A Night on the Nightjet: Amsterdam to Austria by Train

Better for the environment than a plane, cheaper once you include the hotel (well, maybe), and way more memorable, why not take the train overnight?

This is the question I intended to answer taking my first sleeper train from Amsterdam Centraal to Salzburg Hauptbahnhof, operated by ÖBB Austrian Federal Railways' distinctive Nightjet service.

It's not the first night train I've tried to take - in Turkey, I tried to take a sleeper but after waiting on the platform for it from 02:00 until 04:30 without a train in sight, I gave up and went to the airport!

Hoping for a better experience with the Austrians, I booked the mini-cabin option with a friend for an early December departure and after a few days in the Netherlands, was ready for the inaugural journey.

The train arrived in Amsterdam Centraal on-time, which was already a good start. There was a bit of confusion with finding my bed - purely because I was in the wrong car. One down in the correct car, the next issue was the train crew had not unlocked our berths in advance so we couldn't enter or use the handy compartments for our bags and shoes.

Eventually a member of staff came by and tagged them open with the master key, but left before I could ask for my own key. That took about 20 minutes to figure out after leaving Amsterdam, which seems like an easy request but I guess the key cards are supposed to be left for you on the wall and they couldn't find spares. Not having great (any) German and the attendant for my carriage not speaking English did not improve the situation.

The attendant then came by to inquire about breakfast, which was not a success story. Even with my friend understanding some German, we were entirely lost. He was very concerned about something, but we weren't sure what that detail was. I think it was the time breakfast was to be delivered. The plan was 45 minutes before arrival, or 06:45.

Onto my accommodation for the night, and ÖBB has done a delightful job making the best of the space as they can. It's a combination between a business class lieflat seat on an airplane and a coffin, but in a nice way (at least, you're not dead so an improvement on most coffins). There's mood lighting, charging points, a fold out table, a cute window so you can (sort of) watch the rails go by, and if you are sharing with the person next door, a lockable sliding door so you can chat. It's possible to sit up in the mini-cabin, but only just.

The bed is comfortable enough, and they give you a small blanket and pillow both of which are roughly akin to what you get in economy on an airplane. I would recommend, if possible, bringing at least a better pillow. The temperature onboard was fine but the pillow absolutely destroyed my neck for days afterwards.

Downstairs cabins also have additional storage under the mattress, which I read about as a benefit but I don't think it actually is supposed to be since mine was half full of clean sheets. Nevertheless, I still put my huge puffy jacket in there since there was no way it was going anywhere else. Just don't forget anything!

Dinner was courtesy of the Albert Heijn stop we made prior to boarding and note there is no supper service available on this train, so do bring sufficient supplies! I would have loved a bordbistro car but I imagine staffing is a concern on that as it seems to be for so many industries. Already these trains are fairly heavy on the staffing compliment, having an attendant for each car.

After supper rolling through the last of the Netherlands, it was about time to enter Germany and go to sleep. My great plan of waking up refreshed eight hours later was interrupted by the reality of the rail network. This train stops occasionally and goes over many switches, all making for a rather bumpy journey. It's not rhythmic like turbulence on an aircraft is, it's much more abrupt and choppy. I wasn't uncomfortable but as a light sleeper, this was not helpful. The cabins themselves are good at isolating noise from other passengers, but it's certainly not silent with the noise of the train moving. I instead enjoyed about ten hours of attempting to sleep, none long enough for Apple Watch to even pick up that I slept at all.

I want to try again but this time would bring ear plugs and a much better pillow, which might help the situation. I have inflatable camping pillows, I'm obviously not suggesting travellers bring their full-size memory foam ergonomic pillow with cooling gel technology.

Though that probably would be comfortable too!

As we rolled through Germany, and since I wasn't sleeping, I kept an eye on our service using the German DB Navigator app since the ÖBB app leaves a little to be desired. The wifi portal also provides arrival information, though it is not in sync with what DB shows or what the screens onboard say. Indeed, all three often provide different information, though averaging what DB and the onboard screens say seems to be closest to the truth. Google maps also helps to figure out exactly where you are, which may or may not be where you're supposed to be - our train took an hour-long detour towards Hannover as a result of a crewing issue. DB was quick to point out that this delay was not of their making, with their app helpfully calling it a "staff issue outside of Germany."

Since the delay pushed beyond one hour, I was eligible for €40 of delay repay, which was nice.

At around 05:00 I stopped trying to sleep and instead watched the light slowly come up as we trundled along. It's a lovely way to wake up, even if the sleep itself was problematic. The control panel in the berth has a call for breakfast button, so I tried pushing that since there was no need to wait. It did not produce any results, nor did waiting until 06:45. Thankfully I had bought some extra food in Amsterdam, so I could have a muffin at least for breakfast. At around 07:45, or an adjusted 45 minutes before arrival with the delay factored in, the cabin attendant came by with a tea and bag containing two large but incredibly flaky and tough white bread buns. There was also a butter and a jam.

This breakfast was not worth waiting for. The tea was nice though!

A few minutes later and it was about time to start packing up my things and preparing to disembark from this train to catch our connecting train, thankfully booked on the same ticket so protected from the delay.

Overall, a very pleasant experience overnight to travel about a thousand kilometres across Europe. The train was kept clean the entire time, the cabin was very well outfitted, and with a few minor adjustments, it'd be something I'd look forward to doing again. Just don't plan anything to intense on the day of arrival because I was a little sleepy all day long!