Turkish Train Sleeping Cars, Turkey

Turkish sleeping car trains are great fun, and a real bargain.

Each compartment in a Turkish State Railways (TCDD) sleeping car (yatakli vagon) converts to sleep two or three people (depending on the car).

Each compartment is carpeted and has a sink with running hot and cold water for washing face and hands, a tiny towel and bar of soap, mirror, clothes hangers, luggage rack, small cabinet, window to the outside (with roll-up blind and thick velvet light-blocking curtain), heating, fan or air conditioning, ash tray, and a waste receptacle. The piped-in music system never seems to work (thank goodness).

The 220-volt low-amperage electrical outlet over the sink is designed for electric shavers. It will recharge your mobile phone, camra battery or laptop computer, but it may cut off after awhile. Just unplug your device, wait a minute, and plug it in again, and it will work for awhile again.

The newer TCV2000 sleeping cars have small refrigerators for drinks and snacks in each compartment, though the minibar-sized refrigerators are not all that cold.

The berths have comfortable inner-spring mattresses, sheets, blankets and pillows. A movable ladder gives access to the upper berth.

There are toilets at each end of each sleeping car, usually a flat "elephant's feet" toilet at one end, and a raised western-style commode at the other end. The TCV2000 cars also have a tiny shower.

Sleeping car fares are inexpensive by European or North American standards: TL75 single, TL100 for two persons (taxes and service included) on the overnight Ankara Express between Istanbul and Ankara, Turkey's most expensive sleeper train (and my favorite). Meals, drinks and porter's tip are extra.

The newer sleeping cars have only two berths, the older ones may have three. A few older cars may have adjoining compartments in the middle of the car—perfect for families of four to six people; but these older cars are being phased out.

Unlike couchettes or passenger cars, sleeping compartments are private: one person, a couple, or three people rent the entire compartment, assuring privacy.

Each sleeping car has its own porter who makes the beds in the evening, converts them to seats in the morning, brings drinks and snacks to passengers in the compartments, announces meal times, and generally sees to passengers' comfort and welfare.

Sleeping compartments can be locked from the inside by their occupants, but only the porter can lock a compartment from the corridor.

A sleeping compartment berth isn't as long or wide as a regular bed, but is fairly comfortable unless you're over six feet (183 cm) tall or particularly wide. However, I find that the porter's way of making the bed—with both the top and bottom sheet, and even the blanket, folded in half and tucked in, doesn't work for me. I always tear the sheets and blanket off and re-make the bed to my liking.

If you are sensitive to light when you sleep, you should bring something with which to cover the compartment's night light, which comes on automatically and is very bright (Turks don't like sleeping in pitch dark). A 4-inch-by-4-inch (10 cm by 10 cm) square of cardboard and some sticky tape would be good.

Also, the spring-loaded window shade may refuse to stay all the way down, so jam a slip of paper into the space on the side between the bottom rail and the side track. That holds it.

The top part of the compartment's window can usually be opened a bit for fresh air if you wish, but only if the window shade is all the way up. Otherwise, fresh air-conditioned air is admitted through the vents at the top of the compartment, and exits through the vent beneath the window.

Please read this safety notice about sleeping car travel.

For any sleeping car trip, I usually pack a 1.5-liter bottle of water and some snacks.

Sleeping cars are usually ready for passenger boarding about one hour before departure, so if you arrive early at the station you can relax in privacy rather than wait in the dismal waiting room.

Source : http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/trans/Train/SleepingCar.html