I went on an interrail trip together with my boyfriend for almost the entire month of September. During this interrail we traveled through Europe by train. We had 6 travel days in total during that interrail. I want to write about all those 6 different routes in different posts on this blog. I already told you about our first, second, third and fourth travel day. Today I’ll continue with our fifth travel day. On travel day 5 of our interrail, we traveled from Warsaw to Copenhagen by train. I’ll tell you about the different route options, the costs, the journey itself and more.
The Route Options
This fifth day of our interrail was the longest travel day. It’s a long distance, from Warsaw to Copenhagen, if you’d ask me. It’s the most kilometers you can do within day by train, I think. About thirteen hundred kilometers. I think this trip is a great example of the possibilities of train travel. It shows you can travel 1300 kilometers within one day by train. That’s a lot! When it comes to the route options for traveling from Warsaw to Copenhagen by train, there are just two comfortable options if you’d ask me. There’s also an option that includes a ferry, but I did not include that option in here because I believe ferries are not that sustainable. But it’s an option if you want. Anyway, here are the two best route options for traveling from Warsaw to Copenhagen by train;
Options 1: the daytime trip
The route is as follows: Warsaw – Berlin – Hamburg – Copenhagen. This route takes 13 hours and 1 minute. This is the option we took. It has two transits but it’s still the fastest option. And less transits is only possible in option 2 (see below). This option is available twice a day. One starts at 4:44 in Warsaw and the other starts at 8:32 in Warsaw. From June to August there’s just one option, starting at 6:34 in Warsaw. We left at 8:32 in Warsaw because I am not such a morning person…
Option 2: the night-time option
There’s a second option, which includes a night-train. This is the route: Warsaw – Berlin – Copenhagen. Only one transit. In Berlin you transit to the night-train, so from there on you can sleep until you are in Copenhagen (if you pay for a bed). It’s not as fast, because it takes about 19/20 hours. And besides that, you see way less on your way to Copenhagen because you travel during the night. I would therefore not necessarily recommend this option.
Prices and tickets
We paid 40 euros per person for this trip from Warsaw to Copenhagen by train, because we had an interrail ticket for 200 euros. With that ticket we could travel for 5 days, making the costs 40 euros per day. If you don’t have an interrail ticket, you can still travel from Warsaw to Copenhagen for 50 euros per person. This is only the case if you take the day-time route, because a night-train is more expensive. Those fares start at about 100 euros, double the price of the day-time option. I personally think 50 euros for 1300 kilometers is not that expensive, but that of course depends on your budget.
If you want to book the day-time option for 50 euros, you have to book early. Bookings open 60 days ahead of the trip. You can buy the ticket at the Deutsche Bahn.
Reservations
For the day-time option you officially require one reservation, for the train from Warsaw to Berlin. We did have it, but it wasn’t checked. Therefore I would recommend not buying the reservation. It may happen that you have to move a few times, but the trip from Warsaw to Berlin is only 5,5 hours. It saves you the reservation costs, which are about 7 euros per person.
Our experience: the first ride
We left Warsaw at 8:32 and were supposed to arrive in Berlin at 14:05. But I have to admit, this was a stressful ride. The transfer in Berlin is only 9 minutes. We had a delay of about 13 minutes, making me panic and think we’d miss our next train to Hamburg. In that case we could not go to Copenhagen anymore that day. However, the train we would take from Berlin to Hamburg had a delay of 10 minutes as well, so we were right on time. I did not like this stress at all. But honestly, there’s no other option for a day-time ride (which I prefer). So I guess it just is what it is. There’s not much you can do, aside from chill and hope it will be all right.
Our experience: the rest of the day
The ride from Berlin to Hamburg, starting at 14:38 in Berlin and arriving in Hamburg at 16:21, was very chill. It’s 1 hour and 43 minutes and we totally made up for the delay in the previous train. I have to say, a trip for under two hours feels extremely short if you’re used to traveling all day. It almost feels stupid.
The last train from Hamburg to Copenhagen was also very nice. The first few hours we sat in a seat with 4 seats and a table. Because of that, we were able to play some card games. However, after a few hours (3, I think) some people entered the train who had reserved the seat we sat in, so we had to move. That was totally fine, because it’s the risk you take if you don’t reserve a seat and there were plenty of seats left. The view in the train from Hamburg to Copenhagen was really good by the way! Overall, this was a great travel day.
Yours sincerely,
Romee