Yes, many. You have to reserve (and pay for such a reservation) to travel on many trains. Interrail can be good value in certain countries, such as Switzerland, where no supplements are required but very bad value in countries like France and Italy where supplements are required. You will also get no discount off Eurostar non-flexible fares. You can also only get either Interrail One Country passes for several days in a month or Global (i.e. all of Europe) passes. With more details of your plans we could certainly give you some advice as to which ticket(s) would be most appropriate.know of any restrictions on these
True if you want to use private railways not included in Interrail or if you want to travel every day when you're there (but not if you only want to travel a few days in a month and avoid private lines not included in Interrail).Swiss Pass would be a better bet.
seat61 is a great site.
Inter-rail has gone down in its effectiveness colossally over the years.
I Inter-Railed 20+ years ago and didn't pay any supplements in an entire month, other than a very small one for a very comfortable couchette in Yugoslavia (as it then was). The point of it being a single up-front payment for free and easy travel is rather spoilt by the current system.
That's a rather sad reason. When I went it was a requirement to keep a record book of all the journeys made, which could easily have been used for revenue allocation if they felt like it. Even without that it can't be SO hard to get a reasonable and fair basis of allocation.Mostly this is because some countires wnated to withdraw from the pass as they felt their trains were getting used far more than the revenue allocation they received.
That's a rather sad reason. When I went it was a requirement to keep a record book of all the journeys made, which could easily have been used for revenue allocation if they felt like it. Even without that it can't be SO hard to get a reasonable and fair basis of allocation.
The global InterRail still comes with that book and you are meant to fill it out, but I can count on my fingers the number of times that any of my numerous InterRails have been correctly "gripped" or the journey log even looked at. They try and encourage you to return it (post free) so that revenue can be apportioned but there is no compulsion to do so.That's a rather sad reason. When I went it was a requirement to keep a record book of all the journeys made, which could easily have been used for revenue allocation if they felt like it. Even without that it can't be SO hard to get a reasonable and fair basis of allocation.
They try and encourage you to return it (post free) so that revenue can be apportioned but there is no compulsion to do so.
Maybe you aren't prepared to rough it as much as we did 20 year ago? We slept on a lot of trains (maybe 10+ days), and only had a couchette once in a month. But in those days most of the trains had compartments, with seats which pulled across to make the equivalent of a super-king sized double bed. We got on trains at the origin, and hogged a whole compartment by getting into our sleeping bags instantly and scaring away any other intending passengers.To give you an idea, the European trip below is going to cost about £1,000 even on a pass, i.e. the supplements are almost double again what the pass costs (we are getting a sleeper virtually every night).
I was certainly going to talk to Mr IndRail himself! I hope to get a LOT of sleepers as it keeps the cost down and also gets the travelling done without spending the whole of every day on trains. I will probably be travelling +2 so will try to get a lot (or all) booked up in advance - I know that I'll probably get fed up with having to move on from somewhere really interesting, but that's the sacrifice for doing it (relatively) on a shoestring.P.S. re India, though it's true that you have to work out what you are going to do before you do it if you want to get sleepers, as there are tourist quotas you should be able to book almost anything with just a few weeks to spare, as long as there are just a few of you, and certainly if it's just you.
Also, while Shankar (Mr IndRail) will insist that you will have to pay extra if you change your mind, our experience was that you can walk into a booking office at a major station and just book, but of course dont expect to get on tomorrow's train.
Maybe you aren't prepared to rough it as much as we did 20 year ago? We slept on a lot of trains (maybe 10+ days), and only had a couchette once in a month. But in those days most of the trains had compartments, with seats which pulled across to make the equivalent of a super-king sized double bed. We got on trains at the origin, and hogged a whole compartment by getting into our sleeping bags instantly and scaring away any other intending passengers.
30 years ago I would have done the same.Maybe you aren't prepared to rough it as much as we did 20 year ago? We slept on a lot of trains (maybe 10+ days), and only had a couchette once in a month. But in those days most of the trains had compartments, with seats which pulled across to make the equivalent of a super-king sized double bed. We got on trains at the origin, and hogged a whole compartment by getting into our sleeping bags instantly and scaring away any other intending passengers.
IMHOI was certainly going to talk to Mr IndRail himself! I hope to get a LOT of sleepers as it keeps the cost down and also gets the travelling done without spending the whole of every day on trains. I will probably be travelling +2 so will try to get a lot (or all) booked up in advance - I know that I'll probably get fed up with having to move on from somewhere really interesting, but that's the sacrifice for doing it (relatively) on a shoestring.
PS Mark - I'd seen your GCIRC site a while ago when considering the Indian rail pass thing - it's a great site and lots of interesting info on there. Thanks!
we are all over 40. If it's possible to get any more pan European than what we are doing then we'd like to know about it.For the most part, the "true" pan-European experience is not something you can do at my age or above
Once you hit a certain point at, near or around 30, forget it, I think that's the summary of this thread.
There is a complete list here:
http://www.interrailnet.com/planning/train-seat-reservations/reservation-fees
For virtually all of the trains around Germany / Austria there will be no compulsory reservations (except night trains) whereas for virtually all of the trains you are interested in around France/Italy and the X2000 there will be compulsory reservations. For the night trains there will be substantial fees. You will have to pay for virtually all reservations you make, whether they are compulsory or not.
I recently bought a single on a direct Milano P. G. - Paris Lyon train in First Class for just 55€ and I am aware that these Mini fares start at 45€ in First Class. I'm afraid that you would probably be better off buying cheap singles in advance for travel in France / Italy than using Interrail and supplements. If Interrail works out as good value for travel in Germany / Sweden, you could always buy a pass for a shorter period of time and use it in these countries only. Note though that X2000 (and Intercity) trains do also offer very good value singles on certain trains when bought in advance. I know that the freedom of Interrail sounds great but with such significant extra costs it often does not represent good value for money.I wasnt expecting an extra 75 Euros on top of a 1st class Interrail ticket to get from Paris to Milan.
I recently bought a single on a direct Milano P. G. - Paris Lyon train in First Class for just 55 and I am aware that these Mini fares start at 45 in First Class. I'm afraid that you would probably be better off buying cheap singles in advance for travel in France / Italy than using Interrail and supplements. If Interrail works out as good value for travel in Germany / Sweden, you could always buy a pass for a shorter period of time and use it in these countries only. Note though that X2000 trains do also offer very good value singles on certain trains when bought in advance. I know that the freedom of Interrail sounds great but with such significant extra costs it often does not represent good value for money.