Interrailling Top 10 Tips
August 2019
The tradition of going Inter-railing has almost become a right of passage into adulthood. Many people go inter-railing each year and rather than bore you with every minute detail of my trip I have decided to try and create something useful.
Without further ado here are the 10 things I'm glad or wish I had known before I went inter-railing:
1. Go with a Friend
It's going to be both incredibly busy at times and lonely at others. So having a travel buddy to share the experience! It with makes the journey much more enjoyable. I went inter-railing Mid May to Early June. Which is not school holidays and even so the big attractions were packed! Having a friend to talk to amongst the ever-changing surroundings can help provide some stability. Along with many things working out cheaper individually when you buy them for two or more.
2. Airbnb for Accommodation?
Almost all of the accomodation that I stayed in was Airbnb, when you go inter-railing the first thing you think of is youth hostels. But I was on a tight budget and when splitting the cost between two of us it always worked out cheaper to get either a studio apartment or a room in someone's house on Airbnb. The downside of that is you don't meet as many fellow travellers. It depends what you want from your trip? It's worth downloading the Airbnb app and comparing prices for yourself. I've included my refereal code with that you get £25 off your first home booking and £9 to use towards an experience booking https://abnb.me/e/nqtq5kshoZ ( I get up to £23 travel credit from the link so support my travels by using it :-) )
3. Not all countries treat inter-rail equally
This one cost us £100 in fines. Boarded the first train of the trip down to London and we hadn't filled out the inter-rail pass. (Now I know that on the pass in big letters it says not valid if not filled in so this one is on me.) I thought that if I filled it out once on the train immediately then if our plans changed last minute I wouldn't waste any of the travel days. This train to London was fine, a single mention of inter-rail and we were let on the train and they didn't even check the tickets. Other countries are more strict and we got fined £50 each (could have been up to £250 each) because we hadn't filled in the ticket before boarding. The ticket inspector came round and we had forgotten to fill it in. So I just want to stress how important it is to fill in the ticket before it has to be checked! If they see you filling it in on the train they can fine you as its not valid until filled in!
4. Go Cashless (as much as possible)
I've talked about this in another of my posts called "Finance Abroad" trying to go cashless and paying for everything on your card makes you less of a target to thieves. It also means you can track your spending more easily. Using a challenger bank such as Revolut or Monzo means you get no or very small fees when exchanging money meaning you can spend your hard earned cash like a local with the best exchange rates possible. Have a read of my "Finance Aboard" post here.
5. Bring your student card with you
Unfortunately I didn't do this as I didn't have one at the time, but some form of proof that you are a student (if you are one) is useful. As many of the tourist attractions will do some form of student discount. Also worth researching about other discounts for examples the Louvre is free for people under 26. Inter-railing maybe one of the first times you have a set amount of money and have to stick to a budget so make it go further and bring that proof so you don't have to buy full price tickets!
6. Pack less
Before I went I had seen a lot of articles and videos about packing less and enjoying more. I'm interested in hiking and had done a reasonable amount of research into ultralight hiking solutions. I can tell you from personal experience that you can survive on very little. I'm not going to go into too much detail on this one as there are plenty of videos and articles about it, use this as a spring board to do your own research. But just remember there are shops where you're going bring less stuff and more money. If you decide half way through your trip you can't live without something you can most of the time just buy it.
7. Wear a comfortable pair of shoes
Having done Gold DofE I know the benefits of having a comfortable pair of shoes and I can tell you now that you're almost certainly going to be walking a lot. So bring a comfortable pair of shoes, I did some research and decided to get a new pair (which I broke in before my trip). I went with the Salomon Outline GTX (Green and Red). They are waterproof and have a hiking sole and trainer top. So the best of both worlds. This and a pair of flip flops were the only shoes I brought on my trip There's one way to save weight, do you really need 3 pairs of shoes!
8. Do things you can't do at home
The laws in different countries vary and doing something that isn't available at home is an experience not to miss. For example I went to a gun range in Budapest. Try and have experiences whilst inter-railing that allow you to experience the culture of other countries, that may not be available in your own.
9. Gym's offer free trials
During my trip I went to a gym in every country that I visited, now this is because I wanted to stay fit whilst I was away. I only paid for one or two of my entries. All the other times I got free trials. The free trials vary but normally involve you signing a medical disclaimer and providing some form of ID. My basic set of rules I followed when doing this was, unless I'm paying for a single gym entry I don't give my card details to get into a gym for a "Free Trial". This way you know that you're not signing up for a non refundable £1000 annual membership fee.
10. Remember
trip will run much smoother if you keep a few items on you or in a safe place at all times: Passport, Inter-rail Ticket and Access to Money. It's easy to forget how difficult it is to do anything without these. So try and keep them organised, so you don't lose them and keep them out of sight so they don't get stolen. When I was inter-railing I kept all of these in a Documents Wallet tucked away in my backpack, the backpack and folder were always either in my line of sight or locked away.I brought with me the PacSafe Bag protector which is a large lockable metal mesh for your backpack I would put my valuables in there and then lock it to a immovable object, then I would sleep on the train or go out of the accomodation knowing that I had some line of defense against theft.
I think it is important to remember that no system is 100% secure you aren't trying to stop anything but just make it harder for a thief to steal something, with enough time and tools a thief can get through anything. But if I'm asleep right next to a bag locked to my chair its gonna be much easier for them to take someone else's bag.
Bonus one:
Do your research everywhere is going to be busy, find out about free entry at certain times. Is there an early bird offer? Search around for the best price for accomodation. I brought a tablet with me so the interface for online booking was a bit more manageable then just on my phone.
I hope those 10 Tips help you and happy traveling!