Johanneemilie
Traveller
0 comments
Posted 6 years ago
We are planning our first interrail this summer, and have some questions. We are going for 15 days, but are not sure which interrail pass will be best.
We are flying from Oslo to Prague, and then going to Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest. We are not sure how many days this will approximately take? Train connections here are good, right?
Then we want to travel in Balcan, maybe from Budapest to Sarajevo, Dubrovnik and Budva. Is this best done by train? Or is the Balcan best explored by bus? Does anyone have experience with GetByBus, is their information about bus routes and prices correct? If the busses are not included in the interrail pass, does that mean that less travel days in the interrail pass is necessary?
We think we want to end our trip in Italy. We have found a ferry from Durrës in Albany to Bari in Italy. Is there a good route from Budva to Tirana/Durrës? Does anyone have experience with travelling in East-Europe, and then Italy?
How is interrailing in South Italy? Is it best in the Puglia area, or Amalfi coast? We will be arriving in Bari, but are most probably flying out of Naples.
Is the entire plan too ambitious, or should it be possible/good?
Flo
Traveller
10723 comments
Hi and welcome to railcc!
You want to do Prague - Vienna - Bratislava - Budapest - Sarajevo/Dubrovnik/Budva - Southern Italy in 15 days? Not much time but should be doable if you your planning right. :)
I wouldnt think much about going to Albania - it makes much more sense to travel by ferry from Bar (Montenegro) to Bari; you dont have to go all the way to Durres. Would be a shame if you just pass through Albania to get to the ferry and unneccessarily complicated.
The first part to Budapest is really straightforward; just hop on the trains and take a seat (no reservations required); keep in mind that Interrail is not valid on the trains operated by "Regiojet" so you have to use "Eurocity" or "Railjet" services. You can easily find them in the schedule planners such as [ux]http://plan.rail.cc/[/ux]
There are no international trains to Sarajevo so you have to go by bus.
[ux]https://rail.shop/getbybus[/ux] is totally ok, I have used their site last year without troubles (searching schedules and buying tickets); there might be some buses not included in GetByBus though; you can also try [ux]https://rail.shop/balkanviator[/ux] or [ux]https://rail.shop/busticket4me[/ux]
As beautiful and interesting Sarajevo is you could think about skipping it and travelling from Budapest via Belgrade to Podgorica or Bar instead; via the beautiful Tito Railway (Belgrade is quite cool too, btw): [ux]https://rail.cc/blog/bar-belgrade-train-tito/[/ux]
From Montenegro you have several buses to Dubrovnik (also check [ux]https://rail.shop/montenegrohostel[/ux]) or even Sarajevo - so you could also check the possibility of a trip Budapest - Bar/Budva - Sarajevo - Dubrovnik - Bar - Bari
I would recommend to check possible connections between all cities and then see if you would have enough time in each city; otherwise skip some of the places you want to visit (if you only have 15 days).
Flo