Even if the conductor does a second announcement in English, I’ve started doing this and caught so much extra info or just cute things the conductor has added in that have brightened my day. If you’re solely relying on the English announcements, you’re missing so much.
Started our 2-month Europe trip with little bopper trains between Munich, Ischgl and Innsbruck, and lots of very easy to use public transportation, which was great bc we were carrying a F-ton of ski and mountaineering gear. Seats were plentiful and easy to get. The one hiccup we encountered ended up giving us a better option anyway. So we didn’t really plan ahead for the month-long bopper around the rest of Europe. (After a quick 10-day hop up to Norway)
But Paris to Amsterdam, required seats were entirely full. For days. (Ended up taking 6! Trains without seat reservations instead) And all of a sudden we went “ah shit” as the rest of our trip we’re finding the same. We’re realizing it’s probably because we’re traveling longer, and the amount of seats available for the whole trip get minimal.
Not to mention the Eurail site is awful and while their UI team did great work, the communication with their backend systems is clearly broken.
I’m thinking we start splitting the seat reservations. We’ll have to move but whatever. Will this work?
What other rules or hacks have you found while traveling Eurail/Interail?