Their English website is at http://www.dbautozug.de/site/dbautozug/en/start.html - it's well laid out with lots of info and you can book online in English. The only terminal much use to the UK is Düsseldorf. The nearest they get to Spain is Narbonne and Düsseldorf is probably too much of a detour for it to be worthwhile if using the French ports. On the other hand their routes to Northern Italy and Austria would be worth looking at. They offer some good discounts if you book early in the reservation season or the week before you travel.

The trains have a dining car and the menu is on the site. Most routes are overnight and you'd have a choice of full sleeping car or couchette service. The difference is mostly space. Couchettes (or liegewagen in German) are bunk beds, probably four to a compartment, with toilet and washroom at the end of the coach. Sleepers have one or two slightly bigger bunks per compartment and some have private toilet and sometimes shower (at a price!). All include a light breakfast.

I've never taken a car but have travelled on both German and French services some years ago (they used to dump spare berths to the ordinary travel market before they were set up as seperate companies from the Intercity type business). The biggest difference was the service and attitude of the staff and it looks like the French haven't got any better. When I win the Lottery I have a plan to buy an vintage sports car and take it round the Alps, this plan does involve use of DB Autozug from Düsseldorf!

There is also a private Dutch compnay who run from 's Hertogenbosch to Avignon (in the general direction of Spain) and a couple of places in Italy but again they are no use for the French ports, you'd need to use Hoek Van Holland or Rotterdam to make sense. They are at http://www.autoslaaptrein.nl

Belgian Motorail shut down about 6 years ago, plans were announced for a private Dutch compnay to run from Denderleeuw (which would have been useful) but nothing seems to have come of this.

Steve

Thank you for your comprehensive reply. Am I right in thinking that DB Autozug is completely different to the French Motorail. I was thinking of using the French Motorail to get to either South of France or Northern Italy and maybe staying at one of the Canvas sites. However, the reviews I read weren't very good for Motorail and somebody commentated on DB and mentioned how good they were. The return price for motorail was approx £1300 the DB price if I have got it correct is just under £800. I think I am going to spend a little more time investigating.

Kaz

DB is German State Railways which is likely to be privatised in the next few years, hence the splitting up of business units.

French Motorail is the UK brand name of part of SNCF - French state railways. They are likely to be privatised some time after hell freezes over!

All track networks in Europe are technically seperate from the train operators (like Network Rail in GB) so the DB can run their trains in France (and Italy/Austria).

You should avoid booking via UK agents. RailEurope is also part of SNCF and adds a mark up to whatever it sells here. DB have a UK office but the Autozug website is so simple it's not worth dealing with them if you know where you're going (let's face it you don't have many choices!!).

Things to double check are;

is the price you see just car + driver, in which case how much are extra passengers

does the price include berths or just seats - if the train hasn't got seats it's easy to work out! How much extra to upgrade from the base accomodation.

if you are going for simple couchettes, do they allocate a compartment per car even if you don't fill it.

do they include any food, most DB services include breakfast and sell dinner.

what time do you arrive, some services call at 2 destinations, this can make the first a little early.