Sleeper Trains / Night Trains Your Experience? And Pod Trains??????

I took a night train last year from Rovaniemi in Finland to Helsinki. I had a private compartment with an ensuite bathroom.

I'll put it bluntly. I hated it. The walls were paper thin so I could hear the conversation in the next compartment. The pillow was the size of a marshmallow. The table and chair was so small I couldnt fit one side of my "you know what" in the chair. The supplied bar of soap could be covered by a quarter. The shower would only give ice cold water and in 10 second spurts. If I hadn't watched a video, I would never have known that I had to move the wall with the sink to get to the shower.

I got very little sleep since the train kept moving about and making stops all night.

Fortunately, I thought this might happen so I arranged for my hotel room to be ready for my early morning arrival.

I'm glad I experienced it but won't do it again.

I have heard that some of the newer European services are better but I think I'll give them a miss. I'd rather look at scenery during the day and stay in a comfy hotel.

Mostly I use the Cornish Riviera Sleeper, a couple of times a month. Sure beats an extra work night in London followed by a five hour train journey the next morning. Home by 0730. Comfortable bed. And yes, trains do move and make stops because, you know, they are trains.

I think a lot is what kind of sleeper you are, and a little about attitude. Attitude can change so much about how we interact with life.

My last two sleepers I was blessed to share the 20+ hours in a compartment with 3 wonderful ladies who between the 3 of them maybe spoke 6 words of English.

The protocol was the bottom bunks were the seats until bed time. Bed time was when the train turned out the lights (after which the little private lights at each bed sufficed).

Until bed time the ladies took care of ordering the tea and everyone shared what food they had brought. They talked, I listened and they tried to make the old guy feel included by feeding him.

Sort of a captive audiance cultural experience.

Sleeping? I slept like a rock, but there were few stops. The train was noisy and the toilet was ancient and i suspect dumped on the tracks. No shower, no hot water. Tea was about 10 cents anf was delivered. Sheets and pillows and cases were spotless and new looking. Tge matress was also pretty darn good. But i slept on a futon half my life, so what do i know. On the two occasions on the return when train did make an unexpected stop everyone got out of bed, talked and stared out the windows. That was unsettling.

Would I do it again? Well, I did 4 days later to go home. A very similar experience in reverse but this time 2 of my 4 room mates ran to my rescue with the immigration officer. By the time the ladies finished with him he did everything but salute me.

I would do it again in a heart beat. But would I do a sleeper where Wizz or Ryan flies? No. Airports dont bother me the way they do some people.

Back in my early 20s over 25 years ago, I backpacked in Europe and took some sleeper trains. One with a friend, and another alone. I was young and on a short budget, and I didn't sleep at all.
I knew then that sleeper trains weren't for me. In my 30s, I had to take a sleeper train last minute because of a flight cancellation. I paid more for private cabin and still couldn't sleep.
Let's say that I prefer to fly than to take a sleeper train and happy to pay for an extra hotel night.

I've taken 3 sleeper trains. Two were shared with my own traveling companions.

The most recent was solo, in 2018. I had misjudged my timing for the trip. Rather than lose a day of sightseeing, I took the sleeper train from Krakow to Prague. Instead of paying for that hotel night, I paid for a private en suite sleeper compartment.

It was an adventure and I loved everything about it. Even if the bathroom was tiny and the train made a lot of stops, it was part of the fun.

I slept great and was ready to go for my morning sightseeing tour in Prague!

For context, I grew up enjoying RV vacations traveling thousands of miles, snoozing while we bounced on down the highway, with 5 people sharing an even tinier bathroom, and me sleeping in the top bunk.

The train was luxury, by comparison, and brought back fun memories!

CW, what i said "attitude" and sometimes discovery.

I took several night trains back in the 1970s, sleeping in couchette compartments with strangers. The only specific trip I remember is Berlin-Amsterdam in 1972. At that time of my life, I used to say I could sleep anywhere as long as I was horizontal. That's helpful in a couchette, because you're sleeping on a slightly-padded ledge. I didn't sleep well on those trips, but I did get some sleep and was able to function the next day. Otherwise, I wouldn't have done it more than once (despite comparative poverty at that stage of my life).

There were two significant issues on those early couchette journeys: the stopping and starting of the train at all the intermediate destinations and Europeans' love of fresh air. My couchette compartments (all probably north of the Alps) were not air-conditioned, so opening a window was reasonable. But if your bunk is on the trailing side of the compartment (especially if you're in the upper bunk), you get blasted constantly with air, and that gets colder amd colder as the night wears on. That had a major negative effect on my ability to sleep.

Fast-forward to 2015 when I decided to take a night train (again in a couchette compartment because I am still cheap even if no longer poverty-stricken) from Rome to Catania in Sicily. The intention, of course, was to save sightseeing time. That trip was a nightmare because the carriage constantly jerked from side to side. I did not sleep one minute and was effectively jetlagged for more than 24 hours. So I lost a full day in Sicily. A few others have taken that train, but in sleeping compartments, and their experiences were not as bad as mine; maybe my couchette car needed new shock absorbers (or the rail equivalent thereof).

One further anecdote: About ten years ago I disembarked after a short morning train trip and headed to the station toilets, following a 20-something woman from the same train. Even in that wide-open space, she smelled. A lot. I ended up using the same toilet stall she had, and the odor was unbelievably bad even in her absence. I assume she had taken at least two back-to-back night trains and hadn't had an opportunity to shower. I really felt for anyone who had to sit next to her on the train.

We have taken 2 night trains, but that was more than 15 years ago, so perhaps the experience is better now. One was from Munich to Paris. The other was Munich to Rome. In both we were in 4 bed compartments. The first trip was OK, except the compartment was really warm, until one of the other passengers opened the window a crack. The bed was like a board, but the bedding was fine. I slept fairly well, as we seemed to have only a few quick stops. The boxed breakfast and hot coffee in the morning was welcome. The trip to Rome was not good. Same hard mattress and decent bedding. But the train stopped and started so frequently that none of us slept much. And to make matters worse, on more than one stop we were shunted back and forth, with hard jerks each time. I assume they were either adding or dropping cars. No breakfast, but the coffee was more than welcome.

Would we do a night train again? That's a big maybe, depending on our destination.

I took the night train from Vienna to Venice in September, 2019. My two friends and I (all females and in our early 60’s at the time) had reserved a four person couchette. It consisted of two sets of bunk beds. For the first hour or two, it was just the three of us. Then, a young man popped in with his buddy, who was apparently also ticketed somewhere on the train. I guess he felt uncomfortable sharing the small space with us, so he left and didn’t come back until around breakfast time, with his friend with him once again.

I actually slept fairly well that night but my friends did not. I was in one of the top bunks. The bedding seemed clean enough, but I had brought a sheet with me from home just for this night train adventure (and yes, still managed to pack carry-on only). The breakfast, as I remember, was something simple like a roll, water and coffee. There were a couple of outlets that we could plug our Cpaps in to. I didn’t utilize the communal shower so I can’t comment on that.

Would I go on an overnight train again? Only if I had a private room, with no chance of sharing the small space with a stranger. But, it was an adventure and I don’t mind at all that I experienced it.

Oh, come on people. I am the one who isnt in love with the romance of the rails and my experiece was better than most of these ... and my train was a 50 year old commie train. 🤣🤣 (edited for laughter = humor)

I’ll have a go Mr E.

My first experience of sleeper trains was in 1967 as a 14 year old on a school trip to Italy. I can’t remember exactly but I imagine that I got little sleep but that was almost certainly related to being a teenager away from home without parents for virtually the first time. What I can remember is waking up in Switzerland and being gobsmacked my my first views of the Alps.

Next I think was an overnight train from Beijing to Hohehot in what was very much still underdeveloped China in 1982 - another wonderful experience if perhaps not perfect in sleep terms.

Most recently we took the sleeper from Siracusa to Roma about two weeks ago. My wife and I had a room to ourselves although without our own toilet or any shower. We brought our own food for the evening (we left at 7pm) but had a free small breakfast around 6.30am. It was very comfortable- my watch app tells me that I slept 7.5 hours, very good. The train was very late but our plans had left us 3.5 hours to our next train to Milano, so we still had 20 minutes to change platforms. Almost certainly that was preferable to spending that time in Roma Termini. The trip was part of 3 weeks travelling Italy from Bologna down to Sicily and back to London by trains of all sorts. Wonderful and far superior to the air option.

Johnew52, see you too. Maybe thats the secret, commie trains!

Oh, come on people. I am the one who isnt in love with the romance of the rails and my experiece was better than most of these .

Im sorry (not sorry in the least), but in your OP did you not ask for actual experiences on night trains? And have people not responded with their experiences? Why do you feel the need for admonishment?

CJean, you I guess my humor is lost on you. LOL I will go fix it 🤣🤣

But we need one of the German train experts to chime in.

I used to take the sleeper between Edinburgh and London in the early 70’s to visit family in London.
I don’t remember ever sharing a compartment though.
I do remember in the morning just before arrival in Edinburgh, the steward would knock on the door with hot coffee and shortbread!
Not so sure I’d want to take a sleeper now , though I could be convinced.

I agree that the kind of sleeper or the kind of train and a lot of variables go into making up either a good night or a bad night when you take a sleeper train.

That said, the one and only time I've been on one was in 2007 when I was in Turkey and I was taking a sleeper train from Istanbul to Ankara. I don't remember a whole lot about it, but I don't remember it being a bad experience. So I decided to look at my notes from my blog back then, and here is what it said:

At 10 pm, I boarded the train and was taken to my very own sleeper compartment – it was so cool! It has a cute little bed with bedding that folds out and a little sink – I felt like I was on the Orient Express in the middle of an Agatha Christie mystery. I stayed up for awhile, but the bed was calling my name and I soon went to sleep.

So I think it was a good experience! 😂

I was on a sleeper in Canada. It was OK, but I am too old now to like the idea of shared space because of snoring - mine and strangers'.

I have a secondhand story to share:

In 2015 I spent a lot of time in the Balkans, including Romania and Bulgaria. One day I took a daytime train from Bucharest to Veliko Tarnovo in Bulgaria. On the train I met a small Canadian tour group seated in neighboring compartments. The group was on a rail tour. The tour members were in very good spirits despite the trip having gone not at all well up to that point. Their itinerary called for taking multiple night trains. At the point at which I met them, they were to have already been on two night trains. But it turned out the night trains were not running, so their rail tour had devolved into a sit-up-on-a-bus-overnight tour.

That secondhand experience is a major reason why I consider use of public transporttion in the Balkans an adventure sport. It's quite an adrenaline rush, wondering whether you will actually get to your next hotel.

Number oriented fellows may find this research report from Oct 2025 interesting:
"Exploring Europe by Night: Insights into Night Train Travel Preferences" (link to PDF)

Funny you should ask about night train experiences: I was just doing some research a few days ago on the night train from Rome to Sicily and I though it sounded like a great idea for a future trip.......and most certainly preferable to flying!

As for my own experience: I have only taken one night train thus far and that was in 2018, from Venice to Paris. I was with my husband and two sons so we had a 4-person couchette compartment to ourselves (I would NOT have been into sharing with strangers). It started off really well and we enjoyed the food and wine we had brought with us for dinner, while watching the scenery going by. It was cozy being in our own little compartment. We were all given new looking bedding packets and were relatively comfortable in our bunks at bedtime. My boys were young and fell asleep easily, sleeping through the night. I fell asleep as well, but soon, my husband, who was having trouble falling asleep, made such a racket looking for his sleeping pills - I think he literally woke me up to ask me where they were - that I couldn't get back to sleep (although I believe my husband slept beautifully after that - lol). I spent the rest of the night cursing my husband (quietly!), tossing and turning and staring out the window at my only glimpse of Switzerland......a train station with a single (blaring into our compartment) light, where we stopped for about an hour. By the time we arrived in Paris in the morning, I was exhausted. It was the last day of a month-long France/Italy trip so I was running out of steam anyway and it just made for a veeeeeerrrrryyyyy long day that finally ended at an airport hotel at CDG, where I have never been so happy to see a bed (in an otherwise character-less room, of course).

All that being said, my experience was not the night train's fault and I am still glad we took it. I have since then generously forgiven my husband ( because goodness knows, I have never made a mistake in my life) and I may even let him accompany me on the night train to Sicily in the future, but believe me, I will make sure he has his sleeping pills close at hand along with "pain of death" warnings if he wakes me!

Apart from Fred I've done probably more night trains than anyone else here- in the USA, Canada, Australia (the Indian Pacific), Russia and every Western European country.

It's interesting that the UK ones are mentioned above, because when we moved from the Mark 3's to the Mark 5's we lost a lot of the charm in the move to a higher grade, but more functional new train cars, the service level also changed. I actually remember the Mark 3's coming in, the excitement there was and the huge step upwards in safety they were from the Mark 1s. I was a season ticket holder at one time on the UK sleeper service, travelling 2 or 3 times a week from London to Manchester via Glasgow- largely due to an idiot chief accountant who didn't want to pay peak morning fares, so the sleeper overshooting Manchester by 200 miles was then (it isn't now) by far the cheapest option (not to be fair did I want to be up at 4.30 am to be in Manchester by 9am). By then we had lost the London to Manchester/Liverpool/Preston sleeper so via Glasgow was the least worst option).

The only time I've shared a cabin was on RZD from St Petersburg to Moscow- a very untypical Russian route because going back to the time of the Tsars it was a premier night train route with stiff competition as to which was the best train, also Intourist refused foreigners to use the more basic alternative trains. Nor was it sharing with strangers as it was a tour party, so not a true sharing experience. The overwhelming thing about that service was how warm the Russians like their trains. On a quality train without opening windows that was a bit stuffy.
Otherwise I've always had either a seat or a private cabin.

Pretty much it has always been a positive experience. You get used to the movement, the stops and the shunting as the train splits and joins on route. And it saves a lot of time. At one time it also saved money- nowadays that is a fairly revenue neutral question.

The biggest change in Europe is the general loss of restaurant cars on overnight trains, and by far and away the aged Hungarian restaurant car on the service train the Orient Express to Paris was the best of them.

Overall I think the Norwegian night trains are probably the best in Europe, even better now with the lie flat beds option on the Bergen route (coming soon to Trondheim as well).

The best US route to my mind was the Coast Starlight (sadly now downgraded), the worst the Denver to Chicago (I was unlucky and got a train that was hunting all over the place- whether due to track quality, a defect or excess speed I don't know, but almost no sleep to be had).

Pretty much the last of the true Communist trains left is the Bucharest to Chisinau gauge changing train- a route I would love to do.

Another route I would love to do is the Milan to Sicily route, also I would love to do the Stockholm to Stockholm circle- ferry to Turku then the double overnight up through Finland, round the top, then back down through Sweden- I've done the Narvik to Stockholm.

Routes I missed- London to Syria (I never got it before a certain conflict) and London to Athens (I had a connecting ferry from Greece to Italy cancelled, and now the route has been closed since Covid).
And I was very sad last year not to get either of the Paris to Barcelona night trains to connect into a Transatlantic voyage to New York- I just couldn't quite make the timings work.

I notice like SJ a lot of older history here. In the 1970’s in today’s dollars the flights were twice what they cost now which I guess made the trains a lot more desirable. Today it’s hard to compete with discount airlines; especially with some of the prices I have seen on the NightJets. Almost an entire generation has been lost to experience, the ease, the lifestyle so it may take a while to bring people back to the idea.

EDITED. Mardee brings to my mind that RS group sort of likes its standards. (I agree that the kind of sleeper or the kind of train and a lot of variables go into making up either a good night or a bad night when you take a sleeper train.) A lot of the group enjoys Premium Economy at the least. Some night train experiences can be Basic Economy in style and that won’t fly (train) well with some.

Watching the old movies, sharing with strangers seemed to be the norm. Maybe it was just the movies? Now, with Sue and a few others, it appears to be a turn off which is why so many double compartments and even single compartments I guess today. Which is also why the cost is higher I presume.

Sue also brought up a good point about sleep and arrival. If you don’t sleep well and you are pooped out at the next stop was it worth it? Then, as I think FrankII pointed out, what do you do when you get to the next stop at 8am? FrankII rented a room. Well, there goes the cost savings of the train. Me, I was always worried about arriving and stinking up a storm with no shower. Then what? Now they have trains with showers, but according to FrankII hot water isn’t guaranteed.

isn31c I knew we had to have at least one expert among us. Thank you. Fascinating. You said the commie trains were all gone. In Eastern Europe a lot of the rolling stock is pre-liberation so it still qualifies. You can still go through the whole wheel changing process for the track gauge change when entering Ukraine. My trip last year took a solid 3 hours at the border on the trip back to Budapest. Oh, and that was definitely some old commie rolling stock. But not uncomfortable. This is my favorite rail moment. Just looks like sometihng out of an old movie https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xvpZeC9uBGeyQUFzQmXTBC81IwjYVGoH/view?usp=drive_link

Above isn31c mentioned an old Hungarian dining car that he enjoyed. Made me remember that MAV does quite a few special trains a year. That Hungarian dining car he liked might be the one they run out a few times a year in their Dining by Candlelight services. I think they said it was part of the Orient Express. Did you know the Orient Express didn’t have showers? All that elegance came at a price.

Some trips are steam, some use vintage rolling stock, but most are just some of their more comfortable carriages making interesting trips. https://www.mavrailtours.hu/ There is an English language page, but don’t use it. These trips are designed for the locals, and they don’t do any tourist marketing, and the English page is missing a lot of information. On the trip, don’t expect announcements in English, but Hungarians are good people so staff or others will tell you anything important.

Upcoming in the next few months (The behind the scenes events are when you get to go and see the restorations in process or maintenance or just how things work in the train shops):
April 05. Steamy Easter in Gödöllő 05. Steam cloud pendulum between Gödöllő and Hatvan 18. Behind the scenes: The Istvántelk Steam Workshop 25. PIVO Express Brno
May 01. Steamy trip to Szolnok 01. Steamy trip to Békéscsaba 02. Steamy trip to Gyula 02. Steamy trip to Szeged 03. Steamy trip to Kecskemét 03. A steamy trip to Budapest 09. Behind the scenes: Ferencváros Railway Station
June 06. Steamy trip to the Danube Bend 13. Behind the scenes: Ferencváros Railway Station 20. Behind the scenes: The Istvántelk Steam Workshop
July 04. Semmering Express to Graz 15. The Pest-Vác railway line is 180 years old 18. Salamander Express 25. Steamy trip to the Danube Bend

In addition to the steam rides, some of the interesting trips are:

• 25 April: The PIVO which is a trip to Brno.
• 4 July: The Semmering Express which is a trip through the Semmering Pass to Graz,
• 18 July: The Salamander Express which is a trip into one of the Banska towns in Slovakia
• August 14: The Azure express which is a nigh train to Rijeka for the day, then a night train back to Budapest
• Sept 19: The Kadarka Express to the vineyards at Szekszard pulled by this bad boy: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/56/M%C3%81V_M61.jpg/500px-M%C3%81V_M61.jpg
• November 20: An Advent train (two nights) to Melk and Linz in Austria, and České Budějovice and Český Krumlov in the Czech Republic.
• Dec 19 An Advent train to Vienna
• Looks like a tour train to Belgrade is also in the plans.

Mardee points out that RS group sort of likes its standards. Premium Economy at the least. Some night train experiences can be Basic Economy in style and that won’t fly (train) well with many.

Nope, not me! All I did was just talk about my experience on a sleeper train going from Istanbul to Ankara. Must have been some other post. 😊

EDITED. Mardee brings to my mind that the RS group sort of likes its standards. (I agree that the kind of sleeper or the kind of train and a lot of variables go into making up either a good night or a bad night when you take a sleeper train.) A lot of the group enjoys Premium Economy at the least. Some night train experiences can be Basic Economy in style and that won’t fly (train) well with some.

EDITED. Mardee brings to my mind that the RS group sort of likes its standards.

😂😂😂😂😂 Okay, yes, they do, and I will say that the more I invest in premium travel, the more I am inclined to keep doing that. I found myself going with comfort plus more often than I used to, although I still can't bring myself to spring for first class or business class.

I do know that there are some sleeper trains that are quite luxurious, or at least that's my understanding. I haven't traveled in one, but that would be something I would pay for because to me that would be an experience, not just a mode of travel.

The Orient express for $10000 a ticket has not got a shower, last time I checked.

On the comment of older history on night trains: I'm part of that. Took my first night train ride in Sweden June 1971 going from Malmo to North Sweden, scheduled 22 hours. Actually this turned out to be inaccurate as the train didn't arrive until 2 hours later, all in all 24 hours. No sleeper , just seat in the 2nd class . The train had "dining car" Speisewagen was the word used.

On the return to malmo I did for the 1st and last time reserve a "sleeper" Schlafwagen was used. Experience was all right , 3 bunks, shared it with 2 other males, a father (Swedish) and his little son. Not much small talk as he didn't know English or German, I slept anyway, no problem with that.

The next night ride I did was that from Vienna to Amsterdam on that 12 week trip , this time no sleeper, just a seat in a 2nd class six seat compartment, ie 6 of us there.

The two other trips in the 1970s , a total of 8 weeks, no night trains, didn't inquire as to routes, prices, , was too spoiled and basically, didn't know any better. Not until my early 50s did I make night trains part and parcel of train options .

As for unpleasant experiences or something to that, only one time from Munich to Paris sharing a 6 seat compartment with teen age girls on a class trip. They were too keen at all seeing me there, in the end they didn't prevent from getting some sleep. All in all, I could have done without that unsatisfactory experience, I counted it as a fluke, super unlikely to happen again. One "bad" experience is no deterrent .

Very interesting seeing the demographic regarding the passengers on night trains, 99.9 % Europeans (almost exclusively German, but not all), based on the languages I happen to hear, no Anglophones, a few Asians. (I've seen Vietnamese and a few Koreans, students and those older) The lights, the screeching noise, numerous stops, say 7-8 stops in a 10 hour ride don't bother me, all part of the night train experience, and certainly do not prevent me from sleeping and going back to sleep in the compartment or general seating area. Booking a "sleeper" is not an option....expensive, unnecessary.

Fred, I have you beat. I am the one sitting down in the middle: https://swiftmedia.s3.amazonaws.com/mountain.swiftcom.com/images/sites/6/2022/08/24174900/b9a407ef-4ab2-5375-8658-b81f7fa60a52-1024x887.jpg

@ Mr E....You can have the sleeper. I much prefer a seat in the general seating area.

There is a marked difference in night trains since not all night trains are alike. On the OeBB Night Jet at 10:00 PM the lights controlled by its crew are turned out ie, dimmed throughout plus in the compartments, if no one sitting there didn't do that first.

In contrast on the ICE night routes , 2nd class general seating area, the lights are left on , not even dimmed, all night long and these lights are bright. The ICE , obviously, personnel control the lights, so everyone sitting there with the bright light the entire night . My first time taking the ICE night route with those all night lights certainly caught me off guard as I had expected them to be dimmed to some degree. They , obviously , were not., still I slept.

Here is one I didnt expect, but maybe I should have. RegioJet sleeper from Krakow to Prague. The entire compartment for four for 150 euro. You cant beat that with a stick.

As part of a tour in China, we took a night train. I would never do it again! Did not sleep, plus the toilet situation was terrible.

I have used sleeper trains on several occassions:

In 1997 I lived in Copenhagen and worked in Oslo. Every third week I flew to Denmark, but took the sleeper train back Monday evening; being ready to work Tuesday morning. I used a courchette with shared sleeping space. This worked better than flying, since the train started much later than the last flight and arrived much earlier than the first flight.

In the 2010s we took our car to Italy with the auto train from Hamburg to Verona. We used a sleeper cabin for privacy and on a few occassions with private bath room.

One trip from London to Fort William with the Caldonian Sleeper in a Club room.

One trip from Podgorica to Beograd/Belgrade in a courchette.

My experiences have been generally positive. I would never spend the night sitting in general area. Tha advantages of getting my feet up level with the heart and being able to stretch my back are too important now.

When I was in my forties I could spend the night sitting in a bus, but not any more.

Has anyone used one of the pod trains yet? Looks a bit like sleeping in an MRI. https://youtube.com/shorts/86q8Xbn-ZVQ?si=A0qNnIdqBGreT-Bb

Sleeper trains are hit-or-miss for me.
French couchettes are a bit too basic for a good night's sleep for me (even in 1st class), I still use them from time to time, like every year or two, as it's the best way to reach my favorite ski resort in France (Serre-Chevalier).
The late Spanish sleepers were better for me, with significantly more comfortable beds in sleeper class and decent 4-berth couchettes too (but I was young when I used those!)

One of the big losses of fairly recent years was the Hotel Trains from France to Italy, France to Spain, and Spain to Portugal. Very nice trains by all accounts.
Not a Hotel Train but the Paris to Milan sleeper is being restored later this year by European Sleeper.

Only used them on our first RS style European trip in 2010. To save a little money on our expensive Venice hotel, booked r/t on night train from Munich to Venice and back so we could get 4 days in Venice with only 2 nights lodging expense.

This was on the old DB City Nightline trains, 2nd class sleeper, so had to use the toilet at the end of the carriage as there was only a wash basin in the compartment. It was a rather groggy day in Venice, but we managed. I noticed that the train sat in Innsbruck for almost 2 hours to kill time so the train would not arrive too early in Venice, as day trains can do it in only 7 hours.

I should mention that we spent the day and early evening at Oktoberfest in Munich, doing what thousands of others people were doing at Oktoberfest, so maybe that had something to do with our fitful sleep. We fumbled our way on the U-Bahn to Munich Hbf, retrieved our luggage from the locker, and found our way to our compartment on the train.

Funny anecdote, at the last table we sat at, my wife asked the two guys across from us where they were from. "Jersey" they replied. Wifey then gushed, "We were just in Cape May in July! Beautiful beeches, and such a cute town! We loved it!" I didn't have the heart to tell her until we got on the train that they were from the Isle of Jersey, in the English Channel.

We have sworn off night trains since then. Rather sleep in a bed that does move and shake and start and stop in the middle of the night.

I was really expecting a more positive collection of comments. Surprising.

I am ot a "fan" of night trains, but there are times when its a good tool and when thats the case, then I am happy they exist.

I don’t know if it really counts because it wasn’t in Europe, but I took the Canadian train across Canada and spent 4 nights (and days) on the train. I had a small private compartment, with chair that converted to a bed, a sink, and a toilet (shower at the end of the car). Meals were in the dining car, there was a lounge if you wanted company, or I could sit and watch the scenery. I know it’s not for everyone, but I loved it.

One of these days I will try a sleeper in Europe.

...but there are times when its a tool and...

Fixed it for ya.

Thank you.

I traveled from Edinburgh to London on the Caledonian Sleeper back in March 2022. The rocking and swaying lulled me away to a great night's asleep. The shunting, clanking and noises of the night were no bother. I have always benefited from the ability to sleep anywhere and I had nor have no complaints about the journey.

However, for me night trains are not a preference and I don't think I'd choose one again. My issue becomes the logistics. I don't like the idea of checking out of the hotel, storing luggage somewhere, and then spending the next 9-12 hours without personal space. Then arriving at a destination in the morning, storing luggage, and with many hotels pushing check-in times to 3-4pm spending 6-9 hours without that personal space.

I knew that would be an issue for me going into the Caledonian Sleeper. So, I had booked my hotel for five nights and just checked out at 10:30pm that fifth night. That worked, I had my refuge, I was happy. But I wasn't in a position that I was trying to save money on accommodations, as I think many would be by doing a sleeper. Arrived at Euston after 7am had breakfast there, then headed to my hotel at Locke-at-Broken-Wharf to dop off my luggage and then go wander until I could check-in. BOY! was I lucky, cause at 9am when I got there to the hotel, the check-in desk staff said my room was ready and I could go ahead and go on up.

Last October I traveled from Prague to London by train and I was happier with a 13 hour daytime journey from Prague to Brussels, an overnight at the Pullman Brussels Centre Midi and an afternoon Eurostar departure. Made for a seamless checkout, departure-arrival, and check-in.

I know, I'm' weird.