bahn.de is good for timetables and approximate prices, ive not done interail per se, but caught trains all over Europe in different holidays, I tended to buy tickets a few days before, always keep your key possessions close to you as station areas tend to be ropey compared to the cities itself.
My best advice go to smaller places as all these big European cities blend into one eventually, more off the beaten track tend to be more memorable
Berlin stay in mitte, as some other areas really aren’t great, been a fair few times