Last Updated on 24th November 2023
This post about how much does interrailing cost contains affiliate links and mentions of collaborative work with Interrail Eurail. Please see my disclaimer for more.
A European interrailing trip, whether it’s for two days, two weeks or two months is never going to be cheap. With the cost of the Interrail Pass itself, as well as accommodation, food, activities and more, the cost of interrailing Europe soon adds up!
Thankfully, I’ve become quite accustomed to writing spending reports over the years (check out my USA road trip budget, New York for one month budget and my 6-month travelling budget posts here), so I know exactly which information you need to plan an interrail trip on a budget.
After spending 6 weeks interrailing across 7 countries and 21 cities in Europe, I’ve put together my total interrail budget which includes everything you need to know about how much we spent on food, transport, accommodation, activities and more.
I will preface this post about how much money we spent interrailing for 6 weeks by saying that we worked with Interrail on a collaborative basis for the duration of our trip, so we were lucky enough to receive two 1st class Interrail Global Passes for free, meaning that we saved a total of £578 each. I also want to add that this post is strictly about our interrail budget and how much money we spent in Europe for six weeks – your budget will likely differ depending on where you go, where you stay and how much you want to spend.
Interrail budget for 6 weeks for 2 people – £5,984.41
(£2,992.21 each – £66.49 each per day)
How much is interrailing for 1 month?
Interrailing in Europe can cost as little as £20 to £200 per person per day. We spent 6 weeks travelling around Europe via train and spent £66.49 each per day, visiting countries such as Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland and Italy.
Of course, these countries certainly aren’t cheap, especially Switzerland and Denmark, so an interrail budget of £66 each per day isn’t actually that astronomical.
Interrail Global Pass cost
As I mentioned above, we were incredibly lucky to collaborate with Interrail Eurail for the duration of our European interrailing trip, which meant that we received two free 1st class Interrail Global Passes (15 days within 2 months).
These passes are worth £578 per person for 1st class passes (£456 for 2nd class passes) which is obviously a huge saving on behalf of our interrail budget and it meant that we had the choice to travel to 33 countries and over 30,000 destinations.
The particular pass that we had (15 days within 2 months) meant that we could travel on as many trains as we liked on each of our 15 travel days within a 2-month period. This pass was the best option for our 6-week European interrailing trip as it meant that we had more flexibility to travel across numerous countries and cities over the course of six weeks.
I also worked out how much money each train that we took would have cost if we didn’t have the Interrail Pass and the figure is astounding!
For the 15 days within 2 months of train travel that we enjoyed (including journeys such as Milan to Zurich, Stockholm to Copenhagen, Berlin to Hamburg , Antwerp to Ghent, and so many more), we saved €2,066.96 (£1,814.09) each just by having the Interrail Pass!
Without the Interrail Global Pass (15 days within 2 months), we would have paid €2,066.96 (£1,814.09) each in total for each of the train journeys we took during our 6 weeks in Europe, whereas the pass only cost £578 each!
If the “15 days within 2 months” pass isn’t quite right for you, there are many other Interrail Passes that you might want to consider:
(Note that these are all based on adult passes for people aged 28+. You can check the cost of youth passes on the Interrail website).
- 7 days within 1 month – £392 for 1st class, £310 for 2nd class
- 1 month – £786 for 1st class, £620 for 2nd class
- 3 months – £1,058 for 1st class, £833 for 2nd class
The cost of the Interrail Global Pass for two people (15 days within 2 months) – £1,156 (£578 each).
Read more: Is The Interrail Pass Worth It? An Honest Interrail Review
Accommodation costs – how much does interrailing cost?
Accommodation was our biggest expense during our interrail trip, but a vast majority of our accommodation interrail budget was taken up by our one-week stay at Ski Hostel in Switzerland (for which we paid €1000 (£877) each.
Of course, this is a huge expense to add to our interrail budget for 6 weeks and it’s a very niche cost that you probably won’t have on your own interrail budget (unless you want to spend a week skiing in Switzerland, of course!).
Our one-week ski trip in Switzerland at Ski Hostel not only included the price of our accommodation but also all of our food, activities and ski lessons. Therefore, the cost of €1000 each for one week isn’t that absurdly expensive.
Including the one week we spent at Ski Hostel in Switzerland, we stayed at a total of 12 different accommodations during our 6 weeks in Europe (we also spent four nights staying with friends and family but we didn’t have to pay for this!).
To book our accommodation during our interrail trip, we mostly used Booking.com. We also booked three properties on Airbnb in Milan, Düsseldorf and Antwerp as it worked out slightly cheaper in those cities than the properties available on Booking.com.
The total cost of accommodation for our 6-week European interrail trip for two people: £3,693.40 (£1,846.70 each).
Read more: Interrail Planning Tips For Beginners – How To Plan An Interrail Trip
Food – meals and drinks at bars and restaurants
Food and drink aren’t something we skimp on while travelling, so we always know that it’s going to take up a significant portion of our travel budget.
Despite meals and drinks at bars and restaurants in Europe being pretty expensive, especially in countries such as Switzerland, Denmark and Sweden, we didn’t actually spend too much money eating out.
£450 each for 6 weeks of meals and drinks out isn’t too bad at all, in my opinion, especially considering how much money we spent on food and drink on our USA road trip and during our one month in New York!
The total cost of food (meals and drinks in bars and restaurants) in Europe for two people: £900.59 (£450.30 each).
Read more: How Much Does Backpacking Europe Cost?
Food costs in Europe – groceries
One of the best ways to keep costs down while interrailing in Europe is to buy groceries from the supermarket. We bought breakfast items such as croissants, sandwiches and other assorted pastries from the supermarket most mornings, as well as ingredients to make breakfast ourselves in our accommodation which helped to keep food costs as low as possible.
When we stayed in an apartment or in an Airbnb, we also often bought groceries to cook dinner in our accommodation instead of eating out every single night, which also helped us to keep our interrail food budget down.
The total cost of groceries on our interrail trip in Europe for 6 weeks for two people: £484.29 (£242.15 each).
Activities – how much does interrailing cost?
Despite travelling for 6 weeks across Europe, we didn’t actually pay for that many activities.
Of course, if you include the €2000 we paid for our stay at Ski Hostel for a week (which included various activities and ski lessons), we did, in fact, pay a lot for activities, but as I’ve included that cost in the accommodation section above, our budget for activities in Europe was remarkably low.
We did still enjoy many awesome attractions and activities during our interrail adventure, including a Champions League football match in Milan, a visit to the Berliner Fernsehturm in Berlin and a trip to the Mercedes Museum in Stuttgart, but we mostly opted for free things where possible, which is why our activities cost was so low.
The total cost for activities on our European trip for two people: £166.11 (£83.10 each).
Transport costs
While our Interrail Pass covered most of our long train journeys throughout Europe, we also had to pay for city metros, subways and trams ourselves as most public transport methods are not included in the Interrail Pass.
These transport costs include initial flights to Milan (where we started our trip), the metro in Milan, additional train tickets to Lake Como (we didn’t want to use a travel day from our Interrail Pass for this trip as the tickets were so cheap on their own), an Uber in Berlin, the tram in Stockholm and train reservations for the Eurostar from Brussels to London (€34 each).
The total cost of transport in Europe for 6 weeks (excluding the Interrail Global Pass) for two people: £460.10 (£230.05 each).
Read more: What To Pack For An Interrail Trip
Miscellaneous costs (insurance, laundry, ATM withdrawals)
As well as accounting for the cost of accommodation, transport, food and activities in our interrail budget, I also wanted to include a “miscellaneous” costs section which accounts for things such as travel insurance, laundry, city tax and ATM withdrawals.
In addition to our standard travel insurance, we also purchased a specific one-week ski holiday travel insurance policy to ensure that we were fully protected during our ski trip in Switzerland.
We also “spent” around £250 in ATM withdrawals using our Monzo card as there were some instances where we needed cash. However, most of the spending on our interrail trip was using our Monzo card as card payments are widely accepted almost everywhere in Europe.
Total “miscellaneous” costs during our 6-week interrail trip in Europe for two people: £279.92 (£139.96 each).
How to interrail on a budget – how much does interrailing cost?
Below, I’ve included some of my top tips for interrailing on a budget that can help keep the costs down while you’re travelling across Europe via train:
- Purchase the Interrail Global Pass – this can literally save you thousands of pounds on train tickets.
- Bring your own water bottle – tap water is safe to drink pretty much everywhere across Europe, so you can keep costs down by refilling your own water bottle (and it’s also much better for the environment!).
- Buy food at supermarkets and convenience stores to cut the costs of eating out – breakfast from the supermarket (such as croissants and sandwiches etc) is a fraction of the cost of food and drink in restaurants.
- Consider getting private rooms in hostels instead of hotels – we never stay in dorms in hostels, but we stayed in many private rooms in hostels/shared accommodations while travelling in Europe and it’s often much cheaper than a fancy hotel room (Hostelworld is a great resource for this, but you can also find private rooms in hostels on Booking.com).
- Choose cheaper countries to travel to while interrailing. Eastern European countries such as Poland, Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary tend to be much cheaper to visit than Western European countries.
- Avoid interrailing during peak seasons such as the summer months and during the Christmas markets in December. Interrailing in February/March/April and October/November tends to be much cheaper for accommodation and activities in most places in Europe.
- Consider taking night trains. Taking a night train instead of during the day can save money on your Interrailing trip and it will also save you money on hotel/hostel costs as you won’t have to pay for accomodation on the night that you’re travelling on the train.
Related posts – guide to Interrailing:
- The Best 2-Week Europe Interrailing Route
- 26+ Best European City Breaks To Take All Year Round
- 2 Days In Berlin – The Perfect Weekend Itinerary
- 2 Days In Milan – The Ultimate Weekend Itinerary
- One Day In Freiburg Itinerary – Is Freiburg Worth Visiting?
- One Day In Ghent Itinerary – Is Ghent Worth Visiting?
Pin for later – how much does interrailing cost? Interrail budget for 6 weeks
Did you think going interrailing for six weeks would cost more or less? Let me know in the comments or on Instagram at @imjustagirl_16.
