[gib444]

For faster/intercity trains, it is still like that in Switzerland, Austria, Germany, The Netherlands, UK, Ireland, Denmark, Norway and most of central and eastern Europe [0]

France, Italy, Spain, Portugal & Sweden require seat reservations, as do most international services

Making reservations varies from easy to a complete pain

[0] https://www.seat61.com/how-to-use-an-interrail-pass.htm

[rsynnott]

Note that doing that in Ireland for intercity will result in you being _severely_ overcharged. Dublin to Cork is like 20 euro if you book in advance; I think if you buy the ticket in the station it’s over 60!

It’s fine for commuter stuff, of course, but I assume that’s the case everywhere.

[Scoundreller]

Then you get situations like a last minute (ie: knew 30 days in advance) trip from Munich to Berlin where we found it cheaper to rent a newish mid-range Mercedes and it for two.

Sure we had to actually do the driving, but hard to turn down a journey on the autobahn as a tourist.

[gib444]

We are discussing having an Interrail pass. Are you talking about purchasing tickets without a pass?

The pass covers intercity trains and reservations are optional