Night trains in Europe: how to book, which berth, what it costs

Nightjet is the night-train brand of ÖBB, the Austrian state railway. Its destination pages list departures to Venice from Vienna or Stuttgart, and to Zurich from Vienna, Graz, Hamburg, Hanover, Berlin and Amsterdam. This guide sticks to what the operators publish: when sales open, what each type of place includes, how a fare can be changed, and what you can carry. Where an operator does not state a number, the guide says so.

Fares on Nightjet depend on how full the train is, and the fare page says they change with the availability of ticket contingents. That is why there is no price table here. The one price ÖBB shows without a search is a starting fare for a seat car, and the cost of a couchette or sleeper has to come from the booking engine for your own date.

For a regular Nightjet, the booking FAQ says tickets go on sale up to 360 days before the train leaves. The Nightjet home page adds that sales for 2027 journeys opened about six weeks earlier than usual. EuroNight services open later, up to 180 days before departure.

Two official pages therefore give two numbers for the cheapest fare, 6 months and 360 days. The booking engine only shows what is on sale, so searching your date settles it. SBB, which sells Nightjet tickets in Switzerland, repeats the 360-day figure for Nightjet and 6 months for EuroNight on its European tickets page, and notes that booking periods around the December timetable change open at different times by country and train.

The cheap fares are the ones that run out. ÖBB's Sparschiene Nightjet page says the offer is limited in quantity, only valid for the train you book and not always available in every travel category, and recommends booking up to 6 months ahead. The booking FAQ is the page to read for the 360-day rule.

Nightjet sells three comfort categories: seat cars, couchettes (with single Mini Cabins) and sleeping cars. The operator's own pages describe them like this.

The seat car page calls it the most affordable option on a Nightjet. The couchette page says there is space under the beds for luggage, and the sleeping car page says single berths in double and triple compartments can be shared with another guest. Sleepers and couchettes are made up for the night from 10 p.m. at the latest, according to the service FAQ.

Breakfast in a couchette is a hot drink, a bread roll and jam. Special dietary requests go to the catering company at the address on the service FAQ, at least 72 hours before departure. The couchette category also includes a ladies' compartment for 4 to 6 people, and many routes have wheelchair-accessible couchette compartments, which the booking FAQ describes as taking one passenger with a wheelchair and one companion.

Every Nightjet ticket includes a reserved place, and the booking FAQ states that reservations are required on all Nightjet trains in Germany and Italy. That matters if you hold a rail pass, because the pass does not replace the reservation. Is a Eurail pass worth it? shows how that changes the arithmetic.

If you travel as a group or want a door you control, the whole compartment page describes the options. A couchette compartment can be booked for up to 3 adults, with a maximum of 6 people including children up to 14. Groups of 4 can book a 4-berth compartment and groups of 6 a 6-berth one. Sleeper compartments are sold as single, double or triple. A seat compartment can be booked for up to 3 adults.

The page gives no euro prices for whole compartments. In the booking engine they appear as a private compartment option when available, and where they do not show online the page sends you to the ÖBB ticket counter or ÖBB customer service. A whole compartment is also the only way to take a dog, as the luggage section below explains.

ÖBB's booking options page lists the channels: the online shop at nightjet.com, the online shop at oebb.at, the ÖBB app, every ÖBB ticket counter, the travel agency at the station and ÖBB sales partners. Customer service takes bookings by phone when the online engine shows nothing for your trip.

Partner railways sell Nightjet tickets in their own countries. The same page names bahn.de and DB travel centers in Germany, sbb.ch and SBB points of sale in Switzerland, obb-italia.com and trenitalia.com in Italy, and nsinternational.com in the Netherlands. A resellers' price can differ from the operator's, and the next guide in this series, buying European train tickets, covers that.

The booking FAQ also says that if there is no other way, you can buy standard tickets on the train, with an on-board surcharge. It does not give the amount. ÖBB's fare rules add that online tickets are checked against the payment card or official photo ID given at booking, so carry whichever you used.

Nightjet sells three fare types. Sparschiene is the cheapest and is not refundable or exchangeable. Sparschiene Komfort costs slightly more and can be refunded. The Standard ticket is the flexible one. All three include a reserved place, and tickets for couchette and sleeper places include breakfast.

The starting price is on ÖBB's Sparschiene page: from €24.90 for a seat car, per person and direction, with a booking window of up to 360 days. The page says couchettes and sleepers carry a surcharge on top of the base fare and gives no figure, and the Nightjet pages state that no discounts apply to Sparschiene fares.

Children have their own rules on the general fare information page. One infant up to 5 years old travels free in the booked seat, couchette or bed of the accompanying adult, low-priced tickets are available for children aged 6 to 14, and groups of 6 or more can get a discount.

In practice that means a cabin-size pack fits under a couchette berth and a large suitcase may not. The seat car page mentions luggage racks that lock with NFC cards on the newer trains, and the service FAQ says all compartments can be locked by the passenger, with an intercom to reach the train team. It does not list sockets, so charge before you board.

Bicycles need their own ticket and reservation on a night train, and without a reservation they cannot be carried. ÖBB also runs a door-to-door luggage service for Austria, South Tyrol and Germany, which must be booked at least 3 working days before collection.

European Sleeper links Paris and Berlin, Brussels and Prague, and Brussels and Milan, according to its homepage. Its FAQ lists four classes, from regular seats to a three-person comfort compartment with a private wash basin, and ties refunds to the fare: nothing back on Easy Night, 100% up to 30 days before departure on Good Night and 50% up to 15 days, and 100% up to 48 hours before on Flex Night. Luggage is included, and the FAQ recommends one suitcase or backpack plus a daypack that you can lift into the racks yourself. The FAQ does not say how far ahead sales open. The homepage showed shared compartments from €49.99 on some routes and €59.99 on others on 2 October 2026, tied to a current sale.

Trenitalia's Super Economy, Economy and Base offers apply to Intercity Notte, the Italian night train, as the Trenitalia pages list it. Its ticket refund option, tiRimborso, costs €3 for most offers (€1 for Economy), takes a 10% deduction and can be requested until midnight on the second day before departure.

SNCF Connect describes its Intercités night trains as a reclining seat or a couchette, and says Intercités sales usually open four months ahead, with set opening dates for holiday periods. Its first-class couchettes have four berths and second-class six.

• Search your date on the operator's engine, since it shows only what is on sale. If nothing shows, try the next date before assuming the train does not run.

• Choose the category first (seat, couchette, Mini Cabin or sleeper), then the fare type, because the fare decides what you can change.

• Read the station name on the ticket, not the city. Large cities have several stations and a night train may use any of them.

• Save the ticket for offline use and carry the payment card or photo ID given at booking.

• Put the refund deadline in your calendar: for Sparschiene Komfort it is 15 days before the first day of validity.

The Nightjet pages give three official routes. Contact ÖBB customer service when the engine shows no trip, ask about a private compartment when a category is missing online, and try a neighboring date, since Sparschiene seats are allocated per train.

Beyond that, price a daytime alternative with a hotel night against the berth. For six night arrivals and what the stations looked like, see the sample photo essay Arriving by night train.