Europen Train Question

[whc6]

My wife will be in Switzerland traveling to either Nice or Northern Italy in a couple of months. She is contemplating taking a sleeper - just adding the supplement to her Eurrail pass.

We've taken day trains in Europe but never a sleeper. The State Dept warns of crime on some sleeper trains.

Any advice out there? Any particular train to take? Trains to avoid?

Any help appreciated.

 

[Guest]

My wife will be in Switzerland traveling to either Nice or Northern Italy in a couple of months.  She is contemplating taking a sleeper - just adding the supplement to her Eurrail pass.
We've taken day trains in Europe but never a sleeper.  The State Dept warns of crime on some sleeper trains.  

Any advice out there?  Any particular train to take?  Trains to avoid?

Any help appreciated.

I can only relate one overnight European train trip that was back in the Spring of 2001. Berlin to Paris. Perhaps since 9/11 there is more concern but we experienced no problems and never felt uncomfortable. Granted, 8 of the 12 hours on the trip were spent asleep locked in a non-shared compartment. It was a wonderful trip and probably the nicest overnight trip I've taken on any train. Certainly, be wary and cautious but don't let fear ruin this trip. Use common sense.

If you're traveling via the Transylvania Railroad, wear something with a high collar.

 

[steve4031 from work]

If she is going from Switzerland to Nice, it migh not be necessary to take a night train at all.

If she can get a fairly fast connection to Lyon 3 or 4 hours, she can get a TGV train back down to nice.

Check out the DER german rail sight. They have online schedules to help you plan.

 

[sutton8596]

hi,

i've taken hundreds of trains in Europe, and can assure you that you'll be fine on Swiss/Italian trains. If you were venturing into Romania, I'd warn you about the gas that criminals pump in to put you to sleep before robbing you blind. But don't worry about Switzerland and Italy.

Enjoy the trip. You have nothing to worry about

 

[George Harris]

Former Soviet satellites and Russia itself I have heard bad things. Avoid wandering around in areas where you might become some Muslim terroist's next head-body separation project. China and most of Asia that I know anything about, no problems, and I have ridden night trains in Taiwan, China, and Malaysia. I have ridden day trains in southern Thailand and South Korea and long distance busses in Malaysia and the Philippines, and never had any trouble, but then I try to be polite to all, dress appropriately for the society, don't ask for special favors, don't flash money around. I usually have a camera on these trips, but I don't go around wearing a couple of thousand dollars of electronics or do other things to put on the "I am an obnoxious chump, please rob me" sign.

State Department warnings have to be taken with a grain of salt, sometimes a whole bag of it. They operate on the theory that it is better to give a useless warning than to miss one they should have. Just don't do stupid stuff. Most of the westerners that I know that have had bad experiences had set themselves up by being in bars late at night, out on the street drunk, trying to pick up local women, etc.

 

[sutton8596]

anyway whc6, don't fret about switzerland and italy.

nothing to worry about.

 

[rosenth]

There should be no problem going to Nice with crime etc. However, I quickly checked the swiss RR time table - there seems to be no suitable night train. However, there are many day trains. One of these I really can recommend, a direct train Basel-Lucerne-Milano-Nizza:

Basel SBB: 09:10 

Nice-Ville: 19:58 

http://fahrplan.sbb.ch/bin/query.exe/dn?=1...711&OK#cis_C1-1

It carries sort of a dome car with extremely large windows - beautiful!!

Lukas (Switzerland)

P.S. In November, I'll travel around in the US: Minneapolis - Seattle - SF - Chicago - NY (all on AMTRAK). Any hints??