On our UK Education Abroad trip in May, we decided to test out a new mode of accommodation that was also transportation – 2 for the price of 1, right? – the Caledonian Sleeper Train. We took the regular train into Glasgow from Oban, grabbed a bite to eat while we walked from Queen Street Station to Glasgow Central Station, and hopped on the sleeper. It was a completely different experience right from check-in. Oh, and yes, we had to check in rather than just hop on a train car and have our tickets checked later.
Hopping on the Train
We met the lovely lady with the check-in clipboard at the gate to the platform and she checked us off her list as we filed by to find our train cars. Our group was in 4 different cars, so we made sure everyone was in the right car before we hopped on ours and tracked down our room.
We had reserved two types of rooms on the sleeper train, classic rooms and club rooms. The classic rooms were equipped with a sink and bunk beds while the club rooms had a sink, bunk beds, and a wet room with a toilet and shower. Why two different types? There was not enough of one or the other available for our large group, so we split it up. It was just luck of the draw as to where you ended up.
There were two other types of accommodations that we didn’t book, the regular upright seat (think airplane seat) and the club double rooms. These rooms were larger and had a double bed rather than bunk beds. The regular seats were a non-starter, and we couldn’t put two students in a single double bed, also there weren’t any available for us. ☹
We ended up in a club room, so we had a wet room. It was rather handy to not have to queue for the public lavatory in each car and to get a chance to rinse off in the shower. However, it was VERY tiny. Our room may have had extra space with the wet room to step into, but I could barely stand sideways in the space between the bunks and the wall. After we entered our room and managed to stash our carry-on-sized bags under the bottom bunk (do NOT try to bring a full-size bag), we didn’t even try to occupy the space again at the same time.
Settling In
We headed off to find the rumored dining car for a nightcap. It was well after 10 PM, but we were waiting for all the students to give us their breakfast order cards, so we could turn them in to the kitchen. It took ages to find a seat and place a drink order, and they seemed to have run out of food in a hurry. We were glad we told everyone to eat before getting on the train. I didn’t stay in the dining car long and decided to head back to our room on my own to get a shower while only one person was in the tiny space.
To use the shower, you simply lowered the bench lid on the toilet and closed the door into the rest of the room, making the wet room waterproof. The shower ran for roughly 10 seconds at a time, so you had to be quick about sudsing up and rinsing off. There was no chance my thick heavy hair could have been washed in the meager stream, but it was enough to rinse the travel day off. I had climbed up to the top bunk to get out of the way by the time Jason came back to the room a bit later to get ready for bed.
I had high hopes for a good, long, restful sleep on the sleeper train since I so easily fall asleep in cars. It was not to be. I don’t know if it was because I chose the top bunk or the stop-and-go speed of the train, but I didn’t sleep a wink. I spent the entire night wondering if I was about to fly off the not-particularly-comfortable top bunk every time we came into a station, which seemed to be about every 20 minutes. It was a rough ride. Oh, and I was too tall for the bed at 5’ 7”. Fortunately, it seems that almost all of the students got a great night’s sleep, enjoying being rocked to sleep by the movement of the train. Lucky them.
We were scheduled to arrive at Euston Station in north London at 7 am, but we did not arrive until 8 am. I’m glad no one fell back asleep waiting to get off the train. Once we finally pulled into the station and had everyone accounted for from the four train cars, we started off to the London Underground for the next leg of our adventure.
What Did We Think?
Am I glad we took the Caledonian Sleeper? Yes. I had long romanticized the idea of sleeping in a cabin on a train. And while there wasn’t much sleeping going on in our room, plenty of others got a full night of sleep and were ready to take on the day the next morning.
I also liked that we covered ground while we were sleeping. We went to sleep in Glasgow (well, Edinburgh for us that went to the dining car first) and woke up in London. One of the hard parts of a Study Away trip is making sure you fit in as much in as possible, but don’t lose entire days to travel. Could we take out travel days and stay in one place? Sure, but we look at these trips as possibly the only opportunity a student may have to travel in their life, so we try to make the most of it. In this instance, our “hotel” was also a mode of transportation for the night, so didn’t lose precious daylight hours to travel.
While I didn’t love that we didn’t sleep and that the rooms were so tiny it was literally difficult to turn around, I do think it was a neat experience and I think we would do it again (the students all raved about the experience, even if they were packed in like sardines). The comradery in the dining car after a long day of exploring and traveling was a fun experience. Having a chance to shower and have our own toilet was wonderful and I would definitely splurge a little on the club room over the classic room again. Is the double room worth it? Hard to say. There is probably just as little room to move about and the double bed is probably not quite big enough for two people to sleep comfortably, but maybe we should try it next time to see.
