‘An unforgettable rail journey’: my night on the Istanbul-Sofia Express

The overnight service from Turkey to Bulgaria started running again this year and was voted one of the world’s best journeys for 2023 by Lonely Planet

Last week Lonely Planet’s annual Best in Travel list included the Istanbul-Sofia Express as an essential journey for 2023.

The overnight service restarted in April this year, after being suspended in early 2020. When introduced in 2017, it was a successor of older night-train services, including several incarnations using variants of the name Orient Express. I boarded one of the speedy suburban trains at Sirkeciin Istanbul’s Eminönü quarter, heading out of the city to Halkalı, an unassuming commuter station that’s now the starting point of this night train.