“Will there be a beach, dad?” asked my 16-year-old daughter Tara, as her 13-year-old sister Emma leaned in to hear.
The winter sun island luring back visitors with heritage wildlife and low prices
Read MoreOur journey didn’t start at Milano Centrale; it began at our kitchen table. One of the joys of an Interrail holiday is pouring over maps and hatching plans together. The girls were excited by all the places we would see en route.
It had been decades since I rode Europe’s rails. My first experience of Interrailing was in the early 1990s, and that opened my eyes to the variety of wonderful places to visit in Europe. I wanted to pass that sense of wonder on to my girls. Italy really stood out on my travels, so to share the likes of Venice’s Grand Canal and Milan’s Duomo was a joy.
The McKelvies spent time at Lake Como (Photo: Robin McKelvie)
There are still big choices to make. You could take the train to the continent from London. Or fly to your first rail stop to save time. You could opt for a Global Pass that covers 33 countries or a one-country Pass. You could choose between a Continuous Pass and a Flexipass for a set number of days of travel. As we live in Edinburgh, we chose to fly and focus on Italy. We treated ourselves to a first-class pass with five days of travel in a month (£162 more than standard class). It proved simple to use. Making reservations via the app was handy and easy, too. Plus, we were able to load all of our four passes on to one app.
I’ve sometimes felt guilty on family beach holidays that we weren’t doing enough, seeing enough, engaging the kids’ brains enough. That wasn’t an issue while we were Interrailing. The girls became avid trainspotters, enthused by the trains, stations and departure boards.
Robin’s daughters were impressed with Milano Centrale station (Photo: Julian Elliott Photography/Getty)Our first train ride was a gentle introduction as we dipped our toes in the rail waters with the short hop to Lake Como. A night at the Lake Como Hilton, where the rooftop pool looks out over the lake and a vaulting panorama of mountains, eased us into the holiday, before a ferry spirited us up to Varenna, where we rejoined the Italian rail network bound for Milan and our first high speed train.
Whooshing across the Italian countryside on our Frecciarossa high-speed train, we peered at passing towns and cities, the girls Googling ones that caught their eye. With our Interrail pass we could have hopped off at any. The girls seemed to love this freedom and Tara was already planning Interrailing trips with her pals.
I found the answer to a cheaper family ski holiday
Read MoreThe girls wanted the romance of Verona. We swooned around the nonsensical trail of the non-existent lovers, seeing the balcony where the fictional Romeo courted Juliet, and her tragic tomb. “It could have been true,” Emma insisted; I countered that Shakespeare probably never even visited Italy and we got into a sweeping debate about him and his work – not something we usually discuss at the beach.
Boarding our Milano Centrale-bound train, Tara and Emma were sad, realising that this was our last journey on the rails. “Can we do this again next year and maybe go around all of Europe?” Tara asked, all thoughts of beach holidays dissolved in the sheer joy of a family adventure that brought rail rewards for us all.
Booking it
Robin’s First Class passes cost £884 for two adults and two teenagers for a Flexipass, with five days travel in month. Second Class £722. Rail Europe can also book train tickets from London to Milan, with one-way tickets starting at about £50 per person, raileurope.com.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( We swapped our beach holiday for Interrailing – my 16-year-old daughter loved it )
Also on site :