The ICE699 hasn't sleeping beds, only seats. The DB doesn't offer night trains with sleeping beds.
For this ICE service you can get on the train without reservation (optional reservation 4€ via bahn.de). Like Womble says, this train has only seats.
Nighttrains from Berlin with Couchettes and sleeping cars only Nightjet (NJ) to Vienna, Zürich or Euronight (EN) to Budapest (maybe only seats). Reservation compulsory, expt. for seats for NJ/IC to Zürich.
@maymol
Here is a manual how to reserve on bahn.com :)
as already said above the ICE from Berlin to Munich have no berths or couchette just seats :/
If you wanna have a a place to lay down i recommend to catch the Nightjet from Hamburg (more time to sleep) or Hannover to Munich :) these train have Sleeper and Couchette cars.
The nightjet can be reserved via oebb.at
Thank you, all.
Could you also please inform me how I can get to travel in Zurich mountain rail ?. The route to Zermatt from Zurich shows that Eurail pass is not valid for some connection in between. Where can you buy the required tickets for the full journey to experience the Alps beauty.
Thank you,
Maymol
Please do not post quite other question hidden behind other one. The regular posters search for ´unanswered´.
You CAN go on normal swiss trains from Z to Zermatt, but if you take the scenic route (=not direct) there may be a section that does not accept passes or only for discount. On the site eurail/country info, Switzerland, then there is an awful long list of the many swiss railways that accept passes and those that do at discount and those that do not (=mostly very high up in the snowy mountains). If you have to pay, do that in person on any swiss ticket counter in a station. There is no need at all to do that long before, there are NO REServations included.
From memory (but I´ll check that later on) you can go via Bern-Brig (this is all normal free IC, if you want to see more scenic you can take the slower local trains Spiez-Brig that do not use the long tunnel), then change to private railway to Visp-Zermatt. The railline from Zermatt up in the mountains (Gornergrat) is probably payable, but not needed perse.
The longer and much more scenic route goes nearly across all of Swiss: Züri-IC-Chur-via Andermatt all the way to Brig. This is quite slow (will take all day) and I think in there is a section that you have to pay for.
Simply use the normal swiss trainplanner site for all: sbb.com. Break up your trip in shorter segments to see how trains run then. Mostly every hour on same minutes past.
The company that serves Zermatt and runs also east from Brig toward Chur (changes somewhere to Rhaetische Bahn) says on its site (matterhorngotthardbahn.ch) that EUr and IR can ride for free. Which is what I thought myself too. It is very much hidden on their site, easier in german to find
They also do a pricey touristy extra service, named Glacier Express-that runs on exactly the very same rails as he normal trains and that will cost much more. You can simply avoid that!
Note that Zermatt is a dead-end-you have to come back same way to Brig/Visp as you went there.
Thank you very much. This is helpful. I am not used to these kind of trips and this is our first trip to Europe. We want to cover a lot in 21 days and still figuring things out. We are flying to and from London and plan to cover Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Venice, Rome, Milan and Paris. Along with I thought to include a trip to somewhere closer to Alps. I guess the slow train may not be the option. Would a trip from Milan to Lucerne give a glimpse of the beauty of Alps? Or is there another route?
Sorry about asking question in reply. Is it best if I start another conversation?
Thank you for the information.
Thank you, all.
Could you also please inform me how I can get to travel in Zurich mountain rail ?. The route to Zermatt from Zurich shows that Eurail pass is not valid for some connection in between. Where can you buy the required tickets for the full journey to experience the Alps beauty.
Thank you,
Maymol
Zürich - Zermatt is quite easy :)
Zürich - Visp - Zermatt
or if you wanna have a more scenic Route
Zürich - Bern - Regionalexpress Lötschberger via Kandersteg to Brig and from Brig then to Zermatt :)
Just avoid the Glacier Express as this one need a expensive reservation (atleast 1 regular train per hour without any reservation)