For Interrailing
Carmen Paddock
By its very nature, interrailing is a full-on experience. Your belongings for a few weeks or months are merely those you can carry with you as you make your way across Europe. Depending on your type of rail pass and personal plans, you may be in cities for a few days or merely an afternoon. This intensity, however, has not hurt interrailing’s popularity – indeed it seems a beloved choice for students. In my opinion, the bene fits of such fast-paced travel – flexibility, a ffordability, and variety – far outweigh any disadvantages.
There are no set paths for interrailing; you get to completely design your own holiday based on your budget and dreams, and there are a wealth of pass types that you can tailor to your desires. For instance, there are one-country passes if you want to explore one place in-depth, five-country passes for more extensive but still less expensive routes, and unlimited passes if you want the full European experience at your own pace. Furthermore, with advance pass booking, you are paying for travel up-front; you do not need to worry about transport fees unless you want to book a seat reservation (usually 2-4 euros). Money can instead be spent on local food, attractions, and nightlife.
Additionally, depending on your pass and any advance accommodation bookings, you have the flexibility to stay for as long as you’d like in any place. You’re getting a taste of several cities, leaving you free to explore at your own pace. And with up to 30 countries to travel in one go, there is enough adventure to satisfy the most extreme wanderlust and to cater to any passions – from medieval history to modern clubs.
Exploring six cities across four countries in twelve days is still one of my most cherished memories, and I would highly recommend interrailing to any young traveller looking to experience as much of Europe as they desire.
Against Interrailing
Jade Beard
Having talked about it for months, two friends and I decided it would be a great experience to go interrailing. Over Easter we attributed a couple of hours deciding which countries to visit and what pass would be best suited to our student budget. Sounds easy, right? Wrong. Four hours later (and two packets of chocolate digestives down), we were no closer to even booking our European getaway.
Whilst the number of countries on o ffer to visit is incredible, the process is quite complicated, especially when it comes to booking trains. As a fundamental aspect of the interrailing process, we were shocked to discover that a pass doesn’t actually guarantee free travel on all trains. Some required around four euros just to make a reservation and when you’re going to be using transport pretty frequently on your trip, these fees can tot up; you could be sacrificing that Parisian delicacy you’ve been dreaming of. Though initially gutted at the prospect of losing out on an incredible tour of Europe, we discovered that flying was equally, if not slightly more, accommodating to our budget. Not only was this cheaper, but we realised the perks of spending two hours on a plane, rather than up to 12 hours on a super-packed train. Though one of the bene fits of interrailing is meeting fellow travellers, remember that there’s absolutely nothing stopping you from chatting to the guy next to you on the plane. Even if he did totally steal the aisle seat.