When I told my friend I was going interrailing, she laughed. “Interrailing! So will you be listening to The Cure and trying to snog 18-year-old boys?”
Unlikely – although I knew what she meant. Back in my twenties I, like everyone I knew, went interrailing. But I’d never considered it for a family holiday until a 52-year-old friend returned raving about it and I woke up to the notion that I didn’t have to spend a fortune on peak-season airfares. I looked at the Interrail sites (interrail.eu and myinterrail.co.uk) and discovered that the prices remain fixed year-round, and that under-12s travel free. That did it. I planned our trip and my partner Richard, our seven-year-old daughter Hani and I took off for two-and-a-half weeks over the Easter holidays.
I wanted to get to mountains and coastline that I hadn’t visited before, and make it a round trip. So I picked a route to Slovenia through Germany and Austria, and back via the Swiss Alps.
After getting the Eurostar to Brussels we took a train to Cologne then boarded the sleeper to Vienna – or in our case, the non-sleeper. It started well. We settled Hani into the top bunk and sat back with our complimentary mini bottles of prosecco and gazed at the twinkling lights of passing castles and villages along the Rhine. Magical. Until Hani poked her head over the side of the bed and declared she couldn’t sleep. Four hours later I was squashed into the top bunk while she was snoring below.
But it didn’t take Hani long to acclimatise to train travel. I’d worried she might be restless but the rail journeys were among the most harmonious times we had. She even started writing a diary.
The soporific motion of the train, the scrolling scenery and, not least, copious audio books and picnics helped. The next night we caught up on sleep in the modern, sparkling Vienna Meininger hostel (three-bed room from €54) then took the early train through green mountains to Ljubljana, capital of Slovenia, breaking our journey halfway with a quick look at Maribor. In Ljubljana we walked through cobbled streets up to the castle, where Hani was transfixed by the remains of a pit into which prisoners were once hurled. That night we slept in the youth-orientated but central Hostel Tresor (dorm beds from €20).
I woke on Easter morning to pealing bells and slipped out alone, following the sound to St Nicholas’ Cathedral where a lavish service was under way, complete with incense, choir and orchestra.
But it was time to swap cities for wilderness, and a two-hour bus ride took us to Lake Bohinj.
It’s “pure nature”, the bus driver said as he dropped us off – and it turned out to be the highlight of our trip. Deep in the Triglav national park, Lake Bohinj is less spoiled than its glamorous sister, Lake Bled, and has a surfeit of attractions: mountains, a lake, boats, a gorge, alpine flowers, hiking trails and skiing. We stayed at Pod Voglom (dorm beds from €16), a large, old hostel that reminded me of Scottish hostels I visited in my twenties. It even smelt similar: slightly woody, with late-1970s decor that made me feel strangely at home.
The road ends at Lake Bohinj, whose calm, clear waters are glorious for swimming in the summer (the hostel rents canoes and paddleboards, as well as bikes). It’s a short walk to the hamlet of Ukanc (meaning “the end”), where the only way on up is by the cable car that runs to Vogel, 1,537 metres above sea level. All of a sudden we were in a ski resort, the snow still impressive in April.
Hani and Richard took off sledging while I sat in the glaring sun and watched the skiers: tiny dots running like raindrops down vast white slopes. I want to return in the summer, when the snow has melted, to walk the Vogel Trail among the wild and beautiful Julian Alps.
We left reluctantly and headed down, by bus and train, to the picturesque seaside town of Piran, Slovenia. It’s a walkable warren of narrow streets, squares and terracotta roofs, but thin on beaches. Here it was warm. We felt as if we’d skipped a couple of seasons as we ate ice-creams with the sun bouncing off the creamy stone of the Venetian-influenced pedestrian square. For a change from picnics, we found a restaurant, Fritolin Pri Cantini, and enjoyed an alfresco seafood lunch. We stayed at an Airbnb, the two-bedroom Nature Relax apartment (€57).
From Piran we took a bus to Trieste (about two hours with one change at Koper) before boarding the train to Venice. By this time we’d begun to feel part of the scenery, the slow immersion of train journeys becoming part of us. It was evening when we arrived at the Venice Mestre hostel (family room from €62.60), which is spanking new, comfortable, family-friendly and in a semi-industrial suburb away from the sights (and crowds). Hani, feeling a bit weary, stayed at the hostel with Richard, giving me a chance to jump on a local train into Venice proper, 10 minutes away, and get cheerfully lost among its canals and squares. We spent all of the next day exploring Venice by foot and vaporetto (canal bus), avoiding the crowds by escaping down side streets and into the serene Peggy Guggenheim museum. In the lagoon, vast ships, menacing cities on water, ploughed implausibly past gondolas.
On the fast train to Milan, we streamed through the flat, green Po valley before changing for a local train that ran alongside Lake Como then rose towards Tirano, close to the Swiss border. A short cab ride took us to the quiet hamlet of Sernio and a pretty, restored 16th-century rectory that is now Il Seicento hostel (family apartments from €106 B&B). Tirano is lovely, with a beautiful, ornate Renaissance church overlooking the central piazza. It was another place we would happily have stayed longer, exploring trails in the Valtellina by bike or on foot, but we were booked on the scenic Bernina Express for the two-hour, 40-minute ride from Tirano to Bergün, Switzerland.
We boarded the distinctive red train, with its panoramic windows and were soon winding through tunnels and clouds towards the Ospizio Bernina station on a dramatic, snowy pass 2,253 metres above sea level. We then corkscrewed down towards Bergün, a village so pretty the council thought it a wheeze to “ban” the taking of photos, claiming it wasn’t fair to make those less fortunate jealous. We stayed in a stylish Airbnb apartment (from £45) with patio doors that opened on to the mountains. Hani had found the mountain idyll of her imagination. She was in Heidi-land. Invigorated, we walked up and out of the village, through lingering snow, then after three nights took the train to Innsbruck, to catch the sleeper back to Cologne.
This time, Hani slept. After two-and-a-half weeks she had adapted to change and travel, but was looking forward to normality. I, on the other hand, was sorely tempted to use the rest of my precious month-long pass and just keep going on this adventure.
• Train travel was provided by Interrail.eu. Accommodation was provided by Hostelworld, Airbnb and Hostel Tresor
How to do it
Types of pass
Interrail passes are available from interrail.eu, or myinterrail.co.uk. A “global” pass allows travel in 30 countries within a month. This includes journeys on Eurostar, although you have to pay a reservation fee (see below), to and from the UK (not covered if you buy a cheaper “one country” pass). Passes can be bought up to 11 months in advance, and prices are the same year-round, except for periods with promotional discounts of 15%, that come round about three times a year.
Prices
Passes – and prices – vary according to frequency of travel. For example, a pass for five days of travel in 15 days costs £171. A pass for travel on every day in one month costs £418. There are also passes available for 7, 10, 15, 22 days of travel within a month. Passes for single countries are also available, with prices varying depending on the country. Two children aged 4-11 years travel free with each adult, but children must still have their own pass. No passes are required for under fours. Sleeper trains cost extra. For example, a three-berth cabin on the Cologne to Vienna sleeper cost an added €54pp.
Reserving trains
Reservations must be made on certain trains, at extra cost: this is €30 for Eurostar, €20 for night trains and €15 for high-speed international trains. Domestic trains are free with your pass. It’s advisable to make reservations two months ahead (Eurostar says at least three months are best for its services).