Night trains in western Europe

Not nearly so luxurious these days. Unless you want to do the Orient Express, which looks to be about 2500 GBP per person for Paris to Venice.

Overnight trains are fewer and fewer every year. This is due to daytime trains getting faster, as well as the proliferation of inexpensive flights within Europe.

There are still overnight trains on some routes. The best source of information on this (both routes and onboard accommodations) is the rail guru The Man In Seat 61. He is based in London, so he has directions for getting from London to all of Europe by train. Starting with this information, you can modify his routes to suit your itinerary. https://www.seat61.com/

Paris to Venice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WClo6Ns2JGY

London to Scotland https://www.sleeper.scot/

We took an overnight train from Split to Zagreb, and from Brasov to Budapest. We got a private couchette (wife and myself). Both were fun - in Croatia, we came through a beautiful valley as the sun rose. The reason we were in the beautiful valley is that we sat on a siding for 3 hours. We did not miss our connection, but we had allowed a 6 hour layover. We had only 1 hour when we got there in Zagreb.

I learned another lesson - in some parts of Europe, there are NO replacement tickets. Your ticket is your proof of purchase. I lost our couchette ticket (dumb silly move on my part) and had to repurchase it. Keep your tickets safe.

We did Rome to Vienna where the overnight portion started at Venice. We liked it. Had a private compartment and bath, but the food service was simply a snack at night and light breakfast. Luckily we brought wine.

Yes, I remember it well -- did a trip from Florence to Paris in 1969 and had croissants in the dining car rolling across the French countryside. Tres romantique!
Tried an overnight Munich to Paris a few years ago -- sleep-challenged bumpy ride, nobody could find the coffee vendor in the morning. Sad! And even that run has been cancelled.

Hi,

If you are interested in the number of routes covered by night trains, there is a booklet put out by OeBB, the Austrian National Rail, which details the routes and schedules of the Night Jet night trains. This also includes the sleeper and couchette. Even if it did not, you can still rely on night train service, regardless of the availability of the sleeper and couchette options. Night Jet covers night trains in Italy, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Germany, and Poland.

You can obtain the booklet at any Reisezentrum in Austrian train stations...free. I have one, very handy in planning which night routes to take and knowing which stops are made and the times. Comparing the booklet of last year to that of this year, you'll see that the night train network and schedules have expanded. The current booklet is thicker than that of last year.

@ Laura B...I took that Paris-Munich night ride a few years ago too when it was a CNL, sat in a 6 seat compartment, ...true, unfortunately it longer exits.. a pity. What I do now is to go Paris Est to Frankfurt Hbf, (direct), then transfer to Munich Hbf. or the reverse if departing from Munich....all within one day.

As per your query, it doesn't cover France. You would have to transfer in Munich as Munich is a hub for night trains going south, north (Hannover, Hamburg), and east with Budapest as the terminus.

There is couchette and sleeper service on the Night Jet from Munich to Rome.

Barbara - thanks for posting this and to Harold for suggesting seat61.com to look at night trains (tons of detailed information there). This is opening up an option I hadn't even considered that might make a future trip I'd wanted to make possible versus impossible/difficult.

Without getting into details, I find the nighttrain with the private couchette to be very romantic.

Just a clarification on terminology. "Private couchette" is a contradiction. A couchette is a sleeping berth in a 4 or 6 bed compartment, and is not private - just a padded shelf, really. You pay only for your sleeping space, and unless you book with 3 or 5 other people, strangers will fill the other sleeping spaces. A private compartment is not a couchette.

I was going to make further comments on the kinds of romance that might take place in each - but I don't want to get kicked off the forum, so fill in the rest yourselves.

I had a very romantic evening in a private compartment with my wife on the Munich-Venice night train a while back. I had the top bunk and she had the bottom.

We took an overnight train from Budapest to Prague. It was convenient and worked well for us. It was an experience, but there wasn't a fine dining car and wasn't particularly luxurious.

"Private couchette is a contradiction."...very true. If one really wants privacy on a night train, then book a sleeper, which is the most expensive option. One pays extra for privacy. Not my option.

The Paris-Italy night trains have been under different management for the past couple of years (www.thello.com) and I would not expect luxury.

Night trains within Britain have all double compartments and seem more popular than some other operators, but daytime trains on the same routes only take 5 hours, unless you go all the way from London to Inverness (8 hours by day train).

Our printable Rail Guide includes a brief (not exhaustive) summary of international night train routes in western and central Europe on page 8.

All info's on the NightJet are available on the web site https://www.nightjet.com/en/reiseziele.html