How to take the scenic route with a holiday on the rails

If we are to be serious about tackling the climate crisis, we need to stop flying. By taking a long train trip, the journey becomes part of the holiday.

I first went interrailing in 1989, when I was eighteen. At that time it was a young person’s game; interrail passes were only valid until the age of 26. A few years later we took advantage of the new over-26 pass and travelled all the way to Turkey. In those days travel was a different sort of beast. We would turn up at a location, spend time walking from hotel to hotel in search of the best deal, often bartering along the way.

I think it’s fair to say this mode of travel was, although exciting, at times rather stressful. We finally had to change our way of doing things when, with two small children in tow, we arrived in a Spanish town off the last train of the day, and found ourselves in a situation where we couldn’t find anywhere to stay . For a while we were starting to believe that we would be sleeping on the streets. Thankfully in the end we found a hotel, but it was a wake up call.

Now anyone of any age can go interrailing, and so we’ve just come back from an interrail family holiday with our now adult children. We travelled via Eurostar to Antibes, then to Monterosso in the beautiful Cinque-Terres region of Northern Italy, before going onwards to Venice with quick sight-seeing stops at Pisa and Florence en-route. On the way back we travelled through Switzerland on the beautiful Bernina pass. It was a wonderful holiday, with a few adventures on the way. I thought it might be useful to share some tips with anyone else considering doing the same.

I first went interrailing in 1989. At that time passes were only valid until the age of 26. A few years later we took advantage of the new over-26 pass and travelled all the way to Turkey. We would turn up at a location, spend time walking from hotel to hotel in search of the best deal, bartering along the way. We had freedom to change our plans on a whim. On our first trip we got fed up of the heat, so headed north from Scicily and ended up in Kiruna, 100 miles into the artic circle.

Now anyone of any age can go interrailing and booking rooms is easy. We’ve just come back from an interrail family holiday. We travelled via Eurostar to Antibes, then to Monterosso in the beautiful Cinque-Terres region of Northern Italy, before going onwards to Venice with quick sight-seeing stops at Pisa and Florence en-route. On the way back we travelled through Switzerland on the beautiful Bernina pass. It was a wonderful holiday.

A good place to start when planning any rail holiday is to visit The Man in Seat 61 (www.seat61.com). There you’ll find links to train operator sites and invaluable information on scenic routes, practicalities, booking and planning. From this you’ll be able to work out whether a pass or individual tickets are the best value. There’s info on sleeper trains too, which are always useful for covering long distances.

It’s worth investing in the European Timetable, which has both a print and digital version. https://www.europeanrailtimetable.eu/

If you know exactly where you are going, you may not need a pass. In the past we’ve taken advantage of Eurostar deals, then bought tickets well in advance and it’s worked out to be the cheapest option. When booking ahead both Spanish and Italian railways do very good deals. We’ve bought European tickets through Trainline.co.uk. 

Interrail gives reduced prices on Eurostar (limited tickets, so do book early), plus one outward and inward UK travel day. Passes can be bought at https://www.myinterrail.co.uk, with a choice of digital or paper passes. We used the interail app. It’s not terribly user-friendly, so I also used the excellent Deutsche Bahn site (https://int.bahn.de/en) for journey planning. 

Some fast trains, especially in France, have compulsory reservations, which add to the cost. When planning your journey the Interrail app favours journeys requiring reservations, for which it charges an extortionate commission. Set the default to chose journeys without reservations when using the local network. I bought our reservations where needed from Rail Europe (https://www.raileurope.com/) who charge a minimal commission. 

If you are planning to do the scenic Swiss railways, there’s no need to go for an expensive tourist train. The local network uses the same route, and on the Bernina pass between Tirano and St Moritz the trains have large slide down windows, so you can enjoy the mountain air as you travel. Switzerland is mind-blowingly expensive; on a budget the best plan is to stay in a neighbouring country before passing through. 

Flix bus (https://www.flixbus.co.uk) saved us when bad weather closed the rail network. These fast buses are cheap and efficient.

If money is no object and you know exactly where you want to go, you can use a company like RailBookers (https://www.railbookers.co.uk) who will organise all your train journeys for you.

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