European sleeper trains are making a big come back and you can now use them for everything from time saving business travel and simple low carbon family holidays in the sun or on the ski slopes to border busting, flight free European adventures.
It's all very exciting but before we rush to book this year's holiday by night train we need to get real. The modern European sleepers are not - for the most part - Orient Express style luxury and different routes are going to appeal most to different travellers.
So to help you find your ideal night train, I've put together this guide to the best European sleeper routes with honest appraisals of the pros and cons of each route and shared tips from years of sleeper travel on how to make to the most of the new night train network.
Table of Contents
Sleeper Train Travel Tips
Personal Priorities
Before you book your sleeper train you must identify your travel priorities. Night trains can deliver on all of the following but no routes or tickets can deliver on all of them :
- Price
- Comfort
- Time Saving
- Stunning Scenery
- Relaxation
- Meeting Travellers
- Privacy
- Reliability
Work out what is most important to you and choose routes and tickets appropriately to avoid disappointment.
Couchettes & Cabins
Most sleeper trains offer a mixture of :
- Seats - of varying comfort
- Couchettes - effectively the equivalent of a shared dorm
- Cabins - private for your travel group with some cabins including ensuite loos & showers.
More comfortable seats and cheaper mini cabins are appearing on more routes but some sleeper trains still have old rolling stock. If you are a sensitive sleeper look out for routes e.g. Nightjet, Milan-Sicily or the Highlander offering newer facilities.
For some of us the big delight of night trains is meeting other travellers and swapping stories whilst sharing a couchette compartment. For others nothing could be worse but the privacy of a private cabin can triple your price.
If you are travelling with kids it can be very cost effective to book a whole couchette compartment for up to 6 of you but you will need to book early.
Booking Windows
Most sleeper trains have shorter booking windows than flights so you can't always book your holiday as far in advance. Some routes connecting to the Eurostar have shorter windows than Eurostar so to get the best Eurostar price you may need to book in advance of your sleeper.
Booking Alerts
Some routes e.g. Paris to the south of France, book up very quickly once they open. So if you are tied to specific dates set up alerts on the SNCF site so you can get in there first!
Things Go Wrong
Things do go wrong on sleeper trains just as they do on flights. Trains get cancelled and sometimes only half the train turns up! You can't hunker down on a station as you can at an airport so do have a back up plan of budget hotels near the station in case needed.
Best European Sleepers
Cornish Night Riviera
The Cornish Night Riviera is the easiest sleeper train to start with if you've never travelled on a night train before. Simply board at 10.30 pm at London Paddington and wake up the next morning for breakfast in Penzance.
The Riviera is an old route - there's been a night train to Penzance since 1877 - and the carriages have been on the go since the 1980s so whilst you do get a properly made up bed and a basin in your cabin, the toilets are at the end of the carriage. There is a small lounge car serving snacks and breakfast but not an evening meal.
The Night Riviera stops at several stations in Cornwall before Penzance so you can easily connect to local trains for St Ives or Newquay. Or for an extra dollop of slow travel romance, connect to the Scillonian ferry for the tiny Scilly Isles sparkling in the Celtic Sea. The quay is just a 10 minutes stroll from Penzance station.
The Highlander
The Highlander - run by the Caledonian Sleeper - is another simple sleeper route if you are new to night trains. You can join the train mid-evening at London Euston or Birmingham with useful late departure on Fridays.
You'll wake up north of Edinburgh to enjoy breakfast looking out over some of Scotland's most breathtaking scenery on your way to Fort William, Inverness or Aberdeen. All three towns are gateways not only for exploring the Highlands but also for ferries to the Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland.
The Highlander is more expensive than the Riviera but has new rolling stock with fancier cabins some of which have ensuite loos and showers. There is a dining car which serves - from my experience - pretty good food for both dinner and breakfast but priority goes to those travelling in ensuite rooms.
Paris To Nice
The Paris to Nice sleeper can be a fun and pretty time efficient way to hit the south of France. It leaves from Paris Austerlitz around 9pm arriving in Nice around 9 the next morning having stopped at Marseille, Cannes, Antibes etc along the way. The 2.30 or 3.30 Eurostar departure from St Pancras gives you time to make the connection from Gare du Nord.
One honest downside of the route is the French carriages are not great. They sold off the better ones when previously closing routes and even the first class cabins are basic - no made up bed, no wash basin - and I have to say from doing this route 2 years ago not as clean as they could be!!
So if you are looking for golden age glamour this is not the right sleeper route but if you are looking for a reasonably priced alternative to budget airlines for a flight-free holiday in the south of France it is a good option.
I've also used the Nice sleeper to travel on to Genoa - cool if you like cities with a Naples vibe - and the Cinque Terre resorts from which you can easily get to Pisa, Lucca and Florence by train.
Paris To Spanish Border
The Paris to Cerbere night train is another good way to get a flight-free holiday on France's Med coast. It stops at Nimes, Montpelier, Perpignan and then all the holiday resorts beyond to Cerbere by the Spanish border. It is fun to board the train straight off the beach at little holiday spots like Collioure and the route does offer amazing national park scenery.
However, the route has the same downsides as Paris - Nice with old rolling stock and the change from Gare du Nord to Austerlitz which with small kids is best done by taxi.
Briancon Ski Train
Ski trains are fantastic fun for skiers of a certain age. Sadly there's no longer an overnight ski train directly from London but the Briancon night train runs from Paris to get you on the Serre Chevalier slopes air miles free the next morning.
The Briancon ski train leaves Paris Austerlitz between 8 and 9 pm so from London you need to get a Eurostar between 2.30 and 4pm to make the connection. The ski train offers 1st and 2nd class couchettes, seats and private cabins but these are pretty basic as on all the French night trains.
Turin to Naples
Back in the day you could get a night train directly from Calais to Naples. Sadly these trains are long gone but the Turin-Naples sleeper lets you go flight free to Naples from London via Paris.
There are 5 direct trains a day from Paris to Turin and with an early Eurostar you can be in Turin in time to catch one of the two night trains down to Naples. But to be honest it's more fun to stop off in Turin at least on the way - as its one of those ignored Italian cities which is well worth a mini break.
Milan To Sicily
The Sicily sleeper is one of the great sleeper experiences of Europe as the train is actually taken onto the ferry across the Strait of Messina. Once in Sicily it splits with part going to Syracuse and part to Palermo stopping at seaside resorts along the way.
It is a long journey; the train leaves Milan just after 8pm and only arrives in Palermo at near 5pm the next day. So this is not the sleeper route for those short on time but if you are all up for enjoying amazing Italian scenery from comfortable compartments - superior cabins offer ensuite showers - it is a route for you. Breakfast and snacks are served on the train but there is no dining car.
Brussels To Berlin
The Brussels-Berlin night train is operated by European Sleeper - an independent start-up - who are innovatively re-opening the big old routes that glued Europe together. The Brussels hub is much more useful than Paris when coming from London on the Eurostar as you don't change stations so can make tighter connections.
The Brussels-Berlin sleeper is a brilliant route for exploring not only Berlin and eastern Germany but also Poland, the Czech Republic and beyond as there are direct trains from Berlin to Warsaw, Gdansk, Krakow, Prague and more.
If you've got the time for a big journey, you can loop from the Berlin sleeper through Poland and down to Budapest via Slovakia before heading up to Bratislava and Vienna to get Nightjet's night train back to Brussels.
Brussels To Vienna
The Brussels-Vienna sleeper launched in 2020 was a game changer for European train travel as it reopened the grand cross-Europe over night routes.
Catching a midday Eurostar from St Pancras you will be in Vienna by 9 the next morning, ready to enjoy Austria's grand capital. But once you've filled up on Vienna the whole of Eastern Europe is sitting waiting for you.
Budapest and Bratislava are just a few hours further by train. Or if you're feeling adventurous you can strike out on another sleeper for the unspoiled glories of Transylvania (see below) or in the spirit of the old Orient Express head on for Istanbul (see below).
Brussels to Milan
Personally, I am super excited about the launch of the new Brussels-Milan sleeper in June 2026 which will connect with Eurostar trains from London. We will finally be able to whizz to Italy again, leaving mid afternoon and waking up in the Alps.
The new train will be run by European Sleeper who also run the Brussels to Berlin train. They use fairly old carriages but have smartened them up and unlike SNCF offer made up beds in cabins and basins in some.
The European Sleeper company are also planning to launch a Brussels to Barcelona train in 2027 but currently there are no sleeper trains running into Spain or domestically.
Berlin To Stockholm
If you head out to Berlin on the sleeper from Brussels you can - once you're done exploring northern Germany - head up to Scandinavia on the Snalltaget which stops at Copenhagen before reaching Stockholm at midday.
The service is again run by an independent company and the trains have a pretty youthful vibe. You can book either seats or couchettes but you can book out all 6 couchettes as a private compartment.
The train does have a dining car but only for dinner travelling to Berlin and breakfast heading to Stockholm. The train doesn't run in winter.
Istria : Budapest To Croatia
There's been lots of excitement about Europe's new night trains but some of the best sleeper routes are actually those that never went away. The Istria night train from Budapest to Ljubljana, Slovenia and Rijeka on the north Croatian coast is a great example.
If you've been inter-railing around eastern Europe off the Brussels-Berlin or Brussels-Vienna train, it's a great way to nip down to the coast from Budapest. You can then carry on down the Croatian coast to Albania etc or even hop on a ferry to Venice.
The main train offers seating, couchettes and private cabins some with ensuite toilets and showers. There's also a Retro Istria train in the summer with old rolling stock from the 1970s and no air-con or charging points but good old fashioned made up beds
Adria : Budapest To Croatia
The Adria Express is another summer only night train route that goes all the way from Budapest to Split in southern Croatia enjoying truly stunning scenery along the way.
The train has seating, couchettes and private cabins and a proper old fashioned dining car serving full dinner, late night drinks and breakfast!!
Both the Istria and the Adria routes are pet and bicycle friendly.
Ister Express : Transylvania
The Ister Express is a night train route for the more adventurous. We're not talking luxury sleeper travel with a fancy dining car but instead a chance to hike in some of Europe's most stunning and unspoilt - watch out for the bears!! - mountain country in Transylvania in Romania
The Ister leaves Budapest Keleti just after 7pm. Any of the stops between Sibiu (5.50 am) and Brasov (9 am) are possible bases for exploring the mountains, Dracula's castle and much, much more.
Bosphor Express : Istanbul
The penultimate European sleeper is pretty hard core. The journey is almost 20 hours. There's no restaurant car & no snack bar. You can't book online. And unfortunately it's not accessible for wheelchairs or bikes.
But the Bosphor Express does take you all the way to Istanbul!!
So if you want to go the whole way flight free on night trains from London to Istanbul you can take :
- Eurostar : St Pancras to Brussels
- Nightjet : Brussels to Vienna
- Dacia : Vienna to Bucharest
- Bosphor : for final leg to Turkey.
This is real European train travel seeing Europe for itself, not flying over it.
I do hope you found this post helpful and have a great time exploring Europe by night train. Any questions at all do shout.
Original image source: Oleksii Leonov
