How to plan an Interrail Trip | Your Ultimate Guide

One of the things I often get asked is how to plan an interrail trip. For regular readers, you’ll know that train travel is something near and dear to my heart. I’ve been Interrailing – either by myself or with family – most years since I was 11. Even now, the prospect of planning an Interrail can be quite daunting. There are lots of moving parts that need to be in-sync for everything to come together.

With this in mind, I thought that it was about time that I put together an ultimate guide to help you plan an Interrail adventure. I’ve included literally everything you need to know and do beforehand, as well as linking to other posts I’ve created over the years to give you as much information as possible.

Lastly, I also want to say that if you’re hesitant or nervous about starting this, don’t be. Train travel is my favourite way of seeing the world and after your first Interrail I’m sure you’ll be the same.

How to plan an Interrail Trip | Your Ultimate Guide

Step 1: Deciding your Destinations

Before booking anything or even looking at Interrail passes, have a think about what sort of adventure you want. Europe has heaps of variety and, if planned carefully, you can easily cover all the main parts you want to see.

Often, I will pick a handful of places I really want to see and build a route around that. In 2025, I was desperate to visit Siena, Italy, and so combined it with nearby Florence (always lovely) and Milan, as well as darting through Switzerland and the Alsace on the way back. A few years back we wanted to see family friends in Sopot, Poland, and so combined this with Prague and parts of Germany and France (see below).

My first top tip is to select one or two places you really want to see, and then go from there. What will then happen is you’ll need to build your route around these places.

Lastly, one other thing to consider is cost. Europe prices vary significantly and range from good-value in Poland and the Czech Republic, to the eye-wateringly expensive Switzerland and Scandinavia. If you are limited on budget then try to navigate your route away from the more expensive countries.

Step 2: Building Your Route

The next part involves building your route for your Interrail trip. The first thing I decide is whether I am going to start in London or in Europe. Interrail allows you to use your Pass on the Eurostar but spaces are limited and you will need seat reservations (Reservation fees: International trains | Interrail.eu) which can cost in the region of €35 to €40 each. Most of the time, I’ll use my Interrail pass once I arrive in Europe as it works out cheaper in the long-run.

Once you’ve decided your starting point, you can then start mapping out how you’ll get to your chosen destinations. To do this, I think the best way is to use the Deutsche Bahn site to explore connections and times taken to travel from A to B. You’ll also need to determine how many days you intend to be away and how many of those days will involve substantial travel.

In terms of how long to spend on trains, I won’t often book journeys which are longer than seven hours. Sometimes these are necessary, but I like breaking up the trip so that I can see as many places as possible. One top tip is that the Interrail pass (see below) will cover you for x number of journeys depending on how much you spend. This also applies to day trips you might want to take, so get creative in your itinerary!

Step 3: Booking Your Interrail Pass

Once you have sketched out your route and you know how many days you’ll be away and roughly the number of trains, you will then need to book your Interrail pass. I’ve heard that some people would rather book this first before deciding the route, but this can really limit you and can end up costing you more. My advice is always buy your pass after you have planned.

There are a number of passes which you can buy from Interrail. Here are the main ones:

• The Interrail Global Pass – covers travel in 2 or more countries and is the usual one I will buy for longer trips.
• The Interrail One Country Pass – for travel in just 1 country only.
• Interrail Plus Pass (Beta) – for travel in 1 or more countries (which includes the bonus of having your seat reservation costs covered for most trains.).

When Interrail reveal the Plus Pass I was genuinely convinced it was a bit of a game-changer. It covers reservation fees (see below) and definitely saves you money. The issue is that it only covers 7 days of travel within 1 month, which can really limit your journey.

If your trip has 7 or fewer days of train journeys, then I’d recommend the Plus Pass. If it is any more than this then go for the regular Global Pass. Another thing to watch out for are the more ‘in demand’ trains as the Plus Pass may not be able to cover the cost of your reservation as it uses a credit-based system.

Top Tip: Each ‘day’ of travel on your pass runs midnight to midnight on that day and covers all travel. This means that you can effectively do as many journeys as you like on this day. For example, in 2025 we travelled from Milan to Padua, dropped off our bags at the hotel, and then travelled to the nearby Ferrara on a day trip. All of these journeys counted in one day of travel.

Step 4: Seat Reservations

If you have booked the Plus Pass, you can skip this part and move to Step 5. If not, read on!

For most high-speed inter-city trains in Europe (excluding Switzerland), you’ll need a seat reservation. These include the HGV and ICE trains which you’ll see throughout Europe. This is an additional fee which you pay on top of the Interrail Pass and it has been known to catch many travellers out.

Unsurprisingly, the seat reservations can be quite expensive and there is limited availability for Interrail travellers on many of the major routes. Wherever possible I’d suggest checking in advance and booking your reservations as early as possible.

Step 5: Accommodation

Once you’ve decided on how you’ll get around, the next part of your Interrail Trip is to plan where to stay.

If you are budget-conscious and want the best value for money, Booking.com is your best friend. Whenever I do train journeys – either Interrail in Europe or Shinkansen in Japan – I always will reserve rooms and then pay at the hotel, ensuring that there are no cancellation costs. This means that I give myself time to shop around as there are often deals which come up. I would not recommend booking through the hotel directly unless you know it is exactly what you’re after.

I’d also seriously recommend researching the different areas of the places and also events. In terms of areas the Old Town is usually a good, safe bet for most cities. However, read recommendations from people who have been there – check out my Europe Archives for more information on many cities around the continent. For events you just need to do your homework. A great example of this is when we invertedly booked a hotel in Bern during the Euro Semi Final 2025. This meant that our hotel prices were significantly higher than what they would have otherwise been in an already expensive city.

Lastly, sometimes you might want to do a sleeper train. For exceptionally long journeys and if you don’t mind this, then these are a great, cheap option for a night of travel. It saves you money and gets you where you need to go.

Step 6: Check for Updates

Once you have booked down your accommodation and sorted your itinerary, keep an eye on things and watch out for any changes.

In Europe, each year, we will have at least one incident of a last minute change or cancellation. During our journey in 2019, our train from Cologne was cancelled so we missed our Eurostar booking. In 2025 a train in Switzerland was cancelled so we had to change route on the go. Whilst train travel is amazing, it can also be unpredictable.

My best advice is to check the trains regularly and see whether there have been changes or cancellations. I’d also research possible alternative routes as a back-up just in case things don’t work out.

Step 7: Navigating your Journey

The last step is undoubtedly the most fun; it is living your trip through. As I mentioned in Step 6, no plan survives first contact and you’ll need to think on your feet a few times throughout the trip. However, it has to be one of the best travel experiences you could possibly ask for.

Inspirations for Routes

As I’ve said above, I’ve been interrailing since I was 11. I’ve visited pretty much every European country now and have a bank of different routes for your to explore. Here are some of my top itineraries, including the main reasons why to go.

Italy and Switzerland

Italy and Switzerland is an incredible combination and it is one we did in 2025. We started our adventure in Paris and took a 7 hour train journey to Milan. Whilst there are many day trips from Paris which we could do, we wanted to head into Italy as soon as possible. We stayed in Milan for one night and then spent two days in Padua. From here we took day trips to Ferrara and Venice, both of which are just 30 minutes away.

From Padua, we headed into Florence. Whilst the Old Town is beautiful here, we also went for a day trip to Siena. Next, we travelled to Bologna for one night, before moving back to Milan for one of the best day trips; Lake Como.

After this, we left Italy and headed to Bern, the capital of Switzerland. We spent a day in Bern exploring, before taking a day trip from to Thun and Interlaken. Once we had spent far too much money in Switzerland, we moved into the Alsace region of France. We spent 48 hours in Strasbourg, which allowed us to take a day trip to Colmar. In fact, there were loads of day trips from Strasbourg to choose from, so we could have extended this time. We ended the trip by going back to Paris.

This particular trip is perfect for those who want sun and culture, as well as lots of Italian food! Be prepared for expensive prices though.

Poland and Germany, with Prague

Another trip we loved doing was our journey across Poland and Germany, stopping in Prague for a couple of nights to soak up the culture.

We started in Brussels this time and quickly caught a train to Frankfurt. We only spent 24 hours here and stopped in Cologne along the way to break up the journey. After Frankfurt, we then spend a day in Dresden in the south of Germany.

The next day, we caught the train to Prague. We spent two day here and spent the time exploring the city and eating a lot of food. Once we had explored, we caught the train into Poland. We began in Krakow and spent two days here. There are seriously a lot of things to do in Krakow and we could have spent longer here. However, it was soon time to head to Warsaw, a seriously underrated city.

We then headed north towards Sopot where we spent 4 nights with close family friends. My family is from the Sopot area and we love going back to this seaside resort. It is also close for a day trip to Gdansk, easily one of Poland’s most famous (and beautiful) cities. We also took a day visiting Malbork, the largest brick castle in the world.

To get back to the UK, we went through Germany. We stopped for 72 hours in Dusseldorf (again, family) before catching the train to Berlin and then saw the best views in Paris.

This trip is not one to relax on, but it is really rich in history and culture. Poland is also really good value for money too, so it is perfect for budgets.

Italy, Austria and France

This trip was a particular highlight for me. It was really relaxing but we also took in a fair amount of culture too. Plus, it was the first one my husband and I went on.

We started again in Brussels, before catching the train down to Austria. We made a short pit-stop in Munich, and then made it to Salzburg. Of course, we did the Sound of Music Tour and were able to explore the nearby towns and countryside. From Salzburg, it was a short train journey to the Austrian capital. There are so many things to do in Vienna and we spent two nights here.

The next day was a long train journey to Padua, where we spent two nights. On day one, we headed into Venice, and on the second day we took a day trip to Trieste. After two nights, we took the train and spent 48 hours in Turin, incidentally in the DoubleTree which was the original Fiat Factory used in the Italian Job!

Lastly, we headed back into France. We stayed in the lakeside town of Aix-les-Bains and took a day trip to Annecy, one of the most beautiful places in Europe. Lastly, we headed for Paris and spent a couple of nights here.

This trip had everything you could want from a European adventure. It also helped as the weather was incredible when we did this.

Scandinavia

In 2026, we will be tackling Scandinavia as our new Interrail challenge! This itinerary will obviously be shorter than the others right now as we haven’t actually done this, but I’ll update it soon.

Unlike previous trips, we’ll first fly to Copenhagen. We’re doing this because it saves at least 3 days of travel, and a substantial amount of money.

After a few nights here, we’ll take the train over to Oslo, the capital of Norway for a of night to explore the city. From here, we’ll catch the train to Stavanger, a vibrant and historic city for a couple of nights, and then will head to Bergen for a few days before returning to Oslo. We’re doing this so that we can take a few day trips along the way and it slows down the pace.

Once we’ve done Oslo, we’ll head to Stockholm to explore the city and take a good few day trips, before returning back to Copenhagen.

I’m really excited for this trip and can’t wait to tell you all about it. I’ll of course write in-depth guides for the places I see, as well as cover it all in a new Interrail itinerary for you to enjoy. For now though check out my Instagram Journey Through Scandinavia to inspire you!

Final Thoughts | How to Plan an Interrail Trip

I’ve covered everything you need to know about to plan your perfect Interrail trip. As I said at the start, it can be incredibly scary doing this for the first time. I remember feeling very anxious before our first journey, and still do now even after all these years. What I would say though is that the whole experience is incredibly rewarding and is one of the best ways to travel. If you don’t believe me still, read my post on 10 Reasons To Travel Europe By Train.

Lastly, make sure that you constantly check out the Interrail website. They run deals throughout the year and it could mean that you save on money. Additionally, I’d always recommend an eSIM. Check out my recent post on my collaboration with Sim Local to get yourself a 5% discount!