Travel Adventures of an Edmontonian: Adventures in Europe: From Istanbul to Amsterdam by train

Having finished traveling from Istanbul to Amsterdam by train, I want to use this blog post to summarize the trip and provide some observations. The days of the Orient Express are long behind us, but you can still travel from Istanbul across Europe by train (mostly) if you really want to. Here is the itinerary in brief, with much more commentary and photos below!

January 25/26 (overnight)

Istanbul (20:00) to Sofia (10:47) (double occupancy sleeper, €166 for two booked through Amber Travel)

January 27

by bus -- Sofia (7:30) to Nis (10:30) (€16.87)
Nis (12:18) to Belgrade (18:21) ("first class," 1342 dinar - ~€11.47)

[January 28 did tourist things in Belgrade!]
January 29

Belgrade (7:19) to Novi Sad (8:09) (393 dinar - ~€2.90)
Novi Sad (8:55) to Subotica (12:54) (669 dinar - ~€5.72)
Subotica (16:37) to Szeged (18:02, 18:44) to Budapest (21:09) (€25.80)

January 30

Budapest (14:40) to Vienna (17:20) (€19.20)

[January 31-February 2 did tourist things!]
February 2/3 (overnight)

Vienna (20:10) to Amsterdam (9:59) (private sleeper, €214.60)

Between Sofia and the Serbia/Hungary border things are such a mess right now that this trip takes far longer than it should, even if you subtract the extra days I spent not focused on my journey. I think if you began in Istanbul at 20:00, the soonest you could get to Amsterdam (at least following my route) would be 9:59 four days later. Anyway, to some extent the challenge was what made me want to do it, and for me it was well worth it. I was enormously helped by the Man in Seat 61, without whom I probably would not have even dared try!

As the trip began in Istanbul's famous Sirkeci station my wife Diana was with me, but she would leave me in Sofia, so I was solo for most of the journey. Intercity trains no longer use Sirkeci, so we had to take the Marmaray commuter train from Sirkeci to Halkali, an Istanbul suburb and the end of the Marmaray line.

The Istanbul-Sofia express runs every day year round, I understand, and in the summer you can do direct to Bucharest, too. My wife was with me on this night train, and we used Amber Travel Turkey to purchase our tickets--the tickets were waiting for us at our hotel when we checked. We paid 166 euro for the pair of tickets in the two person sleeper. It is obviously cheaper to buy them directly, but you cannot do so online and I was very pleased with Amber Travel's service so had no regrets.

The private cabin was very comfortable.

There is no wifi on this train, but there is an outlet to charge phones, etc.

The mini fridge contained some complimentary water, juice, and snacks, and the attendant also offered to sell us tea and olives (and maybe some other things).

Here is the lower bunk made up for the night.

I think the biggest drawback of this train is the border stops in the middle of the night. At the Turkish border control, everyone has to leave the train. We were pretty aggressive and managed to get near the front of the line, but still it definitely interrupted our sleep! For Bulgaria, the guards come onto the train, but this is still very disruptive since they take your passports, and then come back again to return them, etc.

Anyway, as we approached Sofia the darkness and disturbed sleep were behind us and it was a lovely morning as we entered the capital.

Sofia's central station is also a metro and bus station so it is easy to get around the city from here, or continue onward elsewhere. Diana and I enjoyed the rest of the day together in Sofia.

Diana headed to the airport to fly onward to Canada, but I continued on by land. I would have liked to continue by train into Serbia, but unfortunately at the moment this is not possible due to line upgrades, so I was at the Sofia bus station early on the morning of January 27. It was rainy and dark, but bustling, with lots of little cafes and shops and such open, and I was able to exchange my Bulgarian lev for Serbia dinars.

This is the minibus that was to take me across the border and to Nis, Serbia. I bought the bus ticket online for 17 euro. We left on time at 7:30.

The drive was comfortable, but unfortunately the (snowy!) border crossing into Serbia was backed up badly and took a long time. I am not sure if it was similarly congested the other way around. The photo below is deceptively calm--behind me there are hundreds of vehicles and not all in orderly, polite lines!

Still, we reached the Nis bus station just after 10:00 Serbia time, which was almost 30 minutes early according to my ticket, so clearly they anticipate border delays. Of course, one can simply bus from Sofia to Belgrade and skip Nis altogether, but I wanted to maximize the train travel, so I transferred here to the train station, which is a couple of kilometres away. There is a city bus that will take you, but as I walked to the bus stop I realized I was enjoying stretching my legs, and I had time, so I opted to walk. The weather was cool, but not cold as at the border, and it was good walking weather. Despite grey skies, it was pleasant to walk through Nis.

I stopped at a grocery store to buy some food, and also at a bakery for a (massive) piece of burek and I got to the train station at 11:30.

My train onward to Belgrade was just a slow commuter train (all that is running on this route, right now), and we left on time at 12:18.

I paid a few extra dinars for first class, which I think was worthwhile. It meant being a bit more elevated, which was nice in terms of the view, and lots of leg room and table space, etc. In all the ticket cost 1,342 dinars.

This is not an efficient way to travel between Nis and Belgrade--it takes almost six hours and makes dozens of stops--but certainly it was affordable, the Wi-Fi was good, the scenery nice, and I had no regrets about making this choice.

Despite the slow trip and many stops, we were on time, arriving at Belgrade's new central station at 18:21. The station has been opened for almost ten years now, but it still feels very new.

I wanted to stay in Belgrade for two nights so that I would have a full day here. The station is a bit far from the city centre (it would be a long walk), so I took a city bus most of the way to the good value (60 euro/night for the single room) Balkan Hotel . . .

. . . which is directly across from the more famous and more pricey Hotel Moskva.

By the way, this is Belgrade's old central station . . .

. . . with Saint Symeon out front.

In my opinion the old train station was better located and way cooler than the new one, but times change and life moves on...

On January 29 I left Belgrade, again via commuter rail, this time to Novi Sad, an hour north of Belgrade. I crossed the river to catch the train from the Novi Beograd, not to be confused with the new Beograd Centar station, because it was more convenient to reach by the city bus.

My ticket to Novi Sad cost 393 dinar. In Novi Sad things got much more "interesting" than I would have liked.

To carry on into Hungary by train you have to transfer from the Novi Sad main station by special bus, only I found it very difficult to locate this bus and actually at one point assumed I was not going to be able figure it out in time to make my connection. There were many buses outside the train station, which meant basically any time a bus pulled in I thought "maybe this is it." But, "no" was the answer time after time as time ticked away.

Eventually a mostly nondescript blue bus showed up, and I sensed it might be right. I got on, and the driver seemed to confirm that I was where I was supposed to be, although even then I was never quite positive until we actually reached the next train station!

The replacement bus is necessary because of significant construction on the line, largely being done by Chinese work teams. We passed some of the work while on the bus.

The Novi Sad-Ranžirna train station is actually only two kilometres away from the main station, so probably walkable if one knew where they were going. Anyway, the Novi Sad-Ranžirna train station is clearly not intended to be a significant stop, but it has become the terminus of the line for now.

My fellow passengers and I exited the bus . . .

. . . and walked to the "platform."

In a few minutes the train arrived.

At the moment this train does not run in anything resembling a straight line to the Hungarian border, but rather heads northwest towards Croatia, before turning northeast and back toward Hungary. It is not efficient, but it is the only way to do the route by train until the Chinese are done with their work on the tracks. This is the zig-zaggy route as mapped by Google:

I took photos of some of the work as we passed it on the train.

The train stopped at many little local stations like the one below, so not only is it not an efficient route, it is also quite slow!

For some reason at Sombor we had to change trains, but there was basically no wait so it was no big deal.

I reached Subotica around 13:40. Here, very close to the border with Hungary, the train is stopping at a makeshift platform.

An elevated pedestrian walkway takes you across the tracks and into the city centre, and also gives a view of all the upgrade work happening.

I was in Subotica for almost three hours, but I did not really mind. It is a nice town, and I was able to enjoy a walk and spent time in a lovely cafe, too.

At 16:37 the Hungarian train currently connecting Subotica to Szeged headed out on the short trip. I paid 25.8 euro for the Subotica-Budapest ticket.

Less than 90 minutes later, including EU border procedures, we were in Szeged.

The wait here was 40 minutes, and the station is very nice to wait in. There are also some nearby shops and cafes and restaurants.

At 18:44 I left for Budapest.

We were a few minutes late arriving in Budapest Nyugati, but not too bad.

It had been a long day traveling from Belgrade-Novi Sad-Subotica-Szeged-Budapest, but it is possible!

I spent the night across from the station at the T62 Hotel, which I can definitely recommend. I was able to enjoy Budapest the next morning . . .

. . . and I continued on to Vienna at 14:40 on January 30 from Budapest's other main train station, Budapest-Keleti.

This ticket cost me 19.20 euro.

It was a quiet train.

The train reached Wien Hauptbahnhof on time, at 17:20.

I stayed across the street from the train station in the Leonardo Hotel, which was perfect for my needs. For January 31- February 2 I took a break from my across-Europe trip, but I was back at it the evening of February 2--just one more train to go, this time another night train.

By the way, Vienna's train station has great lockers, so I was able to stash my bag here while I did some walking around the city.

Also, with my NightJet ticket I got access to the OBB Lounge, so I took advantage of that before I departed Vienna at 20:10. I didn't get any photos in the lounge.

I was excited for this last train, and I went to the platform about twenty minutes early.

Just two minutes later, the train arrived.

I had sprung for a private compartment--not cheap (€214,60!), but very comfortable!

A complimentary welcome bottle of sparkling wine was a nice touch!

So are the slippers!

Breakfast is also included, and the attendant asked for orders in the evening.

These are the other goodies.

Unfortunately there is only a face towel, and not a full body towel to use in the shower at the end of the car. Lucky for me, the attendant was able to provide me with one. The attendant was actually really great, and I made sure to thank him with a tip because I was so impressed with his service!

By the way, you can also order dinner and drinks besides what is in your room and what is served at breakfast.

I had eaten already so I had no need for that. So, I relaxed as we passed into Germany and took a surprisingly nice shower and eventually went to bed. Certainly I did not have an exceptional sleep, but no complaints other than that I seemed to wake up at every stop in Germany, which was probably five or six times through the night. At least there were no border controls!

My breakfast was served at 8:30, somewhere close to the German/Dutch border. I was perfectly happy with my breakfast, and the attendant made sure to top off my coffee twice!