Eurail/Interrail Rail Planner 4+

Caused a lot of stress

My friend and I booked a pass to use throughout Spain, we planned our route using the website and everything seemed doable. Once we arrived to Spain we realised some of the places we wanted to visit weren’t actually part of a direct rail route even though this wasn’t mentioned when using the route planner before arrival, had to spend €60 on a blahblah car in order to get to our next destination. Throughout our journey we used 5 travel days, 4 of which we had to pay an extra cost on top due to seat reservation (ranging from €4 to €12). Even after we had reserved our seats through the app we turned up to the station to be told that our train has been sold out and therefore forced to take the next train departing 3 hours after our initial train. Wish they had clearer information about their seat reservation scheme as we probably wouldn’t have booked it had we known how much stress it would’ve caused.

Developer Response ,

Hi there! We apologize if the information and our product have caused you stress during your trip.

We understand your frustration, however we'd like to clear up some information you might miss. For your information, it's not possible to book any seat reservations via the App. You can book via our website or alternative means as mentioned on our dedicated page: https://www.eurail.com/en/book-reservations/how-do-i-book-my-reservations

On our website at the reservation page, you could also find a clarity about the information if a route is valid with a Pass. We are sorry if we couldn't help you in advance to solve the issue you encountered. If by any chance you need our support, please feel free to contact our customer service via https://eurail.zendesk.com/hc/en-001/requests/new or via our Live Chat.

Kind regards,
Isa
Social Care Specialist
Interrail/Eurail

Extremely annoying and incorrect

The app works well for central Europe, where you don’t need reservations or anything else. If you plan to go into any area with redervations on trains it is useless - to the point of being detrimental to the journey. It tells you that reservations are required and then that nothing is available anymore. Going to the individual train operators’ websites you can easily make the same reservations this app said were unavailable. Trying to make reservations on the interrail website when coming from the app, you have to re-enter all the journey and time details, even though the app is brazen enough to warn you that you will need to re-enter the times if you rather click on the link to make your reservation with CD directly (for example). For connections around Sofia/Greece generally it just doesn’t show any results, so you’ll have to McGyver those areas using all other websites you might be lucky enough to find. Even though I’ve set the app to also show bus and ferry connections it doesn’t, and rather says that there aren’t any connections whatever time you might search for - even though the pdf map you can download from Interrail’s website will show that there is a train+bus-connection between for example Sofia and Thessaloniki, or Athens and the port at Patras. In summary, it is completely useless for any area with seat reservations, and completely useless for south-eastern Europe.

The modern Nomad or should we say Marco Polo

This is my third Interrail Global Pass even at 2 months off 70 years of age I still enjoy the exciting experience of train travel. We all know about island hopping on a boat, well why not try country hopping by train. You get to see so much scenery when going from country to country. My advice is first class, yes you pay extra, but when it comes to night travel the first class sleeper or Cushette as we know it, is one step beyond when it comes to the facilities provided:- 2 bunk beds, a table section, wardrobe, toilet and toiletries, a shower cubical and of corse electric socket for mobile phone charging or other devices. Have no fear you will have a Knock on your door with a free coffee etc, half an hour before your final stop. Of course the sleeper/ Cushette is at extra cost but well worth it when travelling through the night. Who wants to sit on a train seat trying to sleep and look after your belongings/baggage. Last thing, quite a few train journeys require a reservation booking, which you also pay for, I have found this useful my self. Last thing not all journeys are first class, mainly in the poorer countries. I think that is everything covered.
Happy travels
F J