Riding the Midnight Train from Istanbul to Plovdiv

The price was good and the beds were comfortable. If you want to add some spice to your trip, this could be a good option, although for reasons I’ll explain, I think the line going from Sofia-> Istanbul might be a better choice.

How to Get Tickets

The standard way of getting tickets is buying them directly from the train station ahead of time. It costs around 30 EUR for a bed in the shared sleeper. You cannot buy the tickets online.

I wanted to minimize my risk and not have to deal with the hassle of figuring out how and where to buy train tickets, so I utilized the services of DiscoverByRail.com, a boutique rail travel consultancy. For about 60 EUR per person, the owner, Andy, was able to arrange for a local to buy the tickets and hand them off to me in Istanbul.

It felt a little sketchy but it worked out extremely well and I will be looking into this service again if I need to take other difficult train routes abroad.

You can get non-sleeper cabin tickets for as little as 14 EUR, but I would strongly not recommend this as the price difference is really pretty small and the comfort difference is huge.

Getting to the Train Station

The train leaves around 8pm and its recommended to arrive at the Halkali station an hour early. You can take the metro there from downtown and it’s only about $3 for an hour long ride.

Drew didn’t feel like taking the metro because he thought it might be risky but when we asked a local how to arrange a taxi to the train station they insisted we just take the much cheaper metro option.

It’s seriously so easy to buy tickets at the metro station at the electric kiosk and we got there with plenty of time to spare.

The Train

We boarded with no problems and settled into the room. There are two bunk beds that fold down and they’re actually pretty comfortable.

Drew took the top bunk. There’s a ladder to help get on the top bunk but it didn’t seem that useful.

The space is small and there’s not much room to move around. There’s a sink, mirror, some storage, and a mini fridge with snacks as well. There’s one outlet by the sink so we could charge our phones.

I was hoping for an actual Oriental Express situation where we get a dining car and can socialize with the other passengers, but there is not social space on this train. You get your room and that’s that.

There’s two bathrooms on the car and I thought they were both gross and avoided using them. Drew used them multiple times all night long “because it’s something to do.”

The Ride

Once the train started we just got onto our bunks and lied around for a while. I was reading a book but then the lights went out at 10pm. There’s no way to turn them back on so we were in darkness for the rest of the ride.

We chatted and looked out the window. It was pretty warm inside the car without much temperature control so we opened the window, but then the wind coming through was very loud.

We didn’t get much sleep but dozed a little until our first passport control check at 2 AM.

Passport Checks

The Guardian review of the ride made it seem like this would be a very fun experience chatting up fellow passengers. This is fake news.

This was not fun in any way. We were really tired and a lot of passengers are migrants who are going over the border for reasons other than tourism. It’s also cold outside in mid-October at 2 AM.

We were in line for about a half hour and had no problems getting through, but this was only the beginning of two hours of passport checks.

Once we got back to the train and got moving again the conductor checked our passport stamps.

About an hour later the train stopped again and our passports were collected by the Bulgarian officials to get stamped. Some time after that they were handed back to us.

Obviously sleeping was not an option during this time and we just chilled in a twilight daze in the dark of our cabins until everything was over at 4 AM. Finally, we got to sleep a little.

End of the Line

We were woken up by the conductor around 6 AM and told the train would arrive in 20 minutes, but we really arrived in Plovdiv at 7 AM.

If we stayed on until Sofia, we would’ve arrived around 10 AM. According to the Guardian review, the conductor would’ve sold some tea and coffee at some point before arriving there.

Overall this adventure was not particularly pleasant or fun, but it was memorable and it was not expensive at all.

I don’t think I would go out of my way to do it again, and I wouldn’t do it with anyone who can’t handle sleep deprivation or shabbier circumstances. Luckily Drew and I are both easy going and friendly types so we made the most of it and are happy we made this train ride a part of our trip.

There is also an Sofia (or Plovdiv) to Istanbul overnight train, which might be better as the border is a bit closer on the Bulgarian side, so riders might get to sleep at a more reasonable hour.