I took France’s CHEAPEST SLEEPER TRAIN

This summer, myself, my family and my friend Mark’s family tried to get from Norwich in the UK all the way to Murcia in Southern Spain only using trains. This included France’s cheapest sleeper train, from Paris to Cerbère.

0:29 Norwich to London
1:03 London Underground
1:33 Eurostar to Paris
2:40 Paris Metro
3:13 Sleeper train to Cerbère
6:32 Cerbère to Portbou
6:50 Portbou to Girona
8:12 Girona to Barcelona
8:41 Barcelona to Alicante
9:35 Alicante to Murcia

If you fancy going on a European train adventure like us, then I recommend The Man In Seat 61 as a great resource for planning European train journeys: https://www.seat61.com

Most European trains can be booked at either The Trainline: https://www.thetrainline.com

Or Rail Europe: https://www.raileurope.com

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now I like traveling but I also like reducing my carbon footprint so I’m going to see if I get my family and my friend Mark the sexy lawyers family all the way to southern Spain using only trains the most famous challenge in travel history was when phillius Fogg traveled Around the World in 80 Days but I’d argue that this is an even more impressive task because Phillies didn’t have six kids with him and he’s not even real train one let’s go the greater Anglia service to London Liverpool Street I get this train about once a week and it’s the quickest and easiest way to get to the capital the trains are very modern and you’ve got USB ports and plug sockets to charge phones and laptops most the time there’s a cafe opener and failing that you normally get a nice little trolley service come round we didn’t need that though because we’d come armed with wine have you got that Nicholas [Music] in order to get to Europe we need to get across London to Saint Pancras international station so we’re going on our first Subterranean train the London Underground most of you will have been on it before it’s generally Pleasant enough outside of rush hour and the journey from Liverpool Street Kings Cross St Pancras Station is dead quick so quick in fact we had time to smash some fizzy wine at the Champagne Bar at St Pancras is there any one way to get to Mainland Europe by train and that is the Eurostar I love the Eurostar but brexit has not been kind to it but what was once a quick trip through security is now a longer ordeal once you’re through though it’s lovely you get allocated seats and there’s a brilliant Cafe full of drinks and food including these awesome mini sausage balls oh and did you know if you’ve got kids under four they go three on the Eurostar it’s a great option for young families all the security stuff is done in London so once you get to Paris you can leave the station straight away full of wine like I am here so we’ve made it to Paris where we’re going to spend the night a little hostel have a lovely little day exploring having fun and then tomorrow we go on train number four so after a night in Paris and filling up on croissants it’s time for train number four the Paris Metro the Paris Metro is pretty easy to get around and the journey to gardostilit on line five includes my favorite bit of the network it’s when the train pops out from the underground next to the Paris morgue and crosses the same on the gorgeous Fire Duck dust Elites before descending into the mainline train station beautiful [Music] now it’s time for train five are the most exciting train of the journey because we are going on a sleeper train [Music] this is the bit of the journey the kids and I were most excited about the sleeper train from Pali to saber at the bottom of France night trains having a bit of resurgence in France after Services almost died out a few years ago new routes seem to be popping up all the time it’s a really cost effective way to travel prices for a bed at a couchette start at 35 Euros plus it saves your night’s hotel cost second class coochets have six beds in them they’re only five of us so we paid a supplement so you’d have to share with a random French dude more for the French guy’s benefit than ours boys what do you think of the sleeper train good because we got I got to sleep on the top bunk I know you’re in the middle Bank level with me okay yeah so you get to play Roblox with Daddy what do you think about the facilities do you think they look good yes I think they’re fine what do you like about it there’s still some stuff I just want to line the bed for a bit okay I like because I get to visit the top Monk special facilities you get a bottle of water and you get a kit to Voyage what are you gonna be obviously what’s in it okay let’s see you’ve got an eye mask okay um look we got I think a little wipe wipe for in the morning to clean yourself and so it says soft what’s that mean I have no idea oh you’re over yours it’s a little napkin okay two napkins it says s and CF I think that maybe it’s a little toothbrush thing all your beddings including the price although you do have to make your bed yourself but what do you expect for 35 Euros after leaving Paris the train stops once a little Bray and then it’s Full Speed Ahead until nearly 7 A.M morning everyone it is 7 30 a.m I had a decent sleep I said about six and a half hours it’s quite Pleasant the noise of the train didn’t wake me it was quite it was like a little white noise machine that you get for babies and stuff and yeah back’s a little bit stiff I wouldn’t want to sleep on every night absolutely fine I’ll tell what’s your first sleeper trade experience like very loud what like in the in this art was not so the announcements yeah about how like one of the trainers playing off or something what would you give the sleeper train out of ten nine nine it’s a good score I like it Mommy gave it minus four I wish I had one hour sleep there’s no Buffet car on the sleeper trains you need to pack your own snacks and drinks but there is a woman in a Cupboard who’ll make you a coffee there’s nowhere to sit though you need to drink it in the corridors or in your bed after 13 stops we made it to Seb air the last station before the Spanish border so bear is a pleasant little seaside village and we had time for a quick coffee before embarking on our shortest train journey of the trip the four minute jaunt to Port boo in Spain the cross-border train is a basic Affair but you’re not on it for long you need to buy a ticket at the station for this tiny Journey then once in Spain buy a separate ticket for the local train from Port boo to Barcelona seven and this one is going to take us from Port boo all the way to Barcelona if we’ve gone the right track the local train to Barcelona isn’t the quickest train but it’s a nice easy Journey until disaster struck so disastrous struck and the trained dream is on the roads there’s a fire so it’s a Girona so we’ve had to get off the train Girona and they didn’t rail replacing buses which isn’t what we wanted the only trains as you can see up there I think there’s a fire you can see the fire fair enough that is an actual fire so we’re gonna wait it was here at a cafe hopefully it’ll all blow over fire I’ll go out but we’ll see see in a bit stuck in Girona there’s fire surrounded us it looked like we’re gonna have to get a coach and fail in our quest to get to Mercier exclusively by train the Knight is darkest before the dawn exciting development it looked like we were gonna have to get a coach and a dream of getting to the south of Spain purely by train was over we went over we weren’t getting the loan for the coaches we’ll go and get something to eat and we did that and when we came back they went just jump on the high-speed train yes just when all seemed lost we were given permission to travel on the much faster and get really better high speed train to Barcelona salt station now we’re deliberately taken our time to get to Barcelona but it would have been possible to get to Barcelona a lot quicker if you’re on the 931 Eurostar out of London you have lunch in Paris I’ll be eating Tapas in Barcelona by 10 pm the same day but life’s about the journey not the destination so allegedly approach include two nights in Barcelona before our final two trains Spanish high-speed trains are lovely but book in advance we only put this one the day before and nearly didn’t get on but luckily we got the last few seats there’s a huge amount of leg room and the trail had plug sockets which meant I could play a computer game about trains on the train there was also a cafe for snacks eventually we made it to Alicante that’s one of the nicest train experience I’ve had the leg room was phenomenal but I think in a limo wonderful scenes one train left and then we’ll be immersea Journey that we complete yes four days after we left Norwich we were about to complete our journey it’s been emotional but we’re here now for the final train the 10th of the trip and it’s taken us malacante to Murcia where we now live [Music] as we approached our destination it was a carnival atmosphere hello are you glad that we got the train or do you wish we got an airplane I don’t actually know has it been fun getting the train all the way okay okay that was a real Whirlwind of emotion I’ll tell you we’ve made it to Mercia how’d you feel ten trains done so here we are we’ve made it to Mercier and the journey by train was a great success what are my tips for it my advice would be to book as much as you can in advance we got a little bit of trouble with the last elected Mercy because we sort of waited to try and get a group ticket that’s going to be cheaper but then lots of trains were sold out so I think booked is better than waiting for the sort of perfect fair or all that stuff so I’ll just say try and get as much as you can because we know what you do particularly if you’ve got kids with you because they can get a little bit stressed out but overall I mean they loved it I really enjoyed it I think I’m really glad that we did it and we’ll definitely look next time to try and get the train will we go away somewhere if you’re looking to do it yourself 661.com I think the website is the Mana 661 is a great guide for European rail travel some of the things are slightly out of date in terms of times occasionally because if it’s important it’s impossible sorry to keep a website that fully up to date so just check everything but get as much booked up as you can and you should be fine overall terrific little trip we thoroughly recommend it I’m gonna go enjoy the mercy and sun in the pool Cheerio another video soon