Travelling from Basel to Amsterdam by night train

nightride.com, our comparison platform for night trains and night buses, is born in Switzerland: All three founding members, Timo, Fabian and I, grew up in a small Swiss town near Bern. 

And even at an older age, only Timo has managed to (somewhat) detach himself from our hometown and now lives in Haarlem, a city near Amsterdam.

To stock up on Timo's emergency supply of raclette, Niklaus, a former school friend of ours, and I visit him in the Netherlands. As it's already too cold to go cycling—our usual activity when we see each other—Niklaus and I take the night train from Basel to Amsterdam.

It's also a trip down memory lane: Timo, Niklaus and I travelled through Europe on Interrail almost 20 years ago after graduating from school. Amsterdam was our last stop before travelling back to Switzerland.

Buying the tickets and journey to Basel

Fortunately, there is a direct night train from Basel to Amsterdam, operated by ÖBB/NightJet. Departure from Basel is always at 23:13, arrival in Amsterdam at roughly 09:30 - about that more later.

As we decide to make the journey at quite short notice, the beds in the sleeping car would have been relatively expensive. We therefore book two seats in the 6-berth couchette compartment. We pay a total of CHF 140 for this.

Compare the best night train offers to Amsterdam

If we had taken an overnight train during the week, it would have been cheaper. However, Niklaus is a doctor and not very flexible because of his hospital shift schedule.

Meeting in Basel and departure

As Niklaus lives in Biel and I live in Solothurn, we travel to Basel separately. We meet at 9 p.m. and have a Pokébowl together at L’Atelier, my favourite restaurant in Basel, around 500 metres from the train station. Luckily for me, one of the staff recognises me from my time in Basel and I get an extra portion:)

With a full stomach, we head back to the station at 10.45pm and look for our train on the departure board. Night trains seem to like me: Everything runs smoothly, we settle into our compartment for the night and depart on time.

Falling asleep can wait

Maybe it's the ice cream, but we're both still too awake to sleep. We reminisce about our Interrail journey 20 years ago. It took us from France (our French was still good right after graduating from school) to the Spanish border (just so we were there), via Belgium (beer...) to Amsterdam (my memories of there are slightly blurred🙃).

In Freiburg, the rest of our fellow travellers board the train. Time to brush our teeth and get ready for bed.

The night

The night is unspectacular, I sleep well. As the night train arrives in Amsterdam just before 10am, we can sleep in. Breakfast is served at 8.30am.

I have a brief moment of shock when the fellow traveller in the berth above me tries to get out. The berth bends a lot in one corner as the fellow traveller hasn't unfolded it correctly. Note: In the older NightJet couchettes, please make sure that the latches at the head AND foot ends are folded out!

Arrival

All our fellow travellers get off the train in Utrecht: According to the timetable, it's quicker to get to Amsterdam if you change to the express train in Utrecht.

So Niklaus and I enjoy the peace and quiet over the last few kilometres. For the other travellers, it wasn't worth switching to the express train: the night train arrives in Amsterdam 40 minutes early. NightJet has probably built in a buffer to compensate for any delays.

We are briefly confused when changing to the regional train from Amsterdam to Haarlem: instead of buying a ticket, we have to ‘check in’ with a credit card at a barrier.

For this to work, we have to check out with the international ticket and then check in again with the credit card. Thanks to the competent support of a railway employee, we manage this.

We meet Timo in Haarlem and enjoy three days of excellent hospitality and delicious food. My tips: Near Haarlem, Berg Vis for delicious fish dishes and in Amsterdam, Wanica Exotic for Surinamese food.