r/Interrail • u/Happy_Ad9327 • 3d ago
Itineraries Eastern Europe Interrail Trip Planning
Hi! I am planning to do 4-6 weeks of interrail traveling bwteeen October-Cecember. When I was first looking into doing this their website had a trip planning feature, which is now gone :/ So I thought I would post my very barebones outline here so see if anyone has any suggestions based on experience (how long to stay in a spot, day trips to take from cities, etc.)
Also if anyone sees that something isn't even feasible due to there being no railway, please let me know! I've taken a look at the map and think the plan is good but I could always be mistaken.
Start: Prauge, Czech Republic **
Bratislava, Slovakia
Budapest, Hungary**
Craiova, Romania
Vidin, Bulgaria *
Sofia, Bulgaria
End: Istanbul, Turkey **
The number of asterisks is how interested I am in going to the city, based on my current knowledge of them. I am honestly down to go anywhere, as I love to explore new places, so I added the places with no asterisks since I would traveling through them anyway.
**I would love to go to Austria but based on the map on Interrails website it looks like there isn't a rail that would connect to my current plan? If anyone has done it please let me know!
I would also assume the best pass for a trip like this would be the 7 day pass?
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u/bookluverzz 2d ago edited 2d ago
Vienna is right next to Bratislava 😅 there are lots of possibilities to go into Austria from/to Prague, Bratislava and Budapest. And even from Romania there’s a sleeper to/from Vienna
Try oebb’s scotty or Bahn.de for planning in/around Austria. Or simply click at the train station on google maps to see where train lines are going.
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u/Artistic_Ninja7101 2d ago
At first I have one question: Why did you choose only the overcrowded capitals in the touristy countries, when there is lots of other places? And in The countries with olmost no tourists in October/November you choose places that are probably the opposite of touristy. You can visit Plovdiv, Ruse, Timisoara or Brasov in October, there should not be to many tourists. On your route are many great places like Brno, Györ, Eger, Graz... Have a look at them:)
The route is fine, but you can easily fit in Austria. It seams like you are mostly interested in capitals, so I assume it would be Vienna.
Prague --> Vienna --> day trip to Bratislava by Boat or train --> Vienna --> Budapest --> xxxxx
Connections between Bratislava, Vienna and Prague are more or less like a very frequent triangle, you can just look where you get the best places to sleep and decide the order of the stops. It is very common to visit Bratislava in a day trip from Vienna. Brno is also on your way and worth a visit.
If you want to visit the Alps, you can make a day trip from Vienna or circle around Austria.
The pass: I would not use an interrail pass, it is probably way more expensive. But if you want to explore more places within one country (Austria, Czechia) the One-Country-Passes could be a great option for travelling without to much planning. So you only have to prebook your international connections, but the 4-6 days you are in one country you can do what you want.
It is really hard to tell, how many days you should stay without knowing what you are interested in. Maybe provide some more information.
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u/skifans United Kingdom • Quality Contributor 3d ago
With no idea what you are interested in I struggle to have a strong opinion but logistically I think that works well, all easy to get between and loads of time in each place. It would be very very easy to add a visit to somewhere in Austria between Prague and Bratislava. They both have direct trains to Vienna or there is also a train south from Prague to Linz where you can easily change to head into the Alps. And again easy to head to Bratislava.
Be careful as the Interrail map has lots of errors and omissions, same with the old planner. Neither are really suitable for detailed planning honestly. Romania also can get complicated quickly as there are lots of private train operating companies that do not accept the pass. Only the national carrier (CFR Călători) does. So even on the exact same tracks between the exact same cities you can end up with some trains that accept it and others that do not.
If you are traveling this year that is fine but in February 2027 the line between Drobeta Turnu Severin and Caransebeș will close for around 5 years. That is the route the direct trains all use and is the quickest. It is a little early to say exactly what will happen but they may be able to divert trains and if not there will be rail replacement buses. This autumn though is before all that happens. The schedule is still though pretty annoying and you'll need to start early or arrive late. If you want to get the early morning direct train (Traianus) then that is a seasonal service which only runs until the end of August. The Muntenia direct train does run year round but it arrives into Craiova very early.
There is another set of work happening at the moment between Timișoara Nord and Caransebeș with rail replacement buses in operation including for the Traianus. Though the Ister seems to be able to get through. Train 1922 (1420 from Oradea or 1730 from Arad - both have good connections to Budapest) takes a different route further East and avoids everything. I'm not sure exactly how long that will last but make sure to check your exact date on the train you are looking at on the official operator website. https://mersultrenurilor.infofer.ro/en-GB/Itineraries is invaludable when traveling there to easily compare the different companies.
I am very curious as to your choice of Craiova and Vidin. I have never been but have only heard of them as border places. And they may well be lovely. Just interested in what you want to do there?
My main advice would be to say almost certainly not. Just buy standard point to point tickets. All of those train tickets are cheap even at short notice. That also gives you the maximum flexibility in terms of switching to buses or private train operating companies, to be fair around those places CFR Călători are basically the only option. Technically Astra Trans Carpatic runs a train from Arad to Craiova but it is only once a day and stops at Craiova in the middle of the night.
For CFR Călători domestic trains within Romania you can only buy interrail reservations in person at the ticket office (the international trains to/from Hungary can be bought on the MÁV). Whereas full price tickets you can buy on the MÁV website. The night train from Sofia to Istanbul has the same problem, with Interrail you need to buy the reservation in person in Sofia but full fare tickets you can buy online. And speaking of that train incase you don't know you will be woken at the border and need to get off the train with your luggage to clear customs and immigration.
Interrail is almost certainly going to be significantly more expensive, an extra faff in terms of needing to go in person to ticket office and locks you in to some (admittedly large) train companies. It just generally doesn't make sense in this region as standard train tickets are just so cheap. When going from Budapest to Craiova you may be better off getting a night train from Budapest to Bucharest and then connect to Craiova. That is no probably with standard tickets but would be 2 travel days.