How to travel from Switzerland to Turkey by train

#orientexpress #optimaexpress #fensterauf
In today's trip, we will see how to travel by train from mainland Europe to Istanbul in Turkey, by following the Simplon Orient Express as close as possible.

Total travel time: within 5 days, we travelled 2697 km in 60 hours (ø 45 km/h)

Trains taken in this video:
Day 1: SBB EC47: Lausanne - Venezia S.Lucia
Day 2: ÖBB Railjet: Venezia S.Lucia - Villach Hbf
Day 2 to 4: Optima Express: Villach - Edirne
Day 5: TCDD Trakya Ekspresi: Edirne - İstanbul (Halkalı)

00:00 Introduction, History of the Orient Express and travel plan
02:04 SBB EC47 from Lausanne to Venice
07:41 Day 2, ÖBB Railjet "Gondoliere" from Venice to Villach
11:00 Quick visit by the Wörthersee
11:47 Optima Express, start in Austria
14:10 Day 3, Optima Express, Croatia to Bulgaria
15:55 Tour of the ex CWL Sleeper compartments
16:37 Optima Express, Crossing Serbia
20:30 Day 4, Optima Express, Bulgaria to Edirne, Türkiye
24:37 Entering Türkiye
26:58 Day 5, TCDD Trakya Ekspresi from Edirne to İstanbul Halkalı
30:35 The last bit to Sirkeci

Attributions:
Thumbnail by Dusan Dodic
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Kropelnicki, Jeffrey; Johnson, Grace; Kne, Len; Lindberg, Mark. (2022). 
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Map data ©2022 Google
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Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

[hermandegroot]

I visited Turkey three times, 1974, 1984 and 1992 by motorcycle. In 1984 I was with a friend and we visited the Nemrut Dağ volcano near Tatvan. From Tatvan there goes a ferry on lake Van to Van. In the Port of Tatvan a steam engine was waiting for the ferry to push and pull the railway cars on and off the ferry. (Four tracks) We wanted to make pictures but the engineer came running to us and asking to wait a moment because he will make the engine smoke. He did, the engine smoked terribly, we made photographs and we sent some to Turkey, 39 years ago.

[enjoypladecorrals]

i admire your patience, 5 days is a long time!
thank you for a wonderful report. I like your commentary, not too much talk and let the video speak for itself.

[jinpetrix]

Woow. Pemandangan yg sangat indah tersaji melalui perjalanan antar negara via KA. Luar biasa mantap..👍👍👍

[roadtrip]

I've always wondered what it's like to travel by rail in Europe, where the rail industry is so developed. Thanks for the video, I enjoyed it.

[IsabellaMwaura]

Thank you for sharing this very informative trip. I love train trips, they expose you to places that you would not normally see through Road Travel

[rodericksmith]

That was an impressive opening, with great graphics to make the journey clear to all. I'm from Australia, and I always think of the route east to west, and have started in Iran, Jordan and Iraq (Murder on the Orient Express had its prolog chapter on Taurus Express from Baghdad). Alas, when Simplon Orient was still running through, I watched it leaving Istanbul, but was catching a later train. I did travel on Direct Orient from Stuttgart to Paris, and on Simplon Orient after the cutback to Wien, but have traversed the route piecemeal (including via Vallorbe) over a few holidays. Hopefully, this great video will inspire others to match your achievement.

[havvakar]

Bu güzellikleri bizimlede paylaştığın ve bilgilendirmelerin için teşekkür ederiz👍🤗

[hasanakman]

Güzel bir video. Adeta o ülkeleri tek tek gezmiş gibi oluyor insan.

[talldiversvideos]

Cool video. Brought back memories of an Interrail trip in 1986 from Basel via Zürich and Schwarzach St.Veit. In Schwarzach we caught the Istanbul Express coming from Munich on a Monday night and rode in Bulgarian Couchette cars to Istanbul all the way into the Sirkeci Station arriving there on Wednesday at noon, just about 2 hours late.

[ahmadfadzil]

One of the best video's journey on a Train. The scenery was fascinating.

[annemasci]

Bonjour. Je suis passionnée des trains depuis mon enfance. Voyager à bord d'un train longue distance me plairait. Voyager avec de magnifiques paysages. Encore merci pour ce merveilleux voyage. Bonne continuation. Si vous avez d'autres vidéos de voyage longues distance je regarderai avec plaisir.

[yousefkhanbaee]

Amazing video, useful information, heartful and truly expressions of the travel feeling .

[letswander]

Very good informative video.
Love all the trains and nice scenery.
Thank you for sharing.

[scogginsscoggins]

Turkiye is a super country. Friendly people.

[marcinklimas]

Couchette cars are registred in Slovakia (56). That's old German cars.
Sleeping in registred in Austria.

[nemanjamladenovic]

The diesel locomotive towing the train from Nis (Serbia) to Bulgarian border is ZS 666 series. It's one of the most powerful GE diesel locomotives in their arsenal and it was originally used to pull the official "Blue train" of former SFRJ president Tito. The low speeds are actually due to appalling state of tracks on that section.

[hanifbashir]

Beautiful...million thanks...b blessed 🙌

[kvbzgje]

Much quieter than our trains in the U.S.. Parabéns pelo vídeo e saudações do Brasil .

[nicknick]

You can take many other trains and routes with interrail / eurrail pass, saves you a lot.. bought mine for 285 € for 10 travel days in 2 months.. was a blackfriday offer.. dec 2023.. from the north of Holland to Turkey and back.. the obb nightjet was 36 euro extra.. the Sofia -- Halkali 6 euro for sleeper..

[MrTransalpin]

Pour les plus jeunes, il a existé, jusqu' en 1977, le "direct orient " composé d' une voiture UIC SNCF de 2 eme classe, et d' un WL, direct entre Paris et Istanbul, nocturne qui desservait Vallorbe, Lausanne, Brig, passait le simplon pour transiter par l' Italie et la Yougouslavie( à l' époque de TITO ! )