Making an overnight train reservation

As soon as you arrive in Berlin, go to the ticket window and reserve your overnight train for the night you want, there might be a fee to reserve. I know when my daughter and I took an overnight train (we had rail passes) I was charged a small fee to reserve, not sure if they still charge a fee.

I'm seeing the same thing on the German Rail website as you are seeing at Rail Europe. They don't sell "reservations" for that train online. I would never go to Europe expecting to use a night train without a reservation in hand. Those are popular trains and often sell out well in advance. Second, passholder reservations are often limited, so they sell out sooner. They want to sell full (global) tickets.

Amazingly, night trains don't go from everywhere to everywhere. To take the night train from Berlin to Aarhus, you have to travel for 2h46m by day train (ICE) to Bielefeld, in western Germany, there pick up the night train from Amsterdam to Copenhagen. You'll be on the night train for about 6½ hrs, to Kolding, then take a regional train from Kolding to Aarhus. It takes almost 12 hours, of which half in not on the night train.

Instead, why not take a direct or one stop ICE connection, less than 7 hours. You can find the connections on the German Rail website. If you book early enough, you can get reserved seats on those trains for just over €40.

You might also be able to get the reservation by calling German Rail, in Germany, at (49) 1805 996633. They will charge you European counter prices. Or you can contact Euraide (www.euraide.com) by phone. Their number is on the website. They get you reservations (if possible) at European counter prices and send them to you for a $50 service charge.

If you wait until you are in Europe, just go up to the counter, show them that you have a rail pass, and say you want a reservation for the night train.

OK, I'm seeing some things.

1. It seems that the night train connection does not appear everyday of the week.

2. I thought I saw it for one day bookable for Bielefeld to Aarhus, but not from Berlin to Aarhus.

3. Where I did find it, I found full fare and Europa-Spezial tickets, but never passholder tickets.

So, if you find the connection from Berlin to Aarhus, but the night train is not bookable from Berlin, see if just Bielefeld to Aarhus is bookable. Also, you might have to forego the passholder fare. I did see one adult for €99 in a economy double with a Europa-Spezial fare. That's not much more than it would cost with the rail pass.

Ok, I mixed this up. We are traveling from Munich to Arhus overnight. There is one train from Munich to Arhus that leaves at around 9pm and then a train from Berlin to Arhus at 11 am. I would really like to use my $387 rail pass. How do I apply it to this train ticket?

Kate,

There is a CNL night train that departs Munich at 19:00 (7:00 p.m.) and arrives in Kolding at 07:15. You can connect there to a regional train that departs Kolding at 07:37 and arrives in Aarhus at 08:57.

You can book your sleeping accommodations on the night train on the DB site. Enter Muenchen Hbf as your departure station and Kolding st as your arrival station, your departure date, and a departure time of 19:00. After you get summary timetables, click on "Check availability" in either the Savings fare column (if one appears) or the Standard fare column for the direct CNL train. You'll get a new page showing your sleeping accommodation choices. Pick the one you want and then click on "Book only extra charge." On the new page click on "Pass offer" and proceed with booking.

Seat reservations aren't required for the regional train from Kolding to Aarhus. Just jump on and go.

Just to emphasize what Tim said, if you try to put in Munich to Aarhus, it will show you the CNL train to Kolding, but the site will NOT allow you to book a passholder "reservation" on that train (it will allow for full fare and Europa-Spezial fares, but not passholder fares. Don't ask me the logic of that). You must book the CNL train (Munich to Kolding) separately on the Bahn website. Only then will it give you the option to "book only extra charge". According to the 7 PM rule, you only need to fill out on your rail pass the date of the train after midnight, so the pass is good for any train from Kolding to Aarhus.