European Sleeper Reviews 

Delay because of a defect locomotive (three times). No menu in our coach, old furniture and very hard beds. We weren’t being updated why we were standing stil and when they finally did we couldn’t hear it. The airconditioning didn’t work and the waste-bin is so small that it’s full when you put a can in it. Curtains are torn, staff isn’t anywhere to be found. And so on…. Not ever European Sleeper for me.

Our night train (from Berlin to Brussels on 6/9/26) was delayed six hours in total! We only learned of the delay via a station screen after arriving — no prior notice, no staff present. The estimated delay changed repeatedly (from roughly 2 hours, to 5, to 6) without explanation. We waited outside at a station with no toilets, at night, with no updates from staff. The only communication offered the entire time was the option to cancel our booking — no alternative transport or rerouting was ever offered.

I've since filed a compensation claim, which is still being processed. Their customer service was responsive but has not clarified the legal basis for requiring prior staff approval before expenses (food, alternative transport) can be reimbursed — a condition I can't find in the EU rail passenger rights regulation, and one that was impossible to meet anyway, since no staff were reachable during the delay.

Will update this review once the claim is resolved. Right now: a serious communication and assistance failure during a long delay, with an unresolved question about how expense claims are actually handled.

Really poor. Travelled from Milan to Brussels in comfort plus. Cabin hadn't been cleaned from previous occupants so leftover food on the floor. Toilets in the carriage were out of order so nearest toilets were 3 carriages away. To top it all the train was 6 hours delayed. I really wanted this to be a great experience but it was awful. ES are not ready to be operating.

Absolutely terrible. First of all I paid for comfort plus and a few hours before my train left got downgraded to standard.

Got on the train and it was AWFUL. They are FILTHY!!! Honestly never been cleaned. They stank of dust and mould.

Avoid at all costs.

Avoid if possible.

Apparently these trains have been refurbished, must have been a complete mess previously. Most toilets don’t work, water pressure non existent and trains in a bad run down state.

Breakfast is a joke and don’t bother with the gross ‘coffee’ they serve up.

Overpriced with virtually no working facilities. Train was also over two hours late to destination meaning I missed my next connection.

Our night train from Brussels to Lugano was cancelled the day before departure, we managed to book alternative trains and a night's stay in Lugano, but ES will only refund the trains and not the accommodation! Their own T&Cs state that they will cover "reasonable accommodation costs" after cancellations, but they are not doing so, and have now stopped replying to my emails altogether. There is no complaints procedure, trying this out of desperation.

Worst night train I've ever been on. The only thing that was vaguely ok was the pillow which was slightly better than other night trains pillows. The pictures on the website (despite there being a small disclaimer that they may not represent reality) and the quoted reviews give the impression of a quaint/vintage but well maintained night train. This was not the case for the 475 from Paris to Berlin. It was old, not well maintained, with rips in the seats/beds, a very dirty carpet, no lights or soap in the toilets, and uncomfortable mattresses. When we asked the staff about this she just said that's how it is and they only get one refill of soap a day in the bathrooms in Berlin, no one fixes the lights and gradually we loose access to toilets along the way as people block them by accident.
It is definitely not value for money and I sadly won't recommend this to friends and family. How are we supposed to tackle climate change by encouraging people to take the train instead of fly if a dirty, uncomfortable night with not even basic facilities is the other option! Please do better European Sleeper, it's time to upgrade - have you seen the amazing night trains in Austria?!

I went from Cologne to Milano and it was a good experience. I was afraid after reading all the bad reviews but it turned out a nice journey. Old train, yes, a bit dirty o the floors, but the cabinet and the toilet / washing cabin was clean. I loved waking up in Switzerland with such a great view. And I also loved, that one can open the windows - like travelling was in my childhood. Although we arrived two hours late, I would recommend European Sleeper. Don't expect high standard but worth the money (we went in a 6 person cabinet where only 4 persons came).

It was a trip from Como to Verviers. The train stops one hour in Chiasso and one hour in Basel, too long and no information very clear. The booking process doesn't give a seat map of the seat booked automatically by the system. It was too hot when on board and cold during the night. No plug to charge the phone. On booking, it is not clear that the train has a stop in Como neither in Verviers and now, I understand the the stop in Verviers will be cancelled so it is not easy for peple living in Liege neither in Brussels as there is another stop in Anvers between arriving to final destination in Brussels Midi.

Pleasant journey. Car was clean, betting clean. For tall people (over 1.80 m) the couchette may be a little short and they may have to roll up.

Started on time; arrival (Paris-Hamburg) about one hour late. Delays seems to happen regularly, it was said.
One of the conductors was really helpful, the replacement correct, but not so friendly. The conductors seem not to have the duty to wake one up when train approaches destination: "Set your alarm clock". As train was late, the alarm woke me up an hour early.
I will probably use European Sleeper again.

I took European Sleeper from Milan to Brussels. It departed on time. Thanks to the early departure i had a beautifull scenery over Switzerland ans enough time to socialize with my roommates for the night.

The staff was friendly and the breakfast fine.

We made it ourself comfortable by using the sheets as mattrasses. And this is rhe only thing i wanr European Sleeper to improve: as a sleeper train the sleeping comfort of your passengers should be of your atmost concern. Arrange duvets for everyone.

Also i mentionned that in a lot of stations we passed by people where looking at our train. It should be nice where there more promotions on the wagons of the train. I want this company to succeed because i love rhe initiative to get more long distqnce nighttrains in Europe running.

10 minutes before departing time we received a sms that unfortunately because of technical problems the sleeper train from Brussels to Milan was cancelled. A lot of apolagies and a offer for refund but no alternatieve.

I am writing to raise a complaint regarding our journey from Amsterdam to Prague on Monday evening the 17th of August.
We are regular European Sleeper customers. This is now our third year in a row travelling with you between Prague and Amsterdam, and as a family we have always genuinely enjoyed the experience. We travel with our young children and have come to see the overnight journey as part of the adventure.
Unfortunately, our return journey on Monday was a very different experience and, particularly given the price of travelling with European Sleeper, left us extremely disappointed.
We were booked in carriage 12. When boarding in Amsterdam, we were travelling with our five-year-old daughter, our three-month-old baby, a pram, suitcase and backpacks. Following the carriage numbering along the platform, we boarded what we believed would lead us towards carriage 12.
It quickly became apparent that something was wrong.
Carriage 12 simply was not where passengers expected it to be. We were far from the only people confused. There appeared to be an entire carriage-worth of passengers trying to work out where they were supposed to go, all carrying their luggage and attempting to move through already crowded carriages.
As far as we could establish, nobody had received any communication from European Sleeper advising that carriage 12 had been changed.
The result was absolute chaos.
The corridors and doorways became packed with passengers, suitcases and backpacks. There was nowhere to sit or even get out of the way while trying to establish what was happening. Trying to manoeuvre through this with a pram, luggage, a sleeping five-year-old and a three-month-old baby was incredibly difficult.
It took us approximately an hour before we were finally able to locate a member of the onboard team who could explain what had happened.
The purser we eventually found, a tall young gentleman with blonde hair, was extremely pleasant and helpful, and I want to make very clear that our complaint is not directed at him. In fact, he seemed to be almost single-handedly trying to deal with an extremely difficult situation and was completely run off his feet. He even helped us carry one of our bags, which was very kind and greatly appreciated.
He was eventually able to explain that carriage 12 had actually been changed to carriage 25.
We then had to move our entire family, including both children, the pram and all of our luggage, through a huge section of the train to reach carriage 25. With the corridors already congested with confused passengers and luggage, getting everything and everyone through that many carriages was frankly brutal.
The frustrating thing is that the entire situation was avoidable.
We understand that overnight international rail services are complicated and that delays happen. We have travelled with European Sleeper enough times to know this. The train was already running late that evening, but that genuinely isn’t the basis of our complaint. We normally take delays in our stride and consider them part of the adventure of travelling by sleeper train.
What we cannot accept is the complete lack of communication about something as fundamental as where our carriage actually was.
A simple email, text message, announcement at the station, clear signage on the platform or a member of staff directing carriage 12 passengers towards carriage 25 would have prevented almost all of this.
This is particularly disappointing because European Sleeper is not an inexpensive way for our family to travel. In fact, travelling this way costs us considerably more than flying between Prague and Amsterdam.
We knowingly pay that premium because we enjoy travelling by train, we like the concept of European Sleeper, and our children have always enjoyed the experience. At this price point, however, it is reasonable to expect a basic level of organisation, communication and service.
On this return journey, we simply do not feel that we received the level of service we paid for.
There are other areas where we think the service could improve. In particular, the cleanliness of the cabins is something we have noticed over several years and unfortunately do not feel has improved. That is not the main purpose of this complaint, however, and we do not want it to distract from the fundamental issue on this particular journey, which was the extremely poor communication and management of the carriage change.

Dangerous.

The train from Paris to Berlin was cancelled, so they sent a bus for us. The bus didn’t have charging ports and was not very nice. Which was fine. We arrived at 8:57 and the attendant told us not to worry about getting food because they served “everything we could ever want” on board.

When we came onboard, all of the toilets were malfunctioning and up to the brim with fecal matter, urine and water. They did not put up a single “out of order sign”

Our room was near the bathroom and we could smell it through the wall. On top of that, the electricity in our cart was out. The attendant told us that the whole train took 20 minutes for the electricity to start working and that everybody on the train didn’t have electricity yet. I went to another cart and they all had electricity. I had to chase down multiple attendants and ask for help. Everybody said they would check and never returned. Then they tried to gaslight us by saying the AC was working. It was not.

We asked about food, but they informed us that they had closed the food services, but since boarding the train, it was never opened.

Please do not book with these people. This experience has been awful and they didn’t offer us so much as a partial refund.

I wouldn't recommend, unfortunately.. Wished to be able to give it 5 stars, but.... bed to small, train is smelly, curtains don't work, train to old, not on time, and therefore too pricy.

A great disappointment, despite believing strongly in the project

I had booked the European Sleeper Paris–Berlin train for 21 July as early as April, as part of an 11-day Interrail trip with my wife and our two children.

I was particularly excited to try European Sleeper. I strongly believe in the revival of night trains in Europe and in the possibility of travelling overnight while arriving directly in the heart of European cities. I had even considered supporting the project as an investor.

When we arrived at the station in Paris, we were told that our carriage had been cancelled. We were told that European Sleeper had sent us a notification in advance, but this notification had arrived only on the day of departure.

The four of us therefore had to find an alternative at the very last minute. We managed to find the last four available seats on a FlixBus and had to rush to catch it, in order to reach Berlin in time to follow the rest of our travel itinerary.

European Sleeper subsequently reimbursed us for the cost of the FlixBus, which I appreciate. But the main problem remains: how can a passenger who booked several months in advance be informed that their carriage has been cancelled only on the day of departure?

The financial reimbursement solved part of the problem, but it did not restore my confidence.

I continue to believe in night trains and in the European Sleeper project. Precisely for this reason, I hope that situations like this will be handled with greater consideration for passengers who have chosen to rely on your service.

My question today is simply this: can I feel confident booking European Sleeper again for a future journey?

Alessandro Guidi

I took the train from Milan to Brussels. The train is dirty, when we arrived it still had dirty sheets everywhere in the compartment. The beds were full of debries and hair. Nothing is cleaned. They came to change the bedsheets after we already left but had to clean the beds myself. The train is not new it is an old soviet era train (probably) that they repurposed but haven’t changed anything in. Same old beds and seats. Same doors, floors and windows. There is no airconditioning whatsoever in the train so the only ventilation in the train is the windows which make it impossible to have a quite conversation. It has currently stopped for 20 minutes and there is no wind so it has become 30+ degrees in our room. This cost us 259 euros for 2 people. I have taken trains in India that are cleaner than this and have better ac than this. Absolutely horrible

We had a nice experience on this sleeper train. The price-quality ratio was excellent (less quality but the price was fair), The staff were friendly. If you don't need a lot of luxury, this train is definitely worth recommending. Comfortable, affordable, and a very pleasant way to travel.

I think the real issue is that after a few years of business, they still haven't fixed catering. Why can't you have a menu like NightJet or LeoExpress? Passengers are unhappy, and you lose a revenue stream. And cleaning is another issue. Buy modern vacuum cleaners, carpet cleaners, and high-pressure cleaners for toilets and other areas, and fix the problem. Otherwise, I think you can be out of business soon