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The resurgence in sleeper trains across Europe – along with climate-change concerns – has made the European Sleeper a hit. Offering revived overnight service from Brussels to Berlin – via Antwerp, Rotterdam and Amsterdam and continuing to Dresden and Prague – the Belgian-Dutch collective has passengers trundling across the continent on refurbished rolling stock first built in the ’50s.

My journey started in Brussels and ended in Berlin, a great way to travel between the two cities.

Here’s what you need to know if you want to take the overnight train between Belgium and the German capital and what you'll experience along the way.

Close-up of white and red train in a station with the words "European Sleeper" on its side.
European Sleeper train. AFP via Getty Images

1. Book your ticket in advance

Running Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, the train departs at 7:22pm, arriving in Berlin Hauptbahnhof at 6:20am. The reverse journey runs on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, from Berlin to Brussels. Seats begin at €50 (US$58), couchettes at €80 (US$94) and sleepers at €229 (US$268). Pets and bikes can be accommodated. Book in advance here.

Sleeper car with two narrow bunkbeds and a seat with two windows looking out at trees whizzing past.
The sleeper cabin aboard the European Sleeper. Courtesy European Sleeper

2. Choose your seat option

Although couchettes (carriages with seats that convert into sleeping berths) are the far cheaper option when compared with sleeper compartments, they each felt like a small living room, with six or four comfortable berths topped with folded blankets, a sheet and a pillow. You can open the window and let air blast through as the train races through the countryside (though the wind sometimes billows so much pollen you might want to pack antihistamines).
Train table with coffee, bottled drinks, and food items, including a croissant and crackers.
Breakfast box on the train. Ksenia Kuleshova/Getty Images

3. Get to know the train's amenities

Our train left the station and traveled out over graffiti-covered bridges toward Flanders’ open fields and forests. My train didn't have air conditioning, which made for a stifling ambiance in the sleeper compartment, which contained a trio of beds with heavy duvets, a single seat and table, and a hidden wash basin that opened like a drinks cabinet. By opening the window, however, I was able to let in some fresh air.

The train also doesn't have a dining car, but an attendant went back and forth taking orders for wine, beer, nachos and instant noodles (all reasonably priced). Having wolfed down a plate of boudin noir and mash at long-standing Brussels brasserie Au Vieux Saint Martin, I was sated and perfectly happy to wander about with a tube of Pringles under one arm and a can of European Sleeper’s own Weizen beer in hand.


Couchette train compartment with two blue sofa seats, a white table in between them, and a window looking out to trees whizzing past.
Couchette compartment on the European Sleeper. Courtesy European Sleeper

4. Get to know your fellow passengers

I chatted with passengers traveling in the couchette compartments (one that dogs and cats are also welcome in, provided private compartments are booked out). With little to do once the journey got underway, most passengers started swapping train stories. Some gathered to watch a football match being streamed on a laptop, while others drank as though the end was nigh. It felt like we’d gathered together for one night as a train family, comfortable with strangers who share a mutual love of trains.

Most passengers stood in the corridor, relishing the rush of wind through one large open window and basking in the glow of the dipping sun as it bounced across waterways toward the city of Dordrecht, where windmills turned slowly, and houseboat masts lined up.

5. Enjoy the journey

Darkness swept in after Rotterdam, and we drew into Amsterdam as brightly lit commuter trains flashed the other way and smart apartment buildings rolled by, curtains open to reveal residents working their desktops or reaching for books on shelves. It’s this glimpse into other people’s intimacies that makes night trains so fulfilling: watching a cat pick its way across the top of an armchair, or a woman hugging a partner in their kitchen, oblivious to the watchful eye flashing past.

Stepping back from the window, I could smell a dwindling odor of wine and beer, and the final footsteps up the corridor signaled that everyone else had taken to their berths. While rattle-proofing the compartment, I noticed my neighbors’ ladder thumping against the wall, as though someone was knocking at the door. And that was it for me.

Train station platform with red and yellow train speeding past in the background and blue sign reading "Berlin Hauptbahnhof" in the foreground on a sunny day.
Berlin Central Station. querbeet/iStock/Getty Images Plus

6. Bring earplugs just in case

The rest of the night was spent awake, pillow on head, wishing I’d packed earplugs. Were it not for the torturous banging, the ride was smooth, even gentle. I dozed off in the small hours, waking at 5am in the town of Peine in Lower Saxony, where an anemic blue sky was beginning to turn orange, and an icy-looking mist hovered above the fields.

After snatching a couple more hours’ sleep, I woke to morning clamor on the approach to Berlin. As I rummaged through my breakfast box (included in the price of the ticket), I decided that it was a bit too early for crackers and Ardennes pâté. It was just before 8am, and those who’d slept well were discussing heading straight into the city for breakfast to get a swift start on seeing the sights before the crowds.