My Experience on the European Sleeper: Travelling from Berlin to Amsterdam

July 16, 2026
No Comments

Amidst the flights chaos and uncertainty, taking trains is shaping up to be the trend of the summer. It’s one of my favourite ways to explore Europe and most recently, I took the sleeper from Berlin to Amsterdam. Here is my experience!

Sleeper trains are an amazing way to explore Europe. You can often combine transport with accommodation and simply wake up in a new country in the morning.

It’s also a much more environmentally-friendly way to explore, while keeping the ideas of slow travel alive. And the views themselves are often reason alone to hop on the train.

🚄 Check out some of my favourite European Sleeper Train Routes here.

European Sleeper is a relatively new company, founded in 2021 to bring back old-school style sleeper trains and encourage a more environmentally way of travelling. They now have routes all over Europe.

I went with them from Berlin to Amsterdam overnight and will share every aspect of it here:

Table of Contents

Taking the European Sleeper Train from Berlin to Amsterdam

Getting on the train

I was part of a travel group and we got on the train in Berlin around 10.30pm. Getting on was fairly simple, you had your carriage and seat numbers which correlated to one of the bunks in the 5-bed sleeper cabins.

The train had come from Prague previously so there was a slight delay but it didn’t affect the time we had to board.

The sleeping berths on the train

We were in one of the 5-bed sleeper cabins as four people. Initially, it was a challenge to store everyone’s luggage (especially the bigger bags), but there is space over the door and under the seats and we managed to fit all easily.

As you can see in the photo, the seats at the bottom sort of fold up to make two beds (they had bedding , sheets and pillows on them ready), and the top 3 bunks fold down. Each room also had 5 water bottles in them.

The side with the 3 beds is definitely a little cosy, but I honestly get claustrophobic pretty easily and slept fine on the bottom bunk of those 3.

I will say that if you are with strangers, the arranging of yourselves in the bunks could be a little awkward as we accidentally stepped on each other a few times and had to help each other set up the beds.

I think the rooms are on the smaller side (especially if you are 5 people), but manageable especially when everyone is in their bunk. The beds were comfy and bedding was clean.

The bathrooms on the train

There were plenty of bathrooms at each end of the carriages and you could easily walk to another carriage if your ones were full. I found them pretty clean and spacious enough to do my night routine.

My experience during the overnight ride

I actually got a good 8 hours of sleep on the train, which was partly as we were 2.5hrs delayed and hence got to sleep in a little (which I wasn’t mad about). It was honestly pretty comfy and didn’t rock around too badly. I would recommend ear plugs and a sleeping mask as you can sometimes hear the rooms next door.

They do play an alarm about an hour before arrival in Amsterdam which was insanely loud and made you sit upright in your bunk. It was a little over the top but at least no ones missing their stop haha.

Once we were all up, we folded the bunks back up and all sat down in the bottom compartment. There isn’t a lot of space for legs, but it was fine especially as I was with friends.

For solo, female travellers worried about the spacing, they offer female-only rooms which I would feel a lot more comfortable in if I was with strangers! Doors are lockable for safety.

You can also book breakfast with your ticket, we just had it after arrival as this journey is a shorter one so we really just wanted to get some sleep.

Arrival in Amsterdam

As mentioned, the train was pretty delayed so instead of a 6.30am arrival we were there around 9am. Getting off was easy but took a while for everyone to get their luggage through the narrow walkways.

My overall thoughts on the European Sleeper

I personally thought the European Sleeper was a great way to get from Berlin to Amsterdam overnight and one of the trains where I actually got decent sleep.

I think it’s ideal if you are a group and can get a sleeper compartment with people you know, although the women’s only compartments are a great thing to have too. They also offer private rooms for around 280€ which is great if you are sharing with friends/family.

The train is a start-up and so I think they sometimes don’t get priority over other trains, hence the delay. I personally didn’t mind as the extra time in the morning was quite nice, but it’s just something to keep in mind.

Overall, I’d recommend the European Sleeper. They have different seating/sleeping options for different budgets and sometimes great deals if booked in advance.