- Good evening from London.
I'm in London, Paddington Station,
one of the busiest train stations in the entire city
and tonight we're gonna have a pretty special experience.
We're gonna go all the way to the western part of England
to a place called Penzance in Cornwall.
And we're gonna do it on a fancy sleeper train.
We're gonna be travelling for about eight hours
for over 300 miles, but I'm gonna have my own bed,
my own private cabin,
and the train even has its own restaurant board.
So before we hop on, I do wanna go check
out the GWR first class lounge,
which we get access to with our tickets.
So, Let's go.
Poop.
Right next to Platform One is the GWR first class lounge
which you can get access to if you have a first class ticket
on any of GWR's trains,
or you buy the supplemental sleeper cabin
which is what we have this evening.
So, we get to go in and check it out.
Hello.
- [Receptionist] Good evening.
(calm music)
- It smells like the Queen's been here.
I don't know what that means, but it just does.
A little bit of history for you.
This older part of the first class lounge
was actually Queen Victoria's waiting room.
So it dates back to the 1800s and you can tell
because it does look very old school, Victorian era,
of course, English decor.
It looks beautiful in here.
There's also a more modern part of the lounge
and that's where you'll find the food
and drinks and stuff like that.
(calm music)
'cause I'm not an animal.
(chewing) (calm music)
- Okay, thank you. - Bye, thank you so much.
So there's only two sleeper trains that go each day.
One from Paddington, and one from Penzance going
in the opposite directions and they do let you get
on the train an hour before departure.
So, that's what we're gonna do.
We're gonna hop on and get settled in.
Let's go.
(bright music)
Very tiny hallways.
13 and 15.
Home sweet home.
By the way, this video is made possible
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Okay, let's get back to our trip to Cornwall
on the Night Riviera Sleeper train.
Was that? Sorry, that was it, yeah. (laughs)
Okay.
Welcome to my private suite on the Night Riviera.
I will give you a tour.
Come on in.
(lively music)
Let's start with the most important part.
The bed looks a little narrow but will be good for me.
This can be a double cabin.
So this actually comes down and it is another bed.
Would be a little bit tight, I think, if you had two people,
but it's just me in here.
This comes down for a tray,
which we'll have breakfast on in the morning.
And this,
oh, it's this way,
(laughs)
makes a little sofa situation
like this.
Over this way.
We have, first of all, the window that looks out
onto Paddington Station at the moment
'cause we haven't left yet, but we'll eventually look
onto the Cornwall's countryside.
And under here, our very own little sink.
So you can freshen up in the morning
and brush your teeth and not have to go out to the toilet.
There is no toilet or shower facility
in the individual cabin, which if you've seen my review
of the Caledonian Sleeper, you'll know that they do have
in the cabins your own private toilet and shower.
Not this time, but I think we'll be okay.
To the left here, we have a little closet
where you can hang a jacket and clothes if you need to.
I'll put my jacket in there in a second.
There's also a couple of water bottles down below
if you get thirsty.
And then there's room under the bed to put your luggage.
(calm music)
Okay, on the bed, we've got two pillows.
They're fairly firm
but could probably use a little bit more.
Test those later.
And what's nice about this sleeper
is that bed comes already made
which some sleeper chains do not have that as standard.
I don't really wanna be making my own bed when I come
into a very small space like this,
so I'm glad it's already done.
And actually the sheets are quite silky.
Feels nice.
A few things over here.
Standard British plugs.
Super handy if you need to do any work overnight
or if you like to charge your phone overnight like I do,
plus two USB plugs and then these, oh, it's brighter now.
These control the lights in the cabin right behind your head
so you don't have to get up.
We have the temperature controls, which they've told us
that it's basically either very cold or very hot.
And those are the options.
If you're travelling with more than one person, like I said,
you can get this to be two beds, just put this down.
Or if you prefer to have a little bit more space,
you and your other person can get two rooms next
to each other and then this door opens and connects them.
So you have a little bit more space and are not completely
on top of each other.
In terms of amenities and little extras
that you get in your room, this is basically it.
A little bar of soap.
I guess I was kind of thinking maybe there was gonna be
a little kit that had earplugs and an eye mask
and other little things, but this is it.
Now we're gonna check out the toilet
and go to the little restaurant.
(bright music)
There's no bathroom in the room, so my room's over there,
and this is the toilet at the end of the carriage.
Quite small and basic.
Not really lot to show.
(bright music)
No two-way traffic down here.
In between the sleeper cars and the economy cars,
there's a whole cafe area with sitting options
for groups, solo travellers, and there's even a sofa.
You can order things from the bar like wine, beer,
hot chocolate, and lots of little snacks.
Then you can take it back to your seat or your cabin
or you can actually sit in the cafe car and enjoy it there.
Personally, I think this is one of the best things
about travelling by train versus plane,
that you have the option to get up, walk around,
and you have lots of space to have your food and your drink
and you don't have to feel squished into your little seat.
We're moving.
Leaving Paddington Station now.
We have left about 25 minutes late, so it's done past 12.
So getting a bit late, but here we go.
(bright music)
Bye.
(calm music)
It's almost 1:00 AM now.
So about seven hours left of the train to go.
So changed to my BJs, brush my teeth.
Time to climb into bed, see how it is.
Pretty comfy.
Hope I don't fall off in the middle of the night.
Feels a bit narrow, but I can make it work.
And it seems like the train sounds aren't very loud yet.
We are gonna be stopping for an hour in Exeter.
That'll be the first stop.
So we'll see how loud it is there.
I also am a terrible sleeper
and the last time I took a sleeper train up to Edinburgh,
I feel like I didn't sleep a wink, so.
Will report back in the morning
and let you know if I got any sleep.
Fingers crossed.
(calm music)
Good morning from Cornwall.
It is a quarter to seven
and they have just dropped off our breakfast in bed.
I got a creamy porridge.
Behind the camera I got a sausage bacon roll.
And then we've got tea, coffee, and biscuits.
So gonna dive into this
and then get ready to get off the train.
My sleep last night wasn't great
but I was very, very comfortable.
This bed was actually totally fine with the narrowness
and I was super comfortable and the train is not that loud.
I think I'm just not a good sleeper.
So, but yeah, I was comfy and felt really cosy and good
while I was laying here trying to sleep in my thoughts,
just running through my head.
Now to book this sleeper train is kind of complicated.
So let me explain.
There are a few direct trains from London to Penzance
and the reverse every day during the day.
These trains usually take around five
and a half hours and there are two options
for travel during the day, economy and first class.
But how do you book a sleeper cabin?
Well, there's only one sleeper train per day
in each direction every day of the week except Saturdays.
These trains take eight hours instead
of the usual five and a half.
So to book a sleeper cabin,
you simply buy a one-way economy ticket,
and then upgrade your seat to a cabin
by buying a supplement called Cabin Supplement.
This cabin supplement can be anywhere
from 40 pounds to a hundred pounds more
on top of the cost of your economy ticket.
I paid 75 pounds for my economy ticket from London
to Penzance, plus 55 pounds for the cabin supplement,
which made my total ticket 130 pounds.
And I actually paid for it myself.
I think this is a pretty good price considering
the usual price of any ticket
on a train in the UK is super expensive,
and I had all that space to myself
and I didn't have to pay for a hotel for the night.
(bright music)
It's 8:00 AM. We have arrived in Penzance, Cornwall.
Overall, that was a great experience,
even though I didn't sleep very well.
It was very comfortable and cosy.
The staff were amazing and it's great
to get the travel out of the way while you're sleeping
versus wasting five and a half hours of the day
on the train down here or even worse,
potentially getting stuck in traffic in a car,
making it all the way down here.
So, I would do it again and I would recommend.
If you like this video,
I have a couple others where I'm on trains.
So, to watch one of those,
click one of the boxes popping up around me.
Trains, trains, trains.