Nous avons pris ce train deux fois , en 2015 et 2017...
Nous n'avons accès qu'en première classe pour la réservation.
En 2015, c'était encore un vieux wagon. Fun, mais toilettes inaccessibles....
En 2017, ce wagon a été remplacé par une motrice suisse. On voit encore les panneaux et beaucoup d'accessoires. Bien sur, le moteur a été enlevé. Les toilettes étaient correctes, malgré un peu d'odeurs. Je ne sais pas ce qu'il en est aujourd'hui.
L'usage est d'aller dans la nature à l'un des 17 arrêts.
N'oubliez pas que le train peut arriver tard, voire très tard et qu'il n'y a pas de lumière dans les wagons.
Si tu prends des places en première classe, ça ira à peu près. Par contre, si tu prenais des places en deuxième classe comme nous l'avons fait il y a quelques années car toutes les places étaient prises en première classe, là c'est autre chose. Déjà, il faut pouvoir bouger.
Ceci dit, il y a des arrêts fréquents mais il faudra trouver des toilettes en état correct et ce n'est pas gagné non plus.
Bon voyage là-bas. Pays terrible mais magnifique malgré tout à moins que ce soit l'inverse.😉
Voyagez, voyagez, il en restera toujours quelque chose!
Bonjour ,
Nous avions pris le train FCE de Fianarantsoa à Manakara en octobre 2019 et en première classe , pour les toilettes elles ne sont pas très propres mais utilisables quand le train est en marche , en arrêt dans les gares il est préférable de ne pas trop les utiliser car l'évacuation est directe sur les voies !
Bon voyage .
Bonjour
Il est tres difficile et peu indicatif de donner un horaire d arrivée car c est extrêmement variable. Les problèmes sont fréquents, cela se joue souvent lorsque les pluies sont de la partie car la voie peut etre emportée ou juste parce qu'il y a un déraillement (rassurez vous, à la vitesse ou le train va, c est pas comme les attaques de bandits dans le Far West, mais par contre pour remettre le train sur les rails ca prend un moment).
Les pbs ont plus généralement lieu dans la première partie du voyage et la descente de la falaise. Les retards peuvent aussi etre du a des chargements déchargements plus longs que prévu car le role essentiel du train est d ecouler les produits de la zone (en pleine période de récolte, bien entendu ca prend plus longtemps).
Néanmoins gardez en tete qu il est tres fréquent que le train n arrive que tard le soir voire tard dans la nuit. Au delà, c est plus rare mais ca arrive aussi (déjà bloqué 36 heures à Tolongoina, le temps d'une réparation, pas grave car c est là que je devais aller et j ai pris plus de temps pour le tourisme sur place).
La fois ou je suis arrivé le plus tot devait etre qq chose vers 17h a Manakara.
bref en y allant, il ne faut surtt pas etre pressé ni etre impatient.
Bonjour
C'était bien épique ce trajet ! Nous étions partis de Fianarantsoa le mardi 15 octobre 2019 à 07h du matin , le train était à l'heure . Pour faire les 165km , 17 gares et multiples tunnels et ponts le train a mis 19h30 ( nous étions arrivés à Manakara à 01h30 du matin ! ) . Le temps ne compte plus dans ce train , chargement et déchargement des marchandises , les pannes de la loco : filtre des soupapes puis alternateur etc... J'ai appris dans ce train le mot résignation puis le mot résilience .... la population malgache malgré les difficultés de la vie courante garde le sourire la plupart du temps ...comme disait notre guide c'est 'le train de la vie" . Je vous souhaite un beau voyage à Madagascar , beau pays et population très attachante .
Quelle est la partie du trajet la plus belle au depart de Manakara ou Fiana? Je compte faire une escale de plusieurs jours pour éviter faire tout le trajet.
Bonjour
Il vaut mieux partir de Fianar que Manakara pour au moins 2 raisons :
1- la partie la plus belle se situe grosso modo pas loin après le départ de Fianarantsoa jusqu aux stations de Tolongoina/Manampatrana.
C est dans cette partie que le train descend ce qu'on appelle la falaise. Si on part de Manakara, on a de fortes chances de n y rien voir car il fera nuit.
2- la remontée est plus longue que la descente. Généralement. Et donc risque d arriver encore plus tard.
J ai indiqué où se situe la partie la plus belle. Pour en profiter au max, il faut choisir les sièges à gauche du train si on vient de Fianar.
Si vous le sentez, je pense que Tolongoina est une belle étape pour s arreter. Pour plusieurs aspects : l endroit est magnifique. On est dans le pays tanala et autour des plantations de café, de bananes, des arbres à litchis, des épices… Il y a une tres belle chute d eau pas bien loin pour une ballade a pied sympa. Il y avait des options de logement (tres tres basiques, on est vraiment en brousse).
Enfin si on le sent encore et si on trouve le bon guide, on peut se rendre de Tolongoina à Manampatrana (la gare suivante) apres une petite rando puis en prenant une barge a café jusqu a destination.
Et last but not least, en cas de gros probleme du train, on peut revenir de Tolongoina aux hauts plateaux (Alakamisy Itenina) par les chemins des "contrebandiers". Il suffit de trouver un guide la encore et ca faite un belle rando. Longue et physique mais faisable.
On peut aussi, si pas en pleine saison de pluies, prendre la piste pour retrouver le goudron à Ifanadiana (qui n est pas loin de Ranomafana par la route).
Bref si vous avez envie de tenter cela, je ne peux que vous conseiller d essayer de voir Didier au restaurant l'ancre d'or. Outre qu'il organise des baptêmes en parapente vers Ambalavao, il connait extrêmement bien la zone de Tolongoina puisqu'il y a vécu un temps. Il pourra vous conseiller si faisable ou pas et éventuellement vous mettre en contact avec des gens. Les choses changeant vite à Mada, il vaut mieux avoir des infos de première bourre. Ce que je pourrai vous indiquer en termes de contact, sauf Didier que j ai vu il y a 1 an et demi, date de bien trop longtemps.
Tout d abbord merci pour votre aide qui est précieuse.
Je vais prendre le train de Fiana jusque Tolongoina où je ferais un stop.Ensuite j essaierai de trouver un taxi brousse pour le parc Ranomafana et la remonter vers Antsirabe.
Oui, c est une possibilité. Taxi brousse, camion de transport, particulier qui veut aller a Ifanadiana... Vous trouverez surement une option. Cependant à s assurer avant que la piste est praticable.
Bonjour
Vraiment impossible à dire car cela dépendra de l etat de la piste et du type de transport que vous trouverez (taxi brousse, camion, voiture privée…). Et pour les taxi brousse sur les pistes secondaires, les temps peuvent varier extrêmement fortement. Mais en général c est assez long : temps de chargement, pauses le long de la route pour prendre ou déposer des passagers...
Dans ce cas je reprendrai le train le lendemain pour Fiana pour éviter les surprises.
Je suppose j ai assez de temps pour visiter un peu Tolongoina entre les 2 trains?
Normalement cela donne le temps de faire la ballade a la chute d eau.
Et se rassurer qu'il y aura bien un train le lendemain.
Mais comme je disais, je vous conseille de prendre des infos avec Didier si vous voulez faire cet arret. Ou avec tte autre personne qui peut bien vous informer avec des données récentes.
Chaque fois que je me suis arreté à Tolongoina, je savais que je pouvais y passer du temps. J etais pret a qq galere et je n avais pas de programme bien minuté. Sinon mieux vaut aller jusqu a Manakara.
Bonjour je souhaite faire des étapes en France mon point de départ est Reims partir en train utilisé les inter cité. Découvrir les paysages villages pittoresque faire des halte pouvez vous me donner des informations merci.
I’m planning our very first trip to mainland France in January 2027. There’ll be 2 adults and 2 kids, and we’ll mostly be traveling by train.
Here’s our itinerary:
Paris
Rouen (Normandy)
Lyon
Aix-les-Bains (with day trips to Annecy and Geneva)
Saint-Gervais-les-Bains (with Chamonix and a day in Aosta)
Back to Paris
Do you think this itinerary is well-balanced? Any tips, must-see spots, or mistakes to avoid for a first-time visit?
I can’t seem to complete the payment for my trip on the IRCTC (Indian Railways) site. No matter which payment method I choose, my Visa card isn’t accepted.
Has anyone here managed to do it, and if so, could you share the method you used?
Thanks in advance!
Charlie
I’m planning a family trip in a year. Our goal: traveling to China (and maybe Hong Kong) by train.
I’m all set with the route up to eastern Turkey.
However, I’m just starting my research for the rest of the journey—namely the Caucasus (no trains as far as I know, so buses and/or ferries), then Central Asia and China.
So, I’d love to hear any info or tips (general and forward-looking at this stage) about the train route through Central Asia and China to reach the east coast.
I’m particularly interested in details on:
- How far in advance to book / any potential difficulties with reservations
- Whether there are PASS systems (or equivalent) between countries and/or if some tickets allow stopovers, meaning you can hop on and off as you please
- Day trains vs. night trains (the latter option lets you explore cities between two legs of the journey)
- A rough idea of ticket costs
...
A huge thank you to anyone who can share some info or experiences. It’s also a great opportunity to chat about adventure after (way too) many years away from this forum.
I’m planning a trip around Italy using only trains or public transport in October (hoping the weather stays nice!).
I’d obviously like to see some tourist destinations, but I also want to get off the beaten path a bit, and I’m hoping to find some help here? I don’t plan to linger too long in the cities.
Starting in the north, I’d like to visit Lake Como or Lake Orta, pass through the Cinque Terre for some hiking, spend a few days in Naples and Rome, then head down to Sicily.
Hi there,
I’ll be traveling to Japan this coming August. We’ve finalized our itinerary and booked our flight tickets. Now I’m at the stage of buying train tickets for the few segments we’ll need to cover:
Tokyo - Hakone
Hakone - Kyoto
Kyoto - Osaka
Osaka - Tokyo
Here are my questions:
a) Is it possible to buy train tickets for these segments from Canada?
b) If so, which website should I use to do this?
c) And if it is possible, will we be able to print our tickets from Canada?
d) If it’s not possible, where in Tokyo should I go to buy these tickets when I arrive?
Hi everyone, I wanted to take the Paris-Berlin overnight train with a sleeper berth, the new service operated by European Sleepers.
24/05/2026 17:45 Paris-Nord (actually 16:00 from Paris Bercy Seine) -> 25/05/2026 9:59 (actually 7:30 in Berlin)
05/06/2026 18:31 Berlin (actually 20:00) -> 06/06/2026 10:00 Paris Nord (actually 12:30)
Part of the journey was operated by bus instead of the promised overnight train.
For 2 people: 340 € round trip
A total disaster. Never again. I was really looking forward to taking the overnight train, but we faced last-minute changes and truly unpleasant travel conditions. Here are the details:
1) 2 days before departure: email announcing a change of departure station for the outbound trip—Bercy Seine bus station instead of Gare du Nord.
2) Change of schedule: 4:00 PM from Bercy instead of 5:45 PM from Gare du Nord.
3) Change of transport mode!! A bus from Paris to Brussels, then an overnight train from Brussels to Berlin. No functional toilets on the bus. No children under 4 allowed on the bus.
4) On the sleeper train at 9:30 PM: no functional toilets in our carriage, so we had to go to other carriages, even in the middle of the night, to find working ones.
5) The onboard staff, though very friendly, were as lost as we were. In particular, they didn’t know how to handle the lower berths, so people using them had less space (armrests and backrests). Berth numbers weren’t respected, so some passengers had to move. The staff also didn’t know who was supposed to join the compartment during the journey.
6) Arrival at 7:30 AM in Berlin instead of 10:00 AM. No arrival announcement. Passengers had to search for staff to get breakfast and ended up with just a coffee (breakfast = 15 €, not bad for just a coffee).
7) Return trip: drastic schedule change announced by email on 26/05/2026—departure at 7:30 PM instead of 6:30 PM, with arrival between 12:00 PM and 1:00 PM in Paris instead of 10:00 AM. No change in transport mode announced.
8) Change in transport mode announced by email on the same day (05/06/2026)!! Overnight train from Brussels to Berlin, then a bus from Paris to Brussels. No functional toilets on the bus. Children under 4 banned from the bus, and families in this situation were asked to find another way—after being notified the same day.
9) The overnight train arrived at Berlin station with a 30-minute delay on top of its initial delay (scheduled for 6:31 PM, then 7:30 PM, finally arriving at 8:00 PM). The heating was blasting in the compartment with no way to turn it off. No functional toilets in the carriage. From that point on, customer service stopped responding to my messages.
10) Woken up at 5:00 AM with an announcement in all carriages about arrival in Liège.
11) Woken up again at 6:00 AM to be told we’d arrive in Brussels at 7:00 AM.
12) Arrival in Brussels at 7:00 AM and a one-hour wait for the bus to Paris. No functional toilets on the bus.
13) Arrival at Paris Nord at 12:30 PM, so 2.5 hours late compared to the originally scheduled time.
14) The overnight trains used are very old—I recognized the carriages from 20 years ago!! No functional power outlets, no Wi-Fi, no air conditioning. Five people per compartment is a bit cramped, but I consider these conditions expected (especially the air conditioning), so I’m not complaining about that. There’s already plenty to gripe about with the travel conditions.
I have little hope of getting even a partial refund. Customer service emails acknowledge the discomfort but only offer to reimburse the cost of a coffee on board if we send them the receipt... a bit weak.
I’m sharing this experience in the hope it might help others.
Hi there,
I’d like to take the Train of the Clouds from Lima to Huancayo.
I’ve heard it only runs during certain periods.
Does anyone have info on this?
Thanks!
HuancayoHuancayo
As part of my professional thesis, I’m conducting a study on the evolution of long-distance rail transport in France, particularly since it opened up to competition.
I’ve put together a very quick (about 5-minute) and completely anonymous questionnaire. Your answers will help me better understand users' expectations regarding pricing, frequency, and environmental impact.
We’re planning a 15-day trip to Uzbekistan in March—classic independent itinerary: Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva. We’d like to take the train between each city, but I don’t want to lock down the whole trip before we leave.
So, my question is: is it absolutely necessary to book train tickets before departure, whether for the high-speed trains or the regional ones? Is booking really essential for the regional trains?
Hello,
We’re traveling as a family with two boys aged 10 and 12 to Cairo in February. During our trip, we’re planning to take an overnight train (with or without a sleeper) for the Cairo-Aswan route.
Do you know how I can book this remotely?
Also, I’m looking for:
- A local contact to sail the Nile by felucca for 3 days from Aswan
- A contact to guide us in Cairo
Looking forward to your tips, and thanks in advance!
Marie
Hi everyone,
I first traveled solo to Japan in 2019, exploring the Kyushu region (28 days), and I’m planning to return with my daughter (she’s an adult and it’ll be her first time in Asia) from April 25 to May 9.
I’m reaching out on this forum to ask for route ideas—this time north of Tokyo, but without heading to the Sapporo island (I’m saving that for a future trip).
I’d love to take advantage of the cherry blossom season and its festivities.
I’m looking to create a route that’s a little off the beaten path while staying within 5-6 hours by train from Tokyo to avoid spending too much time on transfers.
Thanks in advance for sharing your suggestions and experiences!
Michael
I'm heading to MEXICO IN NOVEMBER 2025. Since private guides and drivers are really expensive—over 300 € per day—I'm thinking of exploring the Yucatán by train. CAN YOU SHARE ANY INFO ON THIS? Thanks
Hi there!
We’re planning to visit Serbia (1 week) and then Montenegro (2nd week) with our kids from April 18 to May 4. We’d prefer to travel by train (overnight if possible), but we’re not sure which platform to book on or when to do it (is it too early?). If anyone has any tips, I’m all ears!!
I wanted to know if it’s possible to go from Tashkent to Almaty by train without passing through Kyrgyzstan. I’ve heard the border is often closed 😕 between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
Thanks in advance!
Olivier
Hi there!
We’re planning to head back to Istanbul next year—obviously by plane—and then take the train from Istanbul to Antalya. Has anyone here already made this trip by train with TCDD?
I’d love any tips or info that could be useful for us!
I'd like to go to Montserrat on my own from Barcelona. Share your suggestions with me.
Which train should I take, where to get off, what to see once I arrive, etc.
I need to take a sleeper train from Bangkok to Vientiane in January.
I found some ticket options on 12Go Asia, but booking doesn’t seem possible at the moment. I’ve tried simulations for several dates, but no luck.
I’m wondering if it’s already fully booked, if they’ve stopped selling tickets… yet 12Go still features it every day 😕
Has anyone else run into this issue?
Can I find tickets on another site? (I tried Baolau, but no sleepers left for January 8th.)
Hi there,
I’m a bit late to be worrying about this, but hopefully someone can help me before I leave.
Tomorrow afternoon, I arrive at Lyon Part-Dieu on the TGV at 5:50 PM and take the TER to Mâcon at 6:16 PM. Is a 26-minute transfer doable? Are the TGV and TER on the same departure board? And are they on the same platforms too?
I’ve been to Lyon before but never had to make a connection after arriving.
Thanks
Starting November 15th, I’ll be arriving in Thailand, and during my stay, I plan to visit the north, around the Chiang Mai area, then head south to the Krabi region.
After Krabi, I’m planning to take an overnight train to Bangkok. I was wondering if there’s a train that leaves from Krabi or Trang, or if I absolutely have to go to Surat Thani?
Also, which official website can I use to book my ticket?
Next, since I’ll be arriving at dawn in Bangkok, I’ve planned to spend 2 days in Kanchanaburi. What’s the most convenient way to get there—bus or train? And if you know any companies or websites, that’d be great.
Hi there,
Does anyone know if there’s a bus from Luang Namtha to Boten to catch the train coming from China to Vientiane? If so, what’s the name of the company? Also, how long does the bus take to cover that distance? What’s the condition of the road like?
Thanks for your help!
Tom
I just realized there’s only one payment method accepted for booking the Mombasa-Nairobi express train ticket online: M-Pesa, a mobile money transfer service used in Africa. Would it be impossible to book as a European?
I’d love to know if any of you have recently eaten on the overnight train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai.
We’ve always ordered food on the train, and it was really good (and super convenient).
But in 2022, we ended up feeling like total idiots (with our 4-year-old daughter...) when we boarded the train only to find out that this service was no longer available... (It was the first time we’d traveled right after COVID.)
That’s also when we saw once again how kind Thai people are—they all offered to share their food with us, even though we were mortified. In the end, we managed to buy some instant noodles, which was better than nothing. Anyway, that’s the little story behind it.
In the following years, we’ve always brought our own meals.
I’ve read online that meal trays are back in service (could you confirm this, please?), but that the quality is really poor. I’ve also seen multiple reports that, even though you can eat well everywhere in Thailand, the train meal was the worst food travelers had during their trip...
Could you give me a recent opinion on this?
We’ll be departing from Krung Thep Aphiwat Central Station—do you know if there’s anywhere to buy a meal there before boarding the train?
Thanks so much for your help,
and have a great Sunday!
We’re heading to Thailand in February 2026 and we’d like to take the overnight train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. Can we book two first-class tickets? I’m only seeing second-class options.
Hi everyone,
For traveling in Rajasthan by train and bus, could you give me some info: where to buy tickets, cost, purchase locations, websites, etc.?
Any tips you have would be super helpful.
Thanks
We’re traveling to Java on October 23, just the two of us.
I’ve read that it’s best to book train tickets in advance on tiket.com.
Is that true, and how far ahead do you recommend?
Are the tickets changeable?
Hi everyone,
I’m planning to travel from Ulaanbaatar to Irkutsk by train this summer but I’m a bit worried about crossing the borders. How does it work? Could anyone share their experience? (I’ve found quite a few accounts of people going *from* Russia *to* Mongolia, but entering a country is never the same as leaving it—especially in this context!)