{"id":161005,"date":"2024-12-24T11:03:55","date_gmt":"2024-12-24T01:03:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=161005"},"modified":"2024-12-24T11:07:46","modified_gmt":"2024-12-24T01:07:46","slug":"ive-travelled-the-world-on-sleeper-trains-these-trips-stood-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=161005","title":{"rendered":"I’ve travelled the world on sleeper trains, these trips stood out"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Spruced-up sleeper trains are rolling out worldwide, from wallet-friendly overnight services connecting European cities to refurbished American Amtrak trains or Belmond\u2019s new luxury Eastern & Oriental Express<\/em><\/a> between Singapore and Malaysia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And their growing popularity isn\u2019t just due to the demand for more sustainable forms of transport, but the realisation that travel isn\u2019t all about the quickest way to get from A to B \u2013 it\u2019s about gaining new perspectives on the destinations we visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I love a luxurious sleeper train journey. One of my favourites was my three-night adventure from Perth to Sydney on board the swanky Indian Pacific<\/em><\/a>. Highlights included the three-course dinners and fine wines, but I also loved watching squadrons of kangaroos bounce across the outback, and the sense of sheer remoteness in stops such as Cook, population four, 100km from the nearest sealed road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But my most memorable sleeper train journeys have been the most basic. Take the train journey from Hanoi to Sapa in North Vietnam. I paid $53 for an eight-hour journey in a four-berth cabin, and loved watching the city slip away and cloud-capped mountains slide into view. Even better value was the $38 ticket in October for a 17-hour ride from Ho Chi Minh to Da Nang along the railway which reunited the country after the Vietnam War. The route skirts the coastline, weaving between cloud-dusted hills and glorious beaches. My Vietnamese cabin mates didn\u2019t speak English but insisted on sharing their food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One of my favourites was my three-night adventure from Perth to Sydney on board the swanky Indian Pacific. Picture: Supplied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other sleeper journeys have been enjoyable but downright bizarre, such as the one I took from Pyongyang to Beijing. The station was packed and my guide explained that the passengers were some of the lucky few allowed to travel outside North Korea, and Chinese citizens heading home after visiting for business. Which, apparently, often extended to smuggling \u2013 I watched in awe as passengers, under guards\u2019 noses, dragged huge sacks filled with cigarettes and soju onto the train, squeezing them into every nook and cranny. On board, I took a brief walk along the carriage and on my return my cabin had been filled with sacks of cigarettes. It was a momentary peak behind the country\u2019s veil of secrecy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the US, Amtrak sleeper trains might not be stuffed full of smuggled cigarettes but they\u2019re similarly basic. On board the California Zephyr<\/em>, which chugs from San Francisco to Chicago, my one-bed cabin was tiny and dirty but the stunning landscapes kept me sane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On board the California Zephyr, my one-bed cabin was tiny and dirty but the stunning landscapes kept me sane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the coach class cabin, I spent hours chatting to passengers who\u2019d booked reclining seats for the 51-hour journey. They came from all walks of life and included a student taking the journey as a tribute to his mum (she\u2019d taken him on the train when he was a toddler), an Amish lady and a tattoo-covered skinhead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This month I\u2019m taking the\u00a0Caledonian Sleeper<\/em>\u00a0from London to Edinburgh. I\u2019ll speed through the beautiful Scottish Highlands, dozing on a mattress made by a brand beloved by the British royals. My one concern? There won\u2019t be Amtrak\u2019s skinheads, Vietnam\u2019s food-sharing cabin mates or friendly North Korean smugglers. Then again, with sleeper trains, I can always hope.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From sharing a carriage with smugglers in North Korea to chatting with skinheads in the US, this traveller has seen it all on overnight trains. But, a $53 journey in Vietnam was one of the most memorable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":161006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6628,47,9183,13105],"tags":[2809,8339,14859,2139,11],"class_list":["post-161005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beijing","category-rail-news","category-rail-travel","category-sleeper-trains","tag-australia","tag-perth","tag-pyongyang","tag-sydney","tag-usa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=161005"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161008,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161005\/revisions\/161008"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/161006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=161005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=161005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=161005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}