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The Guardian
21 hours ago
- The Guardian
Thrill of the night train: from Vienna to Rome on the next-gen moonlight express
Toasted ham baguettes in hand, we cheered as the new-generation Nightjet drew into Vienna Hauptbahnhof. It was a little before 7pm, and as the carriages hummed past I felt a rush of joy, like celebrity trainspotter Francis Bourgeois, but without the GoPro on my forehead. For more than three years I've been documenting the renaissance of sleeper trains, and I'd wondered if I might one day tire of them. But the thrill seems only to intensify each time I embark on another nocturnal adventure, this time with my two daughters – aged eight and five – who were already arguing over the top berth. The first four carriages were designated for travellers to the Italian port city of La Spezia, the other seven carrying on to Roma Tiburtina, where we would alight at 10am. Once in Rome we had 24 hours to eat classic carbonara, dark chocolate gelato, and bike around the Villa Borghese before taking a train to Florence. The Guardian's journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more. Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) has played the lead role in resuscitating Europe's night trains. Towards the end of 2016, ÖBB launched its Nightjet network on 14 routes, using old rolling stock it bought from Deutsche Bahn. Then, to the delight of train nerds like me, it launched a brand-new fleet at the end of 2023, and now operates 20 routes across Europe. We were now on board this high-spec service, which smelled of freshly unpacked furniture, the carpets soft underfoot, the lighting adjustable to disco hues of neon blue and punk pink. We were booked into a couchette carriage, which mostly comprisesd mini cabins designed for solo travellers preferring privacy. Placing shoes and small bags in lockers, passengers can open a metal door with a keycard and crawl into their single berth, drawing the door closed around them, and not have to look at another human until morning. Last year I had trialled the mini cabins from Vienna to Hamburg alongside a tall friend who had likened the experience to sleeping inside a bread bin, though I hadn't found it as claustrophobic as I'd feared, just a bit hard, chilly, and with a pillow as flat as a postage stamp. So I was curious to see how the carriage's four-person private compartments, for families and groups, would differ. Normally happy to share with strangers, I'd booked a whole compartment for the three of us: more to protect other hapless travellers from my children, who were now swinging off the berths like members of Cirque du Soleil, their sweaty socks strewn under the seats. With raised sides, the upper berths were safe for the girls to sleep in without rolling out, and I set about tucking in their sheets while they settled down to finish their baguettes. There is no dining car on the Nightjet, so we'd bought food from the station, which was now moving backwards as the train sailed out of the Austrian capital in silence, smoothly curving south-west. Two days earlier we'd arrived in Vienna by train from London, via Paris, and had checked into the Superbude Wien Prater, a curious hotel that appeared part art-installation, part hostel, with gen Zs slouched around worn leather sofas on MacBooks. With four-bed family cabins overlooking the Prater amusement park, it was a great location from which to explore the city, then finish the evening with a terrifying rollercoaster and a spicy Bitzinger wurst. A friend had described Vienna to me as a grand and beautiful 'retirement village', but, on the contrary, its green spaces, playgrounds and museums made it an easy stop for 48 hours with kids. Hopping off the Nightjet from Paris, we'd gone straight to my favourite restaurant, Edelgreisslerei Opocensky – an unassuming nook serving homely dishes such as stuffed gnocchi, and goulash with dumplings – before whiling away an afternoon at the Children's Museum at Schönbrunn Palace. Dressing up like young Habsburgs, the girls had swanned around in wigs and musty gowns, laying tables for banquets and begging not to leave – a far cry from our usual museum experiences. Before boarding this train we'd had one last run around the interactive Technical Museum, where the human-sized hamster wheels, peg games and slides had so worn out the children that my five-year-old was asleep as the train plunged into the Semmering mountain pass. It was still light as we swept around the Alps, my eight-year-old kneeling at the window and asking where local people shopped, so few and far between were signs of human life. Horses grazed in paddocks, cows nuzzled, and the occasional hamlet emerged from round a bend as though the chalets were shaken like dice and tossed into the slopes. In the blue-grey twilight we watched streams gleam like strips of metal, and spotted a single stag poised at the edge of a wood, before the train made a long stop at the Styrian city of Leoben, at which point we turned in. Like the mini cabins, the compartment was still too cold, the pillow still too flat, but the berths were wider and the huge window a blessing compared with the single berths' portholes – this one allowed for wistful gazing. Shoving a rolled-up jumper under my head, I fell asleep, waking at 7am to rumpled clouds and a golden flare on the horizon. Most night trains terminate soon after passengers have woken up, but this one was perfect, allowing us to enjoy a leisurely breakfast of hot chocolate and jam rolls while watching the Tuscan dawn breaking into song, and Umbrian lakes and cornfields running parallel before we finally drew into Rome – on time. When travelling alone I relish arriving with the entire day at my disposal, but with children it's hard work waiting until 3pm to check in to accommodation, so I default to staying at a Hoxton hotel if one is available. Its Flexy Time policy allows guests to choose what time they check in and out for free, and by 11am we had checked in, showered and set off to toss coins in the Trevi fountain, finding thick whorls of eggy carbonara at nearby trattoria Maccheroni, and gelato at Don Nino. To avoid the crowds and heat, we waited until 6pm to hire an electric pedal car from Bici Pincio at the Villa Borghese and drove around the landscaped, leafy grounds, relishing the quietness of the evening ride. Excited about the next adventure in Florence, the girls had only one complaint: that they couldn't ride there on the night train. Monisha Rajesh is the author of Moonlight Express: Around the World by Night Train (Bloomsbury, £22), published on 28 August and available on pre-order at Omio provided travel in a four-person private compartment in a couchette carriage from Vienna to Rome (from £357). Accommodation was provided by Superbude Wien Prater in Vienna (doubles from €89 room-only); and The Hoxton in Rome (doubles from €189 room-only)
The Guardian
2 days ago
- The Guardian
Thrill of the night train: from Vienna to Rome on the next-gen moonlight express
Toasted ham baguettes in hand, we cheered as the new-generation Nightjet drew into Vienna Hauptbahnhof. It was a little before 7pm, and as the carriages hummed past I felt a rush of joy, like celebrity trainspotter Francis Bourgeois, but without the GoPro on my forehead. For more than three years I've been documenting the renaissance of sleeper trains, and I'd wondered if I might one day tire of them. But the thrill seems only to intensify each time I embark on another nocturnal adventure, this time with my two daughters – aged eight and five – who were already arguing over the top berth. The first four carriages were designated for travellers to the Italian port city of La Spezia, the other seven carrying on to Roma Tiburtina, where we would alight at 10am. Once in Rome we had 24 hours to eat classic carbonara, dark chocolate gelato, and bike around the Villa Borghese before taking a train to Florence. The Guardian's journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more. Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) has played the lead role in resuscitating Europe's night trains. Towards the end of 2016, ÖBB launched its Nightjet network on 14 routes, using old rolling stock it bought from Deutsche Bahn. Then, to the delight of train nerds like me, it launched a brand-new fleet at the end of 2023, and now operates 20 routes across Europe. We were now on board this high-spec service, which smelled of freshly unpacked furniture, the carpets soft underfoot, the lighting adjustable to disco hues of neon blue and punk pink. We were booked into a couchette carriage, which mostly comprisesd mini cabins designed for solo travellers preferring privacy. Placing shoes and small bags in lockers, passengers can open a metal door with a keycard and crawl into their single berth, drawing the door closed around them, and not have to look at another human until morning. Last year I had trialled the mini cabins from Vienna to Hamburg alongside a tall friend who had likened the experience to sleeping inside a bread bin, though I hadn't found it as claustrophobic as I'd feared, just a bit hard, chilly, and with a pillow as flat as a postage stamp. So I was curious to see how the carriage's four-person private compartments, for families and groups, would differ. Normally happy to share with strangers, I'd booked a whole compartment for the three of us: more to protect other hapless travellers from my children, who were now swinging off the berths like members of Cirque du Soleil, their sweaty socks strewn under the seats. With raised sides, the upper berths were safe for the girls to sleep in without rolling out, and I set about tucking in their sheets while they settled down to finish their baguettes. There is no dining car on the Nightjet, so we'd bought food from the station, which was now moving backwards as the train sailed out of the Austrian capital in silence, smoothly curving south-west. Two days earlier we'd arrived in Vienna by train from London, via Paris, and had checked into the Superbude Wien Prater, a curious hotel that appeared part art-installation, part hostel, with gen Zs slouched around worn leather sofas on MacBooks. With four-bed family cabins overlooking the Prater amusement park, it was a great location from which to explore the city, then finish the evening with a terrifying rollercoaster and a spicy Bitzinger wurst. A friend had described Vienna to me as a grand and beautiful 'retirement village', but, on the contrary, its green spaces, playgrounds and museums made it an easy stop for 48 hours with kids. Hopping off the Nightjet from Paris, we'd gone straight to my favourite restaurant, Edelgreisslerei Opocensky – an unassuming nook serving homely dishes such as stuffed gnocchi, and goulash with dumplings – before whiling away an afternoon at the Children's Museum at Schönbrunn Palace. Dressing up like young Habsburgs, the girls had swanned around in wigs and musty gowns, laying tables for banquets and begging not to leave – a far cry from our usual museum experiences. Before boarding this train we'd had one last run around the interactive Technical Museum, where the human-sized hamster wheels, peg games and slides had so worn out the children that my five-year-old was asleep as the train plunged into the Semmering mountain pass. It was still light as we swept around the Alps, my eight-year-old kneeling at the window and asking where local people shopped, so few and far between were signs of human life. Horses grazed in paddocks, cows nuzzled, and the occasional hamlet emerged from round a bend as though the chalets were shaken like dice and tossed into the slopes. In the blue-grey twilight we watched streams gleam like strips of metal, and spotted a single stag poised at the edge of a wood, before the train made a long stop at the Styrian city of Leoben, at which point we turned in. Like the mini cabins, the compartment was still too cold, the pillow still too flat, but the berths were wider and the huge window a blessing compared with the single berths' portholes – this one allowed for wistful gazing. Shoving a rolled-up jumper under my head, I fell asleep, waking at 7am to rumpled clouds and a golden flare on the horizon. Most night trains terminate soon after passengers have woken up, but this one was perfect, allowing us to enjoy a leisurely breakfast of hot chocolate and jam rolls while watching the Tuscan dawn breaking into song, and Umbrian lakes and cornfields running parallel before we finally drew into Rome – on time. When travelling alone I relish arriving with the entire day at my disposal, but with children it's hard work waiting until 3pm to check in to accommodation, so I default to staying at a Hoxton hotel if one is available. Its Flexy Time policy allows guests to choose what time they check in and out for free, and by 11am we had checked in, showered and set off to toss coins in the Trevi fountain, finding thick whorls of eggy carbonara at nearby trattoria Maccheroni, and gelato at Don Nino. To avoid the crowds and heat, we waited until 6pm to hire an electric pedal car from Bici Pincio at the Villa Borghese and drove around the landscaped, leafy grounds, relishing the quietness of the evening ride. Excited about the next adventure in Florence, the girls had only one complaint: that they couldn't ride there on the night train. Monisha Rajesh is the author of Moonlight Express: Around the World by Night Train (Bloomsbury, £22), published on 28 August and available on pre-order at Omio provided travel in a four-person private compartment in a couchette carriage from Vienna to Rome (from £357). Accommodation was provided by Superbude Wien Prater in Vienna (doubles from €89 room-only); and The Hoxton in Rome (doubles from €189 room-only)
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New 'affordable' night train service to link European cities in 2027
Europe's long-haul sleeper train revival is set for a further boost with the planned roll-out of overnight services connecting over 20 destinations across the continent from a new service launching in 2027. Berlin-based start-up Nox announced in June it would provide rooms onboard for one or two people for "the price of a flight" in an effort, the company claims, to offer an alternative to short-haul air travel. "Today people have to share their cabins with strangers, beds are tight, and it's often more expensive than air travel. We want to change that and make night trains an essential part of European travel," said Nox co-founder Thibault Constant. According to Nox, "affordable fares" will be on offer on 35 routes connecting cities including Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Copenhagen, Milan, Paris, Rome and Warsaw. The trains are to have three classes of rooms with 2-metre long beds, seats, tables and room enough to stand up and store luggage. The announcement comes in the wake of an expansion of trans-European train travel and overnight connections, with the legacy operators such as Austria's ÖBB joining new providers such as European Sleeper in providing services. A group of Finnish businessmen have pitched a high-speed rail link to cut the journey time from Oslo to Stockholm from five hours to 90 minutes. However, not all rail projects are proceeding smoothly, with French environmentalists trying to stop a proposed high-speed route connecting the rugby-playing hubs of Bordeaux and Toulouse.
The Guardian
11-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Europe was promised a new golden age of the night train. Why are we still waiting?
As Europeans woke up to the joy of travel post-lockdown, it looked as though we were in store for a resurgence of continent-crossing night trains. Sleeper train fans hailed a 'night train renaissance' and a 'rail revolution', combining some of the nostalgia for an old way of travelling with modern climate and sustainable transport concerns. The long-distance European train journey might be slower than a short-haul flight, but it is surely better in terms of the environment and the traveller experience. For those on a budget, the prospect of saving on a night in a hotel appeals too. But as anyone who has tried to plan a holiday train trip for this summer is likely to have found, night trains are still few and far between, especially in western Europe. And if there is a night train at all on a route, it will often be booked up months in advance. That's not all: reliability and onboard service are often not up to scratch, with carriages on many routes pushing 50 years old. The traditional behemoths of European rail – France's SNCF, Germany's Deutsche Bahn and Spain's Renfe – have little or no interest in the night-train market, preferring more profitable high-speed daytime trains instead. Only Austria's ÖBB has bucked the trend, ordering a fleet of 33 new trains for its Nightjet service. For comparison, Deutsche Bahn owns almost 300 high-speed daytime trains. Night services remain a drop in the ocean. Now Nox, a Berlin-based private startup, has announced plans it claims will change all that and blow open the night-train market with a radical rethink of the passenger experience. No more old or secondhand carriages; Nox says it intends to build a new fleet. No more asking travellers to share with snoring strangers in couchettes either: the fleet will have only one- and two-person compartments, albeit rather small ones. Pilot services are due to start in 2027 and regular operations by the end of the decade. This approach on the key question is right – the only way to offer more night-train routes is to build new trains. But Nox will not be the first newcomer to try to crack this market. Midnight Trains, a Paris-based startup, promised hotels on wheels in 2021, but investors were not convinced and the venture folded. Dutch operation GoVolta has been unable to turn a successful air-package travel business into the equivalent on rail. European Sleeper, which also launched in 2021, has done a little better – its motley collection of elderly carriages runs three times a week from Brussels via Amsterdam and Berlin to Prague, but without new carriages the company will remain tiny. While Nox, like its predecessors, faces an uphill struggle, in a few ways it is different. Its plan to rethink the layout of a night-train carriage, making it more appealing to modern travellers – and safer for women – makes sense. Standardisation - all the carriages will be the same - keeps operations simple. One of the founders previously worked for FlixBus's rail arm, FlixTrain, in Germany, so there is genuine railway experience. Either way, UK passengers should not hold their breath – night trains through the Channel Tunnel are not on the cards, being operationally too difficult to even contemplate. Efforts by any private operator to solve the night-train puzzle are welcome, but the problem ultimately is political. And as most European countries are too small for national night trains, that means solving these issues EU wide. The European Commission, in a 2021 report , flagged a dozen routes where night trains would make economic sense but currently do not run. Yet, in the years since then, no action has been taken. Brussels is steadily working to harmonise diverging national rules that make running international trains such a hassle. But night trains – locomotive hauled, medium speed and running at night when track capacity is easier to obtain – arguably face fewer hurdles than other train types. It is time for the EU to provide financial guarantees for acquisitions of new night-train carriages, and make those guarantees available to both privately owned and state-owned companies. With at least half a dozen train manufacturers in the EU it could be a boon to European industry as well. And the requirement from the commission in return would be Europe-wide compatibility – that guarantees would only be for go-anywhere carriages that can be deployed anywhere from Barcelona to Bodø, Stockholm to Sofia. So, this summer, as you stand in interminable queues at an airport, or stare at the bumper of the car ahead of you in a traffic jam, remember that all of this could be better. A night-train renaissance could get you to your holiday destination more comfortably and more sustainably. The EU's actions on international rail lag behind its rhetoric. Building more night-train carriages to run more services on tracks already there should be a no brainer. Jon Worth is an independent campaigner and writer about European railways
Telegraph
22-04-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Europe's 10 best sleeper trains
Lovers of sleeper trains can rest easy in their bunks. While there is undoubtedly something of a stop/start motion to the celebrated renaissance of this glorious form of transport in Europe, the direction of travel is clear. Nightjet, the sleeper train network run by the Austrian state rail operator ÖBB, which has spearheaded the revival, will next month (May 2025) bring its swisher, slicker new-generation trains – complete with compact capsule-style mini-cabins – into operation on two of its stellar routings: Amsterdam-Vienna and Amsterdam-Innsbruck. Earlier this year, one of the newer entrants, European Sleeper, launched a Brussels-Venice routing. Further down the line it is eying a Brussels-Barcelona service travelling through France, a country which has also revived several key sleeper train routes, such as the legendary run from Paris to Nice. In Italy, a new fleet of night train carriages is currently under construction and is scheduled to come into play in 2026 on the spectacular night journeys down to Sicily. These moves all reflect a growing demand from a cohort of travellers looking for a slower, more sociable form of transport, one that is gentler on the environment, a lot more enjoyable – certainly than low-cost flights – and one which saves on hotel bills. It's not all full steam ahead – particularly for operators who do not benefit from the backing of a state. Last year Midnight Trains – a private French start-up that had ambitious plans for a new fleet of luxurious 'hotel-on-rails' sleeper trains crossing the continent – had to bow out after failing to secure sufficient rolling stock and backing. With its new route to Venice, European Sleeper discovered how difficult the logistics of such operations can be when the Italian authorities initially denied the train access. Even NightJet has had its setbacks, announcing in March that it was withdrawing its Brussels-Berlin routing. But lovers of this form of travel know all too well that sleeper train journeys have always been a bit stop-start – that's all part of the fun. Here, then, from the northern Norwegian town of Narvik to the great cross-continental city of Istanbul, are 10 European night trains to fire the imagination and rekindle the joy of the journey. Milan to Palermo Intercity Notte (Trenitalia) Let's start with an epic – and the only train journey in Europe that involves boarding a ferry: in this case the 20-minute hop across the Strait of Messina linking the Italian mainland with the magnificent island of Sicily. Departing from Milan just after 8pm, the train passes through some big hitters such as Bologna and Florence at night but some of the loveliest coastal stretches south of Naples by day. If a journey time of 21 hours is off-putting (it arrives in Palermo at nearly 5pm), there's also a service from Rome that takes about 13 hours. Sit on the right for the best views going south (the left going north), and stock up on supplies of Parma ham, olives, biscotti and chianti. La Dolce Vita starts here. Stockholm to Berlin Snälltåget It comes as no surprise that in the land of flygskam ('flight shame'), there are a number of night train options. In direct competition with state-owned SJ, the independent operator Snälltåget offers a link to Berlin on a no-frills train that harks back to an earlier era of European rail travel. It may be quite slow and traditional (the only sleeping option is in a six-berth couchette), but, glory of glories, it has a dining car which goes by the name Krogen (pub). Enjoy cheese-filled schnitzels and organic pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream while passing a series of lakes and forested landscapes as the train heads south towards Malmö and the famous bridge crossing to Copenhagen. There's a very early stop in Hamburg should you wish to alight there, otherwise the train reaches Berlin at 07.45: just in time for a proper Berlin Frühstück (breakfast). A few departures carry on to Dresden. Daily (no Saturday service April-October). From €74 (in a six-berth compartment); Paris to Nice Intercités de Nuit (SNCF) Who doesn't want to wake up looking out of a train window at the dazzlingly blue seas of the Côte d'Azur interspersed with glimpses of fabled French Riviera resorts such as Cannes and Antibes? This journey, discontinued in 2017 but restored in 2021, is a cost-effective way of travelling between the French capital and Nice, offering two levels of couchette – 1st class with four berths (which can be booked for solo occupancy) and 2nd class with six. The reborn train has been modernised (with carpeting and soft fabric bunks) and is not scheduled to stop until it reaches Marseille at around 6.30am. From here on you have a thrilling stretch of track to look forward to. There's no buffet car, but for this segment you can buy coffee and a croissant from train staff. Doing the journey in the other direction you get those views in the evening. Daily (subject to engineering work disruptions). From €29 (in a six-berth compartment). See Brussels to Prague European Sleeper This routing – the first offered by Netherlands-based newbie independent operator European Sleeper – goes though some of the loveliest scenery in central Europe, the Sächsische Schweiz, a region of spectacularly beautiful rock formations in the sandstone mountains of the Elbe valley south of Dresden. Heading to Prague, this stretch comes in the early morning; going back it is in the evening. The route, which also takes in Amsterdam, was launched in 2023, originally to Berlin, and extended to the Czech capital a year later, when a bistro-style dining car was introduced. The rolling stock may be a bit dated (many carriages stem from the 1980s; some from the 1950s) and the power and water supply can sometimes be a bit hit and miss, but that's all part of an experience that for an earlier generation was a rite of passage. Three times weekly (each way). From €79 (in a six-berth couchette). See Sofia to Istanbul Sofia-Istanbul Express (TCDD/BDŽ) Istanbul, eh? If that doesn't conjure up images of train travel at its most romantic (barring the odd murder), nothing will. While there is an extremely luxurious version of the original Orient Express journey between Paris and Istanbul (see here), those on more modest budgets might prefer the regular night train to Istanbul from Sofia. The journey out – on a train offering spacious sleeper and regular couchette compartments, but no catering facility – passes through the ancient Bulgarian city of Plovdiv before arriving in the early hours at the border which on the Turkish side involves getting off the train for passport and baggage checks. None of your namby-pamby Schengen stuff here, this is an old-school border crossing that involves being turfed out of bed for some middle-of-the-night scrutiny and plenty of frisson. That done, retire back to your cabin to rest and anticipate the arrival in the city that signals the end of Europe and the beginning of Asia. Daily. From €29 (in a four-berth couchette). For tips on how to book (not possible online), see Vienna to Bucharest The Dacia (CFR Călători) Another epic journey, another cluster of superlative views. The first significant stop is at Budapest-Keleti where there's time to admire one of Europe's grandest and most eclectic stations (look out for the statue of George Stephenson). From here it's on through the night and the Great Hungarian Plain (puszta). Dawn ushers in the mystical, misty landscapes of Transylvania – with options to get out at the spellbinding cities of Sighișoara or Brasov (well worth visiting, especially if the idea of almost 20 hours on a train palls). Alternatively, if you want to move smartly away from Dracula territory, stay on board for stellar views of the Carpathian Mountains as you head ever deeper into the Balkans and an afternoon arrival in Bucharest. The train offers sleeper, couchette and women-only compartments. The legendary Bar-Bistro evening dining car is alas no more, though coffee and snacks may be available for some of the journey. Daily. From €59 (in a six-bed couchette). See or Stockholm to Narvik Arctic Circle Train (SJ) And now for something completely different – a night train run by the Swedish state-owned SJ operator that covers 1,361 km, extends over almost 20 hours, is thrilling in both summer and winter (and all periods in between), and which, hugely alluringly, goes by the name Arctic Circle Train. An early evening departure from Stockholm sees the train take the coastal route along the Gulf of Bothnia between Sweden and Finland before turning inland and making for the heart of Swedish Lapland and the iron ore mining town of Kiruna. In the summer months of almost permanent daylight, the journey – in a train furnished with a wide variety of sleeping options including single-occupancy 1st class, a splash of Scandi chic and a bistro car – is punctuated by wonderful vistas of coniferous forests and lakes; in winter there is a snowy wonderland-like quality and, if the stars align, sightings of the Northern Lights. The final stretch crosses into Norway and concludes in the northern city of Narvik. Just in case you're pining for the fjords. Daily. From €70 (in a six-berth couchette). See Warsaw to Budapest Chopin (PKP and CD) Another stellar night train journey, another stellar night train name, this one celebrating Frédéric Chopin, Poland's greatest composer. Part of the EuroNight network comprising multiple train operators, this routing links two of central Europe's great powerhouses – a rejuvenated Warsaw and Budapest, a city beautifully bisected by the Danube. The train skirts around the Tatra mountains in the south of Poland just after (or before if going north) Krakow – the ancient capital of Poland and city of such splendour it still thinks of itself as the country's cultural capital. There is a selection of sleeper and couchette options, sometimes including a deluxe variation. Dining facilities are modest, so stock up on supplies in advance. If you're lucky, you may get to enjoy sunrise glimpses of the Danube between Bratislava and Vac (sunset if going the other way). Daily. From €49.90 (in a six-berth couchette). See ; Zurich to Zagreb Alpine Pearls (HŽPP) A journey linking Zurich and Zagreb has a certain ring to it – how often do you get to travel by night train between two places beginning with the letter Z? This is another EuroNight special with a route taking in great swathes of Austria before dipping south into Slovenia with early morning stops in Bled (famous for its lake) and the delightful city of Ljubljana – complete with views of the Julian Alps. The Croatian capital Zagreb, reached courtesy of a long stretch along the River Sava, boasts a rich Habsburg heritage, the shortest funicular journey in the world (66 metres) and a Museum of Broken Relationships. Those who still have itchy feet can travel on by train or bus to Split, the Adriatic – and the Makarska Riviera. Daily. From €49.90 (in a six-berth couchette). See Note that ongoing works until summer 2025 could mean a diversion via Graz. The route through Slovenia is due to reopen in mid-July. Amsterdam to Innsbruck NightJet (ÖBB) Fancy trying the latest thing in night train accommodation? From the end of May, NightJet's new generation trains will be deployed on this 14-hour jaunt between Amsterdam and Innsbruck. The Siemens-constructed trains embrace a more modern design, additional comforts – en suite toilet and shower facilities in all sleeper carriages – free Wi-Fi throughout and, in the case of the pioneering mini cabins, the chance for solo travellers to enjoy privacy in their own space – admittedly a fairly restricted one (think Japanese-style capsule hotels). With so much to engage the senses inside, you will barely miss Bavarian treasures such as Würzburg and Nuremberg, passed in the dead of night. Come the dawn, enjoy the spires of Munich and spectacular Alpine peaks ahead of arrival in Innsbruck, a city prized for its proximity to ski slopes and history as the one-time heart of the Holy Roman Empire.
