BibsRail
Traveller
0 comments
Posted 5 years ago
Hello guys, me and my group are going on Interrail(DiscoverEU) in September to the Nordic Countries and I have a few questions please:
1- In the DiscoverEU site, we chose our departure country as Lisbon(our home country) but now we have changed our route and we plan to fly to Germany so we dont waste many train time, and use the regional trains there. Is there any problem with that?
2-We are planning to travel from Berlin to Hamburg and then go to Denmark. Since we are leaving Germany as first place, does it count as the departure country(so we only get an outbound journey? If so, we can\'t stop in Hamburg, right?)
3-Since we are going by plane, is there any viable option to ship the travelling bags or should we just take trolleys?
Flo
Traveller
10723 comments
Hi and welcome to railcc!
1) I do not know about any specific rules of DIscoverEU; I suppose that you got a pass with "country of residency" = Portugal. This means you can travel in all Interrail countries except Portugal, where you can only make one travel to/from the border ("inbound" and outbound" journey).
In my eyes no problem with starting from Germany, it is no problem at all with "regular" Interrail passes
2) No, your country of residence should be Portugal as I wrote above. So no problem to travel around in Germany and make a stop in Hamburg. :)
3) Well, you can surely book check-in luggage with your plane tickets if you want to do that. If you dont want to spend the money you would have to travel with cabin luggage only.
Flo
Quenzon
Traveller
97 comments
Hi BibsRail, welcome to the site!
"In the DiscoverEU site, we chose our departure country as Lisbon(our home country) but now we have changed our route and we plan to fly to Germany so we don\'t waste many train time, and use the regional trains there."
Are you sure you want to spend the extra money for the flight? Going from Portugal to Germany by train only takes 24 hours, with two easy changes in Hendaye and Paris, and you can take advantage of the "7. P.M. Rule" for night trains (explained here: [u]https://rail.cc/en/interrail-night-train[/u] ), so it would only cost you a single travel day to get to Germany - might be something to reconsider. I\'ve gone down to Lisbon on the "Sud Express" via Hendaye several times, it\'s a relaxed, scenic trip.
By the way: With Interrail, you can use German high-speed ICE trains free of charge - you do NOT need an extra reservation to travel on these trains with Interrail. So, in general, there is no need for you to just use regional trains in Germany if you\'ve got places to go quickly :) This is the case for most (but not all) long-distance trains in central and eastern Europe, as well. One exception are the ICE trains to and from Paris, which require a reservation. A detailed overview over which trains require a reservation is available here: [u]https://rail.cc/en/train-type[/u] When in doubt, just ask :)
Have a nice trip!
Best, Quenzon