Hello everybody!

Me and a friend plan to discover Europa this september with the interrail ticket.
Our perfect route would be:

Praha-Vienna-Budapest-Belgrad-Skopje-Athens-Venezia-Roma-Liguria-Monaco-Marseille-Paris-


As we are probably going to buy a ticket for 22 days, we doubt that this route is realistic, if we don't want to spend
every minute on the train..

Hence my first question to the experienced travellers of you is: Is it realistic or should we cut it right from the start?

Furthermore I'd like to know if there really are trains which are for free with the interrail ticket, since I tried a lot of connections, to see if there are free trains and to find out how much time the separate distances roughly take.
Therefore I used this planner: http://www.raildude.com/en/interrail-tr ... tions.html
But nearly every connection I found was listed as a train for which you have to pay a supplement, although I activated the "no trains with surcharge"-button. Even trains which are not listed on the list of trains you have to pay.

Are the trains shown with this planner the only existing ones?
I find it very confusing since there are so many different ones, which all seem to work differently, and I have no idea how to find out which trains really exist and can be taken without paying supplements.

My last question concerns Greece. I already mentioned that we wanted to visit Athens, and then take a ferry from Patras to Venezia. Now I read that there are no international connections to Greece at the moment.
How should I plan my trip then, if I want to travel from Skopje to Athens?

Thanks a lot for your help!

Tina

Hi Tina.

Most routes you can travel for free without supplements. Note that there is no special InterRail route planer available.
You always have to do it this way:

1) Search for a connection: http://www.raildude.com/en/interrail-tr ... tions.html
2) Compare it to the supplements: http://www.raildude.com/en/train-tickets-reservations-supplements
3) Check the country topics for details (night trains, ...): interrail-countries-f54.html

It might sound a little bit confusing, but you will see: after the first days of travel you will get it... simply relax...

Examples...

Prague-Vienna: free of supplements - prague-vienna-night-train-t1677.html
If you use day trains, simply avoid the ones mentioned at the supplements-website.

Vienna-Budapest: free of supplements - vienna-budapest-train-railjet-t1999.html

Budapest-Belgrade: free of supplements - budapest-belgrade-train-t3370.html

Belgrade-Skopje: day train free of supplements. Night train: belgrade-skopje-thessaloniki-train-t1637.html

Skopje-Athens: as there are currently no connections available, you should change your trip. Either use buses to and in Greece or for example skip Skopje and travel from Belgrade to Bar in Montenegro (definitely travel by day, it is amazing), then by bus to the North via Dubrovnik to Split. Either again along the coast by bus to Rijeka. Or by train via Zagreb to Ljubljana - and in Slovenia to Lake Bled.
From Slovenia to Italy: ljubljana-venice-train-t3663.html

In Italy simply avoid the Eurostar Italia trains - use the supplement free IC trains (reservations recommended for EUR 3).

In France try to get the reservations early if you want to use the high speed trains TGV. Or the better and cheaper solution, use a night train to get to Paris:
corail-lunea-france-night-train-t1332.html

Again about Greece: it is still a long time until September - maybe the railway company will restart in Summer.

Peter

First of all: Thank you for your fast and great help!

your alternative route from Belgrad to Bar sounds very interesting, especially if you tell me the landscape is worth seeing.
My question is now how much I'm going to pay for the bus from Bar to Split, since there seems to be no railway I could travel
with my interrail ticket, and how long would this distance take by bus?

My second question is, if you think the Lake Bled is really worth travelling into Slovenia, or if it isn't better to go from Split to Zagreb and from Zagreb directly to Venezia?

I looked for some connections of this route and found the following train which looked quite nice to me..

From Split to Zagreb:
Departure: 21:37
Arrival: 6:31
"nachttrein/train de nuit
Train conveys cars, 2nd class only seated accommodation, Please reserve, Sleeping-car"

Now is this train for free? Does "Please reserve" mean I HAVE TO reserve, or simply that they recommend it, but that there also are seats for free?

From Zagreb to Venezia
" Departure: 23:50, Arrival: 7:03
EN 440 EuroNight
2nd class only seated accommodation, Please reserve, Global price, Non-smoker train, Sleeping-car, Couchettes"

But I wasnt sure if this really is a train for free now. What does "global price" mean in this context?
I have already seen this information in a lot of connections and am never sure what it means.


Or is Riejka so great that one should necessarily have seen?
Which route would you recommend?


Thank you! This homepage really is great!

Hi.

Concerning Montenegro, have a look as well at this topic:
dubrovnik-montenegro-train-bus-t933.html

Bar - Dubrovnik: you will have to travel from Bar in direction to Budva, Kotor. I am not sure if there is a direct bus from Bar to Dubrovnik, as much as I know you will have to change in Kotor. Prices are not expensive, it will be less than EUR 20. Travel time should be around 3 hours in total.

Dubrovnik - Split: here is the website of the bus terminal: http://www.libertasdubrovnik.hr
Bus is running every hour.

Split to Zagreb by night train: zagreb-split-train-t3399.html
You will have to pay for the category of seat or bed you want.

I definitely recommend you Lake Bled. As the connection by night train from Zagreb to Venice is not that perfect. As well, Slovenia is cheap compared to Italy.

Global price has nothing to do with InterRail. Just forget this word.

Peter

Okay thank you very much...
I had a look at pictures of Lake Bled and it really looks amazing...

One more question: What is the cheapest way of getting from Paris to London?
I only found a ferry, which costst about 65€ per person and the Eurostar train, which is also about 60euros.

I fear cheaper is not possible?

Hi!

Read here about the Calais - Dover ferry: paris-london-ferry-calais-dover-t1442.html


Flo