How To Use Your Interrail Pass

How To Use Your Interrail Pass

Using your Interrail or Eurail Pass – our guide:

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Already got your pass? Great! Below you’ll find our guide to exactly how to fill it in correctly.

Haven’t got your pass yet? Still don’t quite know where to start? Check out our ultimate guide to travelling Europe and guide to Train travel in Europe first!

When you book through us, we purchase your interrail pass so you don’t have to, so please make sure that you provide us with correct personal details, as these will be printed on the pass! This includes your first and surname, date of birth and passport or ID card number, and you’ll need to use the same details that appear on your passport.  Once you’ve received your pass, it might also be a good idea to double-check these details in good time, so that we can enter the correct details before you head off.

Instead of fretting over which pass you need, just sit back and relax! We’ll take care of choosing the right pass for you, whether that’s choosing between:

  • Interrail passes (for European citizens and official residents) and Eurail passes (for non-European citizens),
  • A 5 in 10 pass (travelling on 5 days within a 10-day period) or a 10 in 22 pass (travelling on 10 days within a 22-day period),
  • Or a Youth pass (18-25 year olds) and an Adult pass (26+ year olds).

*Please remember that Interrail and Eurail passes are not valid for use in your own country! If you happen to be starting your journey in the UK, we can usually arrange your travel to London and onwards to your Euroventure!

Along with your personalised travel pack with accommodation and train timetables, we’ll send you your pass, as well as an interrail map and guide. If in doubt as to how to use your pass, this guide should answer any questions you might have, but if not, we are always on hand to help!

Interpreting and filling in your pass

Your pass will show the first and last date that you can use it on, but we will also include a more detailed Interrail Pass page in your travel pack showing you exactly how to use a Eurail pass or Interrail pass. The guide will tell you exactly which dates and journeys to write in the travel report attached to your pass – please take care in entering these, as you may be fined for any errors. If you do happen to make a mistake on your pass and want to correct it, you will have to enter the correct details into the next travel day box. This also means that you’ll lose a travel day!

You will need to fill each journey in on your pass calendar before you board for your pass to be valid. The beauty of interrailing is that you have complete flexibility, so just in case you decide to change your plans for journeys without reservations, try to only  fill your journeys in individually, just before making them – your Euroventure pen will come in handy for this!

In the same way, for journeys without reservations, you may want to wait until you are about to travel before filling in the time of the train that you want to catch, just in case you change your mind or miss a train.

Journeys

For some train journeys, you may receive a few tickets for a single trip, so it appears as though your journey will be split into several with connections. In this case, you will most likely not need to get off the train, and we will indicate this to you in your travel pack. For journeys like these, you will only need to write in the stops where you have to get off, rather than each mini-journey listed on your ticket.

7pm Rule

If your first trip of the day is a direct night train or ferry leaving after 7pm and arriving after 4am, you could save yourself a whole travel day! The 7pm rule means that you can choose whether you enter your departure date or your arrival date.

So, for example, if you were travelling from Vienna to Venice, this could involve a night train leaving Vienna at 21:45 and arriving in Venice at 08:12 the next day. If you then wanted to travel to Rome on the same day, you could save a travel day by entering your Vienna-Venice journey into your pass calendar on the same day as your journey to Rome!

Reservations

Some European train journeys require a reservation, i.e. a guaranteed seat for one specific train. We will arrange all of this for you, and will include your travel time, coach and seat number in your travel timetable.

For train journeys that don’t require a reservation, such as Amsterdam-Berlin, we will also provide you with a list of times so you can choose to travel whenever you like! Need more advice on reservations? Head to our reservations guide.

When you go…

Remember to bring your passport or ID card with you! You’ll need to present this to the inspector alongside your pass.

If you’d like more information about your pass, check out our ultimate guide to travelling Europe by train, before going on the Euroventure of your life!

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