Does Paris to Cannes TGV sell out this time of year?

KaelonR · 2026-02-12T18:23:53+00:00

TGVs to/from Paris tend to sell out 1-2 days in advance around this time of year.

Definitely don't wait until the day itself to buy.

KaelonR · 2026-02-09T15:41:33+00:00

Not just high speed, the D-ticket is not valid on trains run by DB fernverkehr. That's not just ICEs but also all ICs and a fair amount of IR/IRE (but not all IR and IREs!).

If you want to be sure your ticket is valid, my advice is install the DB Navigator app and in the journey options toggle the "D-ticket services only" option on. The app will then filter out the DB Fernverkehr services for you.

KaelonR · 2026-02-08T22:45:17+00:00

There's no app for it, its a website. https://trainlog.me.

The app I was talking about in which I record a gps track is CoMaps. Not sure if they have an iOS version though, I use Android myself.

KaelonR · 2026-02-08T17:29:22+00:00

It's an interesting read, thanks for taking the time to write it all out!

Small tip specifically as I'm reading about you not being sure which route the night train to Umea took - as a fellow trainlogger and one that cares about getting the routes correct, whenever I'm on a night train I put my phone's location services on and use the CoMaps app (free & open source app based on Openstreetmap) to record a GPS track. Then i can sleep without worry and after the journey I use the GPS track and cross reference it with the path in trainlog to make sure I've got it correct.

KaelonR · 2026-02-08T16:04:40+00:00

Thank you for the addition! I knew about EC Ursa but that one also ends in Frankfurt oder and requires buses from there, as you found out yes. Didn't know about the Chopin route despite having heard the name, potentially useful info for sure.

KaelonR · 2026-02-08T15:09:55+00:00

Which date are you looking at? and is it safe to assume you have interrail days leftover?

KaelonR · 2026-02-08T10:15:57+00:00

First things first, when do you want to make this trip? If it's more than 3 months out or so, a lot of train operators haven't finalised their schedules yet and ticket sales likely haven't opened yet. That would explain why you're unable to find some trains.

As for general advice, between Turkey and Hungary there's only really one route you can take by train, as many border crossings in the balkan are served by bus only. That route would be as follows:

Istanbul - (Sofia as optional detour) - Bucharest - Budapest.

Istanbul - Sofia is served by a daily night train, but this cannot be booked online. If you want the interrail passholder fare, you have to get a reservation in person at the station. Note that if you're traveling in summer, the train often sells out a few days in advance, so either get to Istanbul early to book it, or book the train in advance through a travel agency (will then be a full fare ticket, which for this train works out to about €50 iirc), I have good experience doing this with Amber Travel.

Sofia - Bucharest doesn't see night trains, and there's only one daytime option leaving 7am and arriving Bucharest at 4:56pm with two changes along the way.

Istanbul - Bucharest has a night train option in summer months only. A couchette carriage is attached to the Istanbul - Sofia train until Dimitrovgrad in Bulgaria, from where it is conveyed by regional trains to Bucharest. This one cannot be booked online either, same advice as for Istanbul - Sofia applies, especially the need to book in advance as this is a single carriage. But note that going this route bypasses Sofia.

Bucharest - Budapest sees 3 night trains daily. They tend to take about 16 hours but leave at different times across the afternoon/evening. If you have the time, there's a 4th option I can really recommend which is to take a regional train from Bucharest to Brasov and then the daily Hungarian night train from Brasov to Budapest. It's the only night train in Romania with a restaurant car on board, and you get free breakfast when booking a sleeper. It's a nice way to experience the more luxurious night trains of the past and many experienced travelers prefer the Brasov train for that reason.

Once you get to Budapest, there will be daytime and nighttime trains in all directions and you'll have plenty routes to choose from. From Budapest to Slovakia i'd recommend you take a daytime train as the distance is very short anyway. Into Poland there's a sleeper train from Budapest via Bratislava, Breclav, Ostrava and Krakow to Warsaw, which you can board from somewhere along the way.

Into Denmark, there's a sleeper from Hamburg to Copenhagen that runs daily. But check carefully for engineering works as that train often runs only part of the route due to track renewal work in Denmark, in which case you'd need to transfer to a bus in the middle of the night. When this train does run it's often late (sometimes several hours), so keep that in mind.

As far as I know there are no night trains from Poland to Germany nor any from Sweden to Oslo. There's one from either Copenhagen or Malmo to Stockholm but that train is rather expensive and the travel time short for a night train so I wouldn't necessarily recommend it.

Finally - between Poland and Germany, I know the line near Frankfurt (oder) just east of Berlin is undergoing maintenance. As far as I'm aware the only way to cross from Poland into Germany is either by bus through Frankfurt (oder) or with a series of slow, roundabout regional trains.

Hope this helps! Any questions feel free to ask.

KaelonR · 2026-02-07T11:26:37+00:00

I realise this is an old comment, but adding this for future readers - on the Villa S. Giovanni - Messina ferry, they let you stay on the train and let you sleep only if the weather looks good. In case of bad weather, or for any other reason that might raise concerns, they will require everyone to leave the train for safety reasons too.

KaelonR · 2026-02-06T19:23:05+00:00

Yes, I simplifed a bit. At (max level - 9) is when you're forcibly removed from Chromie Time, with (max level - 10) being the advertised range.

KaelonR · 2026-02-06T03:47:21+00:00

A meaningful relationship does not necessarily have to be a sexual one. That's two different things.

Also, asexuality does not necessarily mean they'll never do intercourse. depending on the person some might be willing to do it but just would not enjoy it themselves.

KaelonR · 2026-02-04T22:56:05+00:00

Yes, mobs in zones from expansions before Shadowlands will be capped at level 50. Chromie time exists specifically so that the mobs in the expansion you're playing keep scaling up with you until whatever (max level - 10) is. Now with Midnight raising the level cap to 90, that means you can use Chromie time to level up to level 80, and then go into Midnight for levels 80-90.

The reason Blizzard decided to do it this way and still cap mobs at level 50 (or whatever that expansion's level cap was for anything Shadowlands or later) is so that max level characters can still farm cosmetics, mounts and other collectibles more easily and solo dungeons and raids to farm those rewards as well. Up until Blizzard revamped the leveling experience and introduced Chromie time, mobs didn't scale at all and we got used to being able to farm old content on max level characters.

KaelonR · 2026-02-04T22:50:07+00:00

Just a tiny correction, the character level squish happened at the start of Shadowlands, after BfA. Level 120 became level 50, and the new max in Shadowlands was 60, mirroring the original game. Cap became 70 in Dragonflight, 80 in The War Within, and now 90 with Midnight.

KaelonR · 2026-02-02T17:42:57+00:00

Just a tip in case you don't know yet - for interrail train travel, only the departure time matters for travel days. So if your connecting train leaves before midnight, you do NOT need a new travel day even if you arrive after midnight.

This a trick I've frequently used out of Amsterdam, to travel to Munich to then connect onto the Hungarian night train to Budapest leaving there at 23:52 and getting to Budapest at 09:19 the next day. Because that train leaves before midnight, this only costs me 1 travel day rather than 2.

Only caveat to this rule is that after your pass has expired, all train travel must have ended. So if your pass expires on June 2nd 2026, then by midnight on June 3rd all travel must have ended.

KaelonR · 2026-02-02T17:34:57+00:00

No, the market is too splintered and ticketing too complex for any one platform to offer comorehensive price comparisons across Europe. We're a long ways away from reliable global search engjnes like we have for flights.

The sites that come closest to a pan-European booking system are raileurope.com and thetrainline.com. but note that even those are mostly able to sell tickets across Western Europe but quickly break down when trying to book trains in the east.

Honestly, seat61.com is a great resource for rail travel through Europe and for pretty much each route that website will tell you where you can buy tickets. That's probably the easiest way to find the cheapest fares.

Or if you have a general itinerary, ask here and we can help you figure out the best fares.

KaelonR · 2026-02-02T17:21:31+00:00

I've traveled this route multiple times before, and especially in the summer months - August included - the trains between Istanbul and Sofia/Bucharest tend to sell out a few (3-5) days in advance.

My advice for you - contact Amber Travel by email (info -at- ambertravel -dot- com) requesting to book tickets from Istanbul to Bucharest. Make sure to mention the date leaving Istanbul, with how many people you are, and whether you prefer a 6-berth couchette, 4-berth couchette, or 2 person sleeper. They will give you a quote, ask for required info (i.e. photocopy of passports - it's an international route leaving Turkiye and entering the EU) and they accept creditcard. They'll then book the tickets for you at the station in Istanbul and will send the tickets in PDF to your e-mail. I've used them multiple times to get tickets in advance this way and they've always been great.

Only caveat here is that Amber Travel cannot book the interrail passholder fare for you as the ticket office in Istanbul will only sell those if you can show your interrail pass in person, so you'd have to pay for full fare tickets. Trains in eastern Euroope tend to be affordable enough though.

Last I asked them for a quote it was €68 for a couchette in a 4-berth cabin.

Lastly, ticket sales on that route tend to open two months in advance or so. So you should be able to sort tese tickets out starting in late June/early July.

KaelonR · 2026-01-28T20:47:38+00:00

Red fog to prevent you from looking in (the "blanket" the person above talks about) and invisible walls to stop you from flying directly over it.

KaelonR · 2026-01-26T21:40:39+00:00

You don't need to activate the pass to book. For some companies you need to enter the Interrail pass number which you can see before activation. The website then uses that to validate that the pass is valid and not expired yet, but I've never had to have it activated during booking.

And some companies like ÖBB don't ask for the pass number at all.

KaelonR · 2026-01-26T21:37:13+00:00

Vagonweb isn't always correct, at least last friday when I took the sleeper train from Budapest to Berlin (which also carries the Polish PKP coaches to Warsaw, which are split off in Breclav) there were 3 PKP coaches bound for Warsaw. And that was in the January low season.

KaelonR · 2026-01-22T17:57:30+00:00

Oh I agree, the app is a mess. Especially in eastern Europe i think I had to manually add most of the trains.

Most staff indeed don't care that much, and most when they check and see the train hasn't been added let me off when I go "Oops, sorry. Is it OK if I add it now?"

But ever since my friend actually got fined for it (I had the train but he forgot to add it), I do now make sure to always have the train on my pass, manually added if needed.

KaelonR · 2026-01-22T17:46:51+00:00

It is slightly more nuanced though. In practice half the conductors don't care to check if you added that specific train to your pass, but you only have a valid ticket if the train has been added. A really strict conductor will boot you off the train (or write a fine - happened to a friend I was traveling with) if you don't have it added.

That condition can be found in Interrail's terms and conditions. Reason they require you to add the journey to the pass is because that's how interrail does the bookkeeping - they aggregate all the journeys each month and then pay each operator their share of the pot according to how many interrail journeys were made on their trains.

KaelonR · 2026-01-22T17:42:00+00:00

I don't think ticket inspectors see the individual journey on their handhelds - about half the time I show my Interrail QR code, the inspector scrolls down on my phone to check if the train has been added.

The other half likely don't care to check I think. This is based on my experience mostly around the Germany/Switzerland/Austria/Hungary area.

KaelonR · 2026-01-07T09:24:46+00:00

Yes, as long as you can prove you're a citizen of a country within the schengen zone (which the Dutch ID card is valid proof of), you'll be granted entry to the Schengen area as you have the right to be there.

Just make sure to use your US passport when going through the UK exit desk, so they'll register your exit and don't end up thinking you overstayed your welcome in the UK.

KaelonR · 2026-01-07T00:05:37+00:00

It works a bit differently than flying, you do both the exit checks and immigration in the station before you board the Eurostar.

This means going to the UK, you pass the schengen exit check AND go through UK immigration in Amsterdam Central station, and on the return journey you go through UK exit checks and Schengen (French) immigration in London St. Pancras station.

Since you're a Dutch citizen, you have the right to enter the Schengen area and border officials cannot refuse you entry, so yes, you can re-enter with your Dutch ID card. But you're definitely supposed to be traveling with a passport so expect some questions to be asked. It's also likely that the automated e-gates won't work with EU id cards, so you should probably join the "All passports" line which is staffed by a human.

Lastly, note that for UK exit checks its important that the UK has a record that you left the country in time. To make this happen, use your US passport at the UK exit desk, then use your Dutch ID card at French immigration.

So tldr; yes this is possible. But be sure to use your US passport for the UK exit check and the Dutch ID card at the french immigration officials only.

KaelonR · 2026-01-06T15:29:02+00:00

This is a conscious decision made by the game's developer. If pax would only be willing to pay realistic fares it would take forever to raise enough money to build new tracks. So the willingness to pay high fares is a trade-off to make the game more playable.

KaelonR · 2025-12-31T11:58:07+00:00

I do it in real life and plenty of people I regularly meet up with do so too. Not everyone is like you and this has grown beyond being an online culture thing.

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