London to Berlin by Eurostar High Speed & European Sleeper Train!

London to Berlin by Eurostar High Speed & European Sleeper Train!

What if I told you London to Berlin was  just one sleep away? Well sort of… today   we’ll be taking a high speed Eurostar  train under the sea to Mainland Europe,   changing at the Belgian capital Brussels  for Europe’s newest sleeper train company,  

European Sleeper, for a final overnight  journey to Berlin. This is going to be an   epic journey – city centre to city centre, an over  1,000km trip across 5 countries; London to Berlin,   made possible by both high speed and sleeper  trains. Now sit back, and enjoy the ride! 

Tonight’s odyssey begins at St Pancras  International, otherwise known as the UK’s   gateway to mainland Europe by train. This is  by far one of the grandest stations in the UK,   if not mainland Europe; the station design dates  back to 1868 and is a grade 1 listed building;  

This comes despite the threat of closure of the  station in the 1960s, was fortunately saved thanks   to successful campaigning by demonstrators. It’s safe to say that this station is a far   cry from its derelict past – the arrival of  the Eurostar here in November 2007 has really  

Brought life into this station, and now sees  over 50 million people visiting it a year,   and not just for travel; 1 in 6 are simply here to  enjoy the many shops present within the station!  It was just before Christmas when I travelled, so  admiring this year’s Christmas tree effort whilst  

Looking around the fine shops and eateries is  definitely a good way to kill time before being   greeted by the LONG queue ahead of boarding  – Eurostar boarding is open from 2 hours to   half an hour before departure, though an earlier  arrival certainly reduces the risks associated  

Of being caught up in queues such as this! The boarding process begins with scanning your   ticket on the barcode reader to pass through the  barriers; I personally always choose e-tickets,   though tickets can also be printed and  offered as paper tickets if you prefer. 

Following this, a brief and quick security  check is conducted; unlike the plane there’s   no need to remove liquids and electronics  and it’s fairly simple from my experience.  Access to the departure lounge is then granted  following two passport checks; one by the  

British nd another by the French National  Authorities to grant access to the European   Schengen area which the UK isn’t a part of. It’s no secret that capacity at St Pancras   is still a longstanding issue with Eurostar, and  that’s highlighted pretty well here – however if  

You can you may want to make a trip to Eurostar’s  Business Premier lounge, accessible to those on   a Business Premier ticket or Eurostar “Carte  Blanche” and “Etoile” members. The price for   Business Premier, in my opinion, isn’t really  justified and the main benefit is flexibility,  

So it may be best to just check out the cafes and  shops located within the departure lounge instead.  Anyway, our Eurostar train today is number  ES9142, the 15:04 to Brussels via Lille…  As you can see it’s still relatively  early for the platform to be shown,  

However if you want to beat the queues, just do  a search of the train number on Realtime Trains,   and you’ll be able to view the platforms ahead of  everyone else – our train is shown as departing   from Platform 5, so just to the left of the  departure lounge once you clear passport control! 

Around 20 minutes before departure, we’re now  called to board – I’m at the other side of   the train in coach 8, but first I wanted to get a  closer look at our train today before boarding… 

And here we are – our Eurostar e320 train is at  the platform. Eurostar operate 17 of these newer   e320s, part of the Siemens Velaro family, on  all of their routes which were built from 2011   to 2018. Eurostar also operates 8 of their  original e300 trains on the London to Paris  

And Brussels routes, though you’ll more than  likely end up travelling on an e320 nowadays.   Along with the Team GB branding for the Rugby  world cup in France last year, this set sports   Eurostar’s new logo following the merger with  Thalys, and whilst I do prefer the older one,  

The new one is warming up to me. Which do  you think is better? Let me know below!  Boarding may not be the most efficient once the  crowds come in, but is still an improvement over   the legacy TGV trains which Eurostar has in  its fleet. Coach 8 is standard class with a  

2+2 seating layout and a nice mix of airline  and table seats – I’ll be in the former for   the 2 hour ride to Brussels this afternoon… Today’s journey to Berlin will be split into   two legs – the first leg will see us reach  Brussels, where we then switch to European Sleeper  

As we cross Belgium and the Netherlands, making  stops at the key cities of Antwerp, Rotterdam,   The Hague and Amsterdam, before arriving into the  German capital at 06:48 the next morning, taking   almost 15 hours to cover the over 1200km trip! Our departure from London is  

On time at 15:04 UK time. It’s now straight onto the HS1   high speed line almost immediately after leaving  St Pancras – perhaps the biggest white elephant   of the line is Stratford International, which we  speed through around 5 minutes after departure.  

Despite the name and intent by Eurostar to  stop here for the London 2012 Olympic Games,   no international services have ever called  here – the name remains to distinguish it from   Stratford Regional station just down the road. The HS1 passes through Essex before reaching Kent;  

Specifically running parallel to the  Tilbury branch served by c2c services;   a large amount of freight traffic for  overseas goods also runs on both routes.  The grand view of the Dartford Crossing  at sunset can be seen as we prepare to  

Head into Kent; this is a toll bridge  over the river Thames that has been a   vital link between Essex and Kent since 1991. Ebbsfleet International is one of the victims   of recent cuts made by Eurostar as a result of  Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic, to allow them  

To focus on their core routes, but is still served  by Southeastern’s domestic high speed services   to London and other destinations in Kent… Perhaps one of the most scenic highlights of   this route is the Medway Viaduct, which allows  trains traversing the HS1 to cross the River  

Medway and view some very picturesque landscape,  especially with the sunset as a gorgeous backdrop!  Ashford International is another victim  of Eurostar’s cuts in recent years,   with Eurostar services not calling here despite  the works performed on the platforms to make the  

Platforms suitable for the e320 trains in late  2019. We instead use a viaduct to speed past   Ashford at the HS1 top speed of 300km/h. Before long, we reach the end of the HS1   in as little as half an hour of travel, after  which we slow down as we begin to enter what  

Is undoubtedly one of the great engineering  marvels of the world, the Channel Tunnel,   and the second longest undersea tunnel in the  world by overall length, losing out to Japan’s   Seikan tunnel by a mere 3 metres, however it  has the longest undersea segment compared to it. 

One thing I do dislike about the rebrand is  the absence of the Channel Tunnel trivia on   the screens, but looking back to one  of my e320 rides before the rebrand,   we can see that we reach depths of 75m below  sea level and cross a total length of 50.45km  

Per tunnel, which to this day still astounds me! Sadly you won’t get to see a moving aquarium in   the tunnel, so it’s time to go to the caf  car – previously branded “caf metropole”,   this has since been changed to “Eurostar Caf  ” to coincide with the Eurostar rebrand. The  

Selection is rather limited, but it’s a  good place to kill time, get a light snack   and relax as we speed under the sea for the  next 20 minutes, before emerging in Calais,   France, marking our entry into Mainland Europe! Passing Calais-Frethun, yet another victim of  

The cuts I mentioned earlier (yeah there’s a lot  of them!), signals our entry onto the LGV Nord,   the high speed line providing the Channel  Tunnel Rail Link on the French side which   opened in 1993. Here, we again reach speeds of  300km/h, which we’re doing close to as we speak. 

Our first and only stop before Brussels is Lille  Europe, only served by Eurostar on its services   to Brussels and Amsterdam, with Paris services  passing through here non-stop. The stop at Lille   allows international travellers to connect  to other destinations within France, as an  

Attempt to partially makes up for many connections  Eurostar has removed since the COVID-19 pandemic.  Leaving Lille sees us cross the Fretin Triangle  in the direction of the Belgian border – shortly   afterwards, we reach our final high speed line  of the trip, the HSL1, and as the name suggests,  

This is Belgium’s first high speed line which  opened in 1997 to link Brussels with the LGV   Nord and ultimately Paris and the Channel  Tunnel. 300km/h is once again achieved here,   but like the UK’s HS1, the journey on the line  is short and sweet, as we prepare to head into  

Brussels after just over half an hour later,  thus completing leg 1 of the journey to Berlin…  Right that’s two hours down, nearly 13 to go!  As we arrive into Brussels here’s your reminder   to subscribe to the channel if you’re enjoying  this content so far – many more exciting trips  

Like this are still to come in 2024, and I  of course want you along with me. Thanks!  Our e320 now rests here as it prepares to  head back to London, but no rest for us   just yet… Brussels South station where  we’ve arrived is the start of the second  

And final leg of the trip to Berlin tonight! Brussels Zuid or Bruxelles Midi is the main   hub for international train travel in and out  of Belgium; coming a long way from its past   as a terminal station when it was first  inaugurated in 1869. A station of this  

Size naturally sees a large selection of shops  and restaurants, which you’ll more than likely   want to use given there is no evening meal  service on the sleeper trains to Berlin…  This station is one of Europe’s busiest and the  busiest in Belgium with over 357,000 passengers  

Weekly, and it’s safe to say arriving here  during rush hour isn’t generally a good   idea given the large crowds, especially if it’s  your first time visiting here – if you’d rather   take a more relaxed approach to this trip,  you could always catch the 13:04 and 14:04  

Departures from London, which gives you more  time to look around the city should you wish,   but I personally plan my connections VERY tight! Well I say that, but there’s still just over   an hour before the train actually  departs – the 19:22 to Berlin Hbf… 

Other ways to travel from Brussels to  Germany include the former-Thalys services,   now operated under the Eurostar brand, to  Cologne and Dortmund – I reviewed this under   the Thalys brand if you want to check it out… Another option is to take the ICE International  

Service to Cologne and Frankfurt – the trains on  this route are to be replaced in June 2024 with   brand new ones, and should make the service  much more reliable than it currently is…  Undoubtedly the most time effective option  however, is to take a direct sleeper train,  

Aand tonight we’ll be on Europe’s newest sleeper  operator, European Sleeper. This Dutch-owned   start-up company launched their first trains in  May 2023 between Berlin and Brussels and are due   to extend services to Dresden and Prague on March  25th, a week after this video goes live. Brussels  

To Berlin sleepers are now also provided by  Austria’s OBB Nightjet service since December   2023 on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays  but will soon run daily from Autumn 2024,   made possible thanks to the introduction  of the Nightjet Next Generation sets… 

The train arrives 15 minutes prior to departure  – the formation n for tonight’s train is one   seated car, five couchette cars and one sleeper  cars though as is my golden rule with sleeper   trains the seats are a false economy and  unless you’re desperate I would go for  

A couchette or sleeper cabin, especially  for a near 12 hour trip such as this one!  Hauling our train is a Bombardier Traxx Class  186 locomotive, similar to those found on   the NS Intercity Direct for example. This  locomotive has international compatibility,   capable of working in 6 different countries  across five different voltages. The sleeper  

Car which we’ll be in tonight is a stainless  steel AB30 car, rebuilt from the old P-type   coaches dating from the 1950s in the 1990s  for the Austrian, Belgian and Dutch railways.  The couchette cars are a mixture of ex-Slovakian  and DB stock and have a maximum occupancy of  

6 people per compartment, though you can  purchase sole occupancy for an additional   fee in the event solo cabins are unavailable… As I’m in a solo cabin, boarding is done from   the couchette car next to the AB30 – here  the host (or in my case hostess) checks  

Your ticket with an ID check done on board;  for the latter a passport’s always the best   form to use as you always have it to hand! …and here’s my room for tonight – cabin   42! There’ll be plenty of time to check it out  properly later, but we’re first greeted to a  

Leaflet which advertises investment into European  Sleeper given it’s still in its start-up phase,   as well as a European Sleeper-branded bottle of  water – you’ll also find a welcome leaflet to   “the good night train” as well as a menu, though  as is the case with the Nightjet, this is fairly  

Limited! The turn-around here at Brussels is  very quick – we leave on time at 19:22 CET,   kicking off the final and longest leg to Berlin. As with all trains running north of Brussels   South, we navigate through the city suburbs  and its many stations, before making it on to  

The mainline towards the Netherlands. To my  surprise, breakfast was given to me shortly   after clearing Brussels, which I presume is to  either avoid being disturbed in the morning or   given the early arrival into Berlin – I’ll show  you more when I get up in the morning, but for now  

Let’s check out the sleeper cabin interior… The seats are very plush and comfortable, as   you’ll find with most older generation carriages  – two of the seats also foldaway to enable the   lower bed to be made, which is done by request  of the host but we’ll look at this later on… 

You’ll find several light switches close to the  windows to control the numerous lights present   within the room, with one being next to the room  entrance to function the light on the top bunk,   which is accessible by a removable ladder just  beneath one of the many designated spaces for  

Hanging clothing with the coat hangers present.  There’s also plenty of space to place your luggage   both overhead and under the bed once it’s made. Personal bins are located just below the wash   basin, the latter being a feature which differs  from the other types of accommodation on board.  

It’s here you’ll also find a European power  socket, though it is designed for shavers so   something to bare in mind – there’s also a  temperature control dial just next to door   to manage the ventilation system next to  the windows, which both feature drawdown  

Blinds for increased privacy during the night. Overall, don’t expect perfection with the cabin,   but also don’t be disappointed either.  It does the job at the end of the day   and is comfortable and spacious enough! Before long, we find ourselves arriving  

Into Antwerp Central station, the second largest  city in Belgium and the largest before the Belgian   border. The through station is underground, whilst  the terminus station is the level above and said   to be one of the most stunning in Europe – the  stop here is around 10-15 minutes to pick up more  

Passengers, once that’s done it’s back through  the tunnels as we emerge to continue the crossing   through Belgium, albeit on the conventional lines  as opposed to the HSL Zuid used by Eurostar.  I started getting hungry not long after  leaving Antwerp, so I decided to find the  

Hostess for something to eat – during this  time, I also noticed the large amount of   bike spaces in the rear couchette car…  there’s no doubt this operator is Dutch!  The train is still making its way through  Northern Belgium, however not as fast as  

You’d expect if you were to travel on Eurostar’s  daytime trains – currently, were reaching just   below the Traxx and line’s maximum 140km/h speed  due to the lower speed conventional lines being   used as we draw closer towards the Netherlands. I then went to the hostess before returning to my  

Room – as I said, there’s no dining car on board  and there is nothing massively filling snack wise,   so this is just something to tide me over,  and bare in mind also that this is exactly   the same with the Nightjet. I’ve linked  the full menu in the description below! 

Before long, we cross the border into our  4th country on this odyssey, the Netherlands,   arriving into Roosendaal which lies just after  the border. On the platform is an NS VIRM train,   preparing to head to either Zwolle or Amsterdam… Now there are toilets on board the coaches,  

But I’d be lying if I said they were in  good condition… the smell in this one   was unbearable I have to say, so I didn’t  spend long in here – I then went back to   my room to continue focusing on the journey.  Our next stop after Roosendaal is Rotterdam,  

The second largest city in the country, following  which we progress to Den Haag, or The Hague, the   country’s administrative capital and third largest  city and where the Dutch government is situated.  By the time we’ve reached HS, we pick up a 10  minute delay mainly owing to congestion as the  

Train progressed through the Netherlands. As I was  aiming to call it a day at Amsterdam, I notified   the attendant that I wanted to have my bed made,  and despite the initial difficulties due to a   rather stiff lock, the bed eventually came out… I do have to give credit to the on board team  

With European Sleeper – they really do go above  and beyond from a customer service perspective,   which is very good to see and  promising for the company’s future!  Safe to say the room definitely looks  a lot more like a sleeper cabin now,  

And as for the bed itself, it’s a lot more  comfortable than it looks – compared to other   sleeper trains I’ve tried it’s more plush  and will provide a relaxing sleep indeed!  Haarlem and its grand train shed is the last  station we pass through before entering the  

Amsterdam suburbs – it’s worth noting as  well that since this video was recorded,   European Sleeper have since added an additional  stop at Schiphol Airport, providing great air-rail   links to Germany and soon the Czech Republic! And finally over 3 hours after leaving Brussels  

(and 6 and a half since leaving London), we pull  into Amsterdam Centraal station, the main station   serving the largest city and de facto capital of  the Netherlands. It was around 22:30 by the time   we arrived here, and given the anticipated early  arrival into Berlin, I used this as an opportunity  

To call it a day and get some sleep given  that it had been rather busy. Good night all,   and I’ll catch up with you in the morning! And a very good morning! Have to say I had  

A brilliant sleep, probably as good as the one I  had with the Night Riviera almost 2 years ago! The   journey progress is currently being announced… I then freshened up using the wash basin,   got dressed and had my breakfast – again,  as with the Nightjet don’t expect anything  

Ground breaking, but it’s enough to fill  you up ready to take on the day in Berlin!  Our Traxx locomotive is still powering away  as it reaches the final leg to Berlin – as   I mentioned earlier, this locomotive has  international compatibility, meaning that  

Unlike NS and DB at the time of filming, there was  no locomotive change performed at Bad Bentheim.  And there we have it – London to Berlin by  both high speed and sleeper trains. Overall,   it’s a very useful link by just a simple change  at Brussels, and whilst there are still some  

Teething issues for European Sleeper, I’m very  hopeful for the company’s future. The upcoming   carriage refurbishment and extension to Prague  should really boost the service quality and   give it the growth it needs to succeed. The cost for this trip was split as 97  

For the Eurostar and 201.75 for my  private cabin on European Sleeper,   the latter also including a Seat61 discount  of 25% as a promotional offer – the hotel and   time savings alone make this to be a pretty  good deal for the sleeper however my stance  

Is still that Eurostar REALLY need to reduce  their prices to better compete with airlines.  The arrival into Berlin Hauptbahnhof,  is amazingly for Germany on time!  I want to hear your thoughts now – have you  taken a different route from London to Berlin  

By train before? What did you think of the method  I used, and will you consider it? Let me know in   the comments below! I hope you enjoyed today’s  video and don’t forget to like and share it to   aid the channel’s growth and also don’t forget  to subscribe and turn on notifications for more  

Content such as this weekly! As mentioned by the  host, there’s a very short turn around at Berlin,   as the set makes its way to the sidings to work  the return to Brussels later today. As for me,  

I’m going to explore Berlin as it’s actually my  very first time here! Thanks so much for coming   with me on this trip and I look forward  to bringing you with me on my next one!

Kicking off the second instalment of my point to point journey series “From A to B”, I’ll be documenting my near 15 hour odyssey travelling from London to Berlin by both Eurostar high speed train and Europe’s newest night train operator, European Sleeper! This two-legged journey now means that London to Berlin is only one sleep away… so join me as we go capital to capital without flying!

Journey details:
Date of travel – November 2023
Operators – Eurostar and European Sleeper
Origin – London St Pancras International
Destination – Berlin Hbf
Price – £271.69/€313.74/$332.03, broken down as follows:
Eurostar standard class – £97/€111.99/$118.53
European Sleeper private cabin – €201.75/£174.69
/$213.50, including 25% promotional discount offered by Seat61 (huge thanks!) https://www.seat61.com/
Duration – 14 hours, 44 minutes

Thanks for watching and I hope you enjoyed the video!

Music from EpidemicSound and is used under license.

Huge thanks to @doc7austin for his contributions to this video, please do check out his channel!

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Link to the Eurostar Café menu: https://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/travel-info/your-trip/food-on-board/our-menu

For further information on European Sleeper’s catering offerings, see here: https://www.seat61.com/trains-and-routes/european-sleeper.htm

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