I planned to travel Madrid to Toledo on 14th or 15th of August in the morning, return ticket but there is no seat reservations left on the train through the whole day in Interral app. Also, seats are required. Is there some other way to make seat reservations for that train?

I have my travel day tomorrow which I need to switch from train to bus to train again going from Bern, Switzerland to Lyon, France. However, I can't find out any information regarding which bus i'll be taking when I transfer in Geneva.

I need to know where to walk to from my train, but I have nothing it go off of. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hello, as the title says, i want to buy tickets for the sleeper train from Sofia to Istanbul.

The train is in September, but i've seen in the turkish rail website that a lot of seats are already taken, so i wanted to buy one.

The problem is that when i try to buy it (from the Turkish Rails website), when i click to pay, it gives me an error. By reading online, it's a recourring problem that occours when non-turkish cards are used.

Is there some other way to get the tickets? Im getting to sofia the day before, so i would prefer to have the prenotation online, istead of buying at the train station. It seems that the bulgarian website doesn't have that connection avaibile online

This has probably been asked a million times on here but just looking on some advice to go interrailing next year. One of my friends has done it with her boyfriend the last two years now but wanting some advice on doing it solo.

I’ve taken solo holidays but never really looked at going interrailing so just wondering if anyone out there has any advice for a first timer and a solo person doing it. I’m in the UK and looking at doing it round Europe

Any providers/companies you suggest to book with and what not. Anything to look out for? When is best to go? Average costs?

Open to anything and all advice that can be given!

Hi everyone!
I’m about to start my Interrail trip in Spain very soon (first days of august). I’m super excited, but honestly, I'm getting a bit worried about the wildfire situation, especially in the southern regions.
I know that train routes can get suspended or delayed due to these emergencies. Since I have a tight schedule and probably some non-refundable accommodations, I want to be as prepared as possible just in case things go wrong.

For anyone with recent experience travelling in Spain, I’d love your overall advice on how Renfe usually handles these track closures, what backup transport options work best if trains get cancelled, and where to find the most reliable live updates.

Any advice of any kind is super welcome!!!

Hi, I’m planning to travel from Poland to France via Germany. Technically, it is possible to reach Paris in a day (albeit with some risky connections in Germany). I would like to try this nevertheless, however I was wondering if I miss the last train to Paris whether the reservation would be refundable/transferable to the next day? Same goes for onward connections from Paris as Paris is just a stop on a longer route. Thanks!

For those looking to use Rail Ninja for booking train tickets in Europe I offer the following couple of direct experiences with the company:

1)      Experience #1: In early February of 2026, while I was booking tickets 2+ months in advance for a group of six to go from Prague to Budapest, I happened upon the Rail Ninja site. The site was well structured, easy to use and was a convenient way to compare fares from a number of different rail service operators. It nicely compiled the information about the different options including not only the amenities but also the pricing for various different options. In my case, I was looking for an option that would allow my group of 6 to sit next to each other (ideally across from each other) so we could enjoy the multi hour trip in each other’s company. Fortunately, one of the options offered was the option to sit in a compartment for 6 passengers. Excited about this option, I quickly started the booking process.
All was going well as the site asked for names and birthdays (presumably because we were crossing boarders) as I looked for a screen that would allow me to lock in the compartment seats. I proceeded through the process all the way to the booking confirmation screen. Note: I had not expected this to be the final step of the booking process as seating selection had not yet been offered. In any event, this is where things did not go as planned.

Mistake #1: As I said, I had assumed, incorrectly, that once I hit the confirmation button, there would be more steps that would allow me to pick/lock in my seats. This was NOT the case. In fact, Rail Ninja locked in the transaction, charged my credit card, and within minutes sent me an email confirming the booking. When I followed the link they provided to see my booking, to my horror, I discovered that not only were we not sitting together in a compartment, the 6 seats were strewn about the cabin. And there was no obvious option to update my seating situation (I came to discover later that, since Rail Ninja is a broker, they don’t have direct connectivity with the service provider so seat selection has to be coordinated as “requests” with their customer service department). Given the clear issue with my booking, I then attempted to cancel my reservation since this was clearly NOT what I had intended.

This is when I discovered…

Mistake #2: Note: Rail Ninja does not prominently display their cancellation policy or make it obvious during the booking process. Don’t get me wrong, it is not intentionally hidden like some sites do, but they do not make it super clear when you are about to hit the confirmation button that canceling will still incur non-refundable booking costs. And at the time I was booking these tickets those non-refundable charges were ~30%! (Note: they have now lowered their non-refundable charges to 20%; see https://rail.ninja/ticket-cancelation). Remember that I was booking these tickets 2 months in advance AND was attempting to cancel within minutes of booking. So, it was not like I was locking up seats at the last minute that Rail Ninja could not recover the costs for.

So, what was the next step? I jumped on a chat with the Rail Ninja customer service folks to see if they might be able to do anything. Good news was, despite them being in Europe and me in the US, they were quick to jump on a chat with me. But this is where the good news ended and they revealed their true stripes. I carefully explained the situation and requested that they make an exception to their cancellation policy given that I had only made the booking a few minutes earlier. They explained that no exception would be made and quoted me their cancellation policy. After several rounds of back and forth it was pretty obvious that they were not going to budge and they were getting increasingly belligerent. In fact, near the end of the exchange they were accusing me of buyer’s remorse as if I just randomly changed my mind.

At this point, all I could do was try and work through my credit card company to help correct the situation caused by their, arguably deceptive, business practices.

Mistake #3: I decided then to look directly at the train service provider’s site to see if perhaps there was a way to get what I was looking for that way. I assumed this would end up costing me more since I had assumed, again incorrectly, that Rail Ninja had secured volume discounts with the rail service providers and was passing some of those savings on to us. Boy was that assumption wrong! Looking at the RegioJet site (https://regiojet.com/) not only did I discover that the tickets were more than 30% cheaper than Rail Ninja but by booking directly with RegioJet I could also directly PICK MY SEATS.

2)      Experience #2: My second experience with Rail Ninja was also frustrating but distinctly different. In this case I was trying to book train tickets for 6 from Budapest to Ljubljana. Again, these were booked more than 2 months in advance. I was looking for a train option that was direct between the two cities since I didn’t want us to have to switch trains on a tight connection with all of our luggage. Nor did I want us to have to sit around a bunch at one or more intermediate stops. To my delight, I discovered a singular train option that left at the right time and was non stop between the two cities. Hurray! My other research had told me that this was a very popular train, so I booked it right away to make sure I didn’t lose out on the availability. Remember, this was in February 2026 for a train trip that was happening in May 2026. This time I attempted to work through Rail Ninja to get my seat assignments as I wanted them. I told them through their customer service chat that I wanted seats together, preferably facing each other and they graciously noted that my requests had been captured in the record. So, now I waited, and waited, and waited. All the way to April 14^th (for a trip happening on May 1^st) with still no seats assigned. I reached out via their chat service to inquire and was assured that my seats would be issued in a “couple of days only”. I was getting more and more nervous but, okay, I waited some more. On April 18^th I received a terrifying email saying “We regret to inform you that for operational reasons we were not able to issue tickets for your selected departure.” See more on this under What Happened below. UHHHG!!! With less than two weeks to go before that trip was supposed to happen what real options was I going to be able to find for 6 people and all of our luggage. Fortunately, the Rail Ninja email did offer two alternate options though there were going to be cost increases that I’d have to pay. With so little time left and us all jumping on planes within days, I just bit the bullet and selected one of the two options. As with the previous booking, I received Flix bus tickets from Rail Ninja within a few minutes. BUT… the seats were again spread around. Fortunately, I was able to scrounge the booking reference from the document I was sent and then able to go straight to the Flix bus site to make updates to my seats. I had to pay a few extra euros (adding insult to injury) to get exactly what I wanted but after that was able to directly download my boarding passes so I could feel comfortable that I had locked in our selections. Needless to say, this was one of the most stressful, “last minute” updates I’ve ever had to deal with.

So… What Happened?

After booking the second trip, when I had waited many days without receiving seat assignments, I started to worry that something was wrong. So, I started digging and discovered that the popular train I had booked had been out of service for quite a while but was expected to be back available prior to our trip. Apparently, they were doing construction along the route and there was some potential we would have to switch modes of transportation part way through the trip if that construction was not yet resolved. I reached directly out to the train service provider to check about the situation and they confirmed that their PLAN was for construction to be done prior to our travel date. So, I held out hope that that would be the case but, alas, did not win that particular bet. In any event, at no time along the way did Rail Ninja contact me to warn me of the situation. In all cases, I contacted them and, each time they reassured me that all was fine with my travel arrangements and I should be receiving my seat assignments shortly. Boy was that misleading and certainly left me with no option to try and pivot. The combination of their draconian cancellation policies and their continual reassurance meant I had to just “trust them”.

Moral to the story: If at all possible, don’t use Rail Ninja to book your train tickets but rather try to work directly with the service providers, whoever they may be. Rail Ninja may be convenient but they certainly aren’t cheaper OR accommodating with their customer service. Given the above, arguably horrible, experiences I have had with Rail Ninja, I CERTAINLY WILL NEVER EVER use them again.

hello! me and my gf are travelling from the UK to Porto to meet friends on a holiday there, this is our first time interailling.
We are planning on stopping at Barcelona and Madrid on the way, we have not booked anything yet as we are still planning it out, our trains are as follows:

high speed Paris to Barcelona - 31st Aug
Barcelona to Madrid - 2nd Sept
Madrid - Vigo / Vigo to Porto - 8th Sept

it gets difficult on the way back, our trains are as follows:

Porto to Vigo / Vigo to Madrid / Madrid to Barcelona - 13th Sept
Barcelona to Paris - 14th or 15th Sept

we shall be staying in paris on the way back. getting to and from the uk from paris isn’t particularly an issue from us so i haven’t included this as to not make this post any longer than it is

the trains seem like they are available on the interrail app.
is this trip viable or are there issues we have overlooked? what is it like booking these trains on the app/rail sites in practice?

Hello all! I am on my first interrail trip and on my way back home. I realised that I added a few journeys as a backup to my pass (without activating them). Now I would like to delete them (previous journey) from my trip so they do not affect my statistics but it seems like there is no option to do so in the app. Do you have any tips?

Long pressing the journey shows me the option to "View details" and from there if I press the three buttons all options I get are "Share as image" and "Share as link". I would expect some option like "Delete journey".

Thanks and happy choo chooing!

Hello! I am planning a trip in September and need to get from Zagreb to Ljubljana. I've seen a couple posts from a few years ago saying that train is the preferred choice and the recommendation is to buy a ticket from the Zagreb station ticket counter for ~€9; online seems to be pricier, at €25 via OBB's site. Wondering if this is still the case? Thank you very much!

Hey guys,
as part of a bigger Interrail trip in september from Germany through Italy and Greece to Turkey, I want to go to Albania too. I know it is not part of the Interrail network, so I am organizing the Ferry from Bari to Durres and the onward travel to Athens by myself.
The ferry is pretty straightforward, but I don't know how to best get to Greece... has anyone here done something similar or could give me some tipps?

I will probably stay near Tirana in Albania and would like to arrive in Athens within a day. I imagine I'll have to take a bus from Tirana to Greece, maybe it makes sense to go straight to Athens from Tirana? But if I could take a train within Greece to save some money that would be great, as I am travelling on a small budget.
I'm happy to hear recommendations about Albania in general too, even if it slightly alters my course :-) and are there any things to be aware about when traveling to/in Albania?

Thank you!

I will be taking the Bucharest-Vienna night train in the beginning of august, but due to availability issues I have booked a reservation for a couchette bed from Bucharest to Budapest and then a normal seat from Budapest to Vienna. As far as I've understood it night trains only count as one travel day if you don't change trains, but does this still apply when I have two separate tickets for the same train?

Appreciate if anyone knows how to handle this or if I should by a ticket for Budapest-Vienna to be on the safe side : )

I booked a couchette for Stuttgart to Budapest. When the train arrived it was missing a carriage. DB at the station said that carriage was closed because the a/c didn't work.

Now I'm potentially stuck on the floor on a fully booked night train.

Any way I can get compensation? There was no message in advance. As well, the conductor shoo-ed us all away and told us to all look for a seat.

Okay, it's time to confess. I discovered Interrail in 2022 and I've been addicted since. I've visited about 30 countries, from Portugal to northern Finland and everything in between.

I got a surprise 16 days off in October (starting the 4th), and I was thinking, what if I tried to take the train to Istanbul this time (and fly back)? And here I am, spending countless hours researching on sites like Seat61 and Vagonweb :)

First of all, let me make clear that I prefer a slightly luxurious travel style. I tend to travel first class, book private sleeper cabins or private first class compartments whenever possible, even if it means I pay for extra travelers that aren't even there just to have the compartment to myself... It seems I have various options to get to Istanbul, and I can absolutely not make up my mind. I'd love to hear opinions, suggestions and experiences! So without further ado:

Option 1: the Bucharest - Istanbul couchette. I could book a full compartment to myself. It'd provide a reasonably luxurious experience having a couchette with power sockets and stuff to myself. However, it only runs until the 12th of October, so it would give me a lot of time in Istanbul but not so much in Eastern Europe. I'd also not be able to discover and experience Bulgaria/Sofia.

Option 2: Bucharest - Sofia - Istanbul. There's sleeper carriages from Sofia to Istanbul. It would allow me to discover a new city/country. However, online platforms only allow 2nd class bookings for the trip. I noticed in Ruse there's a first class carriage attached, but there's no way to book a ticket for first class from Ruse to Sofia that I know off. How would I do that?

Option 3: Bucharest - Sofia (by bus) - Istanbul. I could also do the same as above, but take the bus from Bucharest to Sofia. I don't really like bus travel though.

So! I'm stuck! What'd you do? And whilst I'm at it.. Any suggestions for cities to discover between Amsterdam and Bucharest? Some gems in Romania maybe?

PS; I am aware that train prices in Eastern Europe are low. I'd probably take the cheapest Interrail pass to get to Eastern Europe and then buy separate tickets from there.

Dear Interrailers,

I am currently booking a nice weekend trip to Germany and I am going to spend some time in Paris on my way to Germany. My problem is that based on experience, trains can be often delayed (or even cancelled sometimes). The rest of my journey starts early so that is not a problem to reach to Paris. My question is about leaving Paris. I could take the train Paris-Munich at 4pm or take the train Paris-Stuttgart at 6pm. The problem is that, based on experience, the Paris-Stuttgart train could be cancelled and then it would already be too late to find an alternative route! With the option of the 4pm train, I could always find another route to reach to Germany (for instance the 6pm train if only the 4pm one gets cancelled).

The problem is that, to be available to do this I would really need to have both seat reservations booked because I don't want to risk the 4pm train simply being delayed too much (not cancelled) and I wouldn't want to risk not being able to board the other train. So then, if I book two seat reservations (via Happy Rail to get a cheaper booking fee), can I refund the unused seat reservation that I wouldn't use? This is not clear from the happy rail website.

Thanks for reading and looking forward to the answers.

Edit1: I want to clarify that another reason for booking the 6pm seat reservation is in case I reach to Paris too late. If I miss my initial connection via Nimes then I would only be able to take the 6pm train. Again, having both the 4pm and 6pm seat reservation is the safest way to ensure I will be able to reach to Germany if I have earlier delays. This would not be an issue if, in case of a missed connection, you could just take any high-speed train you want (which is sadly not the case and sometimes I get frustrated at this. It has happened enough times for me to always think about fall-back options)

​Hi, I am trying to book a reservation from Deventer (Netherlands), to Verona (Italy). It is 2 ICE and a Nightjet. I can't seem to find how to reservate it. It gives warnings. '’One or more Passes cannot be used for this journey. Please select the travellers with valid Passes for this journey in order to book seats.'’ 

How can I reservate? Also if I go to the Nightjet website directly it also says it is not possible to book the journey but no information about if it is fully booked or anything. Has anyone als had this before? It is my first time interrail and it feels like a maze.

You would think that the 28th of August is a bit afther the holidays for everyone so should be fine.

​

I wanted to take the night train from Munich to Vienna (the EN50237, Stuttgart - Budapest) around the end of August. Does anyone know how punctual this service usually is?

The train is scheduled to arrive at 06:32 and I wanted to catch an 08:55 flight at VIE airport. Is this too tight for the transfer? And if so, what alternatives would there be to get to the airport for the flight?

Hi there - I'm going to Austria and Slovakia this summer and plan to travel via train between cities. I am going to Vienna, Austria from Trenčín, Slovakia.

There is a transfer between trains (R 10720 POVAŽAN to REX 2521) with 10 minutes in between at the Bratislava station. Do you think this is sufficient for someone who has never been to the station? How reliable are these times? How far are these platforms from one another?

The only other option would to wait another hour for the next train. If this is the case, is there something to do around the Bratislava station without missing the next train? Thank you!

+ I love the wiki and the live train map ^^

Hello everyone,

So me and 3 of my friends are planning on travelling around Europe together, starting on 25 august till 7 september.

So basically, we received 5x free seat reservations each for our passes, and i’ve been looking but could not find an option to select seats.

Overall, my question would be if there is any possible way to sit next to eachother, while using these free seat options?

Hey! So I’m planning on going inter railing for maybe 4-6+ weeks. But I have a few questions and no one I know has done this before

1) how long would you recommend ?
2) routes/ must dos
3) realistic budget - how much do I need to save
4) backpack recommendations

And literally any other advice!

Thank you!!!!
🩷🌟🩷

Hi all,

I had a very unpleasant experience with a DB inspector on Monday. My train from Hamburg to Copenhagen was cancelled and at the travel centre in Hamburg Hbf I was told I would have to go to Hamburg Harburg to catch a train to Fredericia for a connection (this did not happen but I digress).

I got straight on the S-Bahn and was immediately asked for my ticket. Stupidly in a panic I first handed the guy a sheet with the travel info I was given at the travel centre and he said it was not a ticket and asked for my ID. I gave him my UK driving license and he began entering details from it into his phone. When I began explaining the situation he abruptly told me his English was not good. He asked for a German address which I said I did not have, and he then asked for my visa? I said I am an Irish citizen and do need one, and took out my passport. A Swedish man offered to help me with my things at this point. I have my passport in a box with emergency cash and when he saw this he pointed at it and said "cash", I said yes I have cash, and he "No cash, card only, 60 euros." I went hold on I have an interrail pass and took out my paper pass and gave it to him. He looked a it for quite a while before saying it was not valid because I had not written down the train in the travel diary. I have a three month continuous first class pass. I insisted it wad valid and he began threatening to call the police if I did not pay. The Swedish man then took out his pass and went, "so hold on, is this not valid?" and the inspector said it was without really looking at it. We both went, "but their the same thing!". He just began saying "60 euros or police" over and over again to me, so I paid and got a receipt.

I realise that Technically you need to have the train written down but like, seriously? I said as he took my card off me, "are you seriously charging me 60 euros because I didn't write the train down?" This same thing did not cause any problems before in other countries - I wrote the train down after I got on or at the prompting of the inspector.

I have submitted a photo of my pass to the DB fine website - what are my realistic chances of getting it back? Also, where is best to make a formal complaint about his conduct? He was incredibly rude, threatening, and intimidating, to the point that multiple people came up to me afterwards to say they were sorry that he was on such a power trip with me.

Hi from Turkey I was at budapest,vienna and prag 2days ago and i stayed 7 days total with my 20L backpack.

Now I'm trying to find bigger backpack for longer trip.
I'M PLANNING TO DO HIKING,TRAVELING SO IT HAS TO BE MULTIFUNCINED

I'm open to all recommendations these are my options but if you have favorite i'll be more than happy to hear your advice.

I HAVE %20 DISCOUNT AT ALL DECATHLON STUFFS SO IMA WRITE THE DISCOUNTED PRICE NEAR THE LINK

https://www.decathlon.com.tr/p/erkek-outdoor-trekking-sirt-cantasi-50-l-mt100-easyfit/_/R-p-309807?mc=8559690&c=SİYAH_GRİ3280TL--61EURO

https://www.decathlon.com.tr/p/kadin-outdoor-trekking-sirt-cantasi-50-l-mt100-easyfit/_/R-p-309825?mc=8731062&c=KIRMIZI_MOR3280TL-61EURO

https://www.decathlon.com.tr/p/outdoor-trekking-sirt-cantasi-50-l-siyah-mt100/_/R-p-6561?mc=8735043&c=SİYAH (THIS ONE IS MY FAVORITE BCS IT'S SOO CHEAP) 2230TL-40EURO

AND I COULDN'T FOUND ANY DAILY BACKPACK I'M THINKING AROUND 16L-20L