Sleeping car train routes in Europe

[ckret2]

I'm working on a story which requires extensive traveling across Europe in trains with sleeing cars, and I'm searching for the routes they may take. Most of the lists of routes I've found so far are restricted to within a country. How would one take trains with sleeping cars between these places, assuming that's possible

Comments

[imrihamun]

Armenia's a pain to get to, since you either have to go south from Georgia or west from Iran. The borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey are, obviously, closed.

"The border with Armenia is currently closed, and there is no train service between Turkey and Armenia. However, it's possible to cross from Turkey to Georgia, and from Georgia to Armenia. Traveller Fergus Reoch reports from a trip in 2006:

"From Tblisi there is a train that I have used five times now to Yerevan in Armenia. First class 2-bed sleeping compartments cost about £13, with a 1000 Armenian Dram (£1.20) charge for bedding. We had to get visas at the Armenian border. For UK passports these cost $30, and require little more than filling in a form. We arrived in Yerevan 15 hours after leaving Tbilisi. The same journey in a marshrutka (minibus) takes about 7 hours, though I much prefer the train.""

That's from http://www.seat61.com/ , which should solve a lot of your questions.

[tudorpot]

I wrote a story that had a lot of travel details in it. With google, an altas or online maps I was able to get all the info I needed including train times, costs, pics of sleeper cars and more. I was under the impression that posts here needed to include what searches you have done. The comment above shows how easy it is.

[dacian_goddess]

I tried a quick search for a voyage Paris-Elbasan. Unfortunately, the latter destination wasn't recognised and the closest I could get to it was Podgorica.

The search yielded several potential itineraries. In addition to the names of the train stations, you get the duration of each leg of the voyage as well as the type of train and additional information (such as there being sleeping cars, mandatory reservations or special provisions for transport - e.g. bikes).