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Overnight train from Paris to Barcelona

We are family of 5. We want to take the overnight train from Paris to Barcelona so our boys (14,12,9) can experience the night train but the sleeping cabin only accomodate 4 and my husband does not feel comfortable sharing the cabin with a stranger and not feeling safe leaving me and my 3 boys in another cabin. This is the website I am looking at http://www.eurorailways.com/products/night_trains/paris_to_barcelona.htm. Do you know if there are other train accomodate more than 4 people?

Thanks
Kim

Posted by
8700 posts

As Steve says, the direct Paris-Barcelona Elipsos Trenhotel has nothing larger than 4-bunk couchettes.

However, there is another option. You can take a Lunea night train from Paris Austerlitz to Port Bou, departing at 21:53 and arriving at 08:21. Then take a Corail train to Barcelona, departing at 10:29 and arriving at 13:09. To have a 6-bunk couchette all to yourselves you'll have to book all six bunks and pay for an empty bunk. Book well in advance (up to three months allowed) at www.tgv-europe.com to get the best fares. To keep the site in English and to avoid being bumped to the Rail Europe site which doesn't offer discount fares choose Great Britain as your country of residence. Pick up your tickets at any SNCF station or boutique in France.

Make separate bookings for Paris-Port Bou and Port Bou-Barcelona so you can book only five tickets for the second leg. Or just wait until you get to Port Bou to buy your tickets to Barcelona.

Posted by
8700 posts

I need to revise the booking advice I gave in my previous post. If you book Port Bou-Barcelona separately on the tgv-europe site and say you live in Great Britain, your only ticket retrieval option will be to have the tickets mailed to a UK address. This is because the leg doesn't start in France. If you book in French on voyages-sncf.com, then you can pick up your tickets at any French station.

However, since you'll have a two-hour layover in Port Bou, you'll have plenty of time to buy your tickets there. Besides, there is open seating on the train you will take and no reservations are possible.