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Interrail one-country pass prices

You can buy one or more Interrail passes covering just one country each.  These also come in 1st class adult, 2nd class adult, 1st class child (aged 4-11), 2nd class child (4-11), and 2nd class youth (aged 12-25 inclusive) versions.  Prices vary by country, see www.interrail.eu or (if you're in the UK) www.raileurope.com.

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How to buy an Interrail pass

To buy a Eurostar passholder fare, see the instructions here.

If you choose a mobile pass

• You download it, delivery is instant so there's no delay while it's mailed to you;

• Delivery is free, there's no shipping cost;

• You can activate the pass (in other words, choose the date on which you will start using it) on any date you like within 11 months after buying it, keeping your options open.  A printed pass arrives with your chosen start date already printed on it, this cannot be changed;

• You only need to enter your passport number when you activate the pass, so not a problem if your passport is away being renewed or you haven't yet got all your companion's passport details;

• The pass is on your phone so you always have it with you, one less thing to carry around;

• It's posted to you at extra cost, you need to allow a week or two for delivery;

• You need to specify the start date when you buy;

• On the plus side, if your phone runs out of battery you can still show a paper pass (but an Anker powerbank solves this and is a good backup plan for your phone anyway).  If you drop your phone and it breaks you can still show a paper pass;

• You can keep the paper pass as a souvenir afterwards!

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Is Interrail cheaper than point-to-point tickets?

• There's no magic answer!

  Why?  Because point-to-point train fares vary like air fares, cheap in advance, expensive at short notice or on popular days or dates.  Just like flights!

  The cost of a pass also varies, depending whether it's adult, senior or youth, and whether it's for a shorter or longer period.  Longer period passes are better value as the cost-per-day is lower.

  The only way to know for sure is to go online and check current point-to-point prices for each journey you plan to make, add them up and compare with the price of the pass you'd need, factoring in the necessary passholder reservation fees.

  See Interrail pass prices & check passholder reservation fees.  Check point-to-point prices by selecting the starting city here and I'll tell you which website to use to check fares for that specific route.

  But it's not all about price, it's also about flexibility.  This example may help:

• How much is a point-to-point ticket?

  Assume you plan to go from Prague to Berlin:

  - €18.90 is the cheapest possible advance-purchase fare, price varies like air fares, specified train only, no changes, no refunds.

  - €82.50 is the fully-flexible fare which can be bought on the day, unlimited availability, good for any train.

  Assume that a few days later you plan to go from Berlin to Amsterdam:

  - €37.90 is the cheapest possible advance-purchase fare, price varies like air fares, specified train only, no changes, no refunds.

  - €139.90 is the fully-flexible fare which can be bought on the day, unlimited availability, good for any train.

• How much is an Interrail pass?

  If you divide the pass cost by the number of days travel, you get a cost-per-day.  The longer the pass duration, the cheaper the cost-per-day:

  - €64 per day using a 5-days-in-1-month Interrail global pass (5-day price divided by 5)

  - €45 per day using a 10-days-in-2-months Interrail global pass (10-day price divided by 10)

  Or if you're aged under 28 and can buy a youth pass:

  - €48 per day using a 5-days-in-1-month youth Interrail global pass.

  - €34 per day using a 10-days-in-2-months youth Interrail global pass.

  A pass gives you unlimited travel, so you can use any train you like, as if you'd bought the fully-flexible ticket.  Better, as you could go up & down on trains between Prague & Berlin all day if you wanted, or carry on beyond Berlin to Cologne or Hamburg.

• So is a pass cheaper?

  No, point-to-point advance-purchase tickets are cheaper, it's not a trick question!  Prague-Berlin from €18.90, Berlin-Amsterdam from €37.90.

  And easiest too, easy to buy online at the German Railways website and show on your phone.  Click, click, booked!

  So if you're only planning 2, 3 or maybe 4 such trips on fixed dates, your accommodation is pre-booked and you're happy to commit to specific trains 2-3 months in advance on a no-refunds, no-changes basis, then advance-purchase tickets are usually cheapest & easiest.

• But at short notice or on popular dates, a pass might save money

  Remember these are the cheapest possible advance-purchase fares.  On your date, prices may be higher, especially at popular times of year.  And if you need to go tomorrow or next week so cannot book months in advance, a pass can be cheaper than short-notice point-to-point fares.

• An Interrail makes sense if you value flexibility

  Even when it costs more than advance-purchase tickets, a pass may still make sense because it is flexible.  It's significantly cheaper than the fully-flexible fare for most longer-distance journeys.

  With an advance-purchase ticket you're nailing your plans to the floor months in advance.  Trading up to a pass gives you the freedom to travel when you want, or even decide not to go to Prague after all, but to Vienna instead.  An Interrail pass gives unlimited travel all day, so you can make additional journeys the same day, before or after this one.

• For extensive itineraries, a pass is better

  For extensive itineraries, using a stack of advance-purchase point-to-point tickets might be cheaper, but it's risky.  If a flood, fire, strike or landslide knocked out one journey, the rest of the trip could come crashing down like a house of cards as advance-purchase tickets become worthless if you miss the train.  An Interrail pass gives you the flexibility to re-plan, re-schedule or even re-route as necessary.

  Mrs 61 and I once travelled from my in-laws in the Netherlands to Italy using Interrail passes.  The day before our return, a train crash in Belgium blocked our planned route, Milan-Paris-Rotterdam.  But with our passes we easily re-routed via Milan-Zurich-Cologne-Rotterdam.

• But avoid using use a pass for short hops

  Vienna to Bratislava costs only €11 or so, Florence to Pisa only €9, even bought on the day.

  It'd be cheaper to buy a 4-days-in-1-month pass plus a point-to-point ticket for a short hop like this, than to pay an extra €50 for a 5-days-in-1-month pass.  Common sense, surely?

• Remember to factor in the passholder reservation fees

  The point-to-point fares you see online always include any necessary reservation.  If you use a pass, you may have to pay a reservation fee in addition to the cost of the pass.  Here's a rule of thumb:

  In France, Italy, Spain, reckon on a €10+ reservation fee for every train other than purely local ones, in addition to the cost of the pass.

  However, in Benelux, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Denmark & most of eastern & central Europe, there are usually no fees to pay (unless you want a sleeping berth), you can just board a train, sit in any empty unreserved seat, and show your pass to the conductor.  That's a generalisation, but even if a seat reservation is required in these countries it's typically €2 - €5, the same as any other ticket-holder would pay.

  The Prague-Berlin & Amsterdam-Berlin examples above usually involve no reservation fee, unless you choose to reserve a seat.

  You need to pay a passholder fare to use Eurostar between London & Paris, Lille, Brussels or Amsterdam.  This costs €30 in 2nd class or €38 if you have a 1st class pass, see Eurostar passholder information.

  On overnight sleeper trains you need to pay for a sleeping-berth, perhaps €39 for a couchette or €100 for a bed in a 2-bed sleeper.

  See a list of Interrail reservation requirements & costs in each country.

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How does an Interrail pass work?

• Interrail passes give unlimited travel on national & international trains

  An Interrail pass gives unlimited travel on all train services run by the national train operator in the countries it covers - except in your own country of residence, more about that in a minute.

  These aren't special 'Interrail trains', these are the normal, regular, scheduled trains, including high-speed trains, sleeper trains, intercity trains, suburban trains & local trains, national & international.

  Unlimited means unlimited, as many trains as you like, 1 train or 20 trains, 10 km or 1,000 km.

  Interrail passes also cover some private operators and even a few ferry services.  The country-by-country guide explains which train operators are covered in each country. 

  You need to make a reservation for a small fee on some trains, more about this below, and sleeping-berths on night trains also cost extra.

• Interrail passes don't cover:

  Metros, trams or buses in big cities as these are usually run by an urban transit authority;

  Some small private local train operators such as Euskotren narrow-gauge trains in Spain (Hendaye to San Sebastian to Bilbao) or the Circumvesuviana railway in Italy (Naples-Pompeii-Sorrento);

  A few private inter-city operators who compete with the state-owned national operator on some routes, such as Italo high-speed trains in Italy or Iryo trains in Spain.  Nor do they cover lo-cost subsidiaries set up by the national operator such as Ouigo in France or Avlo in Spain.  If in doubt, see my country-by-country guide.

• Flexi & Continuous passes

  Continuous passes are valid for a continuous period starting on the date you activate the pass.  For example, if you activated a 1-month pass on 10 July, it would give continuous unlimited travel from 00:00 on 10 July until 24:00 on 9 August.

  Flexi passes have an overall validity which starts ticking on your first travel day, a date you choose when you activate the pass.  You can then spend each of your remaining travel days on any dates you like within that overall validity period.

  For example, if you activated a 5-days-in-1-month Interrail pass on 10 July, your first day of unlimited travel would be 10 July, you can then spend each of the remaining 4 days unlimited travel on any dates you like until 9 August, let's say on the 12 July, 17 July, 23 July and 2 August.  Or whatever!

  Each pass day is good for as many trains, journeys & kilometres as you can cram in from 00:00 to 24:00.  In fact, a pass day can cover you beyond midnight if using a sleeper train.

• You don't get unlimited travel in your home country, just 2 outbound/inbound days

  First the bad news:  Interrail passes don't give unlimited train travel in your country of residence.

  Now the good news:  Since 2016 you've been allowed to use a global Interrail pass for one journey in your home country to a border, airport or ferry port at the beginning of your trip and one return journey back home at the end.

  These are known as your 2 outbound/inbound days.  When using a mobile-type pass, when you add a train in your home country to your pass, it will warn you that you are about to use one of your 2 outbound/inbound days.  It shows you how many you have left.

  If you live in Britain, Eurostar to/from London counts as a train in your home country, so triggers an inbound/outbound day.

  The journey in your home country can involve more than one train, but in principle it should be a continuous single journey between a point of origin (typically your local station) and a border, airport or ferry port.  The mobile pass doesn't police this, so if (for example) you wanted to pause for an hour or two in London between arriving by Eurostar and taking a domestic train home to Newcastle or wherever that's fine, but you shouldn't abuse it by travelling up & down all over Britain all day, it's intended for travel from & to your home town.

  Apart from that, inbound/outbound days work like any other travel day, unlimited mileage & unlimited trains midnight to midnight, you need to record the journey on your pass as normal and if it's a flexi pass an inbound/outbound day counts as one of your travel days - it's not additional!

  If you live in Britain, that first inbound/outbound travel day could cover travel from your home station to London, a Eurostar passholder journey, and an onward train on the Continent, all on one pass day.

  For example, if you lived in Dundee you could use the first day on your pass to go from Dundee to Edinburgh, Edinburgh to London, a Eurostar passholder journey from London to Brussels, then Brussels to Cologne, all on one pass day.  Bargain!

  But you couldn't travel Dundee to London on day 1, stay overnight, take Eurostar London to Brussels on day 2, then use your pass to return Brussels-London-Dundee at the end of your trip, as this would be 3 outbound/inbound days and you're limited to 2.  Got it?

  For the record, technically your two inbound/outbound days don't have to be the first & last day.  You can use them on any two days during the validity of your pass.  So if you did want to go Dundee-London on day 1, stay overnight, then go London-Brussels-Cologne on day 2, and were happy buying a normal ticket to return to London & Dundee on your final day, that would work.

  Also for the record, it's not a problem if you want to return to your home country during the validity of your pass, then go off travelling again.  Although as you only get 2 inbound/outbound days, you'd need to buy regular tickets to get you out of the country & back on your second trip.

• You can use Eurostar with a €30 passholder fare

  Since 2017, Interrail passes cover Eurostar trains between London and Paris, Brussels, Lille or Calais for a fixed price of €30 in Standard if you have a 2nd class pass or €38 in Plus if you have a 1st class pass, a little more from London to Rotterdam or Amsterdam.

  Passholder places are controlled by quota, with fairly wide availability if you book well in advance and reasonable availability even on the day of travel or the day before, although at busy times, days or dates not all trains will have passholder places.

  I recommend checking Eurostar availability before buying a pass, if using Eurostar is mission-critical.  I explain how to do that here.

  If you have a flexi-type pass, a journey with one of these Eurostar passholder fares requires you to use of your travel days, although of course you can use other trains as well during that day.  If you live in Britain, a Eurostar trip counts as travel in your home country.

  More about Eurostar passholder fares & how to buy them online.

• Or take a ferry to mainland Europe

  If you prefer to travel by ferry rather than Eurostar, or if all the cheap Eurostar fares have sold out, there's always a ferry!  You can buy a Stena Line Rail & Sail ticket from London (or anywhere in East Anglia including Cambridge, Norwich and Peterborough) to Hoek van Holland, from £62 one way or £124 return with or without a railpass, see the Stena Line Rail & Sail page, book online at www.stenaline.co.uk.  It's a wonderful way to reach the Continent.  There is no longer any discount for Interrail holders on the Dover-Calais or Newcastle-Amsterdam routes.

• How to find train times for using your Interrail pass

  Use the excellent German Railways online timetable at int.bahn.de.  It covers pretty much the whole of Europe.  Most trains shown in its database can be used with an Interrail pass, although supplements or special fares must be paid on some.  It will also show which trains have compulsory reservations.

  Or download the Rail Planner app.  Go to www.interrail.eu/en/plan-your-trip/rail-planner-app and download the Rail Planner app for your phone (please let me know if that link stops working).  This is this a great Europe-wide timetable app which you can use to check train times whilst on the move as the timetable works offline, with no mobile data costs.  The app also does passholder reservations for Eurostar, Eurostar (formerly Thalys) & Trenitalia high-speed trains.  If you buy an Interrail mobile pass, the pass sits in the Rail Planner app on your mobile.  The Rail Planner app warns you when a train shown in its search results isn't covered by Interrail.

• What about ferries within Europe, for example to Greece?

  An Interrail global pass also gives free travel on Superfast Ferries, Minoan Lines & Blue Star Ferries between Italy (Bari, Brindisi, Ancona or Trieste) and Greece (Corfu, Igoumenitsa or Patras for the train to Athens).  Port taxes & a fuel surcharge need to be paid, and cabin berths are extra, so think of it as a reduction, not free travel.  Superfast and some other ferry operators charge a small summer supplement, you pay at the port.  An Interrail pass also gives a significant discount (usually in the region of 30%-50%) on normal fares for some other shipping operators - for example, Silja Line (Stockholm-Helsinki or Stockholm-Turku.

When must you make reservations?

• The country-by-country reservations guide explains which specific trains require a reservation in each country and roughly how much it costs, but here is my rough - but pretty accurate - rule of thumb.

• Local, regional & suburban trains

  In virtually all countries, you can just hop on any local, regional or suburban train at any time, and show your Interrail pass to the conductor if and when asked.  Easy!

• Pass-friendly countries

  Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Denmark & most of central & eastern Europe.

  In these countries, seat reservation is usually optional even on long-distance trains and there's nothing extra to pay unless you want a reserved seat, or a couchette or sleeper on an overnight train.

  You can just hop on any train without a reservation, sit in any unreserved empty seat, and show your Interrail pass when asked by the conductor - even premier high-speed trains like Germany's superb ICE or Austria's excellent railjet trains.  Trains cannot 'sell out'.

  If you want a reserved seat (a sensible move for a long journey to avoid having to stand at busy times) it only costs €3-€5.  Passes retain their 'hop on, hop off' convenience factor in and between these countries.

  The key exceptions are as follows:  International journeys to or from France & Italy do require compulsory reservation with a fee to pay.  Eurostar (formerly Thalys) high-speed trains between Brussels & Amsterdam and between Brussels & Cologne have compulsory reservation & a fee for railpass holders.  A few scenic tourist trains in Switzerland require a seat reservation/supplement, such as the Glacier Express & Bernina Express.  Poland, Slovakia, Hungary & Romania require seat reservations on all their inter-city trains, but these are just normal seat reservations costing €1-€3, no big deal.  All this is explained in the country-by-country guide.

• Pass unfriendly countries

  France, Italy, Spain, Portugal & Sweden

  In these countries, passholders must make a reservation and pay a fee for almost every inter-city journey, including international journeys starting or ending in these countries.

  Reckon on paying €10+ for every train ride in these countries, sometimes less, sometimes more.  On French TGVs it's either €10 (limited quota) or €20 (when the €10 places sell out).  Eurostar (formerly Thalys) Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam is €15-€25. TGV-Lyria €30-€70, Paris-Milan TGV €31, Paris-Barcelona TGV €34.

  There are limited quotas for passholder places on Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam Thalys, Paris-Turin-Milan TGVs & Paris-Barcelona TGVs which can sell out if you don't reserve seats soon enough, but for other trains including French domestic TGVs, TGV-Lyria and Spanish or Italian high-speed trains, passholders can always get seats unless the train is physically full, which might happen at Christmas or Easter or on a busy Friday afternoons, but generally there's usually places available even on the day.

  See the country-by-country reservations guide to see which trains need a reservation, what it costs and how to make it.

• Sleeper trains

  You'll need to make a reservation & pay the appropriate fee for a sleeper or couchette on overnight trains. Remember that with a flexi type pass, an overnight train only uses one pass day, the date of departure, see the explanation here.

Can you avoid having to reserve?

• Sometimes you can avoid paying a reservation fee fairly easily if you don't mind a slower or less comfortable journey.  For example, from Rome to Florence there are fast & frequent high-speed Frecciarossa trains with a €13 reservation fee, but also a few comfortable and fairly fast InterCity trains with only a €3 reservation fee, and some slower regional trains with no reservation required at all.  Between Brussels & Amsterdam there are high-speed Eurostar (formerly Thalys) trains taking 1h49 with a €15 passholder fee or hourly InterCity trains taking 2h52 with no reservation necessary.  The choice is yours!

• In other cases avoiding a fee is more trouble than it's worth, as it would mean a relay-race of local trains taking hours longer and involving umpteen changes of train.  Just bite the bullet & pay the fee!  I'd put Paris-Brussels, Paris-Amsterdam, Paris-Nice, Paris-Italy in this category.

  Tip:  To see if there is a reasonable no-fee alternative, try using the Europe-wide online timetable at int.bahn.de, but click Mode of transport  and select Local transport only.

Overnight trains

• What's the difference between a couchette and a sleeper?

  Couchettes are basic bunks with rug & pillow, 4 or 6 per compartment, a sort of youth hostel on rails.  Sleepers are hotels on rails, with proper beds & washbasin, 1, 2 or 3 beds per compartment.  Couchettes & sleepers are explained on the sleeper page.

• How much does it cost?

  You need to pay a fee to use a couchette or sleeper with your Interrail pass.  To give you an idea, here are the passholder supplements for the most common type of sleeper train, a Nightjet.  They now vary like air fares, so these are the starting prices:

  Seat €14, couchette in 6-berth €34, couchette in 4-berth €44, bed in 3-berth sleeper €54, bed in 2-berth sleeper €74, bed in single-berth sleeper €114, berth in 2-berth deluxe sleeper €94, berth in single-berth deluxe sleeper €134.

  Berth fees for specific routes are listed in the Interrail pass reservation guide.

  The fee is per person per bed, one ticket = 1 bed.  If you are alone and book a single sleeper you get the whole compartment to yourself, if you book a bed in a double sleeper, you get one bed, some other passenger of the same gender gets the other bed and you'll share with them.

  Only a 2nd class ticket or pass is needed for all accommodation on Nightjets, even single or double deluxe sleepers.  However, in much of eastern Europe, a 1st class pass is necessary to travel in a single-berth sleeper, a 2nd class pass is OK for berths in a double or triple.  On Italian domestic sleeper trains a 2nd class pass is all you need to book single, double or triple sleepers or couchettes, but you can't use Excelsior sleepers.

• Using a pass on a sleeper train

  If you have a flexi-type pass, an overnight train only uses one day on your pass, the day of departure.  Here is the new rule, this replaced the old 'After 19:00' rule in January 2019:

  A Flexi pass day runs from midnight to midnight.  But if you board any overnight train before midnight, and do not change trains after midnight, you only need to use one day on a Flexi pass, the day of departure.  Got it?

  It doesn't matter what time your sleeper train leaves on day 1, or what time it arrives on day 2.  The date you enter on your pass is that of day 1.

  As normal, you get unlimited travel from midnight to midnight on day 1, so can take other trains on day 1 in addition to the sleeper, all on the same pass day.  You can then continue your journey on the direct overnight train until you get off at your destination on day 2.  The only proviso is that you cannot change trains after midnight, and that both the departure day and arrival day must fall within the overall pass validity period.

  For example, if you wanted to take the Dacia Express leaving Vienna at 19: 42 on the 1st August and arriving Bucharest at 16:06 on the 2nd August, you'd use 1st August as one of your unlimited travel days, this covers the whole of the sleeper journey, even the part on 2nd August - in this example well into in the afternoon.

  You'd have unlimited travel all day on 1st August, so it would also cover other journeys that day, for example a preceding journey from Prague to Vienna to connect with the sleeper.  On the other hand, if you wanted to take an onward train from Bucharest to Constanta on 2nd August after getting off the sleeper, that means using up another travel day, this time dated 2nd August.

  But even if you don't use any other trains on 2nd August, that day of arrival still needs to fall within the overall validity period of your pass, in other words, if you had a 5-days-in-1-month flexi pass the 2nd August must be inside the 1 month period, it cannot be Day 32 just outside it.  Got it?

  The country-by-country reservations guide explains how to make sleeper or couchette reservations for specific routes.

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How to use a mobile pass

• Mobile Interrail passes were introduced in September 2020 and once you get the hang of it they're really easy to use.  The mobile pass sits in the Rail Planner app on your phone, instead of a printed travel diary you use the app's journey planner to select your train and add it to your trip.  Then when you actually board that train, you toggle that train onto your pass.  The in-app instructions are clear and well-written.

  I'll first describe how to use an Interrail mobile pass as a solo traveller.  Then if you're a couple, family or small group, I'll explain how to buy & use multiple passes on one phone at the end of this section.

• Step 1, buy the pass

  You can buy an Interrail pass up to 11 months in advance.  There's no need to decide on a start date when you buy it, the pass can be activated on any date you choose in the 11 months after purchase.  So if your plans change or your trip is postponed, no worries.

• Step 2, download the Rail Planner app

  Get the Rail Planner app for iPhone or Android at www.interrail.eu/en/plan-your-trip/rail-planner-app.

• Step 3, load your pass into the app

  When you buy the pass, you are sent a confirmation email with your pass number.  Follow the instructions to load the pass into the Rail Planner app by entering your pass number.

  Incidentally, an obvious anti-fraud measure is that you can only load a given pass onto one device at a time.  So you can't load one pass onto 10 phones!  If you load your pass into your phone and that phone is lost or stolen or you upgrade phones, you can load your pass onto a new phone using your name & pass number, tapping Move pass when prompted and following the steps shown to move the pass to the new device.

• Step 4, create a trip

  The next step is to create a trip and connect your pass to it.  Think of a trip as a holding pen, a personal folder in which you can store potential journeys (individual trains or journeys involving multiple trains) found using the app's journey planner that you may or may not end up taking with your pass.  You can call the trip anything you like, My Big Interrail Trip, Mark's European Odyssey, Fred, whatever.  Your trip lives in the My trip tab on the app.  A pass can only be connected to one trip.

• Step 5, when you're ready to travel, activate your pass

  When you know for sure when you want to start using your pass, follow the in-app instructions to activate it, entering your passport number and desired start date.  With a flexi-type pass, you choose the date of your first unlimited travel day and the overall validity period (the overall 1 or 2 month period) starts ticking from that date.

  Even after doing this, you can still change your mind - you can alter the start date any time until 23:59 the day before, Central European Time.  But once the first pass day has started at 00:00 CET, you can't change your mind, that travel day is used.

  It safest to activate on the day you want to start using it.  One person bought a pass in February, immediately entered a July activation date, forgot about it, postponed his trip to August, then found the pass had already activated and burned through its 1 month validity!

• Step 6, look up trains in the planner and add them to your trip

  Open the app, click on Planner at the bottom and use the journey planner to look up train times.  In the search results, find a departure that suits you, click on it for details, then click Save journey to add it to your trip.

  You can add as many journeys to your trip as you like, journeys added to a trip are not connected to your pass and there is no obligation to actually take them.  As I said, a trip is just your personal library of trains you might be interested in, and you can edit the list at any time. 

  For example, I wasn't sure if I'd leave Engelberg at 09:02 next morning or finish breakfast early and make the 08:02, so I added both journeys to my trip (which I'd called Engelberg as that's where I was going) to have them both handy, whichever one I ended up taking.

• Step 7, when you board a train, toggle that train onto your pass

  Find the journey in your trip and slide the grey toggle next to it to add it to your pass.

  If you now click on My pass you'll see that journey added to your pass, and if you click on Show ticket you'll see all journeys added to the pass for that day listed underneath the QR code.  If you make a mistake or change your mind at the last moment, don't worry, you can un-toggle the train to remove it from your pass.  It's that simple!

  On that Engelberg trip I managed to catch the 08:02, so went to the My trip tab, opened Engelberg and toggled the 08:02 onto my pass.  I then swiped left on the 09:02 to delete it from Engelberg - or I could have just left it there, it doesn't matter.

  If any of the trains involve travel in your home country, the app will warn you that you're triggering one of your two permitted inbound/outbound days.  It keeps a record of those and won't let you have more than two.

  Incidentally, toggling a train onto your pass does not in any way 'reserve' or 'book' that train.  Reservations are an entirely separate thing.  All this does is (a) make the pass valid for that train, it's not a valid ticket until you have done this and (b) act as an electronic travel diary to tell the Interrail management team what trains you've used so they can crunch the numbers and accurately allocate pass revenue to train operators.

• Step 8, show your pass to the conductor

  When a conductor comes along, open the app, click on My pass, pass details appear.  Click on Show ticket, the pass QR code appears.  The conductor will scan the QR code.  Most times, that's it.

  Sometimes the conductor will ask you to scroll down from the QR code to the list of journeys which have been added to the pass that day (he's making sure you've correctly added that train to your pass so that the rail operator ultimately gets their share of pass revenue).

  Sometimes you'll be asked to show your passport, but not always.

• Troubleshooting

  These tips are worth remembering if you have any problems showing your pass:

  1.  If you click Show ticket and the pass QR code fails to appear, go to My Trip and deselect the train you are using, then toggle it back onto the pass it.  Go back to My Pass, click Show ticket again and the QR code may now appear.

  2.  If that doesn't fix it, or if the app denies that you have a valid pass, don't panic!  Put your phone into aeroplane mode, which stops the app trying to contact the server in an area with poor reception.  Restart the app and it'll show the pass from it own local data.

• How to add a train manually if Rail Planner can't find it

  Occasionally, Rail Planner's journey planner can't find a train you want to take, but you can add such journeys manually.

  For example, Interrail is valid on the local trains between Latour de Carol & Barcelona, but Rail Planner can't access the database they're listed on.  You'd normally then see an Add journey manually link.  However, in this case it offers a round-about route via Toulouse & Narbonne so you may not see that link.  Solution?  Run an enquiry from 'Mickey' to 'Mouse'.  It definitely won't find that, and offers the Add journey manually link.  You can now add Latour de Carol to Barcelona to your trip and then to your pass.

• Buying & using passes for multiple people

  You can buy passes for multiple people in one transaction, for example for your family, partner or group of friends.  You'll get a separate pass number for each person.

  One option is to give each person their own pass number so they can load their own pass on to their own phone and use it independently as explained above.  You should use this option if there is any chance that people may want to split up and go off on their own.

  The other option is for you to be 'group leader' and manage passes on behalf of everyone, by loading multiple passes onto one phone.  Just remember that you won't then be able to split up as all the passes will be one one phone.  This cannot be changed afterwards without help from the Interrail Support Team.

  The process for handling multiple passes on one phone is a bit clunky, but works.  If you try to add a 2nd pass to the same trip, it offers to duplicate the trip.  Go ahead and create a duplicate trip for each person in your group and connect their pass to that trip (remember to rename each trip so you know which trip belongs to which person).  When you find a train in the journey planner and want to save it to your trip, you are offered tick-box options to save it to multiple trips, so you can save it to everyone's trip at once.  When you board the train, you need to open each person's trip and add that journey to that person's pass - unfortunately there's currently no way to do that in one go!

1. Planner:  Click Save journey to save a journey to My Trip.		2. My Trip:  Edit as you like.  Toggle to add a journey to your pass.		3. My Pass:  Click Show ticket when the conductor comes along.		4. Interrail ticket, upper.  The conductor will scan the QR code.		5. Interrail ticket, lower, showing list of trains added to pass.

How to use a hard-copy pass

• The pass:  The classic hard-copy Interrail pass is printed on blank ATB-size international train ticket stock with a security background.  If it's a flexi-type pass it will have boxes printed on it for each travel day.  When you want to use a travel day, you simply write the date in indelible black or blue ink in one of the boxes, using each box in turn.

• Pass cover number:  If you receive your pass stapled inside a paper cover, the pass number is printed on the rear of the cover, not on the pass itself, often referred to as the pass cover number.

• The travel diary:  The pass comes with a blank travel diary.  Each time you take a train, you need to write the date, where it's from and where it's to, in black or blue ink.  If you run out of space, you can ask for more pages at any main station.  You send it back to them after your trip (free postage) and it's used for market research, it helps allocate Interrail revenue between operators.

• To make it clear, Brussels to Nuremberg with a change in Frankfurt requires two separate entries, Brussels-Frankfurt and Frankfurt-Nuremberg.  However, if a conductor found you had made only one entry, Brussels to Nuremberg, they should point it out (and maybe ask you to change it) but that's all.

• In theory you could be fined if the conductor finds that you haven't filled in your travel diary, but in practice most conductors will simply ask you to do so if you forgot.  However, there's always the risk that you'll meet a jobsworth, so play safe and fill it in while you're waiting for the train or as soon as you get on.

Hard-copy pass:  This is a 10-days in 2 months Interrail global Flexi pass.  Courtesy of Rail Europe.		The Interrail train travel diary: You need to fill this out each time you board a train.  Larger image.

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How to make reservations

'Pass' and 'reservations' are totally separate

• This often confuses people, so listen up:  The process of (1) loading, activating and using your Interrail pass, and (2) making seat or berth reservations on particular trains, are two different, separate, entirely unconnected things.  One does not affect the other, in any way whatsoever.

  So finding a train in the Rail Planner app, adding it to your 'trip' then adding it to your pass does not 'book' the train or reserve seats on it.  All it does is render the pass valid for it, an electronic record that helps Interrail management allocate pass revenue between operators.

  Conversely, making a seat or berth reservation on a particular train does not in any way activate your pass, or use up a day on your pass, or commit you to using the pass on that train or date.  If you have to enter your pass number when reserving, that's only to stop people without a pass making a reservation, it does not affect, trigger or use up your pass.  Passes & reservations are entirely unconnected.

  The pass itself sits in the Rail Planner app on your phone.  A seat or berth reservation (depending how it's made) is separate, it might be an email with QR code shown on your phone or printed out, or a QR code shown in a train operator's app, or a hard copy ticket from a ticket office.

• For example, suppose you have a pass loaded onto your phone and your friend has a pass loaded on their phone.  The passes don't even need to be activated.  One of you can sit at a desktop computer and make passholder reservations for 2 passengers, entirely unconnected from the passes, using the websites I suggest in the passholder reservations guide.  And if you later decide to bin those reservations and use the passes 3 months later in a totally different country, that's fine!  Did I mention passes and reservations are entirely unconnected?

Option 1, online at the train operator's website

• If it's possible - reality check, it seldom is - making reservations at the train operator's own site is ideal as you pay no booking fee (just the reservation fee) & you get a wide choice of seating options, sometimes specific seat selection.

  Unfortunately, most train operator websites don't sell passholder reservations, only normal tickets.  Eurostar, SNCF (French Railways) & Trenitalia used to sell passholder reservations, all 3 stopped because it was abused by fare-evaders without a pass.

• Operators that can sell passholder reservations on their websites include:

  - The ÖBB (Austrian Railways) website www.oebb.at sells passholder reservations for Nightjet sleeper trains, Nightjet partner sleeper trains, and Vienna-Italy railjet trains.

  - The SJ (Swedish Railways) website www.sj.se sells passholder reservations for Swedish domestic trains and Copenhagen-Stockholm, Stockholm-Oslo international trains.

• There are also routes where trains are reservation optional, where passholders don't have to pay a special passholder reservation fee, just make a normal seat reservation if they want one like any other ticket-holder.  Some operators allow reservation-only bookings to be made on their website for anyone with an existing ticket, including a pass:

  - The DB (German Railways) website int.bahn.de can do 'seat-only' bookings for German domestic trains and international trains between Germany & Amsterdam, Brussels, Prague or Switzerland, with specific seat selection on key routes.

  - The ÖBB (Austrian Railways) website www.oebb.at can do 'seat only' bookings on trains between Austria & Prague, Budapest, Germany or Switzerland, sometimes with seat selection.

  - The Czech Railways website www.cd.cz can do 'seat-only' bookings for many routes out of Prague, often with specific seat selection.  Isn't it great being able to choose your seats from a plan?

• To see if this is an option for a train you want to book, go to the reservations page & click on the country where the journey starts.

Option 2, online using the Interrail reservation service

• If you can't book online direct with the train operator, the next best thing is to book online using the official Interrail reservations service.

  You need to buy a pass before you can access this service, as a pass number is required even to run enquiries.

  There's a booking fee of €2 per reservation in addition to the reservation fee.  The prices shown on their website include the booking fee.

  One downside, you aren't offered any seating choice, not even 'aisle' or 'window', you basically have to take what the system gives you.

• How to use it

  Go to www.interrail.eu, click Seat reservations at the top, yes you have a pass, no you don't have an account, create an account, enter your pass number.  Now you can use the reservation system journey planner to bring up train departures for the route you want.

  You'll see the abbreviation IRT a lot.  This stands for Integrated Reservation Ticket, and simply means it's a ticket combined with a compulsory seat reservation (the way France, Italy, Spain do ticketing), as opposed to a stand-alone optional seat reservation designed to go with a separate travel ticket (the way Germany, Austria, Switzerland usually do ticketing.  A distinction too subtle to concern most travellers!

• Trains it can book & e-ticket

  Reservations shown as e-ticket are automated and usually emailed to you within minutes.  Reservations can be made until 3 hours before departure, you can use their mobile website if you're already on the move.

  For example, the system can e-ticket passholder reservations for Eurostar, domestic trains in France (TGVs, Intercités, Intercités de Nuit couchettes), Paris-Turin-Milan TGVs, Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam/Cologne Eurostar (formerly Thalys), Paris-Switzerland TGV-Lyria, Paris-Germany ICE & TGV.  Domestic trains in Italy (Frecciarossa, Frecciargento, Frecciabianca, Intercity, ICN sleeper trains), Switzerland-Italy EuroCity trains.  Copenhagen-Stockholm X2000 trains.  It will also book optional seat reservations in countries such as Germany or Austria, but you can make those without any added fee using the train operator's own website.

• Trains it can book, but with a hard-copy ticket that must be posted

  Reservations shown as paper ticket have to be posted to you for an extra fee (for example, €9 to the UK & other European countries, with tracking).  This typically takes 2 weeks to the UK, for example.

  For example, the system has to send paper tickets for Paris-Barcelona TGVs, Lyon/Marseille-Barcelona AVEs, Prague-Krakow trains, Budapest-Bucharest daytime & sleeper trains, Berlin-Warsaw & Berlin-Krakow EuroCity trains, Norwegian trains.

• Trains it can't book

  The system cannot currently book trains in the UK, Ireland, Portugal, Finland, Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey.  It also can't book Nightjet sleeper trains or Venice-Vienna railjets (but www.oebb.at can book these).  It only seems to offer 2nd class reservations on the Munich-Italy Brenner EuroCity trains.

• To check whether to use this service for a specific train, go to the reservations page & click on the country where the journey starts.

Option 3, online at b-europe.com (Eurostar only)

• Passholder reservations on Eurostar and Eurostar (formerly Thalys) can be made either at the official Interrail reservation service as explained above, or at the Belgian Railways international site www.b-europe.com/EN/Booking/Pass (please tell me if this direct link stops working).  The advantage of www.b-europe.com/EN/Booking/Pass is that you can check passholder availability before you buy your pass, as the pass number is only needed to buy the reservation, not to run an enquiry.  But at the time I write this, b-europe charges a €4 booking fee per total booking, the Interrail reservation service only charges €2 per person.

  Tip:  If you have a mobile pass and it won't accept your mobile pass number, simply generate a pass cover number from your mobile pass number using this special page: www.eurail.com/en/book-reservations#/generatePassCoverNumber.

• If you want to book a Eurostar train between London & Paris/Brussels/Amsterdam, see the Interrail & Eurail on Eurostar page.

Option 4, make reservations by phone with a UK booking agency

• In many cases, you can't make reservations online, you need to pick up the phone.

• For trains within France, Spain, Switzerland and between France, Spain and neighbouring countries, call International Rail on 0844 248 248 3 or Trainseurope on 0871 700 7722, office hours Monday-Friday in both cases.

• For trains in Germany, Austria, central & eastern Europe & Scandinavia, call German Railways UK phone line on 00 49 (0)30 311 68 29 04, lines open 08:30-20:00 Monday-Friday, 09:00-13:00 Saturday & Sunday UK time, 1.5% fee for phone bookings.

Option 5, in person at the station

• You can make reservations at station ticket offices either in advance or on the day of departure, sometimes up to an hour or two before the train leaves, sometimes right up to departure time.  Just show your rail pass at the ticket window and ask for the reservation.  Many European railway staff speak some English, but if you don't speak the language, just write down what you want and show it to the booking clerk.  Easy!

Tips for finding accommodation

• Hotels:  I usually use www.booking.com to sort my hotels as not only has it got a really good, clear interface, you can usually book accommodation with free cancellation.  As trains usually can't be booked more than 90 or sometimes 60 days ahead, this means you can book hotels without any risk months before train bookings open.  Any hotel with a review score over 8.0 is unlikely to disappoint.

• Hotels will almost always look after your bags for free if you need to check out and catch an afternoon or evening train, or if you arrive in the morning before you can check in to your room.

• Backpacker hostels:  If you're on a tight budget, don't forget about backpacker hostels.  Hostelworld (www.hostelworld.com) offers online booking of cheap private rooms or dorm beds in backpacker hostels in most European cities at rock-bottom prices.

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Other railpasses worth knowing about

Interrail is the main pass range for European residents, but several countries also have their own national railpasses which can be worth knowing about.

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The European Rail timetable has train, bus & ferry times for every country in Europe (eastern and western) plus currency and climate information.  It is definitely worth buying if you're planning an extensive tour with a Interrail pass - having your own comprehensive timetable puts you in control of your own trip, and will save you hours in queues for station information desks or struggling with station timetables which show only the most basic information.  It costs around £15.99 from www.europeanrailtimetable.eu.