How to travel from Switzerland to Turkey by train
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- Опубликовано: 7 июн 2024
- #orientexpress #optimaexpress #fensterauf
In today's trip, we will see how to travel by train from mainland Europe to Istanbul in Turkey, by following the Simplon Orient Express as close as possible.
Total travel time: within 5 days, we travelled 2697 km in 60 hours (ø 45 km/h)
Trains taken in this video:
Day 1: SBB EC47: Lausanne - Venezia S.Lucia
Day 2: ÖBB Railjet: Venezia S.Lucia - Villach Hbf
Day 2 to 4: Optima Express: Villach - Edirne
Day 5: TCDD Trakya Ekspresi: Edirne - İstanbul (Halkalı)
00:00 Introduction, History of the Orient Express and travel plan
02:04 SBB EC47 from Lausanne to Venice
07:41 Day 2, ÖBB Railjet "Gondoliere" from Venice to Villach
11:00 Quick visit by the Wörthersee
11:47 Optima Express, start in Austria
14:10 Day 3, Optima Express, Croatia to Bulgaria
15:55 Tour of the ex CWL Sleeper compartments
16:37 Optima Express, Crossing Serbia
20:30 Day 4, Optima Express, Bulgaria to Edirne, Türkiye
24:37 Entering Türkiye
26:58 Day 5, TCDD Trakya Ekspresi from Edirne to İstanbul Halkalı
30:35 The last bit to Sirkeci
Attributions:
Thumbnail by Dusan Dodic
www.flickr.com/photos/1011364...
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Made with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com.
Kropelnicki, Jeffrey; Johnson, Grace; Kne, Len; Lindberg, Mark. (2022).
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Historical National Boundaries. Retrieved from the Data Repository for the University of Minnesota, doi.org/10.13020/146x-1412.
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Map data ©2022 Google
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"Loopster" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
I visited Turkey three times, 1974, 1984 and 1992 by motorcycle. In 1984 I was with a friend and we visited the Nemrut Dağ volcano near Tatvan. From Tatvan there goes a ferry on lake Van to Van. In the Port of Tatvan a steam engine was waiting for the ferry to push and pull the railway cars on and off the ferry. (Four tracks) We wanted to make pictures but the engineer came running to us and asking to wait a moment because he will make the engine smoke. He did, the engine smoked terribly, we made photographs and we sent some to Turkey, 39 years ago.
Thank you for sharing Herman
Bu güzellikleri bizimlede paylaştığın ve bilgilendirmelerin için teşekkür ederiz👍🤗
One of the best video's journey on a Train. The scenery was fascinating.
Very good informative video.
Love all the trains and nice scenery.
Thank you for sharing.
Cool video. Brought back memories of an Interrail trip in 1986 from Basel via Zürich and Schwarzach St.Veit. In Schwarzach we caught the Istanbul Express coming from Munich on a Monday night and rode in Bulgarian Couchette cars to Istanbul all the way into the Sirkeci Station arriving there on Wednesday at noon, just about 2 hours late.
That must have been a wonderful experience! Thank you for sharing 😊
Thank you for sharing this very informative trip. I love train trips, they expose you to places that you would not normally see through Road Travel
I'm glad you enjoyed the video, and I agree about train trips. Thanks for your comment!
So old but still so amazing!
Woow. Pemandangan yg sangat indah tersaji melalui perjalanan antar negara via KA. Luar biasa mantap..👍👍👍
i admire your patience, 5 days is a long time!
thank you for a wonderful report. I like your commentary, not too much talk and let the video speak for itself.
Thank you very much!
I've always wondered what it's like to travel by rail in Europe, where the rail industry is so developed. Thanks for the video, I enjoyed it.
Thanks for watching!
Amazing video , useful information , heartful and truly expressions of the travel feeling .
Thanks a lot 😊
Güzel bir video. Adeta o ülkeleri tek tek gezmiş gibi oluyor insan.
teşekkür ederim, evet bu tren yolculuğunun en güzel yanı. Uçuşta sadece havalimanını ve gökyüzünü görebilirsin
Nice!👍 Hello from Bulgaria.
Excelent content :-)
Thanks for the ride, I really enjoyed it.
Thanks for the comment, glad you enjoyed it
Beautiful...million thanks...b blessed 🙌
Welcome 😊
Nice program.
Excellent
Bonjour. Je suis passionnée des trains depuis mon enfance. Voyager à bord d'un train longue distance me plairait. Voyager avec de magnifiques paysages. Encore merci pour ce merveilleux voyage. Bonne continuation. Si vous avez d'autres vidéos de voyage longues distance je regarderai avec plaisir.
Merci pour votre commentaire, on partage la même passion alors. Malheureusement j'en ai pas plus pour le moment, mais je prévois retourner à Istanbul cet été en passant par Bucarest, et quelques autres projets. Bonne journée
Beautiful
Great rail therapy 👀👀💖💖🚂🚂
Very nice
One of the best video attractive seen
Thank you :)
Gr8 Journey.
Glad you enjoyed
Great job ❤
thank you!
Much quieter than our trains in the U.S.. Parabéns pelo vídeo e saudações do Brasil .
ENJOYABLE PLACE 😍👌😘🍷💘
Beautiful ❤
Thank you! 😊
Awesome
Thanks 😊
thank you!
WOW THANKS. MY MATERNAL GRAND-MOTHER WENT FROM CONSTANTINOPLE TO PARIS
your video is amazing....
Many many thanks
👍 👍 ❤ From Pakistan 🇵🇰 👌
❤❤❤
That was a truly amazing video! I had no idea that trains could be so costly. I reside in Niš, Serbia, and a plane ticket from Niš to Basel typically costs around 120-140 euros for a 2 hour journey. Best regards.
The diesel locomotive towing the train from Nis (Serbia) to Bulgarian border is ZS 666 series. It's one of the most powerful GE diesel locomotives in their arsenal and it was originally used to pull the official "Blue train" of former SFRJ president Tito. The low speeds are actually due to appalling state of tracks on that section.
I guess it's a mix of both, maybe? Even powerful for a diesel locomotive, it's still far from electric traction, and it is a pretty steep gradient.
Gruss aus İstanbul.Es war wunderbar.Und liebe grüsse nach Zürich
Teşekkür ederiz, isviçreden selamlar
@@felixonrails Cevabın için çok teşekkür ederim.Uzun yıllar Zürih’te yaşadım ve aynı zamanda İsviçre vatandaşıyım.Zürih’e sık sık gelirim.Trenle ve uçakla seyahat etmeyi severim.Umarım Zürih’te karşılaşır kahve içeriz.İstanbul’da yaşıyorum.Yolunuz buraya düşerse misafirim olun.İstanbul’dan selamlar
Great video, it is kind of cute to see how a Swiss person is surprised by how the railways work in the Balkans. 😂
Anyway, what is the source of the map in the beginning? The country borders are weird in there... No German-Austrian border, Romania and Italy in its pre-WW2 sizes however Czechoslovakia and German-Polish border are post-1945... 😊
Thanks for your comment! Yeah, I'm not so much satisfied with it myself. After some research of reasonable interwar national boundaries, I went with the Historical National Boundaries. Retrieved from the Data Repository for the University of Minnesota, doi.org/10.13020/146x-1412. At least someone noticed ^^
Enjoyed the vid. Would have been nice to know exactly what you were eating at each meal. I wasn't sure!
Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it! Will be more clear about it in coming videos 😊
Thank you very much for the information yes I am asking about the transient how many trans how money country
Oh my . I would go with you only. How in the world you navigated all ? I would do it if it’s just one train straight.
You can take many other trains and routes with interrail / eurrail pass, saves you a lot.. bought mine for 285 € for 10 travel days in 2 months.. was a blackfriday offer.. dec 2023.. from the north of Holland to Turkey and back.. the obb nightjet was 36 euro extra.. the Sofia -- Halkali 6 euro for sleeper..
Yes indeed, going via Bukarest is much cheaper, but I really wanted to try Optima Express too. Maybe this year I’ll try another route 🙂
I wonder if Eur-rail pass is still around. Marvellous.
yes it is!
It really is, but not all trains on the journey would be useable with it. The Optima Express doesn't accept Interrail or Eurail unfortunately.
Parabéns pelo vídeo e saudações do Brasil 🇧🇷🇧🇷👏
I did Euro Night 262/3 quite a few times in 1990's it was called the Orient Express but only ran from Vienna Westbahnhof(no Hauptbahnhof then although the site was the Sudbahnhof) to Paris Gare de la Est but when they put in the TGV line from Strasbourg to Paris it terminated at Strasbourg which wasn't popular as most passengers were going to Paris.Euro Night 262/3: Orient Express was just a normal train with bed and sitting up coaches.I think that the original Orient Express went from London to Istanbul?
Yes, you're right. By the way the "Orient Express" between Paris and Vienna is operating again since a year or so. All the best
Cooles Video! Hab ich das richtig gesehen? Man hat eigene Toiletten für sich oder stehen die im Gang ?
Danke!
Sowohl im Schlafwagen als auch in den Liegewagen sind die Toiletten im Gang und geteilt.
ÖBB has no RegioJet , thats only by Czech Railway , may refresh up yr researches. In the ÖBB RailJET u can pay indeed with CreditCard but may not in yr Train or in Italy coz of the phone connection.
Yes, thanks for the hint - I realized that unfortunately just shortly after publishing the video. For payment, it can't be the phone connection as we had perfect 4g connection.
Thank you very much for this video how much is it the ticket completely to Istanbul the problem Hungary they are not good with people
Wonderful video man, but your girlfriend was way more busy and worried about her freaking phone then making a video with u hahaha❤… keep filming man u good at this!
PS. Did u see that couple on the harley davidson driving all alone same path as u? Thats my dream traveling:))
Nah, that's alright. We like to make videos, but we aren't videogenic (is that a thing?) so filming each other is also pretty awkward and looking at the phone is a bit distracting when filming 😉
I did this in January 1989 Pontresina to Istanbul😅.
Crossing the Alps via Bernina to get to Istanbul is also awesome
How much cost the whole journey Paris-Istanbul?
Which camera you make this video ? I am from Bangladesh.
Mostly with DJI Pocket 2, some iPhone too
sirkeci will be reconnected again in 2023?! that's wonderful news if that's a fact! I would so much rather have the old route around the Topkapi palace and the Strait of Marmaray rather than having this subway station, which is indeed very anticlimactic! also, haven't the connections between Budapest, Belgrade and Sofia been disconnected now due to maintenance/modernization work?
Yes, not only Sirkeci, but apparently also Haydarpaşa! It's great news and works are in full progress. The line to Sofia and Bukarest are restored. There were no trains for a few years to Belgrade and Budapest anymore afaik.
Couchette cars are registred in Slovakia (56). That's old German cars.
Sleeping in registred in Austria.
True, and the Couchette cars are - as to my knowledge - owned by GfF Crailsheim how rents them to Optima Express among others.
Yes, only the dining car is Slovenian.
Where was the stainless steel sleeping car manufactured? It looks similar to the classic Budd streamline cars built in the states.
The 61 81 70-70 003-2 WL AB30 ex P is a former SNCF / CWL sleeper, so my guess is France, but I'm not sure.
Your question puzzled me, and I did some research. The P sleepers from CWL were built in the 1950s and indeed with a licence built Budd Company process. The rolling stock construction company Carel et Fouché, who built these sleepers (and a lot of other French rolling stock) produced in licence for Budd Company in France since 1935. I never knew, thanks for the interesting question.
@@felixonrails My pleasure.✌
Euraillpass covered this trip? I will try istanbul to Budapest
The Optima Express is a private carrier that sadly doesn't accept interrail. Enjoy, it's going a great trip, though it's unclear today if the through coach from Budapest is going to get in service again. Maybe you will have to travel to Bulgaria first.
Felix abi, çok güzel bir video olmuş. Ada Ekspresi'ne binmek istersen; artık Pendik'ten değil Gebze'den kalkıyor, haberin olsun.
Teşekkür ederim. Sadece şantiye için mi ya da Pendikte artık hizmet vermeyecek?
@@felixonrails Tam bir bilgim yok ancak şuan da Gebze'den faaliyet veriyor.
@@mkaandemircan1279 Tamamdır, teşekkür ederim bilgi için
As a Malaysian, Serbia is the only country that we need to apply visa to enter. In this case, do I need to apply for a tourist visa, or transit visa or not all all? As I can't see its stopping in Serbia. Anyway, good experience though as alternative to tran-siberian train journey
Very good question. I’d assume that Serbia also provides Transit Visa, since you don’t exit the train at any point and you won’t spend much more than 24h in it. But probably Optima Express will know about it better
Your trip sounds exciting but definitely exhausting…. I did long trips in Europe like Istanbul to Hungary then to Germany. Your route was very long 😱
Once you start, it's difficult to stop. But the arrival in Istanbul was very welcome, indeed.
Felix, from Venice to Villach it is called Railjet, not Regiojet.
Yes, I understood. I have no clue how I came up with Regiojet 😅
Is the train from villach to turky is running all the year or it’s only from juin to October?
The Optima Express runs from May to October I think, not the whole year unfortnately
@@felixonrails ok thanx
Zürich Istanbul tren bileti almak icin hangi telefonu aramamiz gerekir?
Zürich istanbul treni yok
Omg im from biel/bienne🤯🤣🤣🤣
I wonder what the most comfortable combination of trains would take me from Paris to Istanbul.
Probably Paris - Vienna on the Nightjet, then Vienna - Bukarest on the Dacia and last the through coach from Bukarest to Istanbul Halkalı.
@@felixonrails The through service from Bucharest to Istanbul only operates in summer, no? The rest of the year it seems you have to use a series of trains to get to Bucharest.
Hey i have an question, when were you passing Beograd centar station?
that must have been on 27th of june at 3:40 pm last year. I was not able to record it unfortunately - or more corrrectly, I recorded it with one camera - but by accident I deleted the footage
@@felixonrails thanks a lot
What is the music name, starts 27.55????
Ali Sabah - Sabah
Not quite the Orient Express is it??
how much/
From Venice to Villach it was RailJet, not RegioJet, which goes a little differently
You're right, no idea how I got to think it is a Regiojet. Thanks!
(and the regiojet isn't by öbb, but a (czech, i think?) private operator)
Can you say me how you made the animations?
Sure! Which ones? the map?
Yes, the map:)
@@henrikwessels3843 I created the map as background in QGIS, depending on the location. Then I animated the maps in Apple Motion by using the custom maps as background and by adding the lines as animations.
@@felixonrails Thank you very much
Bekommt man in Edirne Fahrkarten? Wann und wieoft fahren Züge nach Istanbul
Ja, man kann die Fahrtkarten auch Online einige Tage im voraus buchen. Es gibt genau einen Zug am Tag, Abfahrt um 8:20 in Edirne, Ankunft 12:29 in İstanbul (halkalı). Wenn du online buchst, dann musst du aufpassen, dass du Istanbul mit kleinem i suchst und nicht I, weil das sind im türkischen Alphabet zwei unterschiedliche Buchstaben. ebilet.tcddtasimacilik.gov.tr/view/eybis/tnmGenel/tcddWebContent.jsf
@@felixonrails Danke für die Antwort, kann man in Edirne auch Fahrkarten am Schalter kaufen?
Eigentlich sollte es mögich sein. Das gilt als Regionalzug und es gibt eigentlich immer einen Schalter oder einen Kiosk für Fahrkarten. Aber der Zug ist immer rappelvoll ab Çerkezköy, daher würde ich lieber einen Sitzplatz vorher buchen.
@@felixonrails Okay Danke
How long does it take ??
5 Days
Und wie ging's dann wieder zurück?.
Wir sind dann 2-3 Wochen in der Türkei geblieben und anschliessend zurückgeflogen. Dieses Jahr werde ich versuchen, via Bukarest zu fahren, aber der Kurswagen Bukarest Halkalı scheint ja auf der Kippe zu stehen.
"Venezia" is Latin for city of many steps....starting with the front of the railway station.
I didn't know that, thank you!
@@felixonrails Only joking. 😀
In Bulgaria, most of the route has been modernized and the Bulgarian trains run on it at 160 km/h. I don't know why your train was moving in Bulgaria at only 80 km/h.
It was two years ago, so probably it was being in construction. Happy to hear that the situation is much better today, thank you!
What is the fare of your journey?
about 400 € per person 🫠
27:01 Well, you write fine the new name of that country which was called before in English as "Turkey"
Thanks for pointing it out 😄 Btw. Türkyie isn't a new name at all- it's the Turkish name of the country that it requested to be used in other languages as well ;)
At 23:44, this station, the same train from the outside roughly about the same time ruclips.net/video/is7ny3KeEBw/видео.html
Thanks for sharing! The special AB30 Sleeper is there, but it has different restaurant car. You can see it 27:22, when we were in Jesenice, they changed it.
Istalbul to london,tarkey istalbul to Switzerland by TRAIN ? Omg.....
Eastern europe, particularly former Yugoslavia seems to have a long way to go in terms of railways. 30kph average is simply too slow.
Yes I agree, unfortunately in some areas especially Serbia the network is in dire condition
Of course a long way to go. America and the west ruined that magnificent country and now eu boss said that the west is blooming garden and the rest are -jungle .
Ça coût combien le billets
À peu près 400 € par personne en total. 600 € pour le compartiment privatisé de l'Optima Express.
Hi how are you?Are you from ? can you give me details for booking ?
Sure! We booked the tickets
for Italy through www.trenitalia.com/en.html
for the ÖBB on www.oebb.at/en/
The Optima Express www.optimatours.de/?lang=EN
and the TCDD train to İstanbul on ebilet.tcddtasimacilik.gov.tr/view/eybis/tnmGenel/tcddWebContent.jsf
Do you need anything else?
all the best from Switzerland!
nice video! Did you claim 50% of the total fare back - as the initial delay of more than 2 hours has already occurrd on EU soil
Thanks! I considered it, but then decided that I'm glad enough that there is a service as Optima Express and I consider their efforts and hardships to be worth overlooking such a goof as a delay
09:32 Almdudler, on sait que l'Autriche n'est pas loin ;)
Eh oui, on voit tout de suite que c’est une voiture restaurant des ÖBB
Một chuyến du hành bằng xe lửa từ lausanne - Swiss đi Istanbul-Turkey ( thuyết minh tiếng Anh/ phụ đề tiếng Đức)
ruclips.net/video/Riq-v7cfgAg/видео.htmlsi=vwThxTUaSMoBuh0F
the Problem with current simplton oriental express is overpricing. I love the art'deco of reviving historical rail car. But a bizzare sum of full journey of £16800, just kill me off.
I thought EUR 4300 would be fine.
😂
Peyara peley niyo
Much quieter than our trains in the U.S.
Honestly I much rather take the Ryanair over to Turkey. Taking into account that this journey costs about $418 Euro you actually might have saved money taking a flight over thank you very much and have a great day 🤗🤗
Would prefer to fly LCC for 100 euro one way and it would take 2-3 hrs only. Such long train trip is only for those who have plenty of time and go home. No A/C and can't take proper shower for 3 days. No thank you.
BTW, your lady is pretty!~
Smart smart
Gift from Allah (ST )
Allah Bluss all Read Holy qur,an
your frend Saleem v from kerala
India.
31:58 "İstanbu Sirkeci, or wahats left of it." Please explain the logic of this sentence to me. Neither Sirkeci Station nor any of its parts were ever demolished.
Plus even you were there when this video was recorded, the restoration and recovery of the station was projected by UAB(ministry of transportation and infrastructure). The first rail welding of the now named t6 line was done just one month after this video war shared.
Have you seen the topology of the new station of Sirkeci that is currently being competed? It's a shadow compared to the station that Sirkeci used to be. The access is a single line, there are fewer tracks - and the tracks to the ferry don't even have a proper turnout track! Anyone who has a basic understanding of railway operations sees that what the ministry is rebuilding is a toy rather than a proper station. Ask anyone from TCDD.
@@felixonrails
1- Yeah T6 project is a joke. There is no need to point elephant in the room again and again.
2- BUT: Marmaray project's main focus was building and linking "the new" underground station to the main line which was accomplished 10 years ago. The rest of stations that were closed down have less passanger traffic. New T6 line will easily overcome the demand on this renovated stations.
3- Neither Sirkeci nor Haydarpaşa train stations have enough space to handle the train traffic that will be brought by the ongoing intercity or high-speed train projects, and these stations do not have any capacity expansion opportunities. Assuming that these stations are outside the existing Marmaray train line, nothing better can be done topologically, as you say.
4- The best thing that could be done in these circumstances was to add high-speed train access to key stations on the existing line, which had already done.
5- Sirkeci - Haydarpaşa WILL provide YHT access in near future. I think you do not have this info.
6- I am 28 years old and as someone who has been to Sirkeci Station nearly fifty times, I cannot see any difference other than the rail layout of the train station and the current construction site situation. I wonder how many people will notice this difference when T6 opens and the renovation of the station is completed. If you came to Sirkeci Train Station in its new state for the first time, how much would you notice it? I think not at all.
7- When you see the finished version of the station and realize that there will be no difference, will you admit that you made a mistake? I do not think so. :(
8- If you say "what's left of it", anyone who has "basic" knowledge about buildings will understand that the building was demolished which is false and shallow comment to say the least.
9- "Ask anyone from TCDD." I think you should to it rather than me. Do your research before criticising and making pretentious comments about where you went.
Sizi incittiysem üzgünüm. Bina hakkında değil tüm tren istasyonunun kullanımına dair bir yorum yaptım. Bina çok güzel ve tabii ki yıkılmamıştı. İyi günler dilerim
@@felixonrails Its ok. There is no need to apologize. I wasnt trying to be mean. Keep up the good work.
Optima express one of the worst trains in Europe .. And also you can only book Edirne-Villach and I was said if I get off in Bulgaria ..They will be looking for me with police ..As it's illegal to disembark anywhere but Edirne
It’s not the same, no dinning car and you can’t lay down to sleep
it's not the same ... than what?
this was not the reel Orient-Express!!!!
Thanks captain obvious
Bu Orient expres değil. Optima. Başlığı düzelt. Orient exprese heekes binemez, parasi olmasi bile yetmez binmek için. Referanslarinin olması lazım.
Tabii ki bu Orient ekspresi değil. Başlıkta "kendi kendine yapılan Orient Express" yazıyor değil mi? 🙃
lol EU restricted all cash as i know so why vagon-restorant & stash in wokzal was cash only such a absurd🤣😅
what the hell are you talking about?
i talking about cash restrictions in EU for example on fasfood or produkt shops there is a sticker "no cash card only"@@felixonrails
I've never seen this anywhere in Italy, Austria, or anywhere.
so than it was faking kremlebots fake... thanks for the true info@@felixonrails
No no no konstantinepolis
İSTANBUL İSTANBUL İSTANBUL
Can you please count how many times I mentioned Istanbul compared to how many times I mentioned Constantinople - and then compare the context in which I mentioned later? thanks.
Unfortunately, you missed the most beautiful Part of the Journey on the first Night, in the Optima Express. From Ljubljana to Zidani Most, through the beautiful Sava Gorge. Not your Fault. But if you miss the second Highlight that you could marvel at during the Day just because you prefer to Walk around the Train a bit at that Time, it's better not to make any Videos. Because this is so unforgivable as well as very stupid. After Nish, the breathtaking, impressive Sicevac Gorge followed immediately.
Thankfully I could take the EC Mimara this summer and enjoy the wonderful gorges between Jesenice and Ljubljana with open windows. If you watched the video, you noticed that we crossed the Sicevac gorge during the night, but thanks for the snarky comment