Don't sleepwalk into an expensive train journey

Before the luxury £12,600-cabin Britannic Explorer arrives, Yvette Cook travels on GWR's Night Riviera for a trip where she can spend money contributing to Cornwall's local culture

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The knocking grows louder, momentarily disorientating me from a deep sleep. It's pitch black, the room sways, and a polite voice quietly shouts, “breakfast”. Opening the door, Nick, Great.

The GWR sleeper train is a great way to keep holiday costs down (Yvette Cook) Western Railway’s hospitality manager, greets me with a smile and a tray crammed with pastries and coffee. Wobbling back to bed, I fumble around to open the blind and as it rattles up the window, a stream of golden sunlight rushes into my cabin. Squinting at the Cornish hills gliding by, I focus on nonchalant cows munching lush green grass and buttercups.

Eight hours before, I had boarded GWR’s Night Riviera sleeper train at London Paddington, beneath the gaze of its famous bear. Victorian arches glowed orange and the diesel engine hum created a nostalgic atmosphere until overexcited passengers bundled clumsily into their cabins. That liveliness extended into the restaurant car where a young family stocked up on biscuits, while retired Swedish women on holiday shared a table with young builders heading home.

Over a nightcap, train enthusiast Howard Peach told me “there’s nothing quite like going to bed in one place, and waking in another”. As the train lurched out of the station, I tucked myself between a fluffy duvet and soft mattress, swaddling me into slumber. It hadn’t been a perfect sleep with squealing brakes and occasional bumps, yet each disturbance left me inquisitive about my location. Now, the train slows, St Michael’s Mount rises out of the bay, and dog walkers fling tennis balls across the endless beach. As I cheerfully sip my black coffee, we halt in the seaside town of Penzance.