Why 2 Weeks of Interrailing Was the Perfect Honeymoon

editor — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 14:14:01 +0000

When I was younger, I don’t really know what I envisaged for my honeymoon. Probably lounging around on a beach or by a pool, and soaking up the Mediterranean sun, the sound of a palm tree swaying in the breeze — all in the presence of my new wife, of course. Well, only one of those things turned out to be true: my wife was, in fact, present. But everything else couldn’t have been more different. We always wanted to go interrailing, so we thought, what better way to kickstart our marriage (which is very much its own metaphorical adventure) than with a continent-spanning, memory-making, and occasionally stress-inducing adventure of our own?

The Logistics

As someone new to journey tourism, I wasn’t quite prepared for the logistics side of things. The biggest downside to spending our honeymoon interrailing around Europe was that there was a heck of a lot of booking to do months in advance, and it all had to be timed perfectly. We needed to buy our Interrail passes (for 10 travel days, in case you’re wondering) and then plan exactly when and where we would be stopping.

We knew we’d be stopping in Rome, then Lake Bled, Budapest, Oswiecim, Berlin, and, finally, Amsterdam. Next, we needed to lock down our hotels. This was pretty straightforward. Most of our stays were just 2 nights each, starting on the date of our arrival. But we were careful to make sure all of our hotels were central and within walking distance of train stations.

The annoying bit is that the Interrail pass doesn’t actually cover every train ticket – especially those in eastern Europe. So we needed to plan – with extreme specificity – the exact trains we needed to catch, and buy the tickets for the exact times that they would be needed. But after that was done, we just needed to buy some backpacks. Oh, and get married.

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Interrailing: The Honeymoon Appeal

Two days after the wedding, we were off. Interrail passes? Check. Digital camera? Check. Kindle? Check.

On reflection, it’s pretty easy to explain the appeal of spending your honeymoon interrailing. We were a newly married couple, ready to take on the world. And then, we did. It’s a one-of-a-kind experience that can feel like a whirlwind at times, but also give you the breathing room to smell the roses in others. We got to fall in love with each new country and location together, discovering both the must-see sights and the lesser-known undiscovered gems that each place had to offer.

One day, we were in Rome, touring the Colosseum and the Vatican, taking evening strolls through Trastevere and wandering into random churches that are older than most countries. Next, we were zooming down a hillside toboggan at Lake Bled and going on a boat ride to Bled Island.

And on the travel days, it feels like a real adventure. It’s just the two of you, catching a new train (which each had its own quirks), reading books, playing games, and seeing a fresh, undiscovered part of the world fly by through the window. For a trip that was often centred on seeing some of Europe’s biggest and most prominent cities, it was nice to break up the urban scenery by adventuring through the countryside on every travel day, and experiencing a slice of what the rest of these amazing countries had on offer.

The Downsides

I’ll keep it short in this section. There’s not much to say here, after all. But I am willing to admit that we could’ve organised some of the trains a little more efficiently. The overnight trains to both Rome and Berlin were particularly killer, but I struggle to sleep on trains, so it was definitely something of a flawed plan to begin with.

How to Keep Those Memories

I was very insistent that I record as much of the trip as possible and make a video of the trip when we returned home. Maybe it’s to scratch a creative itch, or I just like seeing these places as they were in motion – it just gives me a better sense of the atmosphere.

My wife, on the other hand, took a different approach. She took her digital camera with her and took around a million pictures. Maybe 2 million. Hard to say, but her goal was to put together a photo album when we arrived home. As much as I like video, I‘ve got to admit that taking pictures is essential.

Closing Thoughts

So here we are. Arriving home wasn’t fun. I could’ve easily spent another 2 weeks out there and made it up as I went. But now my video is complete, and my wife took enough pictures to fill not one, but 2 entire photo books. I can confidently say that I saw more in 2 weeks than I have done in the past decade, and doing it with the person I’ll be spending the rest of my life with just seemed right.