Hey guys, people here have been so helpful in planning our trip for this summer and I was hoping that someone might have experience with overnight trains. We are looking at taking a train from Munich to Paris on the City Night Line. I couldn't attach a link to the direct website, so here is the link to a screenshot of the train we are looking at booking. http://i.imgur.com/NCUTz.png Our questions are basically these: We want to rent a double cabin for both us.
1) do we need a rail pass of some sort to purchase or use these tickets we're looking at? 2) Will us being a mixed gender couple pose as a problem sleeping in the same two bed cabin compartment? The disclaimer makes it seem like we would be able to buy an enture two bed cabin and be fine, but we don't want to risk making a mistake and being forced to separate. 3) It says these tickets come with a box breakfast, does anyone know what this consists of? Is it filling or should we count on spending extra money for more food? We've tried contacting Eurorail to ask these questions several times, but no one has gotten back to us. Thank you so much!
Posted by
Germany, Germany
813 posts
I can't answer any of your questions, but have to comment anyway as a concerned traveler offering sound advice. The Dbahn site had a couple of schedules with a 6 hr trip for only 70Euro a person. For the savings of taking the faster, cheaper train ($200) you could get a hotel room in Paris for the night and sleep better. Why does it take almost 11 hours? If you want the day to spend in Munich, I recommend taking the 16:28 from Munich, get into Paris at 22:35, get a good night's sleep in a hotel (with your dbahn savings) and wake up in Paris rested and ready to go.
Posted by
Missouri City, TX, United States
5 posts
Kathy, Where did you see tickets for 70 euros?
Posted by
Newfoundland, PA, USA
35 posts
I don't know the answers to your second two questions, but as for #1, you are likely to save a lot of money if you book the same train through bahn.com (Germany's Rail site) rather than through Rail Europe. The same trip on CityNightLine on DB Bahn's site on a random date in August is showing a price of 258 EUR for a Deluxe Double Cabin. An Economy Double would be 218 EUR. You would not need a railpass. You could book point-to-point tickets through DB Bahn.
Posted by
Loveland, Ohio, USA
20 posts
Had a railpass when we did the overnight train going the other way from Paris to Munich a few years ago. The double is no problem as it is basically bunk beds with a sink but do not expect tons of room as it is pretty tight. There is a common shower and toilet down the hall in the car. We had our eurorail ticket and a separate sleeper reservation. Saved the price of a hotel and got us from point A to point B overnight, and we had no problem sleeping. The meal was basically cheese, jam, roll, with some type of meat spread with water/juice as I remember. Typical of a european breakfast and was enough to hold us over until lunch.
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32353 posts
Nicole, Are you absolutely committed to taking a night train? There are numerous trips in the daytime with a travel time of about 6 hours, as opposed to 10 - 15.5 hours for the night trains. When choosing night trains, it's important to look at the number of changes and when they occur. One of the night trains on that route has four changes, including one at 05:42. However, there is one direct train. I agree with previous replies, that you'll probably get a far better and more restful nights sleep by using a Hotel in Paris. Happy travels!