Jana won a free train ticket to discover Europe #DiscoverEU

I'm 20 now, but 2 years ago I was 18. I already knew how #DiscoverEU worked because I had heard about it before on social media, and that made it easier for me.

There is a certain period between which you can apply. If you want to go with a group, it is better to complete the questions together. This is how you actually put yourself together as a candidate. You have to fill in a number of standard questions and then also answer a number of questions about Europe. They are easy, you can quickly find the answers online. After that, there is another question to fill in; like how many people are going to register. It's all a bit of luck.

After you've signed up, you'll have to wait a while. You may not have been selected. I know a few people myself who didn't have it and that's a shame of course. Lore and I were selected, you will receive an email and you have to confirm. After that there is still time to let us know when you want to travel. You have to be sure that you can, so do not communicate your travel dates until you are sure. A train ticket is valid for 30 days and within those 30 days you have 7 train travel days. We chose to travel in July.

Lore and I came together a few times to plan. First for the big ideas; which countries, what is our budget and after that to book. You only have to book high-speed trains in advance and especially in France and Italy you have to see if you can reserve your place. For the rest you can just fill in your free #DiscoverEU pass on the train. For us, choosing the countries was fairly straightforward. We alternated slightly more expensive countries with slightly cheaper countries. You get the train journey for free, but you have to pay all other costs such as meals and accommodation yourself. We chose to go with a low budget and therefore book hostels. Hostels are a good way to get to know people. And you can cook and reduce the cost of your meal budget. We did make sure that budget did not defined our entire trip, if we saw a nice trip or activity such as kayaking, we would do it. Outside of accommodation we didn't book much in advance. We created boards on Pinterest with 'free things to do in ...'. We already had a collection of ideas, but otherwise we were flexible.

We traveled for 17 days and went from Belgium to Frankfurt, Interlaken, Zurich, Innsbruck, Bratislava, Budapest, Vienna and back. So we chose to mainly do cities. We had just over 7 train days, so we paid for the distance between Bratislava and Budapest ourselves and did it with the Flixbus. The moment that will stay with me the most is the arrival in Innsbruck. We just came from Frankfurt. Frankfurt was an intermediate place and it rained there. We already saw the landscape change on the train and when we arrived in Innsbruck, the sun was shining. There was beautiful blue water on the lake, we saw mountains, the nature was breathtaking. We arrived right in a fairytale. Then we both had the feeling: that's why we travel by train.

My top three tips:

• A hostel is an ideal place to meet new people, but bring your earplugs because sometimes there are still snorers present!
• Try to say a few words in the local language. Even if it's just 'thanks' or 'hello'. Local people really appreciate that.
• You can meet in advance with other young people from Europe who have also won a #DiscoverEU ticket. We met #DiscoverEU people while travelling. The facebook group helped to find them.

See more pictures here

 

Updated on Teisipäev, 17/02/2026