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Interrail trip - lost after Switzerland

miss direct

miss direct

misfungled
I bought a 50% off ticket in the sale last year, and in a few weeks, will finally be heading off for my trip. I have a one month pass, but due to work, can only travel for 2.5 weeks. Finding planning overwhelming and complicated, and travelling over the Easter break seems to mean more pre-booking of both trains and accommodation.

So far I have confirmed:
home - London - 1 night
Eurostar to Lille - 1 night (not booked accommodation yet)
Lille to Lausanne (not entirely sure how to do this, haven't booked train, have made a room reservation in Lausanne)
Lausanne to Zermatt - 2 nights at a hostel in Zermatt
Glacier Express train to St Moritz

Haven't booked anything after that - getting out of Switzerland looks complicated. I'd like to get out asap due to the high costs and already having been there for three nights. I could go south to Italy or keep going to East to Austria. Does anyone have any tips of good places to go in that general area in April? I have a friend in Cologne who's invited me for actual Easter, and I'd also like to get to a small town in the Czech Republic. But feeling lost.

(I thought an interrail ticket would take away the stress of planning, but actually many trains require a seat reservation, so there's way more planning than on a usual trip!)
 
I'm not totally up to date on interrail - a while since I last did it and I know there are now more and more reservation compulsory trains, but you'll find that's mainly the international and long distance ones. So don't overdo the thing of trying to do loads of different countries. To reduce planning stress I'd recomend stopping in a few places for several nights and remembering you can use the pass to do day trips on local trains that don't need to be reserved. Sometimes these can be some of the most enjoyable journeys. Italy would be good in April, I'd have thought.
 
teuchter said:
St Moritz to Tirano via the Bernina pass is a great trip. And pretty sure you can do it on local trains, you don't have to take the tourist oriented ones. In any case I did it on a regular local train a few years ago and enjoyed it.
Click to expand...
Fabulous journey - especially the approach to Tirano. (impressive viaducts !) - Very affordable compared to the crippling costs of living in Switzerland. Carry on Tirano to Milan (a couple of hours and regroup from there)
 
Thanks for the replies. They didn't show up before, for some reason.

I've been to Slovenia a few times, and it is very nice. I'd like to go to Switzerland, and I know it's expensive, but that's ok. I plan to bring snacks :D

Made a few changes since posting this. Since Lausanne is so expensive to stay, I'm going from Lille to Strasbourg instead and spending a night there. Have a friend there too. Then have to get from Strasbourg to Zermatt.

I've also decided to continue on to Turkey - so I think I need to go Switzerland - Austria - Hungary - Romania - Bulgaria - Turkey
I've got a flight back to the UK from Turkey - would prefer to return by train but just don't have enough time.
 
Having a problem with one of my accommodation bookings. It's non refundable and already paid for in full (not sure why I did that) and they contacted me mentioning a 100 euro deposit to be paid on a credit card on arrival. I don't have a credit card (and don't particularly want or need to get one) and told them this. They say I have to pay the deposit in cash. I don't want to carry around large amounts of cash (also it's a ridiculous excessive deposit to stay in a dorm for one night). They say I won't be allowed to check in.

Can't cancel the booking. Booking dot com not being helpful at all and don't seem to understand the issue. Any suggestions??
 
miss direct said:
Having a problem with one of my accommodation bookings. It's non refundable and already paid for in full (not sure why I did that) and they contacted me mentioning a 100 euro deposit to be paid on a credit card on arrival. I don't have a credit card (and don't particularly want or need to get one) and told them this. They say I have to pay the deposit in cash. I don't want to carry around large amounts of cash (also it's a ridiculous excessive deposit to stay in a dorm for one night). They say I won't be allowed to check in.

Can't cancel the booking. Booking dot com not being helpful at all and don't seem to understand the issue. Any suggestions??
Click to expand...

Are travellers cheques still a thing?
 
I did an inter rail trip in 2017 when I retired for the first time. It was actually really easy to book the seats and stuff on line through their site then. Normally reservations were required but they cost literally £ 2 or £3- presumably just to stop people booking the same journey on five trains.

I did Budapest, Prague, Dresden, Hamburg, Paris, Madrid, Grenada. Obvs this was in the before times.
 
miss direct said:
Having a problem with one of my accommodation bookings. It's non refundable and already paid for in full (not sure why I did that) and they contacted me mentioning a 100 euro deposit to be paid on a credit card on arrival. I don't have a credit card (and don't particularly want or need to get one) and told them this. They say I have to pay the deposit in cash. I don't want to carry around large amounts of cash (also it's a ridiculous excessive deposit to stay in a dorm for one night). They say I won't be allowed to check in.

Can't cancel the booking. Booking dot com not being helpful at all and don't seem to understand the issue. Any suggestions??
Click to expand...

Have you thought of a pre pay card? I’ve got a Revolut card I use for traveling, using it now. You don’t pay exchange fees on pounds/euro/dollar and really cheap fees on other rates. The cheap card costs £5 and the app is brilliant. You get five free ATM withdrawals a month but after that it’s like £1 in Europe. You can choose wether to get visa or Mastercard versions and it works with ApplePay.

I think it would make your trip much easier.

www.revolut.com

Affiliates Template (UK, EEA) | Sub-Network £10/10€ Top up | Revolut United Kingdom

ShineCS affiliate page
www.revolut.com www.revolut.com
 
Switzerland is kind of shit tbh. Northern Italy is not. Do what Dave and Plumdaff said.
 
Get a credit card of some description, will make things a lot easier. If you're final destination is Turkey then after Switzerland go via Austria Hungary Romania Bulgaria.
 
Isambard said:
Get a credit card of some description, will make things a lot easier. If you're final destination is Turkey then after Switzerland go via Austria Hungary Romania Bulgaria.
Click to expand...
I really don't want a credit card. I have a Chase card (and another debit card) and that will have to do.
Flying to Turkey - would rather go by train but don't have enough time.
 
miss direct said:
I really don't want a credit card. I have a Chase card (and another debit card) and that will have to do.
Flying to Turkey - would rather go by train but don't have enough time.
Click to expand...
Well some card that would work. I thought you were travelling by train across Europe and flying back from Turkey. 😊
 
A380 said:
Have you thought of a pre pay card? I’ve got a Revolut card I use for traveling, using it now. You don’t pay exchange fees on pounds/euro/dollar and really cheap fees on other rates. The cheap card costs £5 and the app is brilliant. You get five free ATM withdrawals a month but after that it’s like £1 in Europe. You can choose wether to get visa or Mastercard versions and it works with ApplePay.

I think it would make your trip much easier.

www.revolut.com

Affiliates Template (UK, EEA) | Sub-Network £10/10€ Top up | Revolut United Kingdom

ShineCS affiliate page
www.revolut.com www.revolut.com
Click to expand...
Second this - for ease/cheapness of using Revolut. Can use phone to transfer money onto it; works instantly.
 
I'm mid trip and have a few hours till my next train so writing an update.

The Chase card has been brilliant - accepted without issue everywhere and really easy to keep track of what I'm spending.

So far:
France was dull. Weather was rainy while I was there. If I did this trip again, I wouldn't spend much time in France at all. I thought I'd need rests but I would have been better off having longer journeys to get to where I wanted to go.

Switzerland was brilliant. Amazing scenery, walks, weather, quality of trains, information and accommodation. Just had one unpleasant encounter with a rude man who made me cry.

Austria (Salzburg) was brilliant. Fantastic city, good mix of nature and city wandering.

Now I'm in the Czech Republic, staying in a small town which was convenient for visiting Cesky Krumlow. I'm moving on to another small town today before heading on to Bratislava tomorrow.

Weather is gloomy today so a good day for a train ride and reading my book.
 
Are you going to Budapest? The Thermal baths there are worth the trip on their own.
 
miss direct said:
Yes, I am, but just for a night. I don’t have a swimming costume with me and don’t fancy the baths.
Click to expand...

I didn’t fancy the baths. A mate who lives there made me go and I thought I’d pop in just to be polite. They are amazing. Like nothing I have ever seen, apart from perhaps Roman baths in history books.

Firstly all different ages of people, it’s not a place people go to look and be looked at. The main bit is indoors two sides, one fresh water one salt, with all different size pools at different temperatures from cool to really hot and from jacuzzi’s size to swimming ing pool size. It’s decorated in baroque and classical style. Down stairs are saunas steam rooms and Turkish baths. Then outside a huge courtyard with a massive hot pool- 30 m across - with fountains. And an Olympic size swimming pool. I went in December when it was snowing and sat in the big out door pool. It costs about a fiver to get in all day, and instead of a locker you can pay about £3 for a mini lockable changing room that’s yours for your stuff all day.

I hate spas and things like this normally but I would really recommend them. Worth buying a cossie for.


I don’t mean to gush( do you see what I did there) but I was really meh about going but they were a highlight of my trip.
 
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