OVERNIGHT TRAIN VS FLYING

The answer to all questions is: Depends. If you get a sleeping compartment, you pay the equivalent of a modest hotel room on top of the transportation fare. If you take a couchette, you pay the equivalent of a bunk in hostel. If you just take a seat, you spend the night trying to sleep in a seat only slightly more comfortable than an airline seat. Many people have commented that they still don't get a good nights sleep even in a compartment. The train rocks, stops at intermediate stations in the middle of the night, the beds are not luxuriously comfortable (but not bad, even in the top bunk). Some times you can get a good discount fare on a low cost airline and a night in a hotel room for the same cost. Airlines not only have the cost of getting to and from the airport. There is the hassel amt time of going through security scans. A lot of people use the 6 hour rule. If its longer than a 6 hour train ride, look into a flight. And a lot of it is just a matter of personal preference.

"and would give you an extra day of sightseeing." If you're not so tired the next day from lack of sleep that you need a nap. Here's an experiment. While you try to sleep some night, have someone shake your bed every few minutes, periodically yell something in the next room, and now and again flash a bright light outside your window. Continue all night. If you can sleep through all that, you can sleep on a night train.

If you tell us where you are coming from and going to we can probably give you a better suggestion if it's better to go by train or air. I can't sleep on trains or airplanes, therefore, as a general rule, if I can avoid night travel I will, because the next day I won't be good for anything if I don't sleep. Of course I can't avoid a night flight on the way to Europe, but otherwise I'll avoid it. I've done Florence to Paris on overnight trains a few times when I used to live in Florence and low cost airlines didn't exist. But nowadays I would opt for flying under the same circumstances.

If you look on Wikipedia and put in the airport name, you can scroll down to the bottom and find out which airlines fly out of that airport and the cities serviced by direct flights. The trick is finding the budget airlines like RyanAir, EasyJet and Vueling, flying to your desired destination. In most cases, it's cheaper to fly to those places than taking the train. What's amusing is that there are many airports in Central Europe that do not have budget air carriers going to other major European cities. But you can easily get to the U.K. cheap on Ryan or EasyJet.
I have found Wikipedia's Airport section to be great information in trip planning.

Thanks for the input. I have not traveled by train in Europe since undergraduate days (almost before steam ended), except for Spain. Overnight by train in Spain was great. Though even that has now been 11 years.
My spouse will likely prefer that we stick to daytime travel anyway. I was just curious the video considered the total expense.

And it depends on Where. France yes; Romania, probably not.

Depends for sure,, about 5 years ago I wanted to travel from Paris to Rome. Train ticket with couchette ( I was travelling with an 11 yr old) was going to cost us a total of 350 or so euros..
Flight on Vueling was 160 euros for both of us, plus 17 euros total to get to airport .. so flying was cheaper. Flight was only 1.5 hrs and even with commuting time to and from airport, and arriving at airport 1.5 hrs ahead, duration of travel was much shorter then a 12 hr train ride. I also noted that using a public bathroom in the train at night would not be so fun.. I maintain ( after years of rv travel with three kids) that if one is ok with sleeping in their walk in closet then they will likely be ok with sleeping in an rv, now, for the train , add noise and movement.. Last summer we took 5.5 hr train ride Paris to Nice, total was 40 euros each first class.. I think any travel under 5 hours is better on train, anything more I am looking for a flight

In addition to agreeing with all the above replies ("it depends" and "a night train is only a good proposition if you can get sleep on one"), there's one other factor. In order for a night train to work, there has to be one between the two cities you want to connect. And it has to be a real night train (a train leaving at 1 AM and getting in a 5 AM may be technically a "night train," but that's not what I, or most people, want). With more high speed trains and more budget flights, night trains between cities are being cut. You can never assume there is one without checking.

Hi, As a person who does take night trains, I agree with the "it depends"...depends on a number of factors. Sleeping is just one of them. If you go the cheapest way, ie, a seat in a compartment or the armchair seat, you saved the expense of a hotel. You have to determine whether you want to put up with a night train ride, which has its advantages and disadvantages. I do it to get in an extra day of traveling. I'm also used to it. That also depends on where. I have no problems with taking one between France and Ger., or in Germany and Austria, (the CNL or EN), prefer the armchair seat, the further to the rear, the better. Flying seems to me a lot of time wasted sitting at train stations and airports. One advantage is that the night train is direct, whereas the day trip may require 3 changes.

Our one experience on a night train going from Fulda to Copenhagen left us exhausted. Neither one of us slept and we were in one of the compartments with 6 beds. It is NOT a gentle rocking motion similar to a cradle or being on a ship. It is a jerking, stop and start motion happening many, many times a night. It is being on an incline with your head lower than your feet at many times. It is the banging of them attaching or detaching additional cars and the motion and sound that makes. The bright lights of the stations where the train stops, the yelling of the workers to each other, all make for less than restful sleep. There is no way I could sleep wearing earplugs either. The bathrooms are pretty yucky too. The lady they put in our compartment snored like there was no tomorrow. We had looked forward to doing this as it looks romantic and like it would be fun. It wasn't. Perhaps if we had one of those private compartments with toilet, etc. to ourselves it would have been, but then those cost more than if you just get a budget hotel room. Today, I would just rather ride a train in the daytime as I like looking at the scenery, getting up and going to the dining car for coffee, etc. I don't look at as being a day lost as I am seeing the countryside, and the cities and towns we pass through.

CNL has reclining seats (see page 6), but not on all trains. Don't know if I would call that an armchair seat, but far better than a coach seat on a plane. BTW, I've spent 10 nights on night trains, including 3 consecutive nights going across this country to college, and I never had trouble sleeping. A lot (but not all) of European night trains make their last stops to pick up passengers around midnight, then run without stops until around 4, when they start to discharge passengers. (Who wants to get on or off a night train at 2 AM?) A better solution is to confine your travel to a smaller area, making shorter trips that don't require a night train or all day travel by train or by air.

@ Elle...On some of the CNL and EN night trains, aside from a seat in a 6 person compartment where you sleep sitting up, another option is the "Ruhesessel" called a "sleeperette" by DB. That says nothing to me. It looks like an armchair which can be adjusted to recline a bit. The whole coach is roll after roll of these armchairs by twos, then the isle, then by twos, ie, the isle separates the four armchairs. The coach is a general area seating one (Grossraumwagen). Since I am not going to pay for a couchette (Liegenwagen) or a sleeper (Schlafwagen), I've found the "sleeperette" to be the most comfortable and sleep inducing...no problems there. I don't dispute any of the negative side to taking a night train as listed above, eg, the screeching, cacaphonous mechanical sounds, the jerking of the train, bright lights, somebody getting on close to midnight and waking you up from your sleep, etc..it's all there. Given the choice between a Ruhesessel and a seat in Economy (flight for ten hrs), I would take the Ruhesessel for a 10 hr. night ride...no doubt.

Quite true...they are indeed first world inconveniences. It's all relative on what one is willing to put up with.