Traveling to Vienna With the Nightjet

Over the past days, my partner and I did a small trip to Vienna - and also Bratislava. This post is not going to be about the trip and the cities themselves, but about the transport to and from Vienna: the Nightjet. This was our first time trying out night trains, so it was quite a journey.

We booked the Nightjet with some months of advance for our trip from Utrecht to Vienna. It was quite a nice trip, but it had its own rough edges. We arrived in Utrecht, as planned, with too much time to spare. Once the train arrived, already 10 minutes too late, from Amsterdam, we jumped in and got into the compartment we had booked.

The compartments were nice. We did not choose the couchette section since we wanted privacy and preferred to not travel with strangers. They were naturally pricier, but I think it was worth paying more. However, I don’t think the prices themselves are necessarily worth it.

Right after leaving Utrecht, we were stopped for almost two hours in the middle of the tracks due to a collision between Eindhoven and Boxtel. Our train ended up going back and continuing to Germany through Arnhem. By that time, we already had almost three hours delay.

Our arrival in Vienna was scheduled for 9:35, but due to the delay we only arrived around 11:30. That also means we got our breakfast - initially scheduled for 7:30 - three hours too late, since it was provided to the train in Passau.

Other than that, the train was nice, clean enough. The toilet had its own smells, which I thought was a bit odd considering it was the beginning of the trip. I would expect a more thorough cleaning. We did not use the shower.

On the way back, it was better. We arrived also with a delay, but not of three hours: “only” 45 minutes. I’m still not sure where we got the delay, but it happened. We also got provided with breakfast a bit too late. Not sure why. The attendant said he’d bring the breakfast within 5 minutes. 30 minutes later we asked him again, and some 20 minutes after he brought it in.

Regarding sleep, I’m going to be honest. I did not sleep that well on both trips. On the way there, it was my first time and I actually slept more than on the way back, but waking up very frequently.

On the way back I had more continuous periods of sleep, but in total slept less. It certainly didn’t help that the German police started banging at the doors not long after I had fallen asleep to see passports and ID documents… This wasn’t checked on the way there.

For a future trip, I would consider taking a night train, but I would first compare it to how long a fast day train takes, and how much they cost. The argument that it saves a night at a hotel may not be worth it if you arrive extremely tired.