Book a sleeper (or couchette)?
 

I will be arriving Switzerland on 26/12, and will travel alone for 2 weeks around switzerland/austria/germany/italy before heading to northern europe.

I didn't try any night train before, but would like to take a few between Italy & Switzerland and Germany.

I tried to check the SBB and Bahn.de webpages. But I find that I cannot check any price information, nor make a reservation!

Sleeper & couchette, can anyone tell me the difference? I am travelling alone and will hold a first class eurail pass. Can I book some 2-berth or 4-berth compartment?

Is there any way I can make a reservation here?

From 29 Dec to mid January, is it still the high season? Or I can make the reservation when I arrive Switzerland on 26 Dec?

Couchette is a shared sleeping space. There are 4 or 6 places in the compartment. The seat bench is one place, the back of the seat flips up to become another space, and there may be another one above that. You do not get to choose the people with whom you share the space and there is no sink or toilet.
A sleeper is a private compartment, usually with a private sink and toilet, usually much more expensive than couchette.
With your Eurailpass there is still a supplement payable to book a couchette or a sleeper - the pass gets you only a seat on the train, not a reservation for the sleeping sapce.
www.raileurope.com is a good place to look for schedule and price information. As to reservation, you can make it when you are in country, but advance reservation is also possible and may give you more peace of mind - also bookable at raileurope.com

I would say that a first-class seat is about equally as comfortable as a couchette. Students often sleep on trains (in <u>second</u>-class seats - which I would not attempt) for the sake of saving a night's lodging, but a compartment will set you back what a hotel would cost. The only rationale I can think of for a compartment is that it preserves your useful touring time by shifting your travel away from the daylight hours.

You may end up paying more for any seat or sleeping car reservation if you do so before you arrive in Europe. RailEurope, as one example, charges more for seat reservations PLUS shipping and handling fees although the latter are PER ORDER and not per reservation. Seat reservations can cost two or three times as much booked in the US vs. booked in Europe.

As a general rule, sleeping car reservations can be booked a MAXIMUM of 60 days in advance.

As Intrepid 1 says, RailEurope take a large profit. So you would do well to e mail five other agents to say what you what, at what dates, offer to pay by credit card, and ask them their cost.

You can use Euraide in Florida, http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homep...e/homepage.htm, telephone 1 941-480-1555 fax 1 941-480-1522 [email protected]). Also they can book through four firms in Britain:

Trainseurope Ltd, of Cambridgeshire and London, take credit card bookings by phone and mail tickets to any address. Have the widest access in Britain to rail systems and tickets. http://www.trainseurope.co.uk/ - E-mail [email protected]. Phone 00 44 900 195 0101 - calls from Britain cost 60 pence or 40 euros a minute, maximum 5, but if the enquiry results in a booking, the cost of the call is deducted from the final invoice. Phone Mon to Fri 10 to 5 British time

German Rail UK: www.deutsche-bahn.co.uk/ Phone : 00 44 870 243 53 63 then 6. Fax : 00 44 208 339 4700. E-mail : [email protected]

Ffestiniog Travel, site http://www.festtravel.co.uk, e-mail [email protected], phone 00 44 176 651 2400

Inside France (Canterbury). Phone 0044 1227 450088. 29/30 Palace Street, Canterbury, Kent, CT1 2DZ. Booking form on site www.rail-canterbury.co.uk/. Or e-mail [email protected]/.

For international tickets, berths and seats Trainseurope are ten percent cheaper than German Rail UK or Ffestiniog Travel. For domestic Italian trains they are cheaper again. German Rail UK are cheaper than Trainseurope or Ffestiniog Travel for domestic trains within Germany and may be competitive with them for international trips with a big proportion of miles in Germany. Trainseurope take Visa and MasterCard, but not Amex or Diners.

There are note on getting the best from sleepers and couchettes at http://www.geocities.com/rexbickers/tipsnighttrains.htm

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Thanks there! I finally got the difference between couchette and sleeper. Guess a first-class seat or a shared couchette will be good for me. But if I am travelling alone, will it be safe for me to sleep in a first-class seat? Will my belongings be endangered if I sleep and leave them unattended?

And from late Dec to mid Jan, is it a high season that I should reserve couchette in advance? Or I can do so after arriving switzerland?

Oops.. there's one more question about reservation -- Can I make all my train reservation in one country? Say, can I reserve a train from Salzburg to Frankfurt in Switzerland? Or I can only reserve the train arriving/departing that country?

Many thanks again~

Hi chic,

&gt;Will my belongings be endangered if I sleep and leave them unattended?&lt;

If you are in a first-class seat - unlikely. Make sure that your money, CCs and passport are in a wallet or money belt under your clothes.

&gt;&gt;...can I reserve a train from Salzburg to Frankfurt in Switzerland? Or I can only reserve the train arriving/departing that country?&lt;

I have found www.Euraide.de to be very helpful. They will book all of your tickets at the same price as you would pay in Germany + S&amp;H.

If you choose to book seat reservations, sleeping car reservations, etc., in Europe you can usually do so at most rail stations, if not all of them.

I would not cosider the time you are traveling to be the usual &quot;high season.&quot;

Some other things to be aware of:

For travel wholly WITHIN Switzerland, seat reservations are usually not offered nor are they usually required. There are very frequent services daily and it is unlikely you would even need a seat reservation.

Another strategy you can use if you do not have a seat reservation but you do have a ticket or pass:

IF you are getting on a train at an ORIGINATING station, get ther before the departure time and station yourself on the correct platform. You can use the posted charts which describe the &quot;make-up&quot; of trains (usually InterCity and EuroCity as well as ICE trains in Germany) that are found on the platforms.

Find out where the class of cars for your pass or ticket will stop on the platform. When the train is pulled or pushed into the station, get on FIRST and you'll have your choice of any unreserved seats.

If you are on ANY overnight service, regardless of which class you are in, and using a seat or couchette space as opposed to a First Class compartment which is usually lockable, make certain any valuables are on your person in a moneybelt or similar. Also, if luggage is anywhere BUT a lockable First Class compartment you can easily &quot;secure&quot; it with an easily-obtainable locking bicycle cable device, preferably with a combination lock [no keys to lose] if you are at all concerned about theft.

personally, I've never had any problems with theft on any train anywhere in Europe over the past 35 years buty the stories of theft, especially within couchette spaces, are legion..everything from thieves using gas to put people into a deep sleep to people using poles extended through open windows from station platforms to snag luggage.

Have a great trip.

If you are sleeping in any public area of the train - yes your belongings are in danger of being stolen. they may not be - but it is perfetly possible that they will be. I would never spend an overnight on the train except in a locked compartment with companions I know. (It's not your person that is in danger - but many people have things stolen - the chance of it happening depending on the country/type of train/number of stops etc.)

(I have friends that lost 2 cameras when in a shared sleeping compartment - and have spoken to others - primarily young people - who slept in regular seats and had all of their belongings ransacked for valuables.)

This plan would never work for me! How can you get a good night's sleep sitting up in the seat of a moving train?

I love taking overnight trains, but pay for a wagon-lit (2 person private room). Traveling solo female you may be assigned with 1 other female, but I've lucked out and gotten the compartment to myself.

I would not consider my belongings secure if you can in fact really fall soundly asleep, so suggestions on money belt, locks, etc. should be considered.

IMO I would spring for at least a couchette situation or take the train during the day instead.

My views are these. All night trains are subject to travelling thieves, so to spend a night on seats of any class is unwise. And needless: a night in a ladies-only second class sleepers costs less than a first class seat, and you can readily book through Euraide or the British agents I listed. Couchettes, too, can be locked from inside and have fixed door cfhasins. Any big station in continental Western Europe will book you berths and seats from any other big station on the continent, speak English, and take credit cards, but on your dates many people travel, so I think you should book now.

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