Until this summer, Simon Glover, 52, his wife Rachel, 49, and their 11-year-old son George had never Interrailed. “We’ve always done a fly-and-flop,” he told The i Paper. “That’s been great, but our son is an only child, and recently he’s started to get a bit bored if he doesn’t find somebody to play with.”

So this year, they decided to change course. “One of the main reasons we chose to go Interrailing is because George can travel for free before he turns 12. We waited until the Black Friday sale last year and bought two five day Global first class passes. We’ve always enjoyed train travel because – when it works – it’s nice to sit and watch the world go by.”

The Glovers are not alone. The UK continues to be one of Interrail’s strongest markets, with annual pass sales growing from nearly 72,000 in 2022 to more than 116,000 in 2025. Young travellers constitute the largest group purchasing Interrail passes, with more than 325,000 Youth passes sold last year, representing around half of all sales.

However, a spokesperson said the ticketing platform – whose passes cover most trains in Europe – is seeing “growing interest from adults, families and seniors.”

Passes are free for children aged four to 11 (no passes are required for under-fours), although supplementary seat reservations for international and high-speed trains apply to passengers over four.

Simon explained that once his family’s passes had been bought, “it became quite fun. If we’re going to Lanzarote for a week, that’s it”. Instead, they sat down together and started planning what they wanted to do with their passes, using five days of train travel over a fortnight.

Because this was their first time, they “started off easily” by focusing just on France. “George loves history and he knew a bit about Carcassonne, so he told us he’d like to see it, as well as the Arc de Triomphe, and the Eiffel Tower.”

From there, they started to plot out a route from their home in Wales that would take in “a bit of history, a bit of fun, possibly the beach or a lake, too”.

They set off in early July from Cardiff to London, where they picked up the Eurostar to Lille. “No problems there,” he explained. “We had a mooch around Lille, a bit of dinner and then the following day set off on our first long travel day to Lake Annecy” – a journey of around six hours with a connection in Lyon.

This glacial lake in the Haute Savoie is popular with summer visitors who come to swim, explore the medieval town, known as the “Venice of the Alps”, and enjoy the mountains.

The Glovers spent four days in Annecy. “We hired a car and went up to do some mountain biking, which George loved, as well as a go on a summer luge and to the amazing Gorges du Fier.

“We spent a lot of time on the lake, where we found a beach with a diving platform. Then we did something we’d never have done otherwise – we drove to a village about an hour away, parked up and watched the Tour de France go past. It was brilliant, one of those experiences that an 11-year-old doesn’t often have. George can tell all his mates he saw the world’s best cyclists within
3ft of him.”

There was one aspect that hadn’t gone to plan. “We booked Airbnbs throughout, apart from in Paris, and the one we’d chosen in Annecy was a bit rubbish. It was on a main road, and the temperature got up to 40C on some days but it had no air conditioning. I’d pay a bit more to stay somewhere more central and convenient next time,” said Simon.

The hot apartment also meant they ate out, which added to the cost of their trip. However, they did experience some “amazing restaurants”, he said, including a working farm on which the cattle are taken out in the evening when their shed becomes a restaurant, serving fondue made from the cheese made on site.

The next journey involved three trains south-west to Carcassonne, which was long – departing around 8.30am and arriving at 5pm – but went smoothly. After a couple of days exploring the medieval walled city from their self-catering accommodation, they used their hire car to drive for a swim in the Mediterranean. An hour later they were enjoying the broad sandy beach at Narbonne-Plage.

“We were saying to George, this time a few days ago you were up in the mountains, you’re now in the Med, and tomorrow you’re going to be in the capital city of France.”

Their return journey took them north to Paris via Bordeaux. “The trains were bang on-time. Bordeaux to Paris was two hours and 10 minutes at an average speed of 190mph.

“When we got to Paris, we jumped in a taxi to our hotel and did the classic things – the Eiffel Tower, the Sacré Coeur. It was a busy three days.”

From start to finish, the Glovers took 12 trains on five days within their two-week trip. “We did it all first class, which I’d highly recommend. The SNCF and TGVs were super comfortable, and the Trenitalia journey to Paris was a highlight.” They’d accidentally booked an entire meeting room on the train, but the guard moved them to a table in the first-class carriage, where they were served with drinks and sandwiches.

They didn’t get bored on the trains, either. “We read, we listened to music, we ate, we played cards, looked out of the windows at some amazing countryside.” Simon added that the scenery as they ascended into the foothills of the Alps was particularly captivating, as were the vineyards in Bordeaux.

“We told George he should treat the travel days as part of the adventure. It was a great experience that he really enjoyed and I loved not being at an airport. We would 100 per cent do it again.”

Having gained confidence from this first trip, they’re keen to venture further next time, to countries such as Switzerland or Germany, perhaps even taking a sleeper train.

“We’re fortunate that the cost wasn’t really an issue, this was more about an experience.”

With everything included – Interrail passes, seat reservations, accommodation, activities, car hire and “eating out a lot”, it cost the family around £9,000 for two weeks, compared to around £5,000 at an all-inclusive resort. “We did tonnes more this time.”

The first-class Interrail passes cost around £600, which included rail travel to and from Cardiff. Simon added, “I travelled to London for work on GWR two weeks ago – it cost me £270 return”.

Simon found Interrail forums helpful for overcoming any anxieties about using the pass before they left, and said they had “no trouble with any of it. And all the French rail guards were brilliant, it was dead easy.

“With each travel day on your pass, you can go as far as it will get you before midnight. And you haven’t got to worry about airport parking or any of that hassle. Every day was a new adventure.”

It also made them think hard about what they took in their rucksacks, for which they used packing cubes to keep the weight down to 12-15kg each.

“It was a really mixed, fun holiday that almost felt like four or five holidays in one. We felt in control of what we were doing. If a train was going to be cancelled, we felt comfortable that we would just wait for the next one.”

Luckily they weren’t, until the very end. “Unsurprisingly, the only train we had trouble with was our final leg on GWR from London Paddington to Cardiff, which was cancelled because of a fire.”