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TRAIN TRAVEL

The destinations you can reach by direct night train from Berlin

A number of new night train routes have been added or expanded across Europe this year, some of which connect the German capital directly to popular travel destinations. Here are the highlights for 2024.

Published: 28 February 2024 13:03 CET
interior nightjet train cabin
A compartment in the new "couchette comfort" coach of the Austrian Federal Railways' Nightjet train. Nightjet trains connect Berlin directly to cities in France, Switzerland, Austria, and Hungary.

Europe just may be experiencing a rail-travel renaissance as 2024 has brought adjusted timetables with more night trains, including some big new direct connections. Here’s looking at you, Berlin to Paris.

For years, rail travel seemed to be in a state of slow but steady decline. Huge fuel subsidies for airlines made plane tickets significantly cheaper than their train ticket alternatives. Meanwhile rail passengers complained about delayed trains and missed connections, especially in Germany.

READ ALSO: ‘New era’: Berlin-Paris sleeper train completes maiden route

But recently European travellers seem to be increasingly interested in train travel. Be it for reducing carbon emissions, avoiding airport check-in and security lines, or simply for more leg room – there are plenty of reasons to opt to travel by train.

Here are the direct connections you can reach by night train from Berlin:

Berlin to Brussels (soon also Prague)

European Sleeper, a popular night train from Brussels to Amsterdam to Berlin, will soon be extended to Prague – allowing those in Germany’s capital to catch a sleeper train in either direction. 

Prague night time view

A view of Prague’s city centre, lit up at night for winter time celebrations.Photo: picture alliance / dpa | Filip Singer

The extension from Berlin will continue south and slightly east, stopping in Dresden and the picturesque spa town of Bad Schandau on its way to Prague. The first train to make the extended journey is scheduled for March 25th.

Trains headed to Prague are scheduled to depart from Berlin’s central station (Hauptbahnhof) at 6:20 am. So for Berliners it’s really more of an early morning train, but if you stay up the night before you can sleep for four and half hours and wake up in the Czech Republic. Seats from Berlin start at €24.

Trains headed to Amsterdam or Brussels depart Berlin at 10:56 pm, so you can experience an overnight sleeper train if you’re headed east. Tickets from Berlin to Brussels start around  €49 for a seat, €79 for a couchette or €139 for a sleeper.

Find more information and book tickets here.

Overnight to Paris

Germany’s Deutsche Bahn (DB) and France’s SCNF celebrated 15 years of cross border railway partnership by opening up a high speed direct connection between Paris and Berlin, as of December 2023.

a metro station in Paris

A metro train arrives in Paris. Whereas Berlin to Paris by train had typically involved a transfer, Nightjet’s new connection allows customers to sleep right through the journey.

Departures from Berlin’s central station are scheduled on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8:18 pm. They arrive in Paris at 10:24 am the next day, after about 14 hours of travel time – so plenty of time for sleeping, reading, and drinking a few glasses of German beer or French wine.

Tickets start at €34.90 for a seat, or €79.90 for a sleeper in a six-person cabin.

More information and tickets at Nightjet’s website.

Night trains to Scandinavia

Sweden’s Snälltåget train operator connects Stockholm to Central Europe, extending as far south as the Alps, and offers night trains that connect directly to Berlin. Trains between Germany and Sweden’s capital cities also stop in Hamburg, Copenhagen and Malmö.

Stockholm's old town

View of Stockholm’s old town from its highest point – the church tower of the German Protestant community. Photo: picture alliance / dpa | Christoph Driessen

Trains depart Berlin’s central station at 9:10 pm, arriving in Copenhagen at 7 am the next day or in Stockholm at 1:20 pm. 

Coming the other way, trains depart Stockholm at 4:20 pm, arriving in Copenhagen at 10:55 pm and then in Berlin at 7:46 am the following morning.

More information and tickets are available at the Snälltåget website.

Nightjet trains to Zürich, Vienna or Budapest

Nightjet, operated by Austrian railways (ÖBB), has a number of lines directly connecting Germany’s capital city to other major capitals, as well as some smaller stops on the way that are worth a visit.

One line connects Berlin to Zürich via Basel, making it your go-to overnight option to Switzerland. Trains depart Berlin at 8:45 pm and arrive at Zürich’s central station around 9 am. Seats start at €29, or couchettes from €49, and sleepers from €89.

Another line connects Berlin to Vienna, and then continues on to Graz – Austria’s second largest city that achieved some international news coverage for electing a Marxist mayor. Trains depart Berlin at 7:20 pm and arrive in Vienna at 7 am or Graz by 10 am. Seats start at €49, or couchettes from €78, and sleepers from €98.

READ ALSO: Night trains between Germany and Austria start running in December

view of Budapest

The Hungarian capital Budapest is located directly on the Danube. The picturesque old town invites you to take a stroll along the river. Photo: picture alliance dpa | Bernd Kubisch

Or for travellers looking to go further east, there is a direct nightjet train from Berlin to Budapest. Trains depart Berlin 7:21 pm and arrive in Hungary’s capital city by 8:29 am the following morning. Seats start at €29, or couchettes from €54, and sleepers from €79.

READ ALSO: REVEALED – The best night trains running through Germany

More information about all of these trains can be found at the Nightjet website.

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TRAVEL NEWS

How do the EU’s new EES passport checks affect the 90-day rule?

As European travellers prepare for the introduction of enhanced passport checks known as the Entry & Exit System (EES), many readers have asked us what this means for the '90-day rule' for non-EU citizens.

Published: 1 May 2024 07:18 CEST
How do the EU's new EES passport checks affect the 90-day rule?

From the start date to the situation for dual nationals and non-EU residents living in the EU, it’s fair to say that readers of The Local have a lot of questions about the EU’s new biometric passport check system known as EES.

You can find our full Q&A on how the new system will work HERE, or leave us your questions HERE.

And one of the most commonly-asked questions was what the new system changes with regards to the 90-day rule – the rule that allows citizens of certain non-EU countries (including the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) to spend up to 90 days in every 180 in the EU without needing a visa.

And the short answer is – nothing. The key thing to remember about EES is that it doesn’t actually change any rules on immigration, visas etc.

Therefore the 90-day rule continues as it is – but what EES does change is the enforcement of the rule.

90 days 

The 90-day rule applies to citizens of a select group of non-EU countries;

Albania, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, El Salvador, Georgia, Grenada, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, Kiribati, Kosovo, Macau, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, New Zealand, Nicaragua, North Macedonia, Palau, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Serbia, Seychelles, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Korea, Taiwan, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Vatican City and Venezuela.

Citizens of these countries can spend up to 90 days in every 180 within the EU or Schengen zone without needing a visa or residency permit.

People who are citizens of neither the EU/Schengen zone nor the above listed countries need a visa even for short trips into the EU – eg an Indian or Chinese tourist coming for a two-week holiday would require a visa. 

In total, beneficiaries of the 90-day rule can spend up to six months in the EU, but not all in one go. They must limit their visits so that in any 180-day (six month) period they have spent less than 90 days (three months) in the Bloc.

READ ALSO How does the 90-day rule work?

The 90 days are calculated according to a rolling calendar so that at any point in the year you must be able to count backwards to the last 180 days, and show that you have spent less than 90 of them in the EU/Schengen zone.

You can find full details on how to count your days HERE.

If you wish to spend more than 90 days at a time you will have to leave the EU and apply for a visa for a longer stay. Applications must be done from your home country, or via the consulate of your home country if you are living abroad.

Under EES 90-day rule beneficiaries will still be able to travel visa free (although ETIAS will introduce extra changes, more on that below).

EES does not change either the rule or how the days are calculated, but what it does change is the enforcement.

Enforcement

One of the stated aims of the new system is to tighten up enforcement of ‘over-stayers’ – that is people who have either overstayed the time allowed on their visa or over-stayed their visa-free 90 day period.

At present border officials keep track of your time within the Bloc via manually stamping passports with the date of each entry and exit to the Bloc. These stamps can then be examined and the days counted up to ensure that you have not over-stayed.

The system works up to a point – stamps are frequently not checked, sometimes border guards incorrectly stamp a passport or forget to stamp it as you leave the EU, and the stamps themselves are not always easy to read.

What EES does is computerise this, so that each time your passport is scanned as you enter or leave the EU/Schengen zone, the number of days you have spent in the Bloc is automatically tallied – and over-stayers will be flagged.

For people who stick to the limits the system should – if it works correctly – actually be better, as it will replace the sometimes haphazard manual stamping system.

But it will make it virtually impossible to over-stay your 90-day limit without being detected.

The penalties for overstaying remain as they are now – a fine, a warning or a ban on re-entering the EU for a specified period. The penalties are at the discretion of each EU member state and will vary depending on your personal circumstances (eg how long you over-stayed for and whether you were working or claiming benefits during that time).

ETIAS 

It’s worth mentioning ETIAS at this point, even though it is a completely separate system to EES, because it will have a bigger impact on travel for many people.

ETIAS is a different EU rule change, due to be introduced some time after EES has gone live (probably in 2025, but the timetable for ETIAS is still somewhat unclear).

It will have a big impact on beneficiaries of the 90-day rule, effectively ending the days of paperwork-free travel for them.

Under ETIAS, beneficiaries of the 90-rule will need to apply online for a visa waiver before they travel. Technically this is a visa waiver rather than a visa, but it still spells the end of an era when 90-day beneficiaries can travel without doing any kind of immigration paperwork.

If you have travelled to the US in recent years you will find the ETIAS system very similar to the ESTA visa waiver – you apply online in advance, fill in a form and answer some questions and are sent your visa waiver within a couple of days.

ETIAS will cost €7 (with an exemption for under 18s and over 70s) and will last for three years.

Find full details HERE. 

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