Getting Started! The Dos and Don'ts of Inter Railing

Hey guys!

So if you're reading this then by some miracle I've actually got some interest in this blog and I want to say thank you for coming along!

Before I start writing about the people I meet on this crazy journey, I thought I would write a quick piece on the workings of an Inter-railing ticket because if you're like me - a bit spontaneous and ditsy - you'll probably find yourself pulling your hair out! It's slightly more complicated than just buying a ticket and jumping on the next train outta here. I would have greatly appreciated a summary, found all on one page, which stated what you had to do. So here's a quick heads for you guys, in case any of you are thinking of heading off to Europe for a month!

DON'TS

• Don't decide to buy your inter-rail ticket a week before you leave the country! I did this and what I didn't know before hand is that you have to pre-book any train that you want to reserve a seat on a minimum of 8 days in advance. So there I was, all sat with my interrail ticket and looking at reserving my first train out of here to wonderful Paris, only to find that I couldn't because there wasn't a 7 day gap! I then had to buy an actual £100(!!!) eurostar ticket on top of the £340 I'd just forked out of a multinational train ticket! If this isn't warning enough then how about this?! If you don't leave enough time between reservations and your departure date then you could end up getting stranded. Most of the reservations you need only come in paper form and you NEED these in order to board your train. I leave tomorrow for Paris and my reservations for all my other trains hasn't arrived yet...

• If you're not winging it like I am (I have everything planned down to a T) then don't book any reservations until you've received your inter-rail ticket through the post. The booklet they provide is extremely helpful, much more than their website, and there are small details about over night trains that is quite important (about how some are classified as two day's worth of travel whereas some aren't).

• Don't buy your inter-rail ticket then plan your route. Have an idea on where you want to go and what you want to do in each place. I didn't do this and what I found was that I'd pretty much wasted a couple of hundred quid. I'm spending quite a lot of time in France and Italy. I would have benefited from buying two separate country passes and a flight to connect the two countries. So basically what I'm stressing here is plan and rethink everything!

DOS

• Please factor in an extra £250 on top of your inter-rail ticket! This amount only applies if you've got the 15 day monthly pass like me. Booking your reservations on trains before you go away is really expensive. I don't know whether it's more expensive for me because I left it a week to reserve seats therefore seats are more limited? But just in case thought I'd give you a heads up!

• If you have friends or family from the places that you're visiting I'd advise talking to them about what to wear, take and do out there. They will have your best interests at heart where as if you're googling on the internet you will get a generic response. For example when I went to Asia I read online that wearing shorts and exposing your shoulders would be incredibly offensive to the locals however when I was out there EVERYONE was wearing shorts and vest tops and there I was sweating my tits off in trousers and a baggy top. One of the my Italian close friends said that for me going round Europe the weather, just like in England, is very temperamental and I should be prepared for all situations. I also read online somewhere that people dress quite conservatively in Europe, so me going around in converses, ripped jeans and a band t-shirt wouldn't be the exact art of blending in. HOWEVER, upon talking to my mate she said it was complete and utter crap and I could wear whatever I wanted.

• Pack light. You honestly don't need to take your entire wardrobe with you. Opt for a 40L bag - this would provide you with more than enough to fit all your gear in with the extra space left over if you want to buy some souvenirs.

• Do check up private railway companies. What I mean by that is don't just use the reservations booking system provided by interrail. If you google "interrail reservation Paris to Amsterdam" for example, a site called rail.cc will pop up and they give you a private rail company which provides seat reservations that coincide with interraling tickets - and are sometimes cheaper and have more trains available!

#travel #blog #europe #interrail #train #travelling