Hi All,
I'm a 20 year old Australian girl currently studying for 6 months in Malmo, Sweden. When my semester ends (in June), I am hoping to backpack through Poland- Czech-Austria and Hungary. I was wondering what the easiest (and cheapest) way is to travel through these countries? Would it be easier to go through Eurail, bus or fly? I will be spending about 3 weeks doing this..any feedback will be greatly appreciated.
Hi...you should definitely look into an InterRail pass (as opposed to a eurail pass). You become eligible for an InterRail pass once you have been in Europe for more than 6 months. I'm Canadian and I went to a school in Sweden a few years ago and then was able to travel on an InterRail pass. Train travel is a lot of fun and I enjoy it a lot more than buses. As far as flying, I would only do that if I was short on time and needed to get back to Sweden from Hungary at the end of the trip. If you are looking for flights, a great resource for finding cheap flights in Europe is www.harefares.com</a>. What is your itinerary like? How long are you planning on being in each country?
#1 talks, like so many NONSENSE; you are NOT allowed to use Interrail, as this is for Europeans. EU and INTERrail are different things.
tehre is NO answer to your Q, madski, as it all relates to WHEN and where. sometimes trains are better, sometimes bus, sometimes a cheap flte. and what is easy most likely depends on your experience, some stations can be 3x as large and confusing as Sydney central.
The interail site says:
"You can buy an InterRail pass if your country of residence for at least 6 months has been:
one of the Inter Rail community members:
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom;
one of the other European countries:
Albania, Andorra, Belarus, Cyprus, Estonia, Faeroer, Gibraltar, Iceland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Russia, San Marino, Ukraine, Vatican;
Train staff will check your residency in your travel document, so make sure that you bring the right documents.
Other Conditions
When buying the Inter Rail pass, you will have to show your identity card, passport or residence permit to prove your date of birth and country of residence."
Check with interail if you status as a student resident in Sweden for 6 months entitles you to use interail. You are more likely to have an informed answer from them.
Thanks everyone for the help!
Turns out i can use interail as i have a 6 month swedish residency permit! I will try and work out how the interail card works, whether you pay per country or per journey time?
I will probably spend about 4 days in poland, 5 days in czech, 3 days in austria and the rest in hungary. i will need to fly from hungary to barcelona but that shouldnt be an issue.
Thanks again :)
i'm actually doing a backpacking trip in eastern europe around the same time as well. if you're going to do some inter-europe flying, try skyscanner.net. ryanair has some pretty good deals too. BUT, you gotta research these airlines because there's always a catch to cheap deals. inter-europe flights can have crazy baggage restrictions. so if your travelling light, that should be something to worry about.
Joyce