Overnight train from Lisbon to Madrid

Have you considered flying?

You can fly on Iberia for as little as €43pp (economy0 {I chose August 15th for this search} & the travel time is only 1Hr 15 minutes.

You can check flights here: https://www.skyscanner.net

Have a wonderful trip!

We had considered flying but we thought it might be a nice experience to ride the train and we figured we would save the cost of a night in a hotel. Thanks for the flight info nevertheless.

I've not taken an overnight train in Europe before, but my mom did years ago & her experience was not what she'd expected.

She had difficulty sleeping on the train, and the next day was not very productive, because she was so tired...

You may want to search, "night train", here on the forum to read other travelers experience on night trains.

It's definitely a personal preference, but I'd much rather sleep on a real bed :-)

I took it about 7 years ago and it was fine as far as night trains go. It's not a luxury experience if that is what some people expect.

If traveling as a family, a sleeper room would be ideal and would make the trip a little more pleasant as you are not sharing with strangers (which is almost always fine but most people don't like to hear others snoring and smell their stinky feet etc..) But if traveling in August, it may be too late to reserve a room like that as they go quickly.

Whatever you do, do not just reserve a reclining seat. I did that by mistake once on a night train and it was pretty awful. One gets little sleep in a couchette but none in a regular seat.

Also know that this train leaves very late at night and arrives early in the morning. You won't see any scenery.