Taking Bicycle Across Europe to Turkiye with Interail

[ian5spot]

Hello
I am thinking of taking my bike to Turkey from the N of England using trains and an Interrail card. As far as I can make out from the Maninseat61 website, the best route to avoid having to dismantle the bike would be to take the train down to London, then go across the channel to Brussels on Eurostar. From Brussels I would go to Frankfurt, Vienna, Budapest, Deda and Bucharest. From Bucharest I would then need to use a mix of local trains, buses and cycling to get to Turkiye.
It would probably be quicker, easier and cheaper to get a flight, but the journey is part of the adventure!
If anyone on hear has tried this recently or has any advice, I would love to hear from you.
Thanks

[nirakaro]

Much quicker, easier and cheaper to fly; much more fun by train. If you’ve got the time, local trains interspersed with the odd day or half-day of cycling can be very satisfying - whereas several unbroken days on trains is a bit draining.

[nigeld]

That sounds quite an adventure, though of course the journey will be part of the holiday.

I haven't taken a full-sized bike on Eurostar (yet). I see their website says that a fully-assembled bike can only be taken to Brussels on three departures a day: "Trains departing at 09:01 (train 9116), 13:01 (train 9132) and 15:04 (train 9142)" . In addition, be aware that not all Eurostar services are available when using an Interrail pass (as Mark Smith explains) as Interrail reservations on this route are limited by quota and the most popular services are not available at all, or the quota is sold out. (I've travelled on Eurostar with an Interrail pass quite a few times recently, but not with a full-sized bike)

I've always used the ferry to Hook of Holland, and from there I have (a couple of years ago) taken my fully-assembled bike on to and Vienna (and on to Bratislava in my case). That was all very straightforward. (I was Interrailing). You can make bike reservations (which are generally required) using the DB and/or ÖBB website, I've done both.

Beyond Vienna I don't have experience with taking a bike (yet).

[Sandhouse]

If you were interested in getting a pass, Interrail / Eurail currently have a Spring Sale with 15% off.

[ian5spot]

Much quicker, easier and cheaper to fly; much more fun by train. If you’ve got the time, local trains interspersed with the odd day or half-day of cycling can be very satisfying - whereas several unbroken days on trains is a bit draining.

Sound advice - much as I love sitting on a train watching the world go by, three to four days in a row could be challenging!

[ian5spot]

That sounds quite an adventure, though of course the journey will be part of the holiday.

I haven't taken a full-sized bike on Eurostar (yet). I see their website says that a fully-assembled bike can only be taken to Brussels on three departures a day: "Trains departing at 09:01 (train 9116), 13:01 (train 9132) and 15:04 (train 9142)" . In addition, be aware that not all Eurostar services are available when using an Interrail pass (as Mark Smith explains) as Interrail reservations on this route are limited by quota and the most popular services are not available at all, or the quota is sold out. (I've travelled on Eurostar with an Interrail pass quite a few times recently, but not with a full-sized bike)

I've always used the ferry to Hook of Holland, and from there I have (a couple of years ago) taken my fully-assembled bike on to and Vienna (and on to Bratislava in my case). That was all very straightforward. (I was Interrailing). You can make bike reservations (which are generally required) using the DB and/or ÖBB website, I've done both.

Beyond Vienna I don't have experience with taking a bike (yet).

Yes, the options on Eurostar are limited, but as long as one train is available for me, that should do it! The ferry adds quite a bit to the overall cost but could be a good back up if the required Eurostar train is not available.
Good to know I can make reservations for the bike with the DB app!

[ian5spot]

If you were interested in getting a pass, Interrail / Eurail currently have a Spring Sale with 15% off.

Yes, down to £182 for a senior 4 day pass, which makes it cheaper than flying!

[nigeld]

I haven't taken a full-sized bike on Eurostar (yet). I see their website says that a fully-assembled bike can only be taken to Brussels on three departures a day: "Trains departing at 09:01 (train 9116), 13:01 (train 9132) and 15:04 (train 9142)" .

I just went back and the web site seems to have changed, so my post above is incorrect. It now says

"You can book a space for your bike by emailing travelservices@eurostar.com. This service is currently limited to selected trains between London, Paris, and Brussels, so please book early to avoid disappointment.

"We can only transport fully assembled bikes on trains travelling between London and Brussels. If you’re travelling between London and Paris, your bike must be disassembled and in a box or bag when you drop it off."

So it will be necessary to ask Eurostar which trains are available.
https://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/travel-i ... gage/bikes

(This is something I'd like to try some time. So far I've only taken my Brompton (most recently in January), which is easy)

[nigeld]

Yes, the options on Eurostar are limited, but as long as one train is available for me, that should do it! The ferry adds quite a bit to the overall cost but could be a good back up if the required Eurostar train is not available.

Do let us know how you get on! Note that Eurostar (2nd class) will cost €30 for your seat. Plus a booking fee, depending on which of three companies you use to buy your ticket. In addition it's £45 for the bike.

Harwich-Hook is my favourite (expensive) but Dover-Calais or Dover-Dunkirk was £25 last time I looked, for me and my bike, and you can use Interrail for the journey to Dover if necessary. From Calais it's TER to Lille, then TER to Tournai (TER trains take bikes, no bike reservation needed or possible). Then SNCB to Brussels (bike ticket required, no bike reservation needed or possible). About 3h 15 total. Obviously a direct Eurostar is much quicker!

[Will]

I assume that you will need to purchase bike tickets and have bike and seat reservations:

A bike ticket from Bruxelles Midi to Frankfurt(Main) Hbf will cost you €25.82.
A bike ticket from Frankfurt(Main) Hbf to Wien Hbf will cost you €22.23.

The train from Bruxelles Midi to Frankfurt(Main) Hbf is an ICE3 Neo with 8 bike spaces.
The train from Frankfurt(Main) Hbf to Wien Hbf is an ICE-T with only 3 bike spaces. I would expect the bike spaces on this train to sell out quickly as many cyclists will be using it to head to places like Passau and Vienna in order to cycle the Danube.

You can purchase bike tickets (and get bike reservations) using the DB Bahn website. Click on the red arrow next to "Passenger, bicycles, BahnCards" and change the default "Person (aged 27-64)" to "Bicycle".

You can also make seat reservations on the DB Bahn website. Make sure you have a person selected (rather than Bicycle) and select "Book seat only"). After you have selected the train, click on "Select seat" to select a seat in the same carriage as your bike (Coach 21 for Bruxelles Midi to Frankfurt. and Coach 24 for Frankfurt to Wien). A seat reservation for each of these two trains will cost €5.20 each.

Will

[Sandhouse]

I haven't taken a full-sized bike on Eurostar (yet). I see their website says that a fully-assembled bike can only be taken to Brussels on three departures a day: "Trains departing at 09:01 (train 9116), 13:01 (train 9132) and 15:04 (train 9142)" .

I just went back and the web site seems to have changed, so my post above is incorrect. It now says

"You can book a space for your bike by emailing travelservices@eurostar.com. This service is currently limited to selected trains between London, Paris, and Brussels, so please book early to avoid disappointment.

"We can only transport fully assembled bikes on trains travelling between London and Brussels. If you’re travelling between London and Paris, your bike must be disassembled and in a box or bag when you drop it off."

So it will be necessary to ask Eurostar which trains are available.
https://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/travel-i ... gage/bikes

The train times are still there in the FAQs further down that page…

London to Paris: Any train departing London between 08:01 (train 9008) and 15:31 (train 9036)
Paris to London: Any train departing Paris between 11:13 (train 9023) and 18:13 (train 9051)

London to Brussels: Trains departing at 09:01 (train 9116), 13:01 (train 9132) and 15:04 (train 9142)
Brussels to London: Trains departing at 07:56 (9113), 12:52 (train 9135), 14:52 (train 9141) and 17:56 (train 9153)

[pal]

You can also make seat reservations on the DB Bahn website. Make sure you have a person selected (rather than Bicycle) and select "Book seat only"). After you have selected the train, click on "Select seat" to select a seat in the same carriage as your bike (Coach 21 for Bruxelles Midi to Frankfurt. and Coach 24 for Frankfurt to Wien). A seat reservation for each of these two trains will cost €5.20 each.

Will

A very small money-saving hack for seat reservations: the Eur5.20 fee applies per journey, not per train, so if you search in such a way as to bring up Brussels to Vienna (via Frankfurt) as one journey, you can just pay one seat reservation fee. You can include overnight stops (or even two x two nights: the maximum break in journey is 48 hours, and you can have two stopovers: you can add these to your search via the 'stopover' function on the search page).

(This wouldn't save any money on the bike tickets, though, because those are tickets, not reservations...)

[AndyB1]

Have a think about your luggage. If you can carry everything off the bike with you it will probably be safer. In India this January I got my handlebar bag and rear rack bag into my panniers so I just had the 2 panniers to look after and the bike was bare of things to loose.

[ANTONISH]

If you were interested in getting a pass, Interrail / Eurail currently have a Spring Sale with 15% off.

I noticed that in an e-mail advert from SNCF.
I've been trying to compare advance bookings with using an interrail pass.
We need seven travel days - I tried doing some dummy advance bookings with a number of different companies which I was able to do until I tried to book from Bolzano/Bozen to Vienna with OBB - the ticket price appeared but the site told me that they couldn't sell me the ticket - but they could sell me an interrail pass.
Presumably this is because my partner and I are both "seniors" and need to purchase some sort of senior citizens pass.
I have been sold senior tickets in France and have had to give my exact date of birth.

One problem I anticipate is that one has to either download the interrail pass to a smartphone where one can change the start date or get a paper copy posted which has the start date printed on it which can't be changed.
Is it possible to get a print out of the downloaded pass? - I prefer having a paper copy to hand rather than using the smartphone as I'm a bit slow with touchscreens.
I went into Argos yesterday to collect an internet order and had trouble getting the touchscreen to respond.

[scragend]

Is it possible to get a print out of the downloaded pass? - I prefer having a paper copy to hand rather than using the smartphone as I'm a bit slow with touchscreens.

If you are using a mobile pass you need to show it on the mobile device. You add train journeys to your "Trip" in the Railplanner app, which is basically just a planning tool - and not a particularly accurate one sometimes - but you have to add each train you actually take to the pass ("toggle it"). When you toggle a train it adds it to the pass itself and displays it below the QR code. If it's your first train of the day, toggling the train will generate your QR code for that day.

There is a new QR code for each day of the pass, and the app keeps track of how many days you've used, both in total and your outbound/inbound days if applicable.

So it's not a case of downloading a pass and printing it out I'm afraid - the mobile pass is more dynamic than that.