Paris to Istanbul in 55 Hours: The Ultimate Night Train Experience

Hi everybody!
Welcome to what's probably the most epic night train experience you can find in Europe, traveling from Paris to Istanbul, using only night trains... Recreating the mighty Orient Express... Well, sort of! :-)

Enjoy, and don't forget to like/leave a comment to help the channel :-)

- TRIP INFORMATION -
Date: JUNE 2022
Railway company: ÖBB, SNCF, DB, CFR, BDZ, TCDD
Route : Paris-Est to Halkali station (Istanbul)
Time : Around 55 hours (Paris - Vienna : 16h02, Vienna-Bucharest : 20h18, Bucharest-Istanbul : 19h)
Price : Around 229€ of seat reservations. Not including the Interrail pass

LINK FOR MY BOOK ABOUT NIGHT TRAINS!

Massive thanks to my following Patreon for their help :
Michael S Wilhelm ; David Hoyt ; Terry Patterson ; Spencer Brownlee ; m kirby ; Stephane Thienel ; Virginie ; Manuel Guedes-Vieira ; Mats ; Allan Waldron ; Michael Joost ; Edwin Coates ; Hugh Johnson ; Gregoire P ; Severin Durand ; Jay Newman ; Calvin Mangubat ; Orion ; MacLean ; Fred M ; Andrew Oliva ; Myles Freborg ; Maxime Hurtrel ; Sol Miranda Weiner ; Dr Buckton ; Richard Rieben ;
BenG ; Brendan D ; Bradley Seeman ; Nikola M ; Patrick G ; Chris Souka ; Lord Philip Zornes ; Vinnie ;
Chris Colles ; Andrew McGovern ; Szymon ; 160to4 ; Quentin Cvz ; András Tiringer ; Larry Garlock ; Gabriel ; Daan Lagerwaard ; Chris Rudy ; Steinar BR ; hongkonghurricane ; Radiatore ; Samuel Augustus Jennings ; Steve Brittain ; Patiperro Sobre Rieles ; Kevin B ; Luis Villuendas ;

00:00 : Intro
00:31 : Nightjet Paris-Vienna
03:15 : Boarding
03:41 : Room Tour
04:43 : Departure from Paris
05:00 : Route overview
05:46 : Relaxing ride through Eastern France
07:34 : Good night from Strasbourg
08:05 : Morning from Austria
09:40 : Walkthrough
13:00 : Arrival in Vienna
13:22 : The Euronight Dacia
15:24 : Arrival and accommodation situation
16:21 : Eastbound!
16:48 : Room tour
17:56 : Welcome in Hungary
18:34 : Good night and border crossing
19:21 : Mid roll ads
20:00 : Morning from Romania
21:05 : Along the Danube
22:00 : Through rural Romania
23:50 : Walkthrough / Toilets Time
26:26 : Dining car
27:09 : Arrival in Bucharest
28:06 : The Bosphorus Express
29:12 : Bucuresti Nord
30:00 : Arrival
30:41 : Boarding... Alone!
31:08 : Departure from Bucharest
32:00 : Room Tour
33:34 : Bulgaria bound
34:16 : Giurgiu, last stop in Romania
35:00 : Crossing one last time the Danube
36:15 : Ruse, first stop in Bulgaria
38:20 : Shunting in Gorna
39:12 : Relaxing afternoon through the Balkans
40:20 : Walkthrough/Toilets Time
41:53 : Lovely afternoon
44:34 : Overnight border crossing
45:52 : Morning from Türkiye
46:38 : Arrival in Istanbul
47:10 : Outro

[SimplyRailway]

Hi folks, I finally made the switch to universal subtitles, so you can now enjoy my videos in the language of your choice. This is a test for now, and it's still unclear if I will keep this style, but if more people can enjoy my videos without needing to learn English, that would be a plus!

Enjoy! :-)

Thibault

[WaiferThyme]

Being a wheelchair user, i will never be able to take this trip so being able to see it through your eyes is wonderful! Thank you for sharing it.

[jandroniol]

I am pleased to see that trains are finally going to Istanbul city (even if it is not the centre) and not to a village miles away. Now we can truly say that there are trains from Paris to Istanbul!!

[shamimulhasan]

Excellent video. I was in France in 1976. I was young and adventurous and wanted to take this journey. Travelling to Eastern European countries was not easy during those days. Now at 77 years of frail age, I traveled with you on this cherished route and fulfilled my dream. Thnx

[emmanuelferrer-laloe]

Merci de nous faire voyager avec vous. Ce fut un bien agréable voyage, sans bouger de chez moi (j'ai 76 ans).

[juliam]

I did this trip this month starting in Vienna! It is a long journey but I am glad I did it! Also from a female perspective, I had a 6 person compartment for Vienna-Bucharest and a 4 person compartment from Bucharest to Istanbul. Mainly because nothing else was available when I booked. Both times I was travelling with all males. Both times I had no problems at all, all of them were nice guys and we had good conversations throughout. I travel with nighttrains in Europe a lot and book the female compartments if available. But I would still make this trip like this again, I felt safe. 😊 Of course, you never know who you are going to meet, but on this occasion and from what I saw in the rest of the train I felt very welcome and safe.

[metegokce]

I would prefer one train, with shower, rather than all those separate trains without. You should try the Doğu Ekspresi (East express) between Ankara and Kars in the winter. It is incredible. Unfortunately it has no showers either.

[scyzka]

Sehr beeindruckend… 👍
Letztes Jahr bin ich von Narvik nach Istanbul mit dem Zug gefahren. Ich war 5 Tage unterwegs.

[scottyerkes]

Very interesting journey using all night trains!! Paris and Istanbul were Orient Express start/end points; not sure of cities along the route. When I was in the travel industry one of my dreams was to ride the Orient Express.
Thanks Thibault for sharing your experience.🥰👌👍

[seved]

I like this style brother. Support from here! 😍

[paristen]

I've taken this entire trip, not in one stretch. Paris to Bucharest several times, Bucharest to Istanbul once in 2022. My Istanbul section was 6 hours late but meant that I could see western Turkey during the day. It's all magical!!!

[johnflaherty]

I have done this journey twice, 2012 & 2018. A great adventure

[rogertemple]

It's really awesome seeing Istanbul by train thank you.🚂🚃🇹🇷

[vernongoodey]

Hoping to do Bucharest Nord to Istanbul next year so found this very informative thanks😊

[ffcfesta]

Love these trip reports, they give me a great balance of different views and aspects of the journeys, this trip to Istanbul is a bucket list item for sure now.

[pasjonat-azbestu]

Another awesome Balkan train experience, thank you for this video!

[FabricioRenovato]

Great video and amazing trip! Very happy that you enabled the universal subtitles, so I can train my English and French (🇧🇷 here)

[ggreg]

Always fun and informative and enjoyable to watch!

[hbruins]

Looks like a physically testing journey…yet one I would love to take. Especially the eastern part through Bulgaria.
The squat toilet on TCDD sleeper is super clean!

[Tinovr]

Amazing trip. Thanks for the very nice video. I really got the feeling how it must have been.