Who wouldn’t love to hop on a night train and wake up in a French holiday spot? Well, soon you’ll be able to because European Sleeper and Sunweb are collaborating to make sustainable travel more accessible! 🚂
Here’s the plan
The night train company European Sleeper and the large travel company Sunweb have come together in an exciting crossover episode to help Dutchies travel to France more easily.
The vision is that the trains will go to French winter sports locations, but they might also go to a French beach or two (whoop whoop!). The mountain trips are intended to start next winter, while the beach vacays are (logically enough) planned for next summer.
READ MORE | 7 winter escapes from the Netherlands by train
To be determined
Wondering what else you should know about this new nightline? At the moment…not much. In fact, most details are still to be determined. For starters, it’s unclear when the trains will start chooing, but it’ll most likely be sometime next winter.
Secondly, it’s not settled which day of the week the trains might leave. “At least once a week,” says co-founder of European Sleeper Chris Engelsman, but more information is still TBA.
Finally, it’s unclear where exactly the trains will end up. Bourg-Saint-Maurice? Modane? We’ll have to wait and see, but it’ll certainly be somewhere under the French sun.
All these uncertainties mean that some delays in the planning are to be expected, so stay calm and maybe map out a plan-B for your next vacation to the French Alps and/or beaches.
Why should we care?
It might sound a bit meh that some Dutch companies might be setting up a train that might go to France more or less once a week. But more train connections in Europe is actually great news! 🎉
READ MORE | New Dutch train services to six major EU cities are launching tomorrow!
Not only is sleeping on trains super comforting and chill (albeit maaaybe not the most comfortable), but it’s also a very efficient way to travel!
You don’t have to pay for that one night of accommodation, you don’t have to spend a day travelling (since you’ll be travelling at night), and it’s way more inspiring and main-character-y than travelling by plane.
More importantly, though, travelling by train is by far a more sustainable option than most alternatives. Joining the likes of Interrail, GreenCityTrip, and TUI, this new initiative is another sign that European travel habits might be moving in a greener direction — yay! 🌱
Would you be down for a night train to the French Alps/beaches? Tell us in the comments!