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Comment by koyote | Hacker News Reader

They are great for weekend trips and you're absolutely right about relative time saved.

A trip I've done several times is London to Edinburgh. It's a quick flight and even a quick train during the day but if you want to spend Saturday and Sunday you'd have to get up early on Saturday to catch a plane or train which would get you in by noon.

Instead you take the Caledonian Sleeper on Friday evening and arrive in the morning in Edinburgh, ready to start the day.

Although you won't get the absolute best night's sleep, if you come prepared (sleeping mask + ear plugs) you'll get a very decent night's sleep (better than having to wake up early on Saturday).

It's also fun going to sleep and waking up somewhere different!

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The Caledonian sleeper is a funny one because the trains got to fast so the train now just stops in a siding near Edinburgh for a few hours to let people sleep and continues a little later in the morning

Barcelona - Seville did the same, as it went through the high speed rail network, and I couldn’t sleep during the stop because the absolute silence, meanwhile while it was moving I sleeped very well. shame that they closed the line, I recall boarding at 9, having a nice dinner on the restaurant, and sharing the bunk with my girlfriend. Then, waking up, taking a shower in the smallest posible bathroom and be ready to visit the city.

A night train from Bratislava to Prague spends most of the night on a siding in Břeclav.

The one from Malmö to Stockholm arrives at 6, but you can stay in the train until 7. Ideal.

They do this on the ferry ride from Rotterdam to Hull as well. I think the ferry just goes really really slow to make sure it arrives at 7am. I bet they save on fuel doing this as well.

If you ever want to go between Britain and The Netherlands this has to be the most relaxing way to travel. Get on the boat around dinner, eat dinner on the boat, have a beer, go to your room and sleep, wake up in your destination.

It's even better than night trains.

I couldn't agree more. I used the Barcelona-Torino a few years back. I loved it. It felt like teleporting from city center to city center. You don't even have to worry about passports or anything you just hand it out to the train staff.

I've taken it a few times from Edinburgh to Cologne. You enter the train at around 22:25, then it arrives at London around 6:45 in the morning, then you have breakfast and walk over to St, Pancras International and can get the leaving Eurostar at 10:00 or so. Only two train changes. In the afternoon in Brussels and around 17:00 in Cologne. It is very convenient when you have either a good book or work on a laptop because you are going to have quiet quality time which you will probably not have in an airport.

For booking, one has to be careful to book the inter-European distances from Brussels with a reduced price a bit in advance (for example from the German bahn.de web site). It's called Eurosparpreis or so. Also, for the British trains there are resellers which sell the seats much more expensive, so one has to watch out not to be short-changed.

By the way, another and often cheaper alternative is to take the ferry from Newcastle to Ijmuiden/NL which is a port of Amsterdam. As well as the Caledonian Sleeper, it leaves in the evening and arrives at breakfast time. And you have a nice two-people cabin which is a good place to sleep. It can be like 120 € per person for a return ticket.

https://www.dfds.com/en/passenger-ferries/ferry-crossings/fe...

We took the Caledonian Sleeper from London to Glasgow in June of 2019. Saved the hotel night and were hiking the West Highland Way by 9:00. Scotch in the dining car + a private bathroom and double bed. Fantastic experience.

I did the same on Amsterdam - Berlin and vice versa. Internet (4G) is terrible in rural areas of Germany though but if you prepare for thst its no problem. You can also take a night bus. Amsterdam - London should be open now too though not as useful with Brexit (I previously took a night bus on that trajectory).

The night train? If I remember correctly, when it still ran it stopped in Berlin around 4:30 AM; not a fun time to get up. I did use it to go to Dresden though; got out at 7, had breakfast, then a train to Leipzig. Excellent way to travel.

Although since you mention using the Internet and also the Eurostar, you probably meant the day train, which is fine but the 6 hours to Berlin take a chunk out of your day. (I once took the one at 5 AM, but that turned out to be too early for me and I can't sleep in a chair.)

Right, it was more like an early morning train but practically everyone slept. Not the best rest of my life, agreed, but it was terrific (we went on babymoon to Berlin).

Best way between London and Amsterdam is the ferry!

It's not quite as seamless as a direct train but still very enjoyable:

You take a train in the evening from London to the ferry terminal in Harwich, then overnight ferry in a private cabin (it's a big ferry with restaurant and bar etc.) to a port in southern Holland. Then a train from there to Amsterdam.

The train tickets are part of the ferry price (rail and sail) and you get into Amsterdam nice and early.

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