I Rode a Sleep Pod Train Across Europe

I'm going to spend the next two days traveling from Amsterdam to Rome on a sleep pod train. The only problem being the reviews. So whilst on this journey, I'm going to be putting these reviews to the test to find out if the train is really as bad as what people are saying, starting with what is probably wrong with every single train, delays. Dilek said, if you want to hate your life and die under the sun in 35 degree weather, waiting your train 40 min, this is the company you're looking for. Wait, don't go, no. It's not my train, got you. I really hope the reviews about the night jet are just wrong, because in theory, a capsule hotel on a train just makes sense. Oh my days, it's here. That's it, the train has arrived on time. So that's the first review busted. Right, let's go and get on the train and start busting some more moves. I mean, I mean reviews. I don't know exactly where my capsule is. I just know that the capsule carriages look like this. Okay, wagon 434. This is me, this is me, we're on this wagon. What's going on? Oh no, his ticket, he's dropped his ticket. Excuse me, is this my room number? Or is it 32, is that my... This wagon? Okay. Cute, oh, it's a bit tight. Okay, first impressions of the night jet. This train is sick. Wow, these pods are pretty cool. You can deposit your bag in one of these. Oh, in these? Yeah, there's a card, right there, the black one. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hold it outside. And your... 32, yeah, oh, so, oh, perfect. Okay, great. And the lowest for shoes. For shoes, okay, awesome, thank you. What's your name, sorry? Gerak. Gerak? Gerak, George. Gerak, George, okay. I'm Chris, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Okay, so I'm in the capsule. Let me show you what we're working with. So we've got a bottle of water, a little snack, peanut wafer, very cool. Almost matches my shoes, not intentional. And then a pillow, a blanket, some more sheets, a bin bag, and plenty of room. So, first impressions, pretty damn good. And then up here, there's all these different like, light options, whoa. You best believe a party's going down in here tonight. We've even got disco mode, if we want it. Look at that, ooh. A coffee button, a toilet button, and a hand washing button. What do any of these mean? I have no idea, but I'm not about to find out now. There is way more comfort in this mini capsule than I ever thought there was gonna be. There's only one thing that's weirding me out about this capsule. I don't think this should be here. But bro, what? Look at that. Why does the QR code say, do not scan it? And there's a skull on it. I am not scanning that, there is no chance. I am absolutely loving my first sleeper train experience. This is sick. This sleeper train is called the OVB Nightjet, and it goes from Amsterdam in the Netherlands all the way down to Rome in Italy, with a layover in Vienna. But there's a very good reason I've chose this route, and that's because I absolutely love pizza. And the best pizza I've ever had was what I had three years ago in Rome, at a place called Piccolino Rucco. So you best believe that's where we're going. I'm traveling all the way across Europe for a pizza. This is ridiculous. Speaking of food, we've got some more one-star reviews to test. One of the things that is repeatedly mentioned in these one-star reviews is the lack of food cars, and just being no food on this train, which makes no sense for a sleeper train. Do you know if there's like food on the train? Hi. Is there any food on the train? Yes. Oh, amazing. Thank you. Oh, hello. Sorry. Hello. Can we order food here? What exactly would you like to eat? I don't know. Have you got any evening meals? I'll show you. Ah, great. Thank you. Unfortunately, there's no pizza on the menu, but this is looking pretty good. I don't know what it is. You ordering tea? Dinner? Yeah, nice. What are you going for? Exactly this picture. Oh, that one? Yeah. Yeah, brilliant. Nice. I was going to go for that one. Yeah, that thing here. Yeah. It looks like a puke, you know? Can I get the paprika chicken? Yeah. Amazing. Then I sort of awkwardly just loitered about while the lady prepared the food. Oh, then add some more awkward corridor interactions. We love it. What's your name, sorry? Arthur. Arsper? Arthur. And you? I'm Chris. Nice to meet you. Enjoy. See you later. Take care. Oh, sorry. Apple Pay didn't work at all on this train, so I had to go and get my physical card, but then that worked, so it was okay. I can eat. Brilliant. Thank you. This is so nice. It's like a chicken curry with Austrian dumplings. The bad reviews about the food have been well and truly busted for now. Thank you. Then I had my little chocolatey hazelnut wafer snack thing, and that was flames as well. One of the staff members then came and took my drinks order for breakfast. Cafe au lait. And he also told me that if I lose my key card into the cabin, he personally gets fined 300 euros. 300 euro for me. Oh, really? Seriously? It's my first time in Vienna tomorrow. Have you got any recommendations for places to go? Until the evening. George and his family were so helpful. They gave me a great itinerary for a day in Vienna. It was such a nice atmosphere on this train. Eat some ice cream. Go and get an ice cream. Well, the weather's going to be good, so ice cream weather. You can eat ice cream until you throw up. Because it's too cold. Now Hauptbahnhof. Bay Hauptbahnhof. Linz Hauptbahnhof. Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof. We are now in Germany. Come on. I just find it so funny that I'm just laying here and we're moving. Right, I've retreated to the sink room. This is, yes, this. But I've got a serious story to tell you. So my friend is a railroad engineer. And at the end of the day, I said, his name's Nathan. I said, Nathan, how many derailments have you had since you've been a railroad engineer? And he said, I don't know. I can't keep track. Okay, no, seriously. The next one-star review I'm trying to bust. It's pretty unnerving. The review came from Sharon G. And it said. So to put this to the test, I've got a plan. I'm gonna leave my compartment that I can store my bags in open. And I'm gonna put some money in there. Hopefully no one can hear me saying this. And then I'm gonna leave it like that overnight. And then when I wake up, we're gonna see if it's still there. As the green light was on, literally anyone walking by can see that that locker is open. Now the trap was set, I chilled out for a bit, enjoyed the coziness of the cabin before going to bed. Good morning, sleeper train goers. I've heard some knocking. And I think that's the staff going around giving people their breakfast. So I think I'll be getting mine any second. We are now in our third country of this trip. Austria, yeah, Austria. Oh, amazing, thank you so much. Okay, so we've got two bread rolls, blackcurrant jam, butter, and then milk for a coffee. So no, that was literally two bread rolls, jam and butter for breakfast. But it went off. It was so nice. And this coffee as well, very good. First night on the sleeper train complete. What an experience. I've come to my safe space, which is the man's bathroom. But I'm gonna clean my teeth, get ready for the day. And I need to go and find out if I was robbed. Yeah, I wasn't robbed, come on. Okay, the train's coming into the station now. But before you get off, there is one last thing I've got to do. What is this QR code? Let's scan it now. Oh my days, I can't believe it. Of course, it's Saly, the eSIM service which offers mobile data in over 190 countries. And the sponsor of this video. This removes the stress of not having mobile data when you arrive in a country and saves you loads of money on data roaming fees. Thank you, which is perfect. So I've just arrived in Vienna. I know I need some mobile data while I'm here. Sorry, what was your name? Lamin. Lamin, nice to meet you, I'm Chris. Look at that, night jet staff. They're so helpful and friendly. To set up Saly, download the app using this QR code, select the country or continent that you're traveling to, then select the amount of data that you want. And then if you go to checkout and use code HOWIT, you can get yourselves 15% off. I've used Saly on every trip that I've been on this year. It's super affordable. And it's inbuilt security features such as the VPN and ad blocker mean you can travel with confidence. Oh my days, no way. Do you remember the peanut bar that I had in the capsule? This is the company. And in the unlikely event that your phone is not eSIM compatible, you can get a full refund on the data you've just bought. Wow. Oh, hello. Hello. Thank you, Saly, for sponsoring this video and happy traveling. Can you give me the camera, like camera? I'm not filming. It's 10 a.m. in Vienna and I've got nine hours until my train as it's like a layover. These are two separate trains that I'm on. So I've got two options. I can either sit here, eat some food, chill out and enjoy the train station or I can go and explore a city that I've never been to before. Come on. Let's go. I remember one of the things Georgia's wife told me on the train was that there's loads of Italian ice cream in Vienna. So I'll try and keep an eye out for an ice cream van and get some nice ice cream. That'd be nice because it's so warm at the minute. Authentic Italian ice cream. Bro, oh, that is so good. Given that the whole point of this trip is traveling to Rome to eat a pizza, I think it's only appropriate we eat some local Austrian cuisine as well. I've never seen a McDonald's like this. How crazy is this? This is McDonald's. I then went to an art exhibition. It was literally just me in there. There was some stones and twigs, but then I saw a picture of a man naked, which was odd. Then I saw a picture of a map where he'd been walking naked. Then it dawned on me. I was in a nudist art exhibition. It was not intentional. Then I jumped on a lime scooter and tried to find this massive festival that was going off in Austria. The train attendant from Nightjet told me about it, but I couldn't find it. It was still a really nice ride and a great way to see the city. Nah, I'm gonna have some currywurst. That's like traditional German or Austrian-like food. So I think I'm gonna have that too. German? What's traditional Austrian food? Sausage. Sausage? Sausage, but not currywurst. Not currywurst? Just German. Just, okay. Thank you. Then I had this dessert, which I think is a traditional Austrian food. There is no way I know if I'm eating all this without throwing up. Before heading back to the train station. Vienna's not somewhere I had on my wishlist, but after visiting, I don't know why. It's such a nice city. All right, we're back at the train station. It's time to get an Austrian hot dog. Hi. What's the most traditional Austrian hot dog you do? All of them? They're all Austrian? It's all Austrian. You want 100% from Austria? 100% from Austria, right, okay. Wow, that is really good. That was amazing. Best hot dog I've ever had. I was about to start a dramatic sequence, like, you know, yesterday the night jet was on time. Maybe it was a fluke. You know, there could be more delays, might even get canceled, given the reviews. But it's here. So this next night jet is another just over 14 hour train. And this has taken us from Vienna to Rome. And you might be thinking, what else is there to do on this train? Well, there's a couple of things. There's some things we've not seen and some reviews we've not busted. One of the most common thing that's talked about in the negative night jet reviews is the staff being unpolite, rude. They're the same thing, aren't they? Just pretty ignorant and not very helpful. After my first train, I don't buy it at all. But you never know. Maybe that first train was an anomaly. So here I was going to intentionally not be able to find my cabin. Hi, mate. Do you know where I am on this train? This one here? Perfect. Nice one. Thank you. Right. Well, I was hoping it was going to be a bit more hard to find it. Bro, this train is empty. Okay. This is me, but I never saw this. Hey, sorry. Which room am I in? 43? Okay. So in the, look for room number 43. Four, four. Okay. Yep. 43. Okay. Thank you so much. What's your name, sorry? Jeffrey. Nice to meet you. I'm Chris. Thanks for your help. Appreciate it. What an absolute geezer. What a nice guy. Not many people on here, is he? All aboard my capsule. There we go. That bunk is the greatest bunk. Don't at me. Right, come on then. Let me give you a room tour. You climb up your steps and elegantly enter the cabin. You know, this is textbook night jet. We've got disco mode, classic, the lights, the coffee button. Still yet to know what that does. We've got a window, a slightly smaller window, but we're higher up. So we're going to get better views. USB, light switch, exactly the same as the other one. Except this time we've got three bin bags. That's an upgrade. Great amount of space, literally the same size as the other one. Air conditioning's feeling pretty good. Coat hangers, door with the fixing strap, and my key card there. The employee said that he personally loses 300 euros from his pay if someone on the train loses their key card. $300 for you. Oh, really? Seriously? It has to be nonsense. In fact, I might ask Jeffrey. I went on a night jet last night and one of the guys on the train, one of the employees, he said that if I lose this card, he gets fined 300 euros. Did you forget the card? No, I didn't. I didn't lose it, but he said, don't lose it. And I can't figure out whether he was lying to let me make sure we don't lose the card or that you actually get a life fine. You don't know? I don't think we would get fined, but it's not good for us. Yeah, no, no, I won't. I'm just curious. Okay, thank you. Goodbye, Vienna. Oh, sorry. So sorry. Oh no, I just whacked him on the head. As not all the train carriages are the same on the night jet, I decided to take myself on a train tour. So at the very back of the train is regular seats. These are the normal seats on a train. Pretty comfy, pretty spacious. Nice. And they've got a light button as well. But then the train tour came to an abrupt stop. What is going on? I can't get out. I'm now locked in between trains. I don't know what's going on. It's not opening, is it? I'll hold it and then you go through. That's all right. Oh, and that one's closing. Crikey. With this potential safety hazard on this train, there was only one man I could call. Geoffrey. Sorry, just letting you know. I told him the problem and he said he'd sort it. What a guy. Yes, thanks though. I'll be calling around later for some snacks. A snack? Not yet, but in a bit. Yeah, I'll speak to you later. Thanks, Geoffrey. So this is like the four bed cabin. Not as cool as the mini cabins in my opinion. There was literally a school trip on this next carriage. That has to be the most fun school trip of all time. Oh, this is the sleeper car. I didn't really get a great look inside the sleeper cars. So here's a picture of them now. They look so nice. Train's all complete. Then this lovely man mistook me for one of his favorite train YouTube channels. What's your name, sir? My name's Andrew. Andrew, I'm Chris. Nice to meet you. Chris, pleasure meeting you. And we just hit it off talking about trains. I somehow, I don't think it's OBB's fault as much as Trenitalia's fault. Deutsche Bahn and Deutsche Bahn is terrible right now. It says congratulations on 68% arrival rate. 68? They were proud of that. We hit the Rome at 10 o'clock. Well, I thought it was 10, but I've just looked on the board there. I don't know if you can see. It says 11. That's 11 o'clock, all right. Yeah, yeah. Take care. See you later. It's time to go on a mission to get some snacks. Hi, Geoffrey. Have you got any snacks? What have you got? A snack. Oh, are they brownies? I'm looking for sweet treats. No, I'm looking for like, is that a brownie? Brownie, no. Brownie, or have you got cookies? Cookies, no. Just brownie? Just, yeah. Egg sandwich. I'd probably rather have a brownie. I might have one of them for cakes. Cakes, okay. Yeah, yeah. You have no cakes? You got more? Oh. No cakes, cakes. Lots of cakes. Apple pie and the snack trolley don't go well together. Let's try again. No, not working. Okay. I'll go and get some cash. Yeah, cash. Oh, the third time's the charm. 160, okay? Okay. Oh, let's try again. You need change. You haven't got any change? Oh my God. After all that, I didn't get any snacks, but Geoffrey did tell me about the best carriage to watch the sunset at. It was at the very front of the train. One of his colleagues showed me the way there. Literally every single staff member on this train was so nice. I do not understand what these negative reviews are about. So I picked out one of the old carriages and then I sat down and watched the sunset. Trains never get lost because they always follow their train of thought. All right, I guess this is the last few hours on the night jet before we get to Rome. Breakfast again this morning. Incredible. Although it was delivered by a different member of staff. It looks like there's a new member of staff on my train, which implies that there's been a rotation of staff throughout the whole train, which means Geoffrey might no longer be on this train. And I didn't get to say bye to him. Anyway, last few questions to answer about the night jet. How much does it cost? The two tickets I've had, the two overnight tickets, have been 160 euros each, which when you consider it's a hotel and a train, it's not too bad. But then when you compare that to the cost of a plane, it's a lot more. Can you hear people snoring at night in cabins next to you or talking or anything? Yes, but it's not as bad as you'd maybe think. Although I did hear a lot of people talking last night But funnily enough, I actually got talking to the lads that were keeping me up at night in the morning and they were sound. It looks like you've got a lot of luggage. Rome, we've made it. There's a guy that I spoke to loads on this train, but I don't know where he is. So I searched the train, but Geoffrey had gone. I can't find Geoffrey. I don't know where he's gone. But then the unthinkable happened. Geoffrey! No way! Bye. Pleasure meeting you. It's Geoffrey. I thought we'd lost him. You're the man. This is the best train I've ever been on. Take care. Bye. Oh, that was... Hi, lads. It was a pleasure meeting you. Good luck on your travels. And let's get some pizza! Yeah! Literally, just down here on the left. Over two days on sleeper trains just for this. I'm so excited, though. Yeah, just down here. I literally, I remember the Ferrari merchandise shop being opposite. It's like people outside, I bet they're all queuing. Oh, no, no, it's just here. What? No. Is this, is this open today? It's not open today?