Interrail Europe student discount

zagubov

I missed out Inter-rail just like you. I’m afraid it’s difficult to get a similar deal without a bit of planning. When I had time and opportunity to travel, I contacted friends scattered from Greece to Netherlands and used a bucket shop to fly to Athens. I visited the German Railways office in London and bought a 6-day railpass for Germany and tickets from Athens to Germany and Germany to London.

This allowed me to stop in Athens, Thessalonika, Zagreb, Saltzburg, Munich, Heidelberg, Cologne and Rotterdam all in countries I'd never visited before. I could break my journey where and when I wanted.

Worked out about the same as a railcard. Used the Thomas Cook European train timetable, travelled light, stayed in hostels or at friends, ate in snackbars. Don't feel I missed out even though i was only travelling for less than a fortnight.

Add these to the useful websites the other posters suggested
http://www.eurail.com/planning/railway-map
http://www.university-rooms.com/
www.voyages-sncf.fr
http://www.bahn.de/i/view/GBR/en/index.shtml

Oh yeah and this one! http://thebigproject.co.uk/travel/trains.htm
:cool:

cj2011

The_One_Who wrote: »

Rail Europe are ridiculous, but they are a lot more advertised than TGV-Europe. Maybe the name of TGV-Europe puts people off because they don't know that they sell normal tickets as well? I'm not sure. I never used the Prems tickets, I just bought point-to-point either on the day or a couple of days in advance with my Carte 12-25, and it still worked out reasonably priced. No more expensive than over here anyway.

Tried TGV Europe but the cheapest tickets from London to Berlin were 230 Euros plus it seems you need to book 2 weeks in advance! One week isn't enough (even though I remember seeing 4-5 days somewhere on the same site)?

Also tried Bahn.de but it seems you can't buy the tickets I want (London to Berlin) online:

Fares not available

The selected connection cannot be booked via the internet.

Tickets can be purchased from any DB Travel Centre or DB-licensed travel agency or by calling the DB Travel Service on +44 8718 80 80 66 (chargeable).

The_One_Who

cj2011 wrote: »

Tried TGV Europe but the cheapest tickets from London to Berlin were 230 Euros plus it seems you need to book 2 weeks in advance! One week isn't enough (even though I remember seeing 4-5 days somewhere on the same site)?

Train travel isn't cheap.

It might be two weeks in advance if you are wanting the tickets posted to you. Should be possible to buy them closer to the date needed if you are going to collect them. Like I said, I did mainly point-to-point travel, so I used the site mainly to get an idea of prices and then headed to the stations to buy tickets on the day or a few days in advance.

cj2011

The_One_Who wrote: »

Train travel isn't cheap.

It might be two weeks in advance if you are wanting the tickets posted to you. Should be possible to buy them closer to the date needed if you are going to collect them. Like I said, I did mainly point-to-point travel, so I used the site mainly to get an idea of prices and then headed to the stations to buy tickets on the day or a few days in advance.

It's a shame they don't offer to print the tickets at home or to collect them:( Home delivery is the only option. Arrangements might be different with tickets to France though.

The_One_Who

You could split the tickets. So instead of getting one straight from London to Berlin, you separate the journeys. They easiest way to do it is to look at getting singles to each connection. So I presume you'll need to change in Paris? Get a tickets from London to Paris and then another from Paris onwards. Can often end up a lot cheaper.

Voyager2002

cj2011 wrote: »

Tried TGV Europe but the cheapest tickets from London to Berlin were 230 Euros plus it seems you need to book 2 weeks in advance! One week isn't enough (even though I remember seeing 4-5 days somewhere on the same site)?

Also tried Bahn.de but it seems you can't buy the tickets I want (London to Berlin) online:

Fares not available

The selected connection cannot be booked via the internet.

Tickets can be purchased from any DB Travel Centre or DB-licensed travel agency or by calling the DB Travel Service on +44 8718 80 80 66 (chargeable).

You quote the DB telephone number but apparently did not call it. If you telephone them, they can speedily quote fares from London to Germany or other destinations.

The alternative is to split your journey. If you can book two weeks before travel, consider the combined train/ferry tickets between London and any Dutch station: one of the great travel bargains currently available. The DB website would sell you an onward ticket from the Netherlands to Berlin. Alternatively, check out fares to Brussels on the Eurostar web site, and again book an onward ticket from there to Berlin.

cj2011

Voyager2002 wrote: »

You quote the DB telephone number but apparently did not call it. If you telephone them, they can speedily quote fares from London to Germany or other destinations.

The point was not to just find the fare. The point was that they would still have to send me the tickets in the post since they don't do online bookings so this did not solve my problem.
One important aspect of online booking vs. telephone booking is that you get a better overview of fares and routes whereas the telephone salesman might just try and sell you the most expensive option:D.

Voyager2002 wrote: »

The alternative is to split your journey. If you can book two weeks before travel, consider the combined train/ferry tickets between London and any Dutch station: one of the great travel bargains currently available. The DB website would sell you an onward ticket from the Netherlands to Berlin. Alternatively, check out fares to Brussels on the Eurostar web site, and again book an onward ticket from there to Berlin.

By "combined train/ferry ticket", are you talking about the Dutch Flyer via Harwich? A bit of a detour unless you enjoy going on ferries (may well go at some point but not the fastest way to Berlin):)