My husband and I have had a mad idea to go interrailing with our two teenage daughters next summer (they will be 16 and 14). Do you have any tips and advice? Helen Evans, by email

Times Online rail expert Alan Heywood responds: I can't think of a better way to spend the summer holidays and have just done it myself so wouldn't consider it a mad idea at all. Mind you, I didn't have a family of four and maybe catering for the possibility of differing tastes within the family is an essential ingredient of the planning which must go on beforehand.

To get the best value from Inter Rail, it is useful to have an outline of your itinerary pre-planned and, especially if travelling at busy times, seat reservations on the long distance trains. Having said that, the ability to hop on and off local trains at will gives your holiday that degree of flexibility which would be impossible with ordinary tickets.

On this occasion, I confined my travelling to Germany but the same tips would apply wherever in Europe you were going. There are two versions of Inter Rail - the one country pass covers, as its name suggests, various durations in one country only. The price varies depending on length of time and size of country. Typically, any eight days within a month in a large country like France or Germany is £221 (second class) but the same duration in Slovenia or Czech Republic is only £88. There are reductions for children (aged 4 to 11) and youths (aged 12 to 25).

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The second version is the Global Inter Rail which covers all Europe and, unlike the one country pass which has a maximum of eight days, you can buy a Global pass for up to a whole month's daily travelling. So, when I needed 10 days travelling in Germany, it was cheaper to buy a 10 days Global Pass (£266) than two shorter duration German passes.

In my own case, I had a few days in each of Titisee (Black Forest), Ulm, Luebeck and Dresden. I travelled around at will on the local trains on the "free" days in each area but was glad I had reservations on the long distance trains betwen the centres. In late July and August, the trains are busy and with large quantities of passengers' assorted luggage spilling over into vestibules and gangways, it could have been a nightmare. Getting seats together for a family of four is another important consideration. Incidentally, you don't have to pay fast train supplements with Inter Rail in Germany but you do in most other countries - watch out for this in your planning because these can add appreciably to the cost of your trip, particularly at busy periods when supplements are high.

The amount of distance travelled within a day is all a matter of taste and, for a successful holiday, all members of the family need an input into deciding this. In my company, we have even had clients who have gone around Europe in ever decreasing circles without stopping, by using a combination of day and night trains - great value if you can stand the pace but I don't recommend it for the avarage family!

Finally there is a splendid little booklet available which gives lots of other useful tips and details the various benefite available in each country. This can be downloaded from www.interrailnet.com by following the links to Traveller's Guide.

I hope you will decide to go ahead. There are some fantastic rail journeys out there and some amazing destinations too.

Alan Heywood is a director at rail specialists, Ffestiniog Travel

Got a question for Alan, or any of our other travel experts? Email us at yoursay@timesonline.co.uk

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