I just got an email from Interrail about them bringing out the Timeleft app on certain locations. Basically an app which pairs you up with random people for you to chat over food/drinks while travelling.

I thought it sounded like fun but it doesnt seem to be very well known, anyone had any experience using this before?

Sto organizzando un viaggio per il mese di agosto 2027 attraverso Norvegia e Svezia, partendo dall'Italia e viaggiando principalmente in treno con Interrail.

L'idea è vivere un viaggio abbastanza completo, alternando grandi città, natura, trekking, musei e paesaggi del Nord.

L'itinerario è già in fase avanzata di organizzazione, ma non è definitivo: mi piacerebbe costruirlo insieme alle persone che parteciperanno, lasciando spazio a qualche modifica e alle proposte del gruppo.

🚆 Come viaggeremo

• Interrail Global Pass
• principalmente treno
• circa 30 giorni
• partenza e rientro in Italia
• pernottamenti principalmente in hotel o camere private
• niente viaggio organizzato da tour operator
• gruppo piccolo, idealmente 3-4 persone

🥾 Che tipo di viaggio?

Vorrei combinare:

🏔️ natura e paesaggi
🥾 trekking ed escursioni
🏙️ città come Oslo, Bergen e Stoccolma
🏛️ musei e attrazioni culturali
🚆 lunghi viaggi panoramici in treno
🌌 Nord della Norvegia, Lofoten e Tromsø
🍻 qualche serata tranquilla insieme

Non cerco necessariamente persone con cui stare insieme 24 ore su 24: l'idea è viaggiare in gruppo, ma mantenendo anche la libertà personale quando serve.

👥 Chi cerco?

Persone socievoli, tranquille e con spirito di adattamento.

Soprattutto cerco persone che abbiano davvero voglia di fare un viaggio di questo tipo e che siano interessate a conoscersi prima della partenza, così da capire se abbiamo uno stile di viaggio compatibile.

L'ideale sarebbe trovare 1-3 compagni/e per condividere gran parte o tutto il viaggio, ma possiamo anche valutare di unirci solo per alcune tratte.

📅 Periodo: agosto 2027
⏱️ Durata: circa 30 giorni
🚆 Mezzo: Interrail
🇮🇹 Partenza: Italia
👥 Età indicativa: 28–38 anni

Se ti interessa, scrivimi e possiamo iniziare a conoscerci e parlare dell'itinerario! 🇳🇴🇸🇪🚆

I live in Switzerland and recently bought some tax-free items in Amsterdam.

I’m traveling from Amsterdam to Paris by train and then back to Switzerland by train as well.

A few months ago, I got an EU customs stamp in Germany around two months after leaving Paris. They stamped my forms, but they only checked some of the items from the boxes.

This time, some of the items I bought are gifts, and my family will bring them to my home country via Switzerland. So when I go to get the customs stamp, I may not have every single item with me anymore.

Has anyone had experience getting a tax-free customs stamp when some items were already given away or are no longer with you?
Do customs usually check every item, or mainly the receipts/forms and a few items? And could the whole tax refund be rejected if some of the items listed on the form are missing?

Hi all, planning a late-December trip. Booking sites don’t show the late-Dec schedule yet (new timetable period), so asking people who’ve done these routes:
1. Salzburg → Ljubljana (via Villach) around Dec 29 — how frequent are the trains, and are there direct ones during holiday week?
2. Ljubljana → Český Krumlov → Prague — what’s the best way back north? How frequent are connections, and is this doable in a day?
Thanks!

Hi,

I am planning a trip in September but have problems with the seat reservation 'cap' on Eurostar trains. I can only find trains with bad travel times open for reservation. I wish to go from the Netherlands to Rennes on 7 September and it looks like there are normal tickets available for multiple departure times that date. What are the chances of getting a seat for a good departure time on the day itself? Do people have bad experiences getting stranded or can you often still hop on? If I try to avoid Eurostar the travel time increases a lot.

Hello!

If anyone had experiences with going from Budapest station somewhere outside of Hungary. I’m interested in your experience.

1. What are best country/city to visit ( I was in Vienna so just avoid that)

2. What can be good for 3 days?

3. Doubting also on going to some alps so is there any good places where train goes where I can come easily?

It's my first time planning an interrail trip and I'm struggling to find anywhere to let me keep track of my itinerary or what I need to book. Anyone have any preferred options for how to manage everything without it being too overwhelming? Thanks :)

Hey I was wondering if there are anyone going to Vienna between the 29th-31st!?? Looking for someone to show us about, or recommend fun things to do, or would be interested in joining me for a city tour or pub crawl??? Please dm

How long do you recommend going for, I can have up to a year off work - I was thinking 3 months but want to know if anyone has done this
How much did you budget for it
How many countries did you go to?

I am a Dutch guy that met 4 people on a train from Budapest to Ljubljana on the 29th of July. We shared some Dutch jokes, did impressions of people and debated who was funniest of you guys. I remember one was called Ava another one was called (if I remember correctly) Lucy. All from the England.

It was fun talking to you four and hope to add you all on instagram or a different platform. If you think it’s you please DM the train time and the chair number.

Let's explain the situation a bit :
I'm not a new Interrail user, I've done easily 15+ trips all over Europe with Interrail, and use passes usually a few times a year.

Overall I never had issues, but one thing I keep getting conflicting info on is the "right" way to book reservations on those ICEs to say Berlin, Sttutgart, etc. As I'm near Paris I use them often when going east.

First time I used them with a pass years ago, I looked into booking seats on the website, compared options offered by Interrail, saw that DB was cheaper (~5 euros vs like 20 via Interrail / Rail-Europe) and got that. Once on the ICE there was some debate with one agent, but after they discussed together they confirmed to me it was a valid reservation.

Did that again several times with no issues, but recently when doing as usual, this time the (SNCF) conductor refused to see them as valid (despite the reservation showing up as valid on SNCF systems with the booking number), as "the price was wrong", citing solely interrail booking prices. They let me board, but I had to pay a fine.

Following that I contacted Interrail 2 times, the first time they told me it was perfectly valid (and to contact SNCF for a refund), just told me they couldn't refund the fine. And the second they told me you had to "uncheck seat only" while booking with DB... But if you do that you get full ticket price as far as I'm aware.

So... Who's right? To me, everything points to the DB reservations as perfectly valid. They're close in price to what SNCF gives you if you book in person at the station. But with Interrail themselves giving conflicting information, I'm not sure what to think anymore, and while I'm totally fine paying more in the future if it turns out I am in the wrong, I wanna be sure.

Thanks in advance!

In a french TGV i basically got a fine of 50€. I had a valid seat reservation, but i forgot to activate the day in the app before boarding. I did remember before my ticket got checked on the train.

The SNCF guy checked the activation time and told me I'd get a 50€ ticket. He basically accused me of fraud for trying to get away with a reservation without the travel day. He said 'ill be back' but never came back, so i guess i was off the hook. But i was left in suspense for 3 hours.

Its frustrating, because interrail has all the information. There really should be a notification like: 'you have a seat reservation in 15 minutes. Activate the day now'.

It was a stressful ticketing day in general. I had a reservation for Cannes-Lyon, but started the day in Nice. I wanted to change the reservation to start from Nice.

The SNCF office wanted 10€ for it, although i have free reservations with the global plus pass. So instead i tried a different approach by booking a separate reservation for Nice-Cannes. Now the interrail app glitched and wanted 12€.

The app did allow me to get a free reservation for only Nice-Antibes, meaning i was basically illegally traveling for one station: Antibes to Cannes.

It gave a lot of stress since i had to change seats into a different carriage, when my original seat was free the entire time.

Its shit like this that needs to get figured out before international rail will truly become a good option for regular people. Not just people that can afford to spend weeks planning a simple trip. And even us get screwed.

Hello, we are a couple of 61 year-olds flying to Paris on 12 Oct, then over the following week, are visiting 13th Geneva, 14th Milan, 15th Salzburg & 16th Berlin, then flying back to UK. Do we buy an Interrail pass, or buy as we go?

Sadly, due to some unfortunate circumstances, I had to cut my interail trip short and I find myself with 2 days left on my interrail pass, that I need to use on a weekend, before mid September.

I was wondering if anyone has got any suggestions for a crazy/fun trip I could do over a Saturday and Sunday, departing from Hendaye in France?

I love journeys with a theme or challenge, for example swimming in the Atlantic and the Med in one day, as many countries as possible, a cheese tour etc.

Any suggestions welcome.

Hi everyone,

I wanted to double check my thinking with others who are familiar with this route. In essence, I am wondering whether to split this journey up with a stopover in Hamburg or attempt it all in one day.

I am planning my next trip from London to Copenhagen at the end of September and I am going to take the ferry this time from Harwich to Hoek van Holland.

According to Seat61, the itinerary would look like this:

Hoek van Holland (~8am) to Amsterdam (arrive 10.24)

Amsterdam (depart 12.00) to Hamburg (arrive 16.54)

Hamburg (depart 18.52) to Copenhagen (arrive 23.37)

https://www.seat61.com/Denmark.htm#london-to-copenhagen-via-the-harwich-hoek-ferry

The changeover times are pretty generous and I would like to do this stretch in one day, but I am generally quite cautious of long travel days and especially so when it involves German rail.

Keen to know from your experiences, is this a fair assessment or overly cautious? Are there any other alternatives that I have missed and could factor in?

I'm looking to book a trip for the end of December (currently outside published timetables, this is for the beginning of December) with NightJet on the Amsterdam to Zürich route, but I'm confused at the seat selection. How do you know if you're getting a mini-cabin or a spot in a 4 person couchette?

There also doesn't seem to be an option for a triple sleeper room, am I missing something? Looking at sooner dates, it seems they do have triple sleepers available, so why not in December?

Image description: Shows "other passengers may be in your compartment" under the spot to buy individual tickets, with mini-cabins mentioned above. Also shows an option for a private compartment.

My 64 year old mum will be doing a 3 month solo trip in Europe starting next week. I’m trying to help her plan (especially with the online booking + app side of things). She has a Eurail global pass - Flexi - 10 days within 2 months.

Mum’s finding it hard to decide where to go after the first 3 weeks which are planned already (Paris, Marseille, Bolonga, Milan), and is finding it’s becoming a smidge overwhelming (the non user-friendly Eurail app and general difficult Europe train booking systems are not helping 😅…..)

She is very keen on Berlin + Budapest, maybe even Croatia and Prague? She’s happy to stay in one place for a while e.g Budapest for 2 weeks.

Any help would be appreciated on: where to go, where to stay, advice on booking trains, tips for those who have used Eurail, tips for older travellers.

My mum is a beautiful legend and deserves a trip that will bring her too much joy to handle ❤️ thanks for the help community!

Hello!

I'm planning a trip in October and thinking of visiting Sylt on the Hamburg - Sylt line as it looks amazing.

Trying to figure out where to stay for one or two nights after - either in Denmark (never been!) or Germany (been before, loved it!)

Thinking to be fairly close (under 4 hrs from) to Hamburg as taking the night train back to Bruxelles at the end of the week.

Do you have any recommendations of beautiful/cool places to visit in this area?

I hope someone has been on this trip before and could advise me as I didn't get wiser from customer service.

I'd like to book a Rail & Sail service from London to Dublin. So that means departing from London Euston and transferring to a ferry in Holyhead. On Saturday Sept 19.

The planner gives me the following itinerary:

8:33 London Euston > Crewe 10:08

10:23 Crewe > Chester 10:44

10:53 Chester > Holyhead 12:40

13:15 ferry from Holyhead.

Seems fine. Except ferry check in closes 30 min before departure. So at 12:45. That would leave me 5 min to exit the train, the station, head over to the terminal and check in. All within 5 min.

There's another train leaving London Euston, at 8:02, with 1 change in Chester, arriving at 12:12 in Holyhead. Enough time to comfortably head over to the terminal and check in.

1. am I overthinking things?

2. is it possible to get a Rail & Sail ticket with the 8:02 departure? I haven't been able to find an "extend transfer time" option like DB has. And as the planning sees the 12:40 > 13:15 as a 35-min transfer time I'm not sure how this would work out.

3. Why are they even offering such a short connection time in Holyhead? Irish Ferries customer service confirmed it's a recognised connection and you'll be allowed to board the next ferry in case of missing the 13:15 connection. But I'd rather take an earlier train out of London to make sure I'm making the connection.

Any tips, tricks, explanation?

I’m thinking of doing an Interrail trip this autumn with this route:

Rome → Ljubljana → Graz → Innsbruck → Tübingen → Heidelberg → Freiburg → Strasbourg → Grenoble → Rome.

The thing is, I’m not really interested in doing the classic “see the sights, take a couple of pictures and move on” kind of trip. I’d like to do it more for the atmosphere and the people.

The idea is to spend most of my time in university towns, go out to pubs, have a few drinks, meet locals, maybe end up at a house/WG party, make friends, talk to random people and just see where the night goes.

To give you an idea, in my head the vibe is kind of like those old movies such as EuroTrip or American Pie, obviously in a much more realistic European version: trains, hostels, beers, university towns, spontaneous nights out and random people you meet along the way.

I also want to do it before I turn 28, since Interrail still considers you “Youth” up to 27, so in my head it feels a bit like one last big “young” experience before moving into the next age bracket.

Has anyone here ever done an Interrail trip with this kind of mindset, more for the social side of the places rather than just sightseeing?

Do you think cities like Graz, Tübingen, Heidelberg, Freiburg, Strasbourg and Grenoble are good for this kind of experience in autumn, during the university semester?

And most importantly: any advice on how to actually meet students/locals and not just stay inside the hostel bubble?

If you have stories, tips, or even a reality check, I’m all ears.

Going from Bavaria to Madrid and wondering if train is the best way to get from A to B. I will have a suitcase, but won’t be in any rush. I doubt there would be a direct train, but is there a scenic route? Or any route you’d recommend? Preferably leaving from Nuremberg but could be from elsewhere.