Winter Promo Interrail passes

Around 36,000 railway stations in 33 countries – and a limitless array of cake. I am a huge fan of the Interrail pass.

I keep one or two in reserve, just in case I wake up one morning with a raging wanderlust and the need to spurt across the continent to somewhere new and exciting. And it's that time of year again – there's a winter promotion on the Interrail site which handily coincides with Black Friday, nearly: 25% off Interrail passes until 17th December, valid for travel up to eleven months after purchase.

Now you just need to figure out where to go. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the choice, but that’s the joy of it: plan everything meticulously, or pick a general direction and let it unravel (in a good way)?

Choo choo indeed.

tl;dr

25% off all Global Passes until 10:00 CET on the 17th December.

• The cheapest pass: youth 4-day (2nd class) at 159€.
• For travellers 28 and older, the cheapest is 212€ (4 days, 2nd class, valid for one month).
• The priciest: three-month continuous first-class pass at 911€.
• Over 60? Congratulations! Enjoy an extra 10% off as a reward.
• Children under 12 travel free with an adult. (Keep them tethered with something that takes a while to chew through.)

Discounted passes are available from Interrail and All Aboard.

What's on offer?

All Global Passes, with a 25% discount during the sale.

• Flexi Passes: 4, 5, or 7 travel days within one month, 10 or 15 travel days within two months.
• Continuous Passes: unlimited travel for anywhere from 15 days up to 3 months.

Within the validity of your pass, you can use it to travel on a certain number of travel days.

A travel day is a 24-hour window from 00:00 (midnight) to 23:59 in which you can travel on as many eligible trains as you'd like with your pass. If you're already aboard a train before 23:59 on a travel day, your pass remains valid for as long as you stay on that train, so that night train from Zürich to Zagreb after a whole day's travelling will only use one travel day.

If you're keen to see how far you can get from a station in a set time, Chronotrains is a dangerously addictive way to spend time that could otherwise be wasted doing sensible things.

The Interrail timetable or planner app will help with train times.

Seat reservations

Seat reservations are not always necessary, but some operators – such as in France and Spain – insist you pay for a seat reservation. Night trains will incur higher reservation fees but still offer significant savings if you consider them as a bed on wheels.

Even where reservations are not necessary, sites such as Happyrail make buying a seat reservation and choosing your seat from a map quite a simple affair. Also check the national operators' web sites; ÖBB, DB, and ČD allow seat reservation and selection for pass holders.

vagonWEB is a great way to hunt the perfect place to sit.

Free stuff, yay!

First class passes often come with complimentary perks.

Many train operators provide complimentary snacks or meals to customers travelling in first class, and lounge access is also not uncommon. Be sure to schedule enough time between trains to disappear into the relative peace and quiet of a lounge to stock up on snacks.

This is my success so far in accessing lounges:

• Austria: ✅ (the ÖBB lounges in Vienna and Graz offer snacks, Wi-Fi, and cake)
• Sweden: ✅ (SJ lounges are the real MVPs: fika time is a full-on smorgasbord of cakeness)
• Czechia: ✅ (the ČD lounges redefine glamour in a way you don't expect, but they do have coffee)
• Hungary: ✅ (Budapest Keleti’s lounge is easy to miss but worth seeking out, but I had a hangover so cannot confirm presence of cake)
• The Netherlands: ✅ (Amsterdam and Rotterdam have nice lounges, be careful which cake you eat before travelling)
• United Kingdom: ✅ (the Avanti and LNER lounges play Interrail nicely, and have cake)
• Germany: ⛔ Nein
• France: ⛔ lol

"But trains take so long..."

Yes. Yes they do. More time for cake. 👍

Planning

• Chronotrains is a map-based site that shows how far you can get from any European station in a given time and is ideal for impulse planning.
• The Interrail app (or Rail Planner) is mostly accurate for timetables.
• Raileurope and Happyrail sell seat reservations for most train companies.
• The Interrail community forums are quite active with knowledgeable people.
• Seat61 remains the deepest rabbit-hole for practical how-tos for train nerds and newcomers alike.

What next?

Download the map, choose a destination then work out how to get there. The worst-case scenario is probably a difficultly-named bakery in a town you can’t pronounce. Bring it.

Choo choo, bitches. 🚂