Sleepers/Couchettes on trains

[gamegrl1]

Hi – I’m a first-time European traveller from California, going to France & Italy for 3 weeks this fall. If you’ve taken a night train and stayed in a sleeper or couchette, what was your experience? Were you able to actually sleep, or was it too noisy, cramped, etc.? I read how they are small and you share them with several other people. I’m considering a night train from Nice to Venice (9 hr trip). I’m a moderate-to-occasionally-light sleeper and am 6 feet tall so enough room is a good thing! If sleeper cars or couchettes are generally hard to actually sleep in, I may be better off passing on this, because I need my sleep! But I wanted to see if there was any kind of concensus first. Thanks, all!

[rchua]

my experience on a couchette wasn't too bad. my friend and i had to share it with 3 other people. they stayed up and drank and chatted. they went to bed around 1 or 2 am. i did manage to get some sleep but i'm a heavy sleeper. it will be up to luck on who will be in your cabin for the train ride. also, i'm not sure how long the bed will be. i'm 5'4" so i fit perfectly fine on the bunk. if you are worried about not getting enough sleep then i suggest taking a plane.

[me]

if you took a sleeper/1st class you wouldn't share. no problems. couchette/2nd class is shared, but i never had problems with rude people in the cabin chatting.

if that happened, and i needed to sleep, i'd be tempted to ask the train-boss to move me to a cabin where people want to sleep.

[Jules80]

I took a night train from bordeaux to nice and it was fine. luckily only 3 of 6 beds were occupied. i was tired so i slept ok. maybe 6 hours or so. i'm also 5'9" but i slept fine. the train was only about 8 hours and we waited till the other person got on before going to sleep so as not to be disturbed.