Europe Mega-Trip Summer 2009!

Bearing in mind the last post that I wrote a few days ago but only published now, I'll follow it up with a more happy and hopefully successful sequel.

Despite our debilitating lack of money, I have decided not to let this stop me (and possibly/hopefully the house?!) planning future expeditions, especially with the success of PRAGUE!!

So with a Euro Mega Trip in my head, and cutting out environmentally horrible planes (and the currently completely fucked air industry anyway - it would be awful if we went with a cheapo oairline like we would want to, and then they folded - ARGH!), I chose to have a quick look at trains due to the seemingly awesome happy travels of Mary and Ichin.

Here we go then...

Global Euro Inter-Rail Train Pass. [STANDARD]
1 month continuous travel = £339. (1 Youth [12-25 years])

Includes: Austria, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, FYR Macedonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxemburg, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Ireland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey.

Use Hostel Bookers (in association with Inter-Rail) to book accommodation in pretty much any city on our travels. For a private bedroom with a double bed, it tends to range from €8-15/night depending on the country. Eastern and Central Europe will be on the lower side. More ‘established’ EU countries in the higher price bracket. Some probably even more than the above price per night. I’d guess Italy would be more expensive for example.

Although the Inter-Rail pass books us on any train within the month, it does not ‘reserve’ us specific seats. To do this (so that we don’t get displaced by those that do, which sounds pretty likely apparently), it costs €9. Although this isn’t a lot, it might add up! The other option is to stand if there really is no room. I guess we’d have to choose which to do – some journeys might only be one or two hours so that wouldn't be too bad, but if we were actually using the train for a mega trans-country journey, standing for ages isn’t going to be fun. If we travel overnight it is advised to also reserve the type of cabins that have overnight sleeping quarters. This ranges from €25-125. Expensive! You can sleep in your seat, and to be honest, this would be what we'd have to do, unless we're all high flying executives in nine months time.

We also need to get a train/ferry/plane into Europe. Inter-Rail Passes are not viable in your country of origin. Seems a little unfair in my opinion… but not unexpected I guess. It adds expense though nonetheless.

In general this sounds amazing and I’m well up for it. BUT, it also sounds like there’s a hell of a lot of costs possibly incurred that are just around the corner, before we start partying it up at all.

If we went I’d definitely NOT want to be devil may care about it. Although it would be awesome to be completely spontaneous, I think for the amount of money possibly incurred and the short time we’d be doing (I reckon a month will FLY BY travelling around Europe), we would really want to organize ourselves an itinerary, so that we hit the right destinations in order to catch the festivals/markets/holidays/etc, that we wanted to go to.

I've been looking for 7 people: Chris, Helen, Mike, Charlene, Joe, Tim & Jess. If others want to join us, get in touch!

Obviously money needs to be made, and the hard task of possibly getting a whole month's time off work (probably not even possible?!) is something that's a major sticking point.

Anyway, here's to a possible Summer 09 blow-out!

p.s. Definately worth consulting Mary about how they found the train service. It's all under Rail Europe, but I mean more these details about reserving a seat and so on. Is it travel websites, etc, being conservative, or is it well founded?

p.p.s. I'll still have a look at more 'package-holiday' ideas for Easter time. Something similar to Prague in terms of price, flights, hotels, etc. Line your ideas up! Previously mooted destinations are: Budapest (Hungary) seems popular. Belgrade (Serbia) seemed to strike a chord too (I swear some flight operator offered this from East Midlands, but I can only find Heathrow going there now - will continue to search!). I like the idea of Split (Croatia).