Interrail plan - best to use Interrail passes or point-to-point tickets

[Drsatan]

Evening all,

In September, me and three friends are planning a trip across Belgium, Germany and the Czech Republic by rail. This is our provisional itinerary.

Day 1

Eurostar to Brussels

Day 2

Daytrip to Ghent / Bruges

Day 3

Train from Brussels to Stuttgart

Day 4

Day in Stuttgart

Day 5

Train from Stuttgart to Munich

Day 6

Day in Munich

Day 7

Train from Munich to Prague

Day 8

Day 1 in Prague

Day 9

Day 2 in Prague

Day 10

Fly home from Prague

Based on this itinerary, is it more cost-effective to purchase point-to-point tickets or Interrail passes, taking into account the loss of flexibility if point-to-point tickets are used? All of us travelling are over 26 years old

 

[Ianno87]

For an itinerary like that, point to point tickets would almost certainly work out much better value. Best way is to price it up - DB and Eurostar tickets are currently available for August to give a decent idea.

You can also force in a stopover on an Advance too, up to a certain duration.

 

[Bigchris]

Yes, surely it must work out cheaper using point to point tickets for that itinerary if you can book them in advance. The cheapest example would probably be the Stuttgart-Munich leg, you can get an All-Germany day rover ticket for 4 people for €68 and even with the restrictions on only using regional trains it would only take 3:20 (and Ulm is worth a stop for a few hours if you've never been there). Would be worth looking on the DB website to look at different options, and it's sometimes cheaper if you split longer journeys with 2 separate tickets (might be worth looking at a German rover/lander ticket and a Czech one for the journey to Prague for example).

 

[superjohn]

There is currently a 10% off promotion on Interrail global pass. This brings the 4 days in month down pass down to £141 and 5 days down to £162 if you are under 28. If you avoid TGV trains with their expensive reservations that would cover all your long distance journeys and allow you to use the very favourable Eurostar Interrail rates.
https://www.myinterrail.co.uk/interrail-pass-sale/global-pass-promotion/
Do some test pricing and see how that compares with advances. I think there won’t be much in it and the Interrail would offer flexibility which can be invaluable on trips like this. Advances can be great value but that also means it becomes very expensive if your plans change once the trip is underway. You may regret not paying extra for flexibility if it is only a few pounds.

 

[AnkleBoots]

Assuming that you enjoy travelling by train (ie longer journeys), I think you could do it all (except Eurostar) on non-reservable trains, giving you the flexibility you would want.

I think splitting at Arlon, Luxembourg and Trier on day 3 would save a lot.

 

[superalbs]

May be worth considering that you can comfortably do Praha to London by train instead of flying!

 

[dutchflyer]

For this comparison, or to make it even more complicated:
you did not state AGE, advance tix are same price for anyone, but IR is cheaper for junior/senior (=from 60)
you also did not state what you intend to do, use trains, on the rest days in the cities
If you like train-riding, of course a day on an IR-pass gives you the freedom of the network that day, but advances are tied to that train on that day. Outside of FR/IT/ES you can use 99% of trains without prebooking needed-just as in the UK (stand if really everything is taken-which wont last the whole trip).
DB has just announcd a change in its to LON pricing, with in effect split tickets for EUR* and the connecting DB/ICE from BRUssel. Untill today (I think) they are offering introductory discounts untill 23/6. Got mail from EUR* to same effect-many more cheap seats available.

 

[30907]

It also depends on your starting point and time: an expensive morning peak journey to London from Sprinterland can be covered by your IR.
From Northernland, for example, that is a significant saving.
Against that, a Standard class passholder fare to Brussels is almost as much as the cheapest ordinary ES fare.
As others have said, cost it out once the through ES+DB fares and T&Cs are available, but I doubt ES is cost effective if that is the only factor.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

I can see a Sparpreis fare of €29.90 from Stuttgart to Prague with a night's stopover in Munich (using ICE/REX trains).
You'd pay that just for the Munich-Prague leg, booked separately.
Using the db.bahn site you just put in an intermediate stop and the number of hours.
It will tie you to specific long-distance trains.

 

[CC 72100]

Any journeys involving Czech Republic, check (no pun intended) on the cd.cz website first. Ceske drahy offer very good value international fares, and I did Berlin-Prague for just over 10 euros in 2018, similar price for Brno - Budapest.

 

[Drsatan]

May be worth considering that you can comfortably do Praha to London by train instead of flying!

We did consider that but unfortunately, we won't have the time to do it

For this comparison, or to make it even more complicated:
you did not state AGE, advance tix are same price for anyone, but IR is cheaper for junior/senior (=from 60)
you also did not state what you intend to do, use trains, on the rest days in the cities
If you like train-riding, of course a day on an IR-pass gives you the freedom of the network that day, but advances are tied to that train on that day. Outside of FR/IT/ES you can use 99% of trains without prebooking needed-just as in the UK (stand if really everything is taken-which wont last the whole trip).
DB has just announcd a change in its to LON pricing, with in effect split tickets for EUR* and the connecting DB/ICE from BRUssel. Untill today (I think) they are offering introductory discounts untill 23/6. Got mail from EUR* to same effect-many more cheap seats available.

Thanks I'm the only member of the party who is a railway enthusiast. The provisional plan includes spending time exploring places we will be staying in. Based on everyone's suggestions, I will have a discussion as to whether we pay more for an Interrail pass or lose a degree of flexibility and use point-to-point tickets

 

[FQ]

May be worth considering that you can comfortably do Praha to London by train instead of flying!

It'd add a huge cost and time to the journey though, making it far harder than it needs to be - definitely not worth it compared to a 2 hour flight imo.