I’m in seat No 1 — the ultimate business-class address. The steward has gifted me a branded handbag containing water, bed linen and, should it be required, a sick bag. A snack menu lists Swiss pretzels and Alpine herbal tea. My sleeper service from Amsterdam to Zurich is ready to depart. 

A new airline? Pah. I’m riding the Twiliner, Europe’s most significant transport innovation since the jet age. OK, I admit, it’s a coach. But imagine the Swiss lovechild of Emirates business class and National Express. This is a rock star tour bus, featuring fold-flat beds, that glides through the continental night from £143 one-way. Flying with checked luggage costs the same for a one-hour journey, but factor in airport transfers and check-in and it’s a whole-day exercise. Twiliner guests save a night on accommodation too. 

My double-decker Twiliner is no less cramped than a night flight. The coach’s 21 seats are in a two-plus-one configuration. At the click of a button my seat performs a manoeuvre, slowly unfolding into a single bed. Each one has a reading light, a steward call button, USB chargers and a tray table large enough to host a game of Uno. I download a podcast on the free wifi and go in search of a cup of tea. 

Remo Vettori

Downstairs I find a spacious changing room and a WC with a Villeroy & Boch sink. I grab a Pukka camomile tea from the self-service hot drinks station and contemplate tonight’s journey. My sleeper bus can’t be stopped by train strikes or engineering works. There are no pesky airport transfers or security checks. Will this be a business-class bus ride? Or hell on wheels? I have 12 hours and 541 miles, including pick-up stops in Rotterdam and Brussels, to find out. 

Time to explore Amsterdam

I began my day in Sloterdijk, Amsterdam’s up-and-coming neighbourhood and the departure point for Twiliner’s inaugural route to Switzerland. I had spent the previous night at Sloterdijk’s coolest address, Met Hotel Amsterdam, which describes itself as “no-nonsense luxury” — like the Twiliner. Instead of a minibar packed with fiddly bottles of Gordon’s gin and no ice, guests can swipe £3 cans of Heineken and £6 tins of stroopwafels from an honesty fridge. From March 2026 Met’s spa annex opens with hot tubs, gym machines and reformer Pilates classes. 

In Met Hotel Amsterdam’s Brainstorm Basement (where pool tables meet white boards) I chat to Twiliner’s CEO, Luca Bortolani. Decades ago the Swiss entrepreneur used bed buses in China and South America. “But until today,” Bortolani says, “there were no regulations in Europe for lie-flat seats”, meaning that fold-out beds were simply not covered by safety laws. Twiliner proved the concept was possible through multiple crash tests. 

To satisfy safety requirements, Bortolani commissioned a company in Manchester that refurbishes airline seats to create Twiliner’s fold-flat armchairs. “You can work, read and sleep in your seat, like on an airline”, but with 85 per cent less carbon emissions. If the coming months are successful, Twiliner aims to “rapidly and aggressively expand” throughout Europe, offering city-centre to city-centre travel, potentially from London. 

As I’m sleeping on the bus tonight, I have a whole day to explore Sloterdijk. I begin at the brand-new Museum Villa art space, where visitors can snoop around installations inside a 19th-century mansion. One room has a disco of pulsing images. Another features a curtain made from retractable measuring tapes. Men wear micro beanies; women wear shoes that look like beans. It’s so contemporary. 

The soulful neighbourhood around the new museum is Amsterdam without the tourists. I adore the parks, music stores and coffee roasters. Bikes move like mercury, a quicksilver procession of humanity: a toddler in a basket, a shar pei in a trailer and a grandmother facing backwards in a box attached to the handlebars. 

I stroll to Sloterdijk’s beach. Sloterstrand is an urban sand zone with volleyball courts and athletics circuits abutting an artificial lake. Netherlands’ answer to Nice? “I wouldn’t swim there but some people do,” says Youssef El Mutuk, a local resident who manages the lakefront restaurant Kaap West. I try his crispy tuna tartare tacos with kimchi mayo (£12.50) and Javanese chicken satay (£19.50). “Ten years ago Sloterdijk [a former industrial zone] was sad,” he continues. Today it’s the place to eat Brazilian, Indonesian, Turkish and Surinamese cuisine. 

All aboard the night bus

At Sloterdijk bus station my Twiliner is waiting. The words “Travel asleep across Europe” are written on the side of the bus. We’ll see about that. As the clock strikes 8pm, my ride glides out of Amsterdam with the efficiency of a Rolex watch.

The ride is quiet. But the view from my armchair, 14ft high in the sky, is Blade Runner loud. A digital hoarding advertises Bridgerton. A giant Max Verstappen holds up a can of Red Bull. Safety lights on wind turbines rip the black calico of the night. In 30 years of riding night trains I’ve never enjoyed a front facing view like this. It’s as if I’m controlling my own video game — Night Bus Driver Extreme.

Does the night bus mirror the romance of rail? Sadly not. Trains pair the clackety-clack of locomotion with the bugling toot of history. Sleeper trains in Poland, Turkey and Thailand feature excellent restaurant cars too. The estate of Agatha Christie isn’t going to sanction Murder on the Night Bus any time soon.

Remo Vettori

I spread the duvet over my fold-flat bed and settle down. I awake several times but the white noise of black asphalt disappearing into infinity lulls me back to sleep. During one bizarre midnight moment, a lorry driver in a high cab pulls alongside me. I wave to him from bed. Who’s the big guy now? 

I log nine hours of sleep before waking up near Zurich. But it was fitful. If I were in town to present a make-or-break business plan to a Swiss bank, I’d be in the scheisse. A mattress topper or memory foam pillow would have elevated the Twiliner experience to luxury plane standards. However, for sheer novelty and the fact that I’ve saved one night on accommodation costs, I thoroughly recommend it.

Zurich is Switzerland’s most self-assured city

Ten minutes from Zurich bus station is a hotel that makes travel memories. 25hours Langstrasse offers 10 per cent off for Twiliner guests (passengers receive a special 25Hours discount code when booking overnight transport) or welcomes them with a £33 day package that includes showers, luggage storage, access to a rooftop workout area and a spellbinding breakfast (green shakshuka, Bircher muesli). Guests on their uppers can genuinely pawn items of value (a Polaroid camera, a pair of Air Jordans) at the funky reception desk in exchange for stays. So cool. 

European city centres have coalesced into a Zara-H&M-Aldi homogeneity. Zurich, by contrast, remains 100 per cent Swiss. On the same street I spy stores dedicated to Swiss army knives, model trains and Alpine climbing literature. On the lakefront promenade neat wood piles fuel floating saunas, from which the Swiss leap naked into the wintry water — you won’t find that in central London. Shockingly, the world’s most expensive city has a dearth of Ferraris and fancy watch shops. Zürchers ride bikes and don’t need to show off. 

My city stroll brings me back to Zurich bus station, where another Twiliner is being prepared for a night ride to Barcelona. This is a travel idea on the move.
Tristan Rutherford was a guest of Amsterdam & Partners (iamsterdam.com); 25Hours Hotels, which has room-only doubles from £171 (25hours-hotels.com); Met Hotel Amsterdam, which has B&B doubles from £117; (methotelamsterdam.com) and Twiliner, which has one-way tickets from £143 (twiliner.com). Fly or take the train to Amsterdam

Would you use an overnight sleeper bus? Let us know in the comments below