Book Interrail Passholder Reservation for Eurostar
If you are using an Interrail Pass to travel around Europe and want to take a Eurostar high-speed train, you must book a special passholder reservation.
In this short guide, I will explain how to book these special passholder fares and give you some extra advice for travelling on Eurostar trains with an Interrail Pass.
Interrail passholder reservations for Eurostar
Interrail is valid on Eurostar trains, but you need to make a reservation and pay a special passholder fare to travel on them
This is required on both Eurostar trains to and from London through the Channel Tunnel, as well as on continental Eurostar trains, such as those linking Paris with Brussels and Amsterdam, or Brussels with Cologne.
These passholder fares are among the higher supplements you have to pay for trains when Interrailing, but compared to how expensive regular Eurostar tickets can be, they are certainly affordable.
For London to Brussels, Lille or Paris, the current Interrail passholder reservation fare is €35 for Standard (2nd class) and €40 for Eurostar Plus (1st class).
For London to Rotterdam or Amsterdam, the current Interrail passholder reservation fare is €35 for Standard (2nd class) and €43 for Eurostar Plus (1st class).
The continental Eurostar (formerly Thalys) trains, such as those on routes like Paris–Amsterdam or Brussels–Cologne, have an Interrail passholder fare of €27 up to €32 in 2nd class and €32 up to €37 in 1st class, depending on the length of the journey.
Of course, if you have a 2nd class Interrail Pass, you can only book a passholder fare in 2nd class, while first class Interrail passholders can choose either travel class.
How to make an Interrail passholder reservation for Eurostar
As you cannot make an Interrail passholder reservation on the Eurostar website, it’s best to use Rail Europe for this.
Read my guide on how to make Interrail reservations on Rail Europe to see exactly how to do this.
You need to buy your Interrail Pass before you can make a reservation, as you need to enter a valid pass number when making your booking.
Once you have completed the booking, your Eurostar e-ticket will arrive by email, and you can simply print it out or show it on your phone when travelling.
Tips for using Interrail on Eurostar
The single biggest piece of advice you need to know about using Interrail on Eurostar is that there are only a limited number of passholder reservations available on each Eurostar train.
Especially around national holidays and during the peak summer season, these can sell out quickly, so don’t leave booking your passholder reservation until the very last moment.
If there is no availability left on your preferred train, check if there might still be a Interrail passholder quota on other Eurostar trains that day.
Alternatively, check if there might be passholder fees available to other Eurostar destinations, and simply reroute your journey.
Passholder fares have a quota for each train and destination, so it can happen that while you can no longer make a passholder reservation for a London–Paris or London–Brussels journey, there might still be spots available for London–Lille.
From Lille, it is easy to take alternative trains onwards to either Paris or Brussels.
Another valuable tip when using Interrail on Eurostar trains is to remember that the booking window may be different for passholder reservations than for normal tickets.
Eurostar tickets can be bought up to 11 months in advance, but this may not be the case for Interrail passholder reservations, as these are sometimes only available six months in advance.
If you can’t make an Interrail passholder reservation 11 or 10 months in advance, simply be patient and wait.
My last tip for using Interrail on Eurostar is that it is only really worth it on routes such as London to mainland Europe, or for longer journeys such as Amsterdam to Paris where there is no realistic alternative.
However, on a route like Brussels to Cologne, you’d be mad to use Eurostar with Interrail, given that you can also take the excellent German ICE high-speed train, with a seat reservation costing just €5.50 in 2nd class or €6.90 in 1st class.