"Seamless journey from Prague to…"

Seamless journey from Prague to belgium, with the whole family

"I really want to like this, but..."

Rating this 4 stars because I think the overall rating is too low. However, there are some bad points. We travelled from Antwerp to Berlin and back, so it's based on that experience.

Reviewers labeling this a dreadful experience are exaggerating, I think. Travelling in a sleeper train is a great way to travel: you board the train, get some rest, and you wake up in a new city. You get an extra day of holiday, otherwise spent on travelling yourself. You can enjoy the scenery zipping by, watch the sunset, or just crawl in your bed.

Is it expensive? Well, you do have to factor in all costs to compare. Compared to a car, not only gas price but maintenance, depreciation, toll, meals and toilet visits and your time and labour of driving yourself all have to be factored in. Let alone environmental impact.

But that does not mean you must not expect quality for that price. And as it stands, the bar is not that high.

We had a 6-person couchette, booked as private with 4 persons. Our compartiment was clean, beds are large enough albeit quite hard. And it's quite small, I can't imagine having to share it with 2 people extra. We worked around potential problems, making sure we went to the toilet at the station and brought earplugs. It is in many ways a blast from the past and it was certainly passable, but it is a 20th-century experience and not what should be expected from train travel today.

Yes, I know, they are a startup and have to get by with rolling stock that is available to them. So I am willing to forgive them for that and want to support them. What I find harder to forgive is lack of communication, both prior to the trip or on board.

Our trip to Berlin started with a 2 hour delay. This was announced at the station at the time the train should be departing. As Antwerp is the first stop after leaving Brussels, they must have know it was delayed at least 40 minutes prior (and maybe even earlier). The screens at the station are (probably?) not ES's fault, but they could have at least sent a text or an email beforehand. We received a text about an hour after our scheduled departing time, which was far too late. We did arrive almost on time in Berlin, however. But no reason was supplied, no apologies were made, nothing.

For the trip back home we checked the realtime timetable at Deutsche Bahn's website. There, too, was a delay of 40 minutes. I contacted ES support if this was correct or if the train might make up for it's delay prior to arriving in Berlin, so we could depart to the station later (we could wait more comfortably elsewhere). Support assured us the train would leave on time, so we got to the station on time. But the delay was correct, and when I confronted support with this they said something along the lines of "oh yeah right it's delayed sorry have a nice trip". Again, how come your own support team does not know where your train is?

There are crew members on board but they are not very visible. We stood still at Roosendaal station on the way back, enlarging our delay, and again nobody gave a reason why or an estimate how long it would take. Nobody ever checked our tickets either, which totally baffles me. Crew we did encounter were friendly though.

So these last points are totally things ES can fix right now, and it would make the experience a lot better. It all worked out in the end, but it kind of feels like you're on your own and things could fall apart at any moment. That bothers me a whole lot more than the state of their cars.

It's still a nice way to travel as long as you manage expectations about the state of the cars. I think we should show love to companies that take a risk and try to build something. It might take them quite a few years to get better rolling stock, but communication to their customers should be much easier to fix.

"Drama"

All I can say is that this was my first and last time traveling on your train! I'm not saying anything about the staff, they are really great10 out of 10 points!! But your train can go straight to the museum! The first delay of 4 hours. Then the air conditioning stops working after several stops due to a broken locomotive and the sockets have also stopped working! And our compartment wasn't even number 13 on Friday!! Very annoying traveling with a clogged/broken and smelly toilet!! Hardly any water comes out of the tap to brush teeth. And don't let me say anything about coffee that costs €3...I'd rather pay €5 for real coffee on the train than €3 for a cup of instant coffee! I won't recommend you to anyone!!

"Zeer slecht nooit mee reizen "

Ruim 4 uur vertraging kwamen implants van 11:00 uur aan in praag 15:30 uur aan, schandalig oud materiaal die steeds uitvallen in 1reis 2 locomotieven stuk. Dit gebeurd regelmatig elke reis naar Praag heeft vertraging. Bedden zijn vreselijk. Een tip reis nooit met europeansleeper

"te klein bed"

++: vriendelijk personeel van European Sleeper
-- : bed is te klein voor iemand die 1,83m lang is, je kan niet goed liggen
-- : er lag iemand op het door ons geboekte bed, daar kan European Sleeper beter op toezien

"Ik kwam eigenlijk de European sleeper…"

Ik kwam eigenlijk de European sleeper uittesten en daar zijn ze met vlag en wimpel voor geslaagd. Een rijtuig waarvan de ramen tegenover elkaar open konden zodat het er aangenaam koel was (het was een warme zomerdag). Met minimale vertraging vertrokken (5 min) en een kwartiertje te laat in Praag maar dat was helemaal niet erg. En de tocht vanaf Dresden naar Decin is een van de mooiste ter wereld. Wat was dit genieten. We zaten in een coupé van zes en hebben twee interessante en prettige mensen ontmoet (de twee anderen waren meer geïnteresseerd in hun telefoon). Fijn m.i uitgebreid ontbijt (ik moest moeite doen om alles op te krijgen). Goed personeel die regelmatig te zien was en info kon geven. Vanaf 6 uur was de coupe met koffie en snacks open dus dat was ook mooi. Toilet was schoon en steeds water. Kan niet wachten op mee te gaan naar Venetië volgend jaar en dan zelfs met een restauratie wagen!

"Nostalgie."

Ook wij zijn met bijna 3 uur vertraging in Bad Schandau aangekomen. 2 van de 3 uur niet gemerkt. We sliepen toen. Eén niet geplande stop s’morgens waarbij we konden uitstappen, foto’s maken en met enkele medereizigers babbelen. Geen probleem voor ons! Pure nostalgie. Dezelfde wagons als die waar we bijna 50 jaar geleden mee reisden. Nadat we de reviews hier vooraf gelezen hadden, beter dan verwacht. Dit prachtige initiatief verdient kans om te groeien.

"For us this is the future of mobility"

For us this is the future of mobility! Despite some technical problems and delays, we were very pleased with our trip to Prague. I hope ES can invest in more modern traincarriages.

"Worth another chance"

After our trip on 12th & 15th August I left a 1 star review on the 16th, mainly because of the trip home on the 15th and the very poor customer service, coupled with the usual technical issues, that we received then. Since then I have not only received a reply to my review on the 16th, but in the last week, to emails to review my recent trip, as well. So I have read all the recent reviews, as well as my own, correcting my spelling mistakes in the process. Of the 4 trips we have done, all of which have had technical problems, it was really only the last one, due to the very poor customer service on top of the usual technical issues, we have encountered in our 4 trips. When the customers service is good, combined with the lovely scenery and the romanticism of travelling by train, the techinical issues are soon forgotten. To that end, having also received an email from European Sleeper recently, regarding their new sleeper service to Venice, next February & March, and that this is still a new business and one that needs to be supported through its teething problems, one I have a small investment in, as well as because train travel is good for the environment, we intend to book a return trip on this new service. I hope that on both journeys we will receive first class customer service, as we did on our first 3 journeys, so we can overlook any technical issues that may arise.

"I wouldn't do it again."

I wouldn't do it again.

First off, I know it was the hottest day in Holland this summer so I'm taking that into account. But for me this train was old, hot and for any luxury you have to look elsewhere. The seats (and beds) look and feel like if they were there in the 70's. The free water you get was already in the cabin (probably when the train left in Belgium) so it had a nice temperature of 30 degrees. When sleeping on the middle or upper beds, we had a couchette for 6 persons, there is always an annoying iron bar in your back. I've slept a total of 1 1/2 hours on our return trip which took 18 hours in total.

On the return the stop in Berlin Central was cancelled. The train should've left at 22:55 and they send me an e-mail on 22:45. I've called with European sleeper during that time, they said they would call me back... I'm still waiting! We had to run to get into Berlin Gesundbrunnen. Luckily we were just in time.

So yes I would never get on this train again. This way you will force people to fly to travel.