Inter-railing

Prefer Swiss Railways myself

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVjzfm17nrM

Beautiful

Done it on my own 25 years ago, one of the best things I've ever done.

I'll give more info another time but go for it if you have a chance.

I did it 30 odd years ago, lots of places to recommend but you will have to research the tickets as it's bound to have changed since

bloody marvellous though, deffo worth doing

Im more worried about the fact its hard to find which journeys would be free and which would only give discount

Never interailed.. but have been on plenty of train journeys in Europe..

Try this link..http://www.raildude.com/train/

I went in 1997 with a mate, cost £250 for a month of free travel (few times you had to pay extra for reservations, this totalled about a tenner over a month) we went to 20 different countries probably my greatest trip ever.  Was only 19 and back then places like barcelona, switzerland, eastern europe and istanbul might as well have been a different planet i was so excited in the six months leading up to it and i wasnt disappointed.  This was before cheap flights to many of these places and there was a genuine mystique about the places, not sure if that still exists for 19 year olds now.

I done it twice in 1990 and 1992, went to Paris, Luzern, Innsbruck, Belgrade, Bucharest (watched my team get beat 5-1 by Steau), Rome, Pisa (waste of time). 2nd time I done Paris again, Marseille (watched my team get beat 5 again) then done a few cities in a day. Brussels, Munich, Luxembourg before spending a few more days in Paris again (I love the city). I also when to the Inter v Fiorentino match when in Milan.

My biggest regret was not doing it again. I've a 17 y/o daughter who's hopefully heading to Uni but I'm trying to get her and her mates to do the same.

Most of the overnight trains were empty so you could get a night's kip on them for free and explore a city in a day the next morning. My only plans were to go and watch my team in UEFA, most other things were just a spur of the moment, I hopped on the first train I seen to a major city and just went there.

There was an Inter Railer's Bible I bought along with train timetables but I'm sure you'll find a lot of places with free Wifi to plan things when you're there.

I'm not sure how it operates now but for me it was only a matter of showing my pass on the trains and going. You'll also meet many other people like you who are doing the same. I've never regretted one minute of it and I'd love to do it again.

I have done it twice. The extra supplements you have to pay by travelling on any train that goes in the day time faster than you can walk, really gets costly.
First time I went was in september(fantastic), 2nd time in june(don't do it, unless you like sitting in very full overnight trains with yanks)
We went from Venice to Naples on the overnight(only train with no extra supplement) it was so full we had to hang around outside the bogs the whole night with other seethers. Wasn't until Rome(a long long time)we could actually get a seat. By the time you get anywhere you are so pissed off with having to mess about finding a train with no extra supplement to pay, and they are heaving)

there was a couple of threads on this last year - I will have a look in the  archive