My breath caught in my throat as the train thundered toward a tunnel. Wind roared through the open doorway and into the vestibule where I was pressed against the side, wincing at the noise. Fighting the urge to wrench him back in by his hood, I watched as a Turkish man in his thirties leaned out, the train now skirting around a sage-green reservoir, while an Indonesian student stood just behind, waiting his turn.
I was riding the Doğu Express, a 26-hour sleeper service that runs between Ankara and the city of Kars in the northeast of Turkey, not far from the Armenian border. A few days earlier, I had departed from London to Istanbul by rail in an attempt to retrace the original route of the Orient Express on night trains via Paris, Vienna, and Bucharest. But on arrival in Istanbul I decided to extend the journey by sleeper to Ankara and across Turkey.
Even though it has been around since the 1930s, the Doğu Express—meaning Eastern Express—has become a coveted journey after a Swedish social media influencer posted footage of carriages plowing through great drifts of snow at the foot of the Anatolian mountains, alerting Turkey’s domestic tourists to a spectacular ride that many had never heard of.
For four years I’ve been indulging in the resurgence of sleeper trains—particularly in Europe—which came about after lockdown as the climate crisis challenged travelers to find less harmful ways to move through the world, while others discovered a yearning to slow down and engage more with the people and places they passed.
Many on these trains were reconnecting with family, finding the gift of time on board together. On the Santa Claus Express, which runs through the heart of Finnish Lapland from Helsinki to Rovaniemi, I found families from all over the world spooning up reindeer stew and steaming meatballs on what was nothing more than a regular passenger train sweeping toward the Arctic Circle while bridges and ink-black lakes glittered in its wake. On the Norrland Night Train from Stockholm to Narvik, Norway, I met a newly engaged couple in search of the northern lights alongside a group of primary school teachers on a bonding trip to the Swedish city of Kiruna, a haven for cross-country skiing and a key destination for encountering indigenous Sámi culture.
And me? Nothing feels more like home than listening for the sound of steady breathing from my fellow passengers, then shuffling up to the window and lifting the blind for one last peek before bed: watching households wind down for the night, the blue light of TVs flashing in darkened living rooms; or locking eyes with a dog walker, an office cleaner, or a tired mother holding her wide-awake baby up to wave at a passing train.
To my relief, the Turkish passenger stepped back inside, shook snow from his hair and stared at me through misty glasses, the exhilaration lifting off his damp clothes.
“This is amazing, I love it, I love snow, I can’t wait for more snow in Kars where I will throw myself in,” he said. A driver and part-time actor from Antalya in the south of Turkey, he said that he was on the train simply for the snow and ice—which he had never seen.
Thrill-seeking aside, most passengers were traveling to explore the medieval city of Ani from Kars, an abandoned sprawl of Byzantine and Ottoman ruins featuring citadels, churches, and broken mosques. Others were en route to the Sarıkamış ski resort in Eastern Anatolia, famous for its dry, powdery snow. Free from wind thanks to the surrounding Kötek Forest, it’s a little-known escape for adventurous Turks wanting the shock of cold followed by the coziness of blood-red Turkish tea and the steam of a traditional hammam.
In some ways it was also why I was on board this train, which allowed me to embrace the chilly beauty of the frozen landscape from within the warm confines of a sleeper compartment, blankets up to my chin as I cupped tea and watched shards of ice striking the window. I headed toward the dining car, where the buzz of conversation and scent of strong coffee and freshly grilled kebabs was coming together to create the feeling of being in a friend’s open kitchen. Around me, passengers of all ages from Germany, the United States, England, and Turkey were crammed into booths, making friends, sharing boxes of pistachio pastries, and admiring the wilderness, where gusts of snow swept toward the window and obscured the scalps of mountains.
I didn’t always sleep on these trains, a mixture of excitement and curiosity keeping me awake, along with the bumps and clacks of the wheels. But in the morning, when I nudged up that blind to find the first pink of dawn, the skies coming apart to make way for the day, all would be forgiven. I didn’t need to hang from an open doorway to feel alive. All I needed was that quiet moment. And I’d try to hold onto it for as long as I could as the world kept rushing by.
Hop on These New Night Trains This Winter
Three new and revived train routes make it easier than ever to chase powder and adventure this winter.
Travelski Night Express: Paris to the Northern French Alps
For lovers of the classic ski-train vibe—where nobody boards to sleep—this new sleeper service begins in December and runs until March 2026. It will depart on Friday nights from Paris Austerlitz and arrive the following morning at Moûtiers, Aime, or Bourg-Saint-Maurice.
Accommodations include six-person couchette compartments that can be booked privately and ones for solo female travelers at no extra cost. The train must be booked as part of a package including transport, accommodation, transfers, and a ski pass.
Snälltåget: From Sweden to Austria’s Ski Resorts
Meaning “the friendly train,” the Snälltåget is a budget service with a focus on leisure travelers looking to make the journey part of their destination. This winter, its night-train service will run mid-December to mid-March, taking passengers from Malmö to Innsbruck, Austria, departing on Fridays.
There’s a restaurant car named Krogen on board serving everything from overnight baked chuck roast to vegan tomato chili, so book a table and settle in for an evening of cozy chats and hearty meals before rattling on through the snowscapes.
Eurostar Snow Train: London to the French Alps
Departing on Saturday mornings from London’s Saint Pancras station, the Eurostar will soon offer passengers the chance to travel directly to ski resorts on a limited winter service. From December 20 through the end of March, the trains will run as usual to Lille, France, where passengers can disembark and board a connecting Eurostar to Bourg-Saint-Maurice via Chambéry, Albertville, Moûtiers, Aime-la-Plagne, and Landry, a seamless journey taking travelers straight to the foot of the slopes.
Monisha Rajesh is a British journalist and author who writes about railways for the Financial Times, National Geographic Traveller UK, Condé Nast Traveller and Travel + Leisure among others. Her latest book is Moonlight Express: Around the World by Night Train.
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