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Daughter has deferred her uni place to next Sept, and is actively contemplating a spot of Interrailing beforehand.
I went myself when younger. Had a brilliant time, and recall an open ended ticket for a month or two, with seemingly total flexibility about where to go and when. I'm sure we also managed to get some ferry crossings in there too (Brindisi overnight to Corfu springs to mind)
Is it a similar thing now but via smartphone? Just looked at the website but am none the wiser! Anyone got recent experience?
I believe you can still get a pass. https://www.thetrainline.com/trains/rail-passes/interrail
X many journeys allowed within X many days
Dunno if it's still a thing, but Trailfinders used to do an Amtrak/Greyhound pass for crazy cheap.
Nice way to see the US for very little cost.
Makes a nice contrast to a European trip.
Amtrak trains are very slow and the distances huge plus I think freight has priority. A great alternative to flying there though as the scenery is great.
I had good experience of a German train company who had London offices. Probably dB as they booked my Paris to Berlin sleeper.
Man in seat 51 is a great resource website. I think it's 51...edit: 61
Edit: japan rail JR pass is great too.
Have done a very compressed bit of it with a pal, probably four years ago. Cost varies but it's great value. Fill in a log of where you're going before you jump on each train, though, as apparently the ticket people don't like you doing it while you're travelling. You can send your complete logs back to Interrail and they send you a gift.
I wouldn’t do the US FWIW, great for a single journey as an experience (Chicago to LA, or San Francisco, or Seattle takes 3 days), but there isn’t the variety of European railways, nor the density, plus obviously not the same variation in culture and destinations.
We got a one country one for France in September. Bought it at ticket office in Caen, then caught trains to the south to do a bike tour. We had a three day pass so we could travel back at the end, but didn't use the third day.
You have a paper pass that you write the date on before you board your first train. Train staff just looked at it, appeared momentarily confused, then moved on.
Deutsche bahn website is excellent for planning European rail journeys, and has info on Interail options.
The man in seat 61 remains a great resource for everything rail travel.
Seat61
One advantage of sticking to 1 big country like US over Europe is covid paperwork / logistics, legal requirements on face coverings, gatherings and so on. Presuming she is fully vaccinated then she just needs to be aware of every country's requirements for registering that vaccination so she can go about normal activities - it changes depending on country but e.g. France has a 'health pass' to go in to restaurants etc, Italy has a 'green pass' to use public transport between regions / to cross borders, some countries might still require a negative test before entry, e.g. entry to the Netherlands from a very high risk country (which includes the UK).
Ah the memories of inter-railing in the early 90s, innocence lost in Amsterdam, sleeping on platforms waiting for the early train from Budapest to Rome, 50p cocktails in Ios, arriving in Prague to hoardes of people touting their spare room.
Sounds fun.
Make sure she understands that inter-railing around Europe is just taking a train around Europe instead of getting a plane. Because interailers tell the worst gap ya stories.
Did 3 weeks of Scandinavia and Northern Europe back in 2004. Mostly stayed in offical YHA (or whatever the European equivalent is) but remember a couple of nights where there was a website called sleepinginairports.com or similar that came in very handy. Not sure if it still exists.
Even back then there seemed to be a lot of restrictions as to which trains you could and couldn't get and had to pre-book etc. I thought we could just turn up and get on any train but it wasn't that simple. I can only imagine it's worse and now takes quite a bit of pre-planning.
I wouldn’t do the US FWIW, great for a single journey as an experience (Chicago to LA, or San Francisco, or Seattle takes 3 days), but there isn’t the variety of European railways, nor the density, plus obviously not the same variation in culture and destinations.
I would also add that outside of real tourist spots accommodation can be expensive or a real shit hole. Europe has a real good mix on this front from cheap hotels, hostels and camping. The US is cool though but need a lot of time IMO.