reedma
Traveller
1 comments
Posted 7 years ago
Hey all,
Will be travelling around mid august for 3 weeks around Eastern Europe essentially starting at Prague and going south towards Greece.
I am just curious as to the strict nature of these trains.
A few questions; do bags have to be a certain size to board the train?, Are there routine searches of passengers at boarder controls for drugs, alcohol, etc or is this rare in Eastern Europe? (Not suggesting I will, just dislike the hassle :D ), Are the trains extremely busy during this period so reservations are essential or is it quite easy to just board a train upon arrival?
Thank you in advance :D
Flo
Traveller
10723 comments
Hi,
there is no practical restriction for the size of bags. What are you thinking of taking with you?
Of course there are some restrictions somewhere in the terms and conditions but in practice you will be fine with any regular backpack or suitcase.
Between the non-Schengen countries there are of course still regular passport and custom checks, once there was also a dog involved on the border between Serbia and Montenegro. However I never had to open my backpacks but I could assume that they could check more suspicious looking backpackers more thoroughly.
Trains can be quite busy, especially on the main routes: Prag - Budapest, Budapest - Belgrade, Belgrad to Montenegro...I never travelled with seat reservations (only used reservations for overnight trains) and we always found a seat, even with a group of four. However we usually got on the train at its originating station so if you board elsewhere a seat reservation can be a good idea if the trip is going to take a while.
We are official partners of interrail.eu - to support the free information and the forum on railcc, please be fair and buy your official Interrail pass via our railcc partner link: [ux]https://rail.shop/interrail[/ux]
Thank you! :)
Flo 8)
reedma
Traveller
1 comments
Thank you so much you have been so helpful!!! :D :D
I was just curious though, my journey appears to be cheaper if I simply buy individual tickets e.g. Prague to Budapest. However, I was wondering on how easy it is to buy these tickets? Would I be able to simply turn up at Prague station and buy a ticket for the next train available?
The main reason I would choose to buy an interrail ticket is the simplicity and ease of not having to buy a ticket yet if it is simple to buy individual tickets I would probably choose that option.
Flo
Traveller
10723 comments
Yes, you can of course also just show up and buy a ticket locally at a station. Would be interesting to know about your itinerary.
ntrain
Traveller
123 comments
[quote]I was just curious though, my journey appears to be cheaper if I simply buy individual tickets e.g. Prague to Budapest. However, I was wondering on how easy it is to buy these tickets? Would I be able to simply turn up at Prague station and buy a ticket for the next train available?
.[/quote]
You can-as about any trainticket anywhere in EUR tickets are NOT tied for a specific train-you can use any train along the route you paid for in the time allowed. Thats why there are seat-res: then you add some certainty to it. And for the utter naive: even if a train looks like ''full'' in Prahy, many people are locals only going 2-3 stops and all the way to Bp maybe 5%.
BUT: for this route and in fact for most longer INTernational trips, its cheaper to buy online before to get even lower prices. Conditions and way-how-to differ per country. Just like you would book a long-dist. bus-these also exist on about all these routes and will be even cheaper.
Some smarter people who know about more possibilities: many countries offer special cheap fares to juniors in the summer-time-look first at what the best offer is and then plan to get the most of it-not the other way. f.e. in CZ republic there is a 7-day rover-all lines, for about 25/27 eur-so see more of that country.