In February 2025, Iain travelled by train from the UK to 3 Zinnen in the Dolomites in Italy.
Until now, travelling by train from the UK to the Dolomites without an overnight stop en route has been restricted to taking the Eurostar from London to Amsterdam, changing to an OBB Nightjet service to Innsbruck, then a final change to an OBB Railjet service to the gateway towns of Bressanone/Brixen, Ponte Gardena/Waidbruck and Bolzano/Bozen.
The European Sleeper: Brussels to Venice service
However, February 2025 saw the launch of the new European Sleeper overnight service that goes from Brussels, via the Netherlands, Germany and Austria onto the Italian hubs (and onwards to Venice).
You can watch Iain’s interview with co-founder Chris Engelsman here.
Brighton-London-Brussels
I live in Brighton, so my journey started at 11:02 on a direct train to London St Pancras, arriving at 12:20.
Some people might consider this too close to the official departure time of 13:01 for my Eurostar to Brussels. However, it’s my experience that arriving 40 minutes or so before departure is ample as it typically takes 5-10 minutes to get from check in to the departure hall.
Today was no exception and it took me less than 5 minutes to go through. I noted that it the terminal was much quieter than when I usually arrive for the 08:01 train, which is my usual departure time for a single day journey to the Alps.
I had enough time to visit the bathroom, grab a tea and do a little bit of work before going up to the platform and find my seat.
Upgrade to Eurostar Plus
Unusually I travelled on this service in ‘Eurostar Plus’. I don’t normally consider this to be worthwhile spending extra on. However, when I logged on just prior to travelling I discovered that I’d qualified for a free upgrade to to my membership of the Eurostar ‘Avantage’ frequent traveller programme.
The seating is slightly more spread out in ‘Eurostar Plus’, but the main ‘plus’ is that you are served a meal en route. This was surprisingly good, and I appreciated the regular top ups of tea during the journey.
European Sleeper launch
Had I planned simply to connect straight onto the European Sleeper service, I could have travelled a couple of hours later, not leaving Brighton until 13:00 and London at 15:00.
However, as this was the inaugural service, European Sleeper had organised a special press event at the Pullman Hotel, just next to Brussels Zuid/Midi station.
To emphasise how significant this new service is seen, the event was attended by the Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium, the Austrian and Italian ambassadors Belgium, an MEP from South Tyrol and the President of the Italian National Tourist Board.
Teething problems for the European Sleeper
Unfortunately, the atmosphere was dampened by the announcement that the debut service would not travel through to Venice and would stop in Innsbruck. It was later clarified that this was due to a missing signature from Italian Arenaways, the Italian rail traffic management company.
This was evidently not ideal timing, as the organisers revealed they had only discovered this the previous evening. It’s not expected that this will prevent future trains from travelling the full route, but I will update this post in due course when this is confirmed.
If you read on, you’ll see that this wasn’t an issue for me travelling to the Dolomites. It meant an additional change at Innsbruck and a delay of around two hours on my arrival time at Innichen/San Candido in the 3 Zinnen area, but it didn’t significantly impact on my journey. it was more of an issue for those travelling to Venice , who had to change again at Verona.
Despite the unwelcome news, there was a lot of excitement when the actual European Sleeper train pulled in to Brussels Zuid/Midi, slightly behind its scheduled departure time of 18:06.
So what was the European Sleeper train like?
The six-person courchettes on the European Sleeper reminded me immediately of the trains that I used when I was interrailing around Europe in 1987, trying to save money by taking night trains from city to city.
That’s because some of the European Sleeper carriages are fifty years old. On first glance, they looked slightly shabby, but they weren’t significantly different from the couchettes I’ve slept in on SNCF over the last couple of years.
Walking up and down the train, it was clear that it wasn’t a problem for the passengers, who were busy playing cards, drinking, chatting and generally having fun. Some people had customised their couchettes, using the table to set up for dinner.
There was plenty of room for skis too, with no need to keep them in your couchette.
Make sure you visit the dining car!
Seasoned train travellers from the UK to the Alps will fondly remember the disco carriage on the ski train. It might be my memory, but I have the sense that this was open all night once upon a time, leading many a skier to arrive to the mountains extremely blurry-eyed.
I’m pleased to confirm the dining car on the European Sleeper where all the fun was going on as we sped through Europe towards the snow.
Savvy travellers had pre-booked their meals and guaranteed themselves one of the dozen or so places available. The rest of us squeezed in and the bar staff certainly earned their keep serving non-stop until the bar closed (to their undoubted relief) at 1am.
There was a great atmosphere on the train, aided by the cosmopolitan mix of nationalities (mainly British, Belgian, Dutch, but also German, Chinese and American).
Innsbruck to Bressanone/Brixen
Personally, I slept fine in my couchette. I was only sharing a six-person compartment with two others, so maybe that helped. I find the rocking of the train helps me to sleep.
We pulled into Innsbruck with about 45 minutes before our connecting OBB Railjet, just the right amount of time to stretch my legs, grab some supplies from the station’s supermarket and get up to the platform for the final leg of the journey.
Bressanone/Brixen to Innichen/San Candido
In some respects the Railjet service was an upgrade on the European Sleeper. The train was busier, but the wi-fi was excellent and I managed to get some work in before we pulled into Bressanone/Brixen at around 13:00.
From there it was an hour by taxi to Innichen/San Candido. Normally you could take a train all the way to the resort, but some work is going on to the track this winter.
How much does it cost?
Fares cost from €189 each way for a place in a couchette, or from €799 if you want to book a whole couchette for a group of six you. You can book just a seat from €89 if you want to – but that would be ‘rawdogging‘ it (to quote my GenZ friends).
My return Eurostar to Brussels was £88, so the total cost is going to work out more than flying in most cases, but that’s not really the point. By taking the European Sleeper, you have two nights’ accommodation included in your travel, plus you can ski all of the final day (as your departure from the Dolomites will be around 5pm).
More importantly, if you’re not someone who needs all mod cons, then it’s great fun!
Would I recommend the European Sleeper?
Despite the fact that the European Sleeper train didn’t operate as planned, from my point of view it wasn’t an issue and I would definitely recommend it for someone who wants to make their travel to resort a little bit more of an adventure.
The negative aspect is that it added two hours to the journey time, but it actually gave me some time to grab some food in Innsbruck. The OBB Railjet service was easier for me to work from, with good wifi and a table to put my laptop on to work.
As it stands, it’s seems that all future services will travel to Italy (and on to Venice), but I’ll be updating on here and on the Ski Flight Free Facebook page to confirm.
