Anybody that follows Wilbur’s Travels will know that I adore an overseas train journey and absolutely adore an overnight train.

They have to be one of the bargains of our time, being transport, hotel & restaurant rolled into one. And environmentally friendly too!

Favourite overnight train journeys have included Bangkok to Laos, Hue to Hanoi in Vietnam, Istanbul to Adana in Turkey en-route to Syria overland, Istanbul to Erzurum in Eastern Turkey en-route to Georgia, Tbilisi to Yerevan in Armenia, Tbilisi to Baku, Khiva to Tashkent in Uzbekistan and Sevastopol to Lviv in Ukraine (at 27-hours still my longest train journey to date).

I am praying that my Trans-Siberian adventure from St Petersburg to Vladivostok finally goes ahead in 2021, though there are of course still a few hurdles to overcome.

Within Europe, there is set to be a huge expansion of overnight trains led by Austria’s Nightjet utilising slick new trains and high-speed lines.

However, I will always have a penchant for the old Eastern European trains pulled by diesel locomotives that trundle along the tracks of the Balkans and the Former Iron Curtain countries.

Overnight trains have pulled me to the likes of Serbia, North Macedonia, Greece, Moldova, Hungary, Czechia, Romania and Poland, and each and every one of them is a very special memory.

If you like reading, I have chronicled my Balkan journeys in my book, Travelling By Train Across The Balkans that you can buy from Amazon.