Night train from Košice to Bratislava: my red-hot photo report

I’d recommend the night train from Košice to Bratislava: it pleasantly surprised me. The carriage was clean and warm, with refreshments and a friendly attendant. By morning I was in Bratislava, rested and ready for the day. If you don’t want to lose a day on the train or spend a night in Košice, it’s a practical choice.

Quick factsby Milan Bez Mapy

My verdict

Clean, quiet and warm, the best sleeper carriage I’ve ever taken on a night train

Why the night train

You save a whole day of travelling; I left Košice in the evening and woke up in Bratislava

Stop in Žilina

The train stood locked in Žilina for over four hours so it wouldn’t reach Bratislava in the middle of the night; I slept through it

Included in the price

A croissant and mineral water in the compartment; in the morning a towel, soap and a price list for breakfast and drinks

Watch out for

A short bed (I’m 180 cm), no Wi-Fi and a dated bathroom

My tip

The cabinet light stays on while your phone charges; I pushed the sensor in with a scrap of paper and the light went out

I wrote this article in 2019. Prices, opening hours and connections may have changed since then, so check them before you travel.

The night train from Košice to Bratislava always sounded like a horror film to me. Our trains in Slovakia are dreadful enough as it is, so who would take the overnight sleeper to Bratislava and run that risk? Surely it had to be even worse.

Night train from Košice to Bratislava: photos of the compartment

But sometimes the exception proves the rule. This night train journey from Košice to Bratislava turned out to be seriously HOT. I had a work meeting in Košice, but a packed schedule back home in Bratislava. Flying seemed expensive: a return ticket came to €180, and by the time I wrote this, Czech Airlines (ČSA) had cancelled the route anyway. And I simply had no time to stay the night in Košice. If I’d left the next morning, I’d have wasted a whole day on the train. And I still had to pack for India, where I was flying a few days later.

I didn’t want that, so I weighed up the alternatives and in the end settled on the overnight sleeper train from Košice to Bratislava. Slovak railways have a red-hot reputation at the moment (or have they always had one?). So I could have guessed this journey would be hot in every sense. To pass the time, I put together this photo report, but it all went off without any trains on fire. Maybe next time. Shame. Just kidding. I’m not. Or am I?

I’m an old hand at night trains. I’ve tried all sorts around the world: in neighbouring Ukraine, right across Azerbaijan, and I considered one in India too. There, though, the plane won, because Indian trains are Indian trains. In general I don’t mind travelling by train overnight as long as two conditions are met: nobody snores, and it’s neither too hot nor too cold. Besides, the clickety-clack of the wheels on the rails has always sent me nicely to sleep. More than once I’ve woken up hundreds of kilometres from where I nodded off.

Night trains in Slovakia

I won’t go into the quality of Ukrainian and Azerbaijani trains, but that’s partly why I was nervous about taking the night train from Košice to Bratislava. What would it be like? Let’s be honest: ever since RegioJet was pushed off this route, the trains have been a disgrace. Then again, RegioJet didn’t run night trains. So at 22:07 I found myself on the platform in Košice, where my overnight sleeper, the EN 442 Slovakia, was leaving for my home town of Bratislava. This is my night train from Košice to Bratislava.

Travelling across Slovakia by sleeper train

I was ready for anything, so before the trip I had a few drinks with a friend and we gossiped about (not) just a few people. I’ve written a separate article about my visit to Košice, with a tip for a good wine bar and one for a bar too. Have a read: what to see in Košice. My worry was that I’d share the compartment with some snoring, sweaty stranger and not sleep a wink all night. In that case I might as well have taken an ordinary train and at least got some work done on my laptop.

To my surprise, I hand my ticket to the attendant, who wouldn’t let me on without it. It’s a safety rule that applies all over the world. He shows me where the bathroom is (now I know why he didn’t open the door at the time) and which door is my compartment. That’s it. Simple as that. So far the inside of the train looks normal. The corridor’s fine, and the attendant is nice and doesn’t want to kill me (that would make a good plot for a new American horror film about Slovakia). It even smells quite pleasant. I slowly open the door to the compartment and put on the kind of face that says:

‘Good evening and good night. I’m not in the mood for chatting. No farting and no snoring. Over.’

Bloody hell. So far I’m on my own. At least I can pick my bed, claim the charging point and quickly air the place. Now I’ll spend the whole journey worrying that someone drunk will get on. Can this door even be locked? But wait, what’s this? Refreshments and water. WTF.

The refreshments, a croissant and mineral water, are included in the ticket price. I really hadn’t expected that, and I was surprised that the whole compartment was clean, smelled nice and had a comfortable bed. Had I really got our railways so badly wrong? Then again, I still hadn’t seen the bathroom and shower.

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Košice to Bratislava night train: my two-bed compartment, the bathroom, price and refreshments

So I lay down in bed, content and a little worse for wear after the evening out. That’s when I discovered the first drawback of taking the night train from Košice to Bratislava. At first I couldn’t find the socket by the mirror, and my phone was almost dead.

So I asked my followers on Instagram (@milan_bezmapy), and they told me it was definitely there. I looked again, and there it was. The problem is that when the little door is open, a light comes on. I wanted to leave my phone charging all night, but I couldn’t sleep with the light on. A scrap of paper solved it: I used it to push the light sensor in, and the light went out. Good night. It looks like my two-bed compartment will be all mine for the rest of the journey, and before I forget: there’s no Wi-Fi.

On the way I had a laugh at my photo from Levoča taken earlier that year, and I still wonder why it never made the cover of a fashion magazine:

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Two-bed compartment and Wi-Fi

You can book a bigger compartment too, but I decided to risk a two-bed compartment. A friend of mine does this trip regularly and always books a single compartment, which comes to about €45 one way. The double looks like this:

Košice to Bratislava sleeper train: price, compartments, beds and journey time

I no longer remember the exact price of the night sleeper from Košice to Bratislava, but I know it was no more than €30 per person one way. In the morning the attendant, or conductor, or whatever you’re supposed to call him, even came to wake me up. I got a towel, soap and a price list of extras I could buy. Mainly breakfast, a ‘food parcel’ (I wouldn’t buy that one for the name alone), beer, tea, coffee and the usual morning basics.

When I travelled, the train left Košice at 22:07 and was due to arrive in Bratislava at 7:47. It stood in Žilina for more than four hours, locked, while everyone slept. That’s because the night train journey from Košice to Bratislava isn’t actually that long, and who’d want a train that arrives in Bratislava at three in the morning? So they built in this artificial stop, and the train reached Bratislava, my home, before eight, when the city was already up and running. Today (2026) the R 680 Zemplín night fast train runs from Košice to Bratislava. It leaves Košice at 23:45 and gets into Bratislava at 5:40 in the morning, with no long stop in Žilina.

I didn’t escape a visit to the bathroom either, and this time I took a good close look. It’s still not the worst thing I’ve ever seen, but 1985 called: they want their bathroom back, and the shower head too. That was the last time anyone turned the shower on. Not to be a total bitch about it, though: the bathroom didn’t reek of urine. Then again, it didn’t smell of violets either. On that score, the night train from Košice to Bratislava did itself proud.

What did I like about the overnight sleeper from Košice to Bratislava?

• The train was bang on time: we left Košice precisely when we were supposed to, and in the morning I woke up in Bratislava as the ticket promised. I slept through the regular four-hour stop in Žilina.
• The sleeper carriage was the best I’ve ever travelled in on a night train anywhere in the world.
• It was clean, it smelled nice, it was quiet, and the attendant was polite and sober.
• I got refreshments and water.
• Even though it was a winter month, it was lovely and warm in the carriage. And not because of a burning locomotive. At least I don’t think so.

What didn’t I like?

• The bed was too short for me. I’m 180 cm, which is probably a pretty average height for a Slovak.
• If I wanted to use the socket, the cabinet couldn’t be closed and lit up the whole compartment. But like a true Slovak, I found a way to cheat the system and stuck a scrap of paper in there. The light went out and my phone carried on charging.
• There was no Wi-Fi. Not that I needed it much, since I was asleep.
• They should have shunted the bathroom off to a siding somewhere in Uzhhorod. I’d rather have peed out of the window. It’s a night train from Košice to Bratislava; nobody would have noticed.

The good news is that I found a relatively fast, cheap and decent way of getting from Košice to Bratislava by night train. I really want to believe that the clean, decent carriage I happened to get wasn’t just a happy one-off. I wouldn’t be afraid to travel around Slovakia like this on my own, and whenever the chance comes up, I’ll happily do it again. It saves me a whole day of travelling from Košice, and I wake up in Bratislava. Night trains might just be my favourite.

How to get from Košice to Bratislava by night train

Our railways have a terrible reputation. On several train journeys I’ve wondered myself whether it was all some twisted social experiment by Nika Vujisić or whether they were serious. After this trip, though, they’ve gone up in my estimation.

Nothing caught fire, and it was nice and warm in the carriage. It was clean, there were refreshments and the attendant was friendly. I really did sleep well, and at eight in the morning I was ready to get on with my day in Bratislava. I recommend the night train from Košice to Bratislava.