“Interrail is now embedded into the travel culture of some families.” So says Susanne Kries, co-author – with Nicky Gardner – of Europe by Rail.
I had asked the authors for their thoughts on what I believe is by far the best winter discount in the travel realm.
Here’s the deal: buy an Interrail pass by 17 December, and you get a straight 25 per cent off. You then have 11 months to start using the thing.
This ticket enables you to catch unlimited trains in many northern European countries: Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Scandinavia and almost all of eastern Europe. With some care, you can also travel for no additional cost in France, Spain and Italy – though many express trains require a reservation and a further payment. Hop aboard a French intercity train without paying a supplement, and the ticket collector may barely conceal their glee when fining you €35/£29 for the transgression.
Accordingly, I recommend using an Interrail pass only in one of the no-surcharge nations. But the new promotion represents excellent value for those who want a low-cost, high-reward travel itinerary for next summer.
With a one-quarter saving, the cheapest “Global Pass” (allowing travel in 33 countries) for an adult between 28 and 59 costs €213 (£178). This buys any four days of travel within one month.
You might conclude that almost £45 per day is not the travel bargain of the century. Yet, if you use Interrail wisely, it can be.
On a journey following the final route of the Orient Express, for example, I used Interrail from Newcastle to Munich on day one; you can use the ticket on one journey in the UK to an international gateway (and one journey back).
I started with a trip from Newcastle to Manchester airport, where a £15 Ryanair flight took me to Vienna. I then meandered to Munich. The supreme flexibility of Interrail allowed me an exploration of Linz along the way.
In Munich, I switched to a one-day Bayern Ticket, price €29 (£24), to explore Bavaria more widely (and enjoy free city transport) without using up a day of my Interrail pass. The regional ticket extended across the state border to Ulm, where I spent the night.
Next day, I was back on the high-speed trains, accelerating to Stuttgart and making a side-trip to Frankfurt, just because I could. This was also the day when I discovered how horribly unreliable German Railways can be. The final stages that day to Frankfurt involved a series of late-running trains misconnecting and an arbitrary re-routing of an S-Bahn (suburban railway) train to a station in the suburbs, followed by a long walk at midnight across town.
The onward trip to Paris was a study in Germany disarray, too, at one stage involving hitchhiking on a short, rural stretch of line in order to reach Strasbourg in time for my TGV to the French capital – for which I paid an extra €10 (£9).
Interrail is also the key to cheap travel through the Channel Tunnel.
Holding an Interrail pass means you can swerve the currently high Eurostar fares and instead pay a token €30 (£25) supplement for the trip from Paris to London – a sum that just about covers the payment the train firm must make to the owners of the tunnel for each passenger conveyed.
From London I could have continued my journey to the far north of Scotland – as long as it is a continuation of the trip from Continental Europe.
Back to the experts. Nicky Gardner said: “Normally, travellers can expect one or two Interrail promos each year, typically with a 10 or 15 per cent discount. So this current offer with 25 per cent off all global passes really is a surprise.”
Susanne Kries thinks it may “encourage a new cohort of travellers to discover Interrail”.
She says: “Exploring Europe by rail with an Interrail pass is now a cultural practice which extends over generations.
“The beauty of this promo is that you don’t need to choose your travel dates now. Buy a digital pass during the current sale, and you can activate it for use anytime within 11 months of the date of purchase.”
Summer, then, is sorted.
“Just hop on a train, and enjoy just wandering,” says Nicky. “And perhaps heed the lesson of early Interrail adventures where young travellers set out to discover Europe, but returned home having discovered themselves.”
Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries are authors of ‘Europe by Rail: The Definitive Guide’ – whose 18th edition is just out. Interrail passes are available from a range of retailers.
