Sleeper Train from Budapest to Bucharest

Summary
highlights

#1 Seeing the breathtaking scenery as you pass through the Transylvanian Alps

#2 Train Stations - love them. Especially big Eastern European Grand ones. Way better than airports!

#3 Just the general old-school adventure of travelling this way
Travel Tips
- You’ve actually got 4 options for the train between Bucharest and Budapest. #1 A non sleeper train leaving 0645 and taking the route through the south / east of Romania; #2, #3 and #4 are sleeper trains leaving 1510, 1851 and 2310 and which go through the centre (Transylvania) of Romania and the most impressive mountains
- The route takes 17 hours but expect it to be late (mine was around an hour late)
- The highlights from a view perspective are once you enter Romania and in particular the section towards the end between Brasov and Ploiesti, which is where the train passes the Transylvanian Alps. So, from a choice of trains perspective, it makes sense to get one of the evening trains as you’ll maximise the time the most impressive section in Romania
- They don’t seem to advertise for it, but you can easily get off at the various stations in Transylvania. Brasov being the obvious one, and only 2 hours or so from the final stop of Bucharest. Whether you only pay to Brasov or simply just jump off, you’d need to check but 100% you can get off. In fact, the route has 16 stops each of which has people coming and going
- Keleti Station – the train in Budapest leaves from the Keleti train station which has a bunch of sandwich and fruit stops to stock up on for the journey
- You can buy tickets at the train station (easiest) or can do online but it was quite fiddly
- Cabin – I decided to be a princess and go for a private cabin (€150), but all the cabins looked to be roughly the same at 4 ft by 6 feet. Some things to be aware of for the journey:
- There will be one plug socket which is for the electric razor but seems to work fine
- Anyone over 6ft 1 or 2ish / 185cm may struggle to stretch out fully and the duvets can be a bit short
- Chances are you won’t have that good a night’s sleep because the train stops quite a lot and there are no blinds for the windows (so bring eye mask and ear plugs)
- Bring extra toilet paper because the stuff they provide in the bathroom is more serviette style and seems to run out very quickly!
- There is no food provided on the train so bring some
- You can lock the door from the inside but not from the outside (i.e. if you go to the bathroom you’ll leave the door unlocked unless you have someone else in the cabin)
Give it a go. Good fun
Experiences nearby

The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences
Score Detail
Background - how many times have you asked someone what a travel experience was like and the response was "amazing" or "awesome"? That response is nice to know, but it makes it hard to differentiate that experience compared to others. That is exactly what these scores are trying to do - differentiate the experience by giving a score out of 10 based on 6 categories and then giving an overall experience score
This overall experience score is calculated by: take the highest of the "Culture" or "Nature" score (1-10) + "Fun factor" (1-10) + "Avoiding the crowds" (1-10) + highest of the "Unique" or "World Famous score" (1-10). Then convert into a score out of 100
Extra detail - the logic being that I find all of the 6 individual scores important, but I don't want to mark an experience down just because it doesn't cover both "Culture" and "Nature", or because it isn't both "World Famous" and "Unique". Take the examples of Safari in The Serengeti and walking through Rome - they both appeal at opposite ends of the nature / culture spectrum, and you can have a fantastic time without needing to appeal to both sides. So, their overall scores aren't penalized for their lack of one or the other, and I've done the same for "World Famous" vs "Unique". But . . . I do think that the "Fun factor" of an experience is important, irrelevant of other factors, and so is "Avoiding the Crowds" (or where there are crowds that add to the experience). So, both of these scores are standalone