Interrail rail passes

France is one of the 30 countries covered by the Interrail rail pass and it is also possible to buy a single country Interrail pass for travel in France.

Interrail France pass

Interrail offers a range of single country passes that are valid in each of the countries that Interrail operates. The Interrail France pass is good for unlimited rail travel on most trains in France as well as some buses and ferries.

This rail pass is valid for three, four, six or eight travel days in a one month period. It gives you unlimited travel on all regional TER trains, although supplements are payable on some intercités trains and on all TGV high-speed trains. Travellers using an Interrail pass are charged a seat reservation fee to travel on TGV trains that ranges from €9 (off-peak) to €18 (peak).

In addition to rail travel in France, the Interrail France pass also gives you:

• Free travel on SNCF buses and coaches on the following routes: Digne–St Auban, Digne–Veynes and Canfranc–Oloron.
• A 30% discount on Irish Ferries ferry services on the Cherbourg–Rosslare (Feb–Dec) and Roscoff–Rosslare (May–Sep) routes. This discount applies to the standard foot passenger fare. Cabin accommodation is available at an extra cost.
• Discounted fares on Eurostar high-speed trains on the London St Pancras–Lille–Paris route. Even though Interrail pass holders have access to discounted Eurostar fares it is still worth checking advance purchase fares on the Eurostar website as these are sometimes cheaper than even the discounted Interrail fare.

Interrail European rail passes

In addition to the single-country Interrail France pass, there is a range of single-country Interrail passes for other European countries plus the Interrail Global Pass.

The Interrail Global Pass is valid in the following 30 European countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom. You cannot use the Interrail pass for travel in your home country.

Although many high-speed trains in Belgium, France, Italy, Spain and Sweden require payment of an additional seat reservation fee, there are almost always regional trains running along similar routes that are free to travel on with an Interrail pass. Fortunately most trains in many other countries (including most high-speed ICE trains in Germany) do not require payment of any supplement.

How many travel days do you need?

The best value way to use these rail passes is to first work out your itinerary and use the booking engine at the top of this page to work out both the cost per journey and the cost per day. Then find the appropriate Interrail pass and work out the cost per day and buy a pass with enough travel days to cover only the days where the rail pass will save you money and book tickets separately on days where individual tickets work out cheaper.

For instance; an eight-day Interrail France pass may work out at £32.50 per day (around €43 per day). In this scenario, you will buy a rail pass to cover travel only on those days where the individual cost of tickets for that day works out higher than €43.

You need to allow for the cost of seat reservation fees (which vary between €9 and €18) that are charged to Interrail pass holders for high-speed TGV trains when working out which pass is right for you.

In most instances days where you are only making short regional trips and days where you travel on high-speed TGV trains (as long as you book in advance to get the cheapest fare) will be cheaper purchased as individual tickets; but travel on long-distance trains that are not high-speed (most intercités trains) and longer regional journeys (particularly trips covering several regions) usually work out cheaper using a rail pass.

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