Inter railing for grown ups

[jack_lord]

I went inter railing when I was a student. Fantastic experience.

It is not restricted to youngsters though and we have been talking about doing it as a couple - anyone grown ups ventured or are my rose tinted spectacles giving me a better view than it was.

 

[Squarebear]

I never went. I was too much of a pussy, and probably still am.

I'd listen to others' war stories of sleeping on overnight trains with money stuffed into sleeping bags only to wake and find a neat hole cut into the bag and money gone. As a youngster that sort of adversity was more than I could contemplate. Unfortunately.

My sister went and loved the experience.

 

[jack_lord]

I never went. I was too much of a pussy, and probably still am.

I'd listen to others' war stories of sleeping on overnight trains with money stuffed into sleeping bags only to wake and find a neat hole cut into the bag and money gone. As a youngster that sort of adversity was more than I could contemplate. Unfortunately.

My sister went and loved the experience.

We went on many overnight trains and slept on many station floors. The only theft we had was our bottle of water outside Barcelona train station at night which was bizarre when all the good expensive stuff was left untouched. Needed that water in the morning though

 

[Cooperman]

Had to to Moscow to Izhevsk by train a few years back as the Russian state airlines didn’t possess the correct licences as mandated by the company travel policy. This journey was about 30 hours each way, just a little under one thousand miles from memory.

More recently, I followed Le Tour around the South of France last year. Pretty good service from SNCF all told. If Italy is your thing then I highly recommend Italy by train. A cheap, regular and reliable service across pretty much all of the country. Have done North (Milan) to South (Bari) and reverse plenty of times. Next week I’m taking Turin to Bologna by train, what takes up to five hours by car can be done sub two and a half hours; cheapest return ticket was €80, but this is their HS2 so a slower train would be a fraction of the cost.

 

[backofthenet]

Hire a decent car.

The world's your oyster, without having to slum it, with a bunch of strangers, on the cheap, with all the inherent risks.

 

[Longlostjack]

Did it back in the day. Greece via the old Yugoslavia. Was living in Sheffield at the time. Was going to catch a ferry from Brindisi and went into a restaurant for a pizza at lunchtime. Waiter came and we recognized each other straight away. His family had a pizzeria in Sheffield right next to where I lived.

 

[Longlostjack]

Hire a decent car.

The world's your oyster, without having to slum it, with a bunch of strangers, on the cheap, with all the inherent risks.

Nothing better than cracking a few cans open with strangers in a train. Not the same in a car.

 

[jack_lord]

Did it back in the day. Greece via the old Yugoslavia. Was living in Sheffield at the time. Was going to catch a ferry from Brindisi and went into a restaurant for a pizza at lunchtime. Waiter came and we recognized each other straight away. His family had a pizzeria in Sheffield right next to where I lived.

Caught a ferry from Brindisi back in the day (had a pizza while we were there in the day as well) it was chaos and we initially got on the wrong boat where one of the crew happened to ask in English where we were going. Memorable boat trip as met a girl on the train from Rome to Brindisi who was very friendly.
Thanks for the info about Italy. There are good interrailing prices and if we decide on it first stop Paris and on to Italy and may well spend a good deal of our journey there. Really fancy more time in Venice as well.

 

[MajorR]

One of my regrets was not doing the inter railing thing when I was younger, but I did go to NZ and Aus where I did some backpacking and used the Oz Experience and Kiwi Experiences buses.
If you’re not in a rush and thinking about going next year, have a look at busabout. They’ve not run for 3 years re Covid, but could be back next year. Their network was excellent.

https://www.busabout.com/

There was a

 

[Darran]

What is inter railing?

 

[Skippyjack]

What is inter railing?

Have you ever watched Eurotrip?.. basically back packers and hipsters who travel around Europe on a train, it's a bit like a hostel though

 

[Darran]

Have you ever watched Eurotrip?.. basically back packers and hipsters who travel around Europe on a train, it's a bit like a hostel though

I haven’t.
Thanks Skip.

 

[jack_lord]

What is inter railing?

https://www.interrail.eu/en/interrail-passes/global-pass?&&&&&msclkid=0d5e01ef4e721ef7bdc7659150a3ac0b&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=IR_UK_EN_DO_Paid-Search_AlwaysOn_Brand&utm_term=interrail&utm_content=UK_EN_01_Exact&gclid=0d5e01ef4e721ef7bdc7659150a3ac0b&gclsrc=3p.ds

Basically you buy a ticket that gives you almost unlimited train travel all around europe. Some of the tickets included train and boat. Some people plan there journeys to a meticulous timetable whereas others completely wing it. It is fantastic for students who have the summer off but it is getting more popular for "oldies".
My daughter went last summer and had a brilliant time and it has made me want to get back out there as an alternative to the lovely beach holiday.

 

[Longlostjack]

I would love to do it again but still working and have a dog. EU needs to work on a common rail policy for taking dogs on trains to replace patchwork of national regulations.