I'm thinking of a trip in the future and would like some advice regarding the route with least amount of changing trains. We would get a sleeper car. I have looked at http://www.bahn.de/i/view/USA/en/index.shtml but am confused. Is there another departure near Paris that has less changes to Istanbul?
Love the train, hate to change...

Have you checked the Orient Express? It's a bit on the pricey side, but you don't have to change trains. (http://www.orient-express.com/web/vs...s/4_121933.jsp)

Otherwise, you could spend about 48 hours traveling, with three changes along the way.
(http://hafas.bene-system.com/bin/que...profi&OK#focus)

wow, i sure wish I could afford that !!

Did anyone watch David Suchet's documentary on taking the Orient Express? It looked wonderful apart from no private toilets and no showers at all. Oh, and then there's the price! I still would love to take it, at least from Venice onward.

If your objective is just to get to Istanbul you are better off flying. If you take the trains you have many great cities to explore along the way.

See http://seat61.com/Turkey.htm - just ignore the bit from London to Paris

This is easy enough, I've done it several times. It takes 3 or 4 nights and involved changes at Munich, Budapest and Bucharest, although there are many permutations of route and stopover - for example Salzburg, Vienna and Transylvania (Sighisoara and Brasov) are on the Munich Budapest Bucharest route, or there's an alternative route via Belgrade and Sofia though with less good sleeping cars.

I've posted a set of train times, sample prices and photos on the page that alanrow has been kind enough to recommend.

It's a great trip, and you really appreciate Istanbul more when you've arrived overland NY train rather than merely been plonked there out of the ether by plane!

there are so many cheap intra-Europe airlines flying to Istanbul, which would be fast and possibly not much more expensive. i would check.

If your instinct is to go by train then, by all means, do it. I recently went from Venice to Budapest via Vienna with a single sleeper overnight and it was wonderful. Then I continued from Budapest to London via Munich and Brussels, also with a single sleeper for the first leg. Wonderful again.

Mark, above, the Man in Seat 61 is a great resource and I urge you to do the train trip. The stops need not be onerous but a chance to stretch your legs, maybe put your bag in a locker as I did in Munich in the wee hours of the morning and have a peek and a coffee in places you might not otherwise see. And then Istanbul, lucky you. Can I come along?

thanks for all the replies. I will enjoy looking at all the info and studying times and routes.

Just to throw a wrench into it now, a traveling companions want to continue onto Sochi after Istanbul as he was there in 1999 and wants to show us... This is looking like a 3 weeker for sure...

we know we could so much faster take a flight, but we love the train and wouldnt want to miss the adventure. I have taken the over night train from Amsterdam to Venice and from Paris to Venice and loved it.