Interrail itinerary: 1, 2 and 3 weeks (with who to go)

There is a moment in every Interrail plan when the map wins. You open it to sketch a route and, an hour later, you have eleven cities in fourteen days, three of them in countries you added because the line looked short. On paper it is the trip of a lifetime. On the platform it is a fortnight of packing, unpacking and seeing Vienna from a station café.

A good Interrail itinerary fits the time you have, not the map: around three or four cities a week, two or three nights in each, and legs of four hours or less on most days. Below are three shapes, one for one week, one for two and one for three, with real train times, the Global Pass that fits each and the reservations you cannot skip. Then who to go with, all the way or for one leg: if that is what you are missing, TravelMatch is free and built for finding people going the same way on the same dates.

How long to Interrail Europe, really

The useful number is not days but travel days. Every day on a train is a day you spend partly in a seat, so a sensible rule is one travel day for every two or three days in a place. That means a week holds three or four cities, two weeks five or six, and three weeks eight or nine if you keep the legs short.

The other number is reservations. Interrail's own site is plain about it: most high-speed and night trains require a reservation at an additional cost, not included in the pass, while most regional trains need none. A route built on regional and optional-reservation trains is cheaper and more flexible; one built on Eurostar, TGVs and Italian high-speed trains is faster but has to be booked like a set of flights.

Interrail itinerary 1 week: Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest

The classic first route, and the gentlest on the wallet, because none of these trains has a compulsory reservation.

• Berlin to Prague: around 4 hours (Seat61). Reservation optional, €5.50.
• Prague to Vienna: around 4 hours 12 minutes on the railjet (Seat61). Optional, €3.
• Vienna to Budapest: 2 hours 37 minutes (Seat61). Optional, €3.

That is three travel days. Two nights in each city fits seven days with a little slack, and you fly home from Budapest. The pass that fits is the Global Pass with 4 travel days within 1 month: €212 for a Youth pass and €283 for an Adult pass, in second class. The fourth day covers a day trip or a change of plan.

From the UK, flying to Berlin is the simplest start. To go by train all the way, take the 5-day pass (€239 Youth, €318 Adult) and add a Eurostar reservation.

Interrail itinerary 2 weeks: Paris, the Alps and Italy from London

Of the best Interrail routes for two weeks from the UK, this one starts at St Pancras and trades a few reservations for some of Europe's most beautiful lines.

• London to Paris: 2 hours 16 minutes direct (Eurostar). Reservation compulsory, €35.
• Paris to Zurich: 4 hours 4 minutes (TGV Lyria). Compulsory, €29.
• Zurich to Milan: 3 hours 17 minutes (SBB). Compulsory, €13 to €17.
• Milan to Venice: around 2.5 hours (Seat61).
• Venice to Florence: around 2 hours (Seat61).
• Florence to Rome: around 1.5 hours (Seat61).

The three Italian legs on Frecciarossa high-speed trains need a reservation of €10 to €13 each on Interrail's fee tables. Italian regional trains need none, so if you are in no hurry the Florence to Rome leg is a fair place to save. Six legs, two nights per stop, two spare days for Lake Como or Pisa. The pass that fits is 7 travel days within 1 month: €286 Youth, €381 Adult or €343 Senior. Fly home from Rome, or keep the seventh day for the first leg back north.

Add up the compulsory reservations before you fall in love with it. In second class it comes to roughly €105 to €120 per person on top of the pass, plus Interrail's €2 booking fee per person per train if you book through them. Eurostar, TGV Lyria and the Milan to Zurich EuroCity are on Interrail's own list of busy routes that sell out, so book those first.

Interrail itinerary 3 weeks: a loop from London with a night train

This loop joins the two routes above with a sleeper across the Alps.

• London to Amsterdam: 4 hours 19 minutes direct (Eurostar). Compulsory, €35.
• Amsterdam to Berlin: 5 hours 51 minutes (NS International). Optional, €5.50, but compulsory on these ICE trains from 25 June to 5 September 2027.
• Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest: as in the one-week route.
• Budapest back to Vienna, then the Nightjet to Rome: an overnight train. Compulsory; a bed in a six-berth couchette was listed at €19.90 to €64.90 per person by Interrail (June 2026 prices).
• Rome, Florence, Milan: as in the two-week route, in reverse.
• Milan to Zurich, Zurich to Paris, Paris to London: 3 hours 17 minutes, 4 hours 4 minutes and 2 hours 16 minutes.

Count around eleven or twelve travel days. The pass that fits is 15 travel days within 2 months (€415 Youth, €553 Adult), which costs less than the 22-days-in-a-row pass (€440 Youth, €586 Adult) and leaves you spare days. Before building the trip around the sleeper, check how Interrail counts travel days on night trains, and the Nightjet website, which lists engineering works cutting the Rome and Venice services on several dates in 2027.

Which Global Pass fits each itinerary

Second-class prices on interrail.eu on 7 October 2026. Senior passes, for anyone 60 or over on the day the trip starts, cost €343 for 7 days within 1 month; check the other durations on the site. Youth and Senior depend on your age on the start date, not the booking date. If you were born in 2008 and live in the EU, look at DiscoverEU's free Interrail pass before you pay for anything.

Interrail solo or with friends: the part that is not on the timetable

People search "interrail solo" and "interrail with friends" in the same breath, and anyone who has tried to organise it knows why: the route is the easy part. Friends who said yes in January have a wedding in July. The one who can make the dates wants six cities a week; you want three.

A solo Interrail route works well, and plenty of people do the whole thing alone. What it does not give you is someone to split a twin room in Venice with, or to keep your seat while you buy coffee in Zurich. The middle ground is the one fewer people think of: go alone, and find company for the legs where you want it.

That is what we built TravelMatch for. You post your trip with its destination and dates, say Italy from 12 to 19 June, and other people going the same way ask to join; or you ask to join theirs. Before accepting anyone you see their profile, a compatibility percentage and reviews that only people who travelled with them can leave. If the organiser accepts, you are in the group chat and can agree the plan before anyone books a seat. It is free, it does not book anything for you and it does not ask for ID, so the passes and reservations are still yours to buy.

The alternatives are the usual ones: a forum thread, a hostel common room, or the friend who might still say yes. Wherever you find people, what matters is what you agree before you go: pace, budget and whether you do everything together. How to choose travel companions has the questions, and Interrailing as a group covers the booking traps, such as seats that come back scattered across the carriage. For a trip that mixes trains with buses and flights, see backpacking Europe; if you are still choosing where to go alone, the best places to travel solo in Europe.

Before you book anything

Pick the length first, then the shape, then the people, then the pass. In that order the reservations stop being a surprise and the route stops being a wish list. The map will always fit one more city. The trip is better when you don't let it.

→ Post your Interrail trip on TravelMatch · Free.

Reviewed in October 2026. Pass prices, the age bands and the reservation rules come from interrail.eu, checked on 7 October 2026 (Global Pass page and the international, domestic and night train reservation fee pages; Interrail says its reservation fees are indicative). Train times come from the operators on the same date: Eurostar (London to Paris and Amsterdam), TGV Lyria (Paris to Zurich), SBB (Zurich to Milan) and NS International (Amsterdam to Berlin, and the summer 2027 reservation rule). Times marked "around" are taken from Seat61's published timetables. Timetables and prices change, so check them on the operator's site before you book.