Diferences between Sleeping-Car and Couchettes ?
 

I have a Europass ( 1st Class ) and I´ll take a overnight train from Madrid to Barcelona ? <BR>Which place is better to trip ? <BR>I´ll have to pay more for it ? <BR> <BR>Thanks <BR> <BR>Cláudia

You will pay extra for a sleeping accommodation. <BR> <BR>Couchettes are cabins that contain 4 to 6 small bunkbeds. You share the room with strangers. The train personnel try to put all women in a room, or women and families in a room. <BR> <BR>First class sleepers are for two people, and more expensive. <BR> <BR>Sleeping cars, I think, have reclining seats for sleeping. I don't know how much these cost.

On my first trip to Europe I traveled with a Eurailpass and upgraded to a couchette one night from Nice to Geneva. I was surprised to learn that I was sharing the cabin with one other person, and that other person was a man -- a businessman dressed in a suit. I took the "When in Rome..." attitude. He did not speak English, and I speak only English. We smiled at each in a "Good night" sort of way and went to sleep. When I woke in the morning he was gone.

I always seem to remember something pertinent after I hit that "post" button. I should have added that the trip was in 1979.

Fodors <BR> <BR>In second class you pay a supplement of 20 US dollars for a berth in a 6-berth couchette compartment, of 24 dollars for a berth in German 4-berth couchette compartment, of 60 dollars for a berth in a 3-berth sleeping compartment, and of 70 dollars for ine in a 2-berth (type T-2) sleeping compartment. Hotel trains have 4-berth sleepers, not 3-berth. <BR> <BR>In first class you can of course book any of the second class berths. But the class has its own range of berths: <BR> <BR>I don't know the supplement for a berth in a French or Balkan 4-berth couchette. <BR>That for a berth in a 2-berth sleeper is 80 dollars. <BR>And for a berth in a single, private, sleeper is 120 dollars. <BR> <BR>The rules are that any group, such as friends or a family, can book any of these as a mixed-sex party. No one or two people can book a couchette for a single sex: the assumption is that you sleep in day clothes. On the contrary, in a 3-berth or 2-berth sleeper you are booked by sex, and the assiunmption is that you will change into pyjamas. The conductor who put strangers of both sexes into a single sleeper was breaking his working rules, probably because he wanted to help a lady, and had no other bed to offer. <BR> <BR>Couchettes have no washbasins nor toilets: you go to these at ends of corridors. Sleepers, too, have no toilets (apart from a handful in hotel trains and in some Franco-Italian trains), so you go to ends of corridors, but they do have washbasins, and bottled water for brudshing your teeth. <BR> <BR>On your route the Antoni Gaudi hotel train offers top comfoiet, with 2-berth and 4-berth sleepers, some with shower and I think toilet. It also reclining seats, but thse offer little chance to sleep. The Costa Brava Express has usual 1, 2 and 3 berth sleepers, and 6 berth couchettes. <BR> <BR>Please write if I can help further. Welcome to Europe. <BR> <BR>Ben Haines, London <BR> <BR>