Honest Review of European Sleeper

A few weeks ago, we went on a 6-day holiday to Prague. To avoid taking a polluting plane, we decided to take the train: European Sleeper, an operator of sleeper trains, had a direct line between Brussels and Prague. Lucky us!

As the tickets can be quite expensive, I tried finding some good reviews of the experience beforehand. However, traditional review-sites like Google Reviews or Trustpilot are mainly filled with either 5-star or 1-star reviews, with no nuance in between, and the more long-form reviews from travelblogs all seem like sponsored content.

So, to "be the change I want to see in the world", I thought it'd be fun if I wrote up my unbiased experience for anyone interested in the sleeper trains!

The Good

Obviously, the main benefit is that you're using a relatively green way to travel, especially compared to airplanes. There's also something nice about going to sleep one day, and magically waking up in another country the following day. Throughout this journey, I read a lot, wrote a bit, and enjoyed the views.

And o, how nice those views are:

Overall, the ride to Prague was very relaxing. This might be a me-problem, but for whatever reason I was way less stressed compared to when I fly. It's not that I'm afraid of flying (I unfortunately fly 1-2 times every year for conferences), but something about the whole experience just stresses me out. In the case of the train, however, I could just lay down, eat some snacks, and chill out.

The personnel on the train was also very friendly! Even under the stressful circumstances described below, they were calm and did an excellent job.

The Bad

The sleeper train can be quite pricy. Granted, we had a private couchette compartment, so the price is always a bit higher, but €350 to get to Prague and €280 to get back is quite steep. Couchette's can be shared by up to five people, and it felt weird to sleep next to three strangers, hence why we opted for the private variant.

On our trip back, we were also hit with a sudden cancellation of our train... at least partly. Apparently, the train couldn't get to Prague "for logistical reasons", and therefore had to depart from Berlin instead. At least they organised buses to take us to Berlin, which was four hours away.

However, due to some unfortunate incidents, the bus we weren't on was delayed further, meaning we had to wait for them in the Berlin Gesundbrunnen station for 3 hours (as the train cannot block the rail line). So, wait we did. From 23:00 to 2:00. In a station where everything was closed. At least we were together?

As you can imagine, when the train finally did arrive, it got a loud applause:

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From what I can gather in the reviews, problems like these happen more frequently than you'd like. At the same time, routing trains across Europe is complex. In the end, the five hour delay was not the end of the world for us (we even got 50% of our money back), but I do feel for the lady who missed her connecting train to the UK...

Lastly, one minor complaint is that we had loud neighbours on the first trip: a group of youngsters fond of karaoke and Flemish schlager music. But, after asking them nicely at 1AM, they stopped (at least long enough for me to fall back into sleep).

The Mediocre

In general, the infrastructure is very old. As you could see in the picture at the top, the train is worn down. It turns out not many sleeper wagons are fabricated anymore, so the operator re-uses old wagons from 1950's that have been refurbished. For us, this meant that at least two of our lights were not working, making our compartment dimly lit. Still, I can easily imagine that people might find these old wagons charming, and are willing to overlook such small issues.

The beds themselves were okay. Don't expect a royal mattress or anything, but it's certainly enough for one night's sleep. With my earplugs and sleep mask, I slept decently well.

For those interested: the toilets can be compared to those on an airplane; small, cramped, but good enough for its purpose. So again, nothing fancy, but not the end of the world either.

What's next?

Having had this experience, would I do it again? Perhaps not for holidays, but for sure for work whenever possible. In fact, in a month or two I'll be travelling to Berlin, and I've already booked my European Sleeper tickets. Though this time I splurged for the more premium compartment, shared as I'll by travelling alone. :-)