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What is Interrail?
Interrail is a train pass that allows you to travel across multiple countries in Europe with just one ticket using the continent’s extensive rail network. It provides a flexible and convenient way to explore Europe, offering access to unlimited train travel within a specified time frame. The passes are available for different durations, ranging from a few days to several weeks. Travellers can choose continuous travel days or select days within a longer period, allowing for both short trips and extended explorations. The Interrail Pass makes travelling around Europe by train flexible, so you can customize your journeys according to your interests and time available.
Interrail vs. Eurail – What’s the difference?
The Interrail Pass is exclusively available to European residents while the Eurail Pass is designed for non-European residents. Both passes cover the same network of railways and ferries across Europe, including high-speed trains, scenic routes, and local lines. The options for countries included in the passes are identical, providing a seamless travel experience for both European and non-European travellers. Prices for the Interrail and Eurail Passes are the same as well and for both passes are discounts for young travellers or seniors available.
Choose the right Interrail or Eurail Pass for you
There are many different Interrail and Eurail passes you can choose from depending on the length of your travels, your budget and if you want to travel just one or several countries.
With the Interrail Global Pass or the Eurail Global Pass you can travel 33 European countries for a few days, weeks or even several months. For exploring just as single country there is the Interrail One Country Pass which can be purchased for 29 countries.
Interrail Global Pass & Eurail Global Pass
There are different Global Passes available:
- Travel 4, 5 or 7 days within 1 month: That means the ticket is valid for one month in total and you can choose 4, 5 or 7 travel days within this month.
- Travel 10 or 15 days within 2 months: Your pass is valid for two months in total and you can choose between 10 or 15 travel days within these two months.
- Travel 15 days, 22 days or 1-3 months in a row: With these Interrail or Eurail Global Passes, you can travel by train every day within the specified time frame.
All passes are available for second-class and first-class train travel. The more travel days included, the more expensive your Interrail or Eurail Global Pass is of course. You can find all prices on the official Interrail and Eurail website.
Note: The Interrail Global Pass is not valid to travel within your country of residence. But there is one outbound and inbound journey included in the ticket, so you can easily start and end your journey in your hometown.
Interrail One Country Pass & Eurail One Country Pass
Do you only want to explore one country the Interrail One Country Pass or Eurail One Country Pass are perfect for you as it`s usually a bit cheaper than purchasing an Interrail Global Pass. With the Interrail One Country Pass you can choose one of 29 European countries and there are passes available for 3, 4, 5, 6 or 8 travel days within one month.
Note: The Interrail One Country Pass is not always the cheapest option, when you want to travel just around one country. In Ireland for example it’s cheaper to buy single train or bus tickets to get around than purchasing an Interrail One Country Pass. Always compare prices and find your personally best way to travel a country.
Interrail Pass and Eurail Pass Discounts
For both Interrail Global Pass and the Interrail One Country Pass as well as all Eurail passes you can get a discount if you are between 12 and 27 years old and if you are 60 or older. Children from 4 to 11 years old are always free. When you want to get the discounted Youth Pass it is important that you are not older than 27 on your chosen start date for your Interrail journey. It won`t work when you are 27 on the day you purchase the ticket but start your journey three months later and turn 28 during these 3 months before starting to use your Interrail Pass.
Sometimes there are extra discounts like during Black Friday.
Interrail Rail Planner – Plan your itinerary to travel around Europe by train
When you have found the best Interrail or Eurail Pass for you, it is time to plan your trip itinerary. You can plan the whole trip ahead or travel spontaneously. But being spontaneous always depends on the season and the countries you are travelling to. During high season accommodations are booked out quickly and it is better to plan ahead if you want to save money. Also, some trains require seat reservations, and those trains can be booked out as well during high season.
The best countries to travel spontaneously are in Eastern Europe as trains mostly don`t require seat reservations and accommodation is generally cheaper, so booking last minute won’t hurt your bank account. But I’d still recommend you looking up all the train routes beforehand to avoid bad surprises when having a flexible travel itinerary.
The best way to plan your Interrail itinerary is through the Rail Planner App where you can save all your train journeys in advance. You can see most available train routes in the app, but there are a few trains that are not yet shown there. In Spain for example, there are few short distance trains that could not be found in the Rail Planner App. So definitely check the websites of the specific train companies like Renfe for Spain or other apps like the DB Navigator as well and see if there are additional trains available.
I also found an Interrail group on Facebook quite helpful while planning my itinerary. It’s perfect if you have any questions to your Interrail trip that couldn’t be answered before. When planning my trip, I found a nice connection from Toulouse to Barcelona that couldn’t be found in the Rail Planner App. It was a scenic route going through the Pyrenees mountains and we avoided paying a rather pricey seat reservation for the highspeed train to Barcelona.
Spain can be a bit of a pain when it comes to Interrail. That doesn’t mean you should avoid travelling to and through Spain by train, but you might need to plan your journey a bit more before you go.
In Spain, the train tracks are wider than in other countries, which means you can’t Spanish borders everywhere by train. You can take trains in the South from France to Barcelona, from Madrid to Lisbon or exit Portugal in the north and take a train from Porto to Vigo in Spain. But in the north of Spain, we had to cross the border to France on foot and walk from the Spanish train station to the French one. There isn’t a train going to Portugal in the south as well, so we took a bus from Sevilla to Faro for visiting the Algarve Coast.
Interrail train reservations and how to avoid them
A lot of highspeed trains, particularly in Western Europe, and all night trains require a seat reservation at an additional cost. The costs can vary a lot depending on the country. In some countries you can avoid these reservations, in some not and some countries don’t require seat reservations at all. You can see in the Rail Planner App which trains require a reservation and where you can purchase it. A lot of reservations can also be booked through the Rail Planner App.
Where you can’t avoid paying for seat reservations: In Portugal and Spain you can’t really avoid buying a seat reservation and they can only be purchased at Portuguese and Spanish train stations. So, better get all the reservations you are going to need for one country at once as there could be long queues at ticket offices. During summer you shouldn’t plan any reservations last minute as trains can be booked out then.
The train from Brussels or Paris to London also requires seat reservations which better be made some time in advance as there are only a few seats available for people with an Interrail or Eurail Pass. In all other countries it is enough to get your reservations the day before or you can even book them spontaneously depending on the season.
Countries, where you can easily avoid seat reservations: If you are travelling France or Italy, trains with seat reservations can be avoided as a reservation isn’t mandatory for all trains here. The journey will usually just take a bit longer then, because most of the fastest trains require a reservation. Especially the highspeed trains in France they can be quite expensive sometimes, but if you have got enough time, just choose the free short distance trains.
In all other countries there can be trains with a mandatory seat reservation, but they can easily be avoided and there are enough train connections where you don’t need a reservation. Especially trains in Eastern Europe don’t require reservations, so it’s a lot easier and cheaper to travel these countries via Interrail or Eurail compared to most countries in Western Europe.
You can easily find train connections that don’t require a seat reservation by using the filter option ‘No seat reservation required’ in the Rail Planner App.
Taking night trains for long distances
You can use a lot of night trains with your Interrail Pass, which is the best way to travel especially long distances by train. Night trains always require a reservation at an additional cost, but you don’t need to pay for another accommodation for that night. The night trains all have different accommodation options ranging from reclining seats to dorms or even single cabins with private bathrooms.
Some of the night trains you can takes are the train from Stockholm to Berlin, the Caledonian Sleeper from London to Scotland, the ÖBB Nightjets within Austria and to surrounding destinations like Munich, Berlin or Rome, the Intercités de Nuit in France, the Santa Claus Express in Finland from Helsinki to Lapland or the Bosphorus Express through Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey. All night train options can be found on the Interrail and Eurail website.
Important Note: You don’t need two travel days of your Interrail Pass when taking a night train as only the day of your departure will count as a travel day. But the day of departure can’t be the last day your Interrail or Eurail pass is valid.
Get discounts on ferries, hostels and attractions
With an Interrail Pass or Eurail Pass you can also get discounts on some ferries within Europe as well as hostels or other attractions. All discounts can be found on the Interrail and Eurail websites.
For ferries you can get a 20-50 percent discount depending on the ferry company. You can use your Interrail or Eurail Pass to take ferries to Ireland, England, from Italy to Croatia or Greece and other destinations. It’s always better to book the ferries in advance, especially during high season, as they can book out quickly.
I hope this guide helps you to plan your own amazing Interrail trip and travel around Europe by train. If you need more tips and inspiration for certain places in Europe, I’ve got a ton of other guides for you!