I'm going Interrailing!

Prepare to be very security conscious in hostels. You can’t leave anything lying around even if you just pop to the loo.

One thing she did was to get me to photograph her credit cards, passport, write down important telephone numbers and passwords, also her bank details and passwords and keep here for safe keeping, in case her phone was lost, stolen or broken.

I’ll chat to my daughter over Christmas and see what other tips she has.
She is going over to Europe again in the Spring, she also took advantage of the cheaper tickets.

Thanks so much for the encouragement and great advice and tips! Train travel is so much more relaxing and enjoyable than flying these days. I will get a lanyard for my phone, and will be taking clothes pegs for various uses. I'm going to start a notebook and plan as much as I possible can. I'll check back here for any more tips that appear.

My wife has a brother and sister in the US, to visit them in N Carolina we started in San Francisco and took the California Zephyr train east, we didn’t rush we took 4 days in the Colorado mountains, then on to Chicago.

A fantastic trip and cost no more than a beach holiday, next year we are doing something similar in India, different for sure!

DD1 and family did this last summer. They had a great time.

Schnackie I tip from MzOops is to take a large wrap with you and some pegs, most of the hostel beds are bunk beds, she strung the wrap lengthwise across the side edge to give her some privacy, she used large sarong types. She use the pegs to dry her undies near to the light in the bunk each night.

Attach everything to your rucksack with Carabiners and tuck them in.

Attach your phone to a lanyard around your neck ( a long one) she was jostled quite badly in Slovenia, by men and women and felt them trying to tug on her phone which was attached to her and tucked into the front of her jacket.

Apart from that she didn’t have any trouble.

If you need help and don’t speak the language ( Google translate is good ) always ask a young person, older people tend not to speak very much English.

Look forward to reading all about it.

Wow! Sounds amazing. I don’t know anything about this so must look into it.

Good for you. We did a 2 week trip, incl 6 days travel, with Interrail two years ago, with my 87 year old brother and us both in our 70s. Montreux in Switzerland, Verona and Goritzia in Italy, Lake Bled and Ljubljana in Slovenia, Graz and Innsbruck in Austria, Zurick in Switzerland, and home.

Where are you planning to go?

Our daughter has just returned from 3 months Interrailing in Europe, she booked Hostels along the way.
Some hostels were better than others so do your homework before you go.
She also booked a few of her train journeys well in advance
( mostly because it was getting close to Christmas). But the trains are very prompt and you have to book a seat in advance, so make sure you are savvy with Internet train bookings.
She also had a huge rucksack to lug around.

I wish you luck and hope you have a great time.

Well done! I am so envious. I did it as a student and stayed in youth hostels.
Good luck!