Book Train Tickets From Istanbul to Bucharest
DiscoverByRail can book the Istanbul-Bucharest night train, with personal ticket handover at Halkali station before the departure of your train.
Please send an email to tickets@discoverbyrail.com for booking inquiries, specifying date of travel and number of passengers.
If you’re travelling in the opposite direction from Bucharest to Istanbul, please see the Bucharest-Istanbul train page for more details on how to book tickets.
Ticketing procedure
At DiscoverByRail, we can book tickets for the Istanbul-Bucharest night train.
This train cannot be booked online through either the official Romanian or Turkish railway websites, but our local agent in Istanbul can buy the tickets for you in advance at the station to ensure you get a berth on the night train, as tickets often sell out well in advance.
Your tickets will be handed to you by our local agent at Istanbul Halkalı station before your train departs.
This allows you to make the most of your time in Istanbul without needing to visit the ticket office or worry that the train might already be fully booked.
For booking inquiries, you just have to send an email to tickets@discoverbyrail.com, specifying date of travel and the number of passengers.
Indicative timetable
The Istanbul-Bucharest night train is summer seasonal, only running from mid-June to mid-October (exact dates vary by year). It runs daily throughout this period.
This is the indicative timetable of the Istanbul-Bucharest night train:
| Station | Arrival | Departure |
| Istanbul Halkalı | 20:00 | |
| Dimitrovgrad | 05:07 | 07:10 |
| Veliko Tarnovo | 10:56 | 10:56 |
| Gorna Oryahovitsa | 11:10 | 11:35 |
| Ruse | 13:31 | 14:15 |
| Bucharest Gara de Nord | 17:32 (the next day) |
Travelling from Istanbul to Bucharest by train outside the summer season
Even outside the summer season, when the direct Istanbul-Bucharest night train does not run, it is still possible to travel by train from Istanbul to Bucharest.
In this case, you have two options:
Option 1 is to take the year-round Istanbul-Sofia night train as far as Dimitrovgrad, arriving early the next morning, connect there to a train for Gorna Oryahovitsa, change again at Gorna Oryahovitsa for a train to Ruse, and make your final connection there to the train for Bucharest.
Option 2 is to travel on the Istanbul-Sofia night train all the way to Sofia, stay overnight in the Bulgarian capital, and travel from Sofia to Bucharest the following day.
You can find the indicative timetables for both options below:
Option 1: via Dimitrovgrad
| Station | Arrival | Departure |
| Istanbul Halkalı | 20:00 | |
| Dimitrovgrad | 05:07 (the next day) | |
| Change trains in Dimitrovgrad | ||
| Dimitrovgrad | 07:10 | |
| Veliko Tarnovo | 10:56 | 10:56 |
| Gorna Oryahovitsa | 11:10 | |
| Change trains in G. Oryahovitsa | ||
| Gorna Oryahovitsa | 11:35 | |
| Ruse | 13:31 | |
| Change trains in Ruse | ||
| Ruse | 14:15 | |
| Bucharest Gara de Nord | 17:32 |
Option 2: via Sofia
| Station | Arrival | Departure |
| Istanbul Halkalı | 20:00 | |
| Sofia | 09:48 (the next day) | |
| Spend the night in Sofia | ||
| Sofia | 07:00 | |
| Ruse | 13:31 | |
| Change trains in Ruse | ||
| Ruse | 14:15 | |
| Bucharest Gara de Nord | 17:32 |
Which off-season route is best?
At DiscoverByRail, we can book both Istanbul-Dimitrovgrad and Istanbul-Sofia tickets, leaving the choice of route entirely up to you.
Travelling via Dimitrovgrad has the advantage of reaching Bucharest in a single night, compared with the two nights required if travelling via Sofia.
However, the main disadvantage is that you will need to disembark from the night train at Dimitrovgrad just after 5 in the morning and make multiple onward connections.
Although travelling from Istanbul to Bucharest via Sofia takes two nights, it is a far more stress-free and comfortable journey, allowing you a full night’s sleep on the night train and in a Sofia hotel.
DiscoverByRail therefore recommends travelling from Istanbul to Bucharest via Sofia in the off-season.
Whichever option you prefer, we can book it for you – simply send an email to tickets@discoverbyrail.com, specifying your route, date of travel, and the number of passengers.
Other Bulgarian destinations
The Istanbul-Bucharest night train stops at several stations in Bulgaria that are popular with international travellers, including the important junction station of Dimitrovgrad, the historic former capital Veliko Tarnovo, and the city of Ruse.
We can also book tickets on this train if you are travelling to one of these cities along the route rather than all the way to Bucharest, for example, an Istanbul-Veliko Tarnovo ticket.
About the Istanbul-Bucharest night train
The Istanbul-Bucharest night train only has 4-berth couchettes, with each compartment featuring two upper and two lower berths.
On Turkish sleeper trains, you always share a couchette compartment with passengers of the same sex, although mixed-gender groups of two to four people can travel together if they book all four berths in the same compartment in a sleeper or couchette.
If you are travelling solo and want to have a couchette compartment for private occupancy, you also need to book up all four berths in it.
Bedding, including pillows, sheets, and blankets, is provided when you travel on the Istanbul-Bucharest night train.
Each carriage has two toilets – one western-style and one squat-style.
As there is no dining car on the Istanbul-Bucharest night train, it’s a good idea to bring your own food and drinks for the journey.
About the Istanbul-Sofia night train
If you travel off-season between Istanbul and Bucharest on the Istanbul-Sofia night train (whether to Dimitrovgrad or all the way to Sofia before connecting onwards to Romania), you can choose between a sleeper or a couchette.
Turkish sleeper compartments have two berths each and can also be booked for single occupancy.
See our Istanbul-Sofia night train page for more information about this train and its onboard facilities.
Border crossing
The overnight train linking Istanbul with Bucharest first crosses the border between Turkey and Bulgaria , which it does at Kapıkule (the Turkish border station) and Svilengrad (the Bulgarian border station).
You will need to get off the train at Kapıkule and go through passport control at a building on the platform while your bags remain safely on the train.
Bulgarian customs and immigration checks are carried out on board the train at Svilengrad.
Since both Bulgaria and Romania joined the Schengen Zone, there are no longer any formal customs or passport checks at the Bulgarian-Romanian border.
That said, it is not unusual for Bulgarian or Romanian border officers to carry out a brief on-the-spot passport check on the train while it stops at Ruse (Bulgaria) and Giurgiu Nord (Romania).
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