[sph]

Interrail used to be more popular years ago among young adults who had just finished high school. I did it with a few friends at the time, and it was an incredible experience of self-reliance, patience and just complete freedom.

My best memory is sleeping under the stars outside the train station of Biarritz, France, on a mild summer night next to the Atlantic Ocean. Such a refreshing sleep.

The next night we did the same, sleeping under the stars outside the train station of Modane, France, very high up in the Alps. Definitely didn't sleep as well with the cold air and weird looks.

[xattt]

How long was this experience? I have a sense that sleeping outdoors as part of an adventure is getting tarnished by the homelessness and mental health crisis (… which is a separate issue that can’t be appropriately addressed here).

I live in a seasonal touristy area and I have to do double-takes as to whether someone is transient, or is just backpacking.

The implication here is personal safety. The homeless individual could be unpredictable due to mental health, whereas the backpacker is likely to be neutral.

[sph]

Those were the only two times of outdoor sleep in my life to date. The itinerary was Milan - Zurich - Amsterdam - Paris - Biarritz - Modane - back to Italy, sleeping in either hotels or the closest camping site to the train station.

IIRC it was a ticket for 20 days of unlimited travel, which we had to cut short as a friend did get sunburnt so badly to require a hospital stay. Ah, the joys of youth.

[374884848]

if you sleep outside train stations in france nowadays you gon have a fun time

[basisword]

I think it was much more popular before budget airlines became so big in Europe. When you can fly to most European cities for < €50 at anytime of the year taking lots of weekend breaks is affordable even for students.

[qurren]

For actual travel I've almost always preferred trains over flights in Europe. Much less hassle, you can take your favorite liquids, no idiot airline agents trying to steal your 8kg kg carry-on for being overweight, no security line.

I've travelled to almost every country in western Europe and several in Eastern Europe, not taking a single inter-Europe flight.

The only part I hate is after taking an overnight train, hotels aren't open for morning check in, and dragging luggage across cobblestone streets trying to find restrooms to take the obligatory 3 shit-sessions every morning due to my uncooperative butt is not fun.

[BobaFloutist]

One great "hack" I've discovered is that most hotels are more than happy to stow your luggage behind the counter, or even in a luggage room if you arrive before check in times.

This more or less completely eliminated my gripe with check-in times being later than I arrive to a city.

[qurren]

True, but I still need to shit an average of 3 times every morning and the arrivals are Poisson. Problematic in many European cities that don't have restrooms everywhere.

[riffraff]

I don't think so, I lived the peak of budget airlines in the 00s and interrail was still quite popular.

I think young kids have just moved on culturally, I tried to convince a couple relatives to make use of the 18yo free trains opportunity and nobody wanted to pick it up, for various reasons.

[hvb2]

You don't see as much though, and your options are more limited still. And the options you do have are likely more touristy as a result.

As always, the most easy to reach places will have the most people. I would say that's not what you're going for in such a trip.

[bluebarbet]

All true. Also: Weekend holidays involving flights are a completely unsustainable and irresponsible form of tourism given the climate crisis. Not that anyone much cares.

[SoftTalker]

Not always. For solo travel, flying can emit less carbon than driving an ICE vehicle, assuming a full commercial flight and depending on vehicle fuel efficiency. For EVs, hybrids, and group travel the calculation may be different.

Also, if you drive, it's likely that the flight you would otherwise have taken is going to make the trip anyway. So you've just added whatever carbon your car emits to the total.

If you're really concerned about it, the best plan is to not travel for pleasure, or maybe use a bicycle.

[bluebarbet]

As you hint, the rule of thumb is that driving is (mile for mile) roughly as polluting as flying. But that's surely the point: nobody is going to drive across a continent to go the beach. The problem with flying is precisely the speed with which the damage is done.

>if you drive, it's likely that the flight you would otherwise have taken is going to make the trip anyway

This is a terrible argument, a straightforward (but surprisingly common) fallacy. The plane is leaving because of the price signal: people bought tickets for the flight. If they stop buying tickets, planes will very quickly stop leaving.

I agree that if we care about the environment then we should at least try to travel less, or less far.

[basisword]

>> I agree that if we care about the environment then we should at least try to travel less, or less far.

I disagree. Regular people have already made plenty of sacrifices. We should continue enjoying our lives so long as billionaires utilise their private jets, governments wage wars, and citizens in countries like the US continue to consume exponentially more resources than everywhere else.

[c22]

Busses and trains get pretty good bang for the eco-buck. Oftentimes you can bring your bicycle with you for last-mile transportation at your destination city.

[FinnKuhn]

When you turn 18 the EU gives away a lot of free tickets. And free beats even the cheapest flight.

Great program for young people to learn more about other countries I made use of as well.

[unD]

My daughter (now 20) did something similar last summer: Prague, Berlin, Copenhagen, Malmö, Hamburg, Amsterdam, and Paris in a couple of weeks, IIRC.

She left with a friend, who headed home after a few days, so she ended up traveling solo for most of the trip. She stayed in hostels (bar in Paris) and ate basically only TooGoodToGo food [0] to save €. She made it home in one piece, with the biggest smile on her face.

[0] https://www.toogoodtogo.com/

[marvelous]

A guy told me once that he used his interrail ticket to sleep in the trains and save the cost of a hotel. He'd spend half the night going to a random destination and the other half back. The issue he faced once was that some border guard recognized him on the way back and would not believe that he wasn't involved in some sort of smuggling.

[bergie]

That's the way. Get on a train, sleep, wake up in a new city.

Last time I did interrail (some 15 years ago), you could sometimes pay a bit of extra to get a spot in a sleeping car.

[tokai]

On the contrary, it has never been more popular. Numbers are not that easy to come by but there were 750k tickets sold in 2024. In 1991 400k tickets were sold, the highest since the inception of interrail, but they rest of the 90s saw a slump in ticket sales with most years under 200k.

So Interrail is either close to double as, or even several times more, popular than when you did your trip.

[jmkd]

Ha, have also slept outside Biarritz station whilst interrailing. Must be the sea breeze.