Food
Make sure to buy some food before you go. My favourite train snack is pistachios, because they take a while to eat – chews up time 😉 Also make sure you have plenty of refreshments, especially caffeine if you’re the sort of person who needs a shot when you wake up! Some trains (Russia) let you get off at stations and there are dozens of people selling cheap food and drink, but this is less common in Europe. And DO share your food with others – it’s a good bonding activity, and you get to try out some of their food too!
Seating
Firstly, if you’re in a cabin/carriage with just seats, you’ll want a window seat. If you’re ok with being a jerk about it, when the adjacent seat becomes available, you could put your stuff on it. This gives you an extra seat to use when you sleep. However, this will depend on seating numbers and whether you can change or not as well. In a train from Berlin to Krakow, a Brazilian girl and myself hunted through the train until we found an empty cabin. It had 8 seats facing each other. We each stretched out on four seats, and went to sleep. This worked well except for a random period from 4-6am when some kids came in and used 3 of the seats for two hours, and then they were gone again.
Security
If you’re travelling alone, this is even harder, but make sure to keep your possessions close by, if at all possible. Keep you wallet in your clothes, and if you’re comfortable doing so, perhaps use a daypack as your pillow, with your valuables inside. I try to lock my leg through a strap on my pack if possible, for extra security. Consider using one of those wire-mesh security wraps for your pack – makes it much harder for someone to get in while you’re asleep.
Entertainment
If you’re in a carriage with others, it’s chatting time! Everyone you meet has a story, find out theirs! And this is the best part – even if they’re speaking in a foreign language, make it a game to figure out words – even if it takes you an hour to work out where they’re from, what does it matter – it’s a LONG train ride! Perhaps get them to teach you some words in their language – count from 1 to 10 etc. If you have playing cards, these are fantastic to use, and cheap.
Also consider books, a Kindle, netbook – whatever you use to entertain yourself while others are busy, or if there are no others around. Quite often travellers are keen to see your photos, and if you’re as snap-happy as me, you can easily spent a couple of hours looking at each others’ photos. By the end of the ride, you may have made a friend, found accommodation, or know a lot more about your destination, including locals’ secret tips!
Having done London to Singapore by train¹ I know a little bit about long train rides.
Victorah and mindcorrosive covered most things already. Here are a few more random thoughts:
¹ Okay, I had to take buses in Cambodia and I also did stop in places on the way.
In addition to the sound advice from victoriah, here are also a few more points to consider:
Take your own food. As a rule, the food served on trains is bland and overpriced. He will probably have time at the stations to purchase extra drinks, or if not get them on the train.
He is probably not going to sleep that well in a regular train compartment (I never do at least). Obviously he should take a book. The main risk if he is travelling alone is that he will have an aisle seat and will have to try not to accidentally lean on the person in the window when he falls asleep.
Have the details of the changes written down and near to hand. Don’t look at the tickets themselves whilst on a train station platform – the risk of accidentally losing them in the rush is too high. Instead write down all the info (including your seat number) on a seperate piece of paper that you can just shove in your pocket and keep your tickets safe in your bag.
Always try to get the window seat!
Find out what the words for "departure", "arrival" and "platform" are in the countries that you will be changing in. It is usually in English too, but knowing the German (or whatever) won’t hurt.
Like mindcorrosive said, you have to watch out for things being stolen whilst you’re sleeping. Personally I always have a seperate, small backpack (that I carry on my front if I have two backpacks), with all my valuables in and a padlock on it. I use it as a pillow, so it would be pretty hard for anyone to take it without me noticing, plus I get a free pillow 🙂
If he is taking a night train he should have booked a sleeping compartment! I know it seems expensive, but trust me, after one trip like this he will really understand why it’s good value for money. You may not sleep that much better in a bunk, but at least you have space to put your feet and a personal reading light. I know the difference in price makes you think twice, and I’ve been persuaded by the cheaper ticket many times, but every time I cave and buy the cheaper seating ticket I end up regretting it. Obviously it’s too late to change this, but for anyone else who reads this I can’t recommend it enough.
I’ve taken 100+ night trains in Europe and maybe 25% of them were miserable experiences because I had to sit in a six person compartment (3 people facing 3 people), in a middle seat, in the carriage next to the engine, with 5 people who didn’t speak English and refused to turn the light off, with nowhere to put my feet and nowhere to rest my head for 12+ hours overnight.
Source: Taken many train journeys with 8+ changes lasting 48+ hours 🙂
Credit:stackoverflow.com‘
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