It turns out you’re never too old to go Interrailing around Europe
It turns out you’re never too old to go Interrailing around Europe
Having missed out in my youth, I thought that was that – until I took a revelatory trip with my sons. We’re going again this year, says Guardian Opinion production editor Phil Mongredien
The Eurail Pass is fucking insanely good for this kinda stuff. You pay 286€ and then within a month you can pick any 7 days to travel to the next place you want to stay at for a few days. On those 7 days you can then take as many trains as you want anywhere in Europe (Not just EU). Thats just the most used version tho. There are lots of variants (4, 5, 10, 15 days in one month) or (15days - 3months of constant travel)
- (For non Europeans) https://www.eurail.com/en/eurail-passes/global-pass
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurail
- (For Europeans) https://www.interrail.eu/en/interrail-passes/global-pass
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interrail
Yup, I already did that once and it was pretty great! And also it's much less stressfull, because you can literally take any train
Unless you travel to countries in which the railways suffer from a disease that makes them think they are Airlines. (Italy, Spain, France) They take every joy out of it, with the mandatory reservation bullshit (I mean, the upcharge itself is annoying, but what really makes my blood boil is that you need to reserve every train 2-4 weeks in advance)
After my bikepacking trip I will pitch the interrail to my parents. They are so excited about the places I visited but don't know how or if they will be able to get there. They (me too) don't like flying and by car it is just too stressful.
Well... you can do it as an older person as well, but you can't stay in official youth hostels and the private hostels that will allow you to stay have in recent years turned into some fancy "glampacking" party locations that are both relatively expensive and most older person will not like it at all.
The laid back slightly grubby hostel of my youth that made interrailing affordable and where it really didn't matter what age you were seems to have become a very rare thing.
The times I went Interrailing were among the most formative experiences of my youth and young adulthood. I can only recommend it to anyone who has the chance to go.
My brain wanted to ask what Lego set that was...