Our guide to luxury train journeys

This guide to luxury train journeys covers the best luxury train journeys in the world as we book them: what they cost, which cabin to choose, and the luxury train travel tips our travel designers have learned putting clients on board.

Part of it is the same instinct driving the luxury yacht cruise boom: travellers who have seen everything now want to move differently. A sleeper train solves what a five-star hotel cannot, turning the dead time between destinations into the best part of the trip, with scenery no aircraft window will ever match.

The industry has responded with the biggest expansion in decades. At least 13 new European luxury rail services were confirmed for 2026 alone, as Euronews reported, and the great names are adding routes rather than retiring them. Iconic train journeys that once sat quietly on bucket lists now sell out the way hotel openings do, and luxury rail holidays have moved from nostalgia trip to centrepiece.

The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express is the reference point for every luxury train on earth and the most storied of the historic luxury trains: restored 1920s and 30s carriages, cabins of marquetry and brass, and dinners that require dressing for. The classic London and Paris to Venice run remains the booking to make first.

The news for 2026 is the train’s first Paris to the Amalfi Coast route, launching in May, which pairs a night on board with two nights at Caruso, A Belmond Hotel in Ravello, with Pompeii and a private Amalfi boat tour along the way. Expect the Grand Suites on the new route to be among the scarcest bookings in European travel.

The other Orient Express, run by the brand behind the Corinthian sailing yacht, launched in 2025 and stays entirely within Italy. La Dolce Vita Orient Express is a love letter to 1960s Italian design, with routes from Rome to Tuscany, Sicily, Venice and the Alps.

Where the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express is black-tie nostalgia, La Dolce Vita is aperitivo glamour. One-night itineraries make it the easiest luxury train to add to an Italian holiday, and the food, overseen by a Michelin-starred programme, is a highlight rather than a compromise.

Belmond’s Royal Scotsman carries just around 40 guests through the Highlands, with whisky in the observation car and the only Dior Spa on rails. It is the train we recommend for pure landscape, one of the most scenic train journeys anywhere: lochs, glens and stalkers’ paths straight from the carriage door.

Its new sibling, the Britannic Explorer, launched in July 2025 as the first luxury sleeper touring England and Wales, with three-night routes through Cornwall, the Lake District and Snowdonia and a menu led by a Michelin-starred chef. For UK clients it is the rare luxury journey that starts from home.

Relaunched in 2024 after a five-year pause, the Eastern & Oriental Express runs from Singapore through the Malaysian jungle, all cream-and-green carriages, rattan and silk. Itineraries include a wild-side route with Malaysian rainforest walks and diving-focused seasonal departures.

It pairs naturally with the region’s great hotels, and we usually build it into a longer itinerary: Singapore before, an island after. Two or three nights on board is the sweet spot.

South America’s first luxury sleeper, the Belmond Andean Explorer, crosses the Peruvian altiplano from Cusco to Lake Titicaca and Arequipa at altitudes above 4,000 metres, with oxygen on hand and some of the highest dinner views on earth. It converts a hard travel day into the trip’s most memorable chapter.

In Africa, Rovos Rail runs restored wood-panelled carriages from Pretoria to Victoria Falls, Cape Town and beyond, unhurried in a way that suits the continent. It links beautifully with the safari itineraries in our Africa guides, and its longer expeditions, up to Dar es Salaam, are the closest rail comes to a Grand Tour.

Cabins and Suites

Every luxury sleeper train works on the same hierarchy: cosy historic cabins that convert from daytime seating to beds, mid-tier suites, and a handful of grand suites with private bathrooms, double beds and butler service. On the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, the six Grand Suites are themed around the cities the train serves and include free-flowing champagne and private dining; the historic cabins, charming as they are, share more modest washing arrangements, which surprises some first-timers.

The practical advice is simple: take the best cabin you can, pack soft luggage that stows under the bed, and remember that cabins are compact by design. The train is the destination, and you will spend your waking hours in the restaurant cars, the bar car and the observation deck rather than in your room.

Dining

Dining is where the modern luxury trains have raised their game furthest. Jean Imbert oversees the kitchens of the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, Heinz Beck directs La Dolce Vita’s menus and Simon Rogan leads the Britannic Explorer’s, so the cooking now belongs in the same conversation as the destination restaurants our clients fly for.

Meals are included, portions are judged for a day spent sitting in beauty, and dinner is an occasion: jackets at minimum, black tie welcomed on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express. The bar car afterwards, with the pianist working through the decades, is where every great train journey actually happens.

Three lessons from the bookings we make. First, cabin category matters more than route: on every great train the difference between a standard cabin and a suite is the difference between a memory and an anniversary tradition. Book the best cabin you can, on a shorter route if the budget must give somewhere.

Second, book 12 to 18 months out for Grand Suites and new routes; the trains are small and the world’s press covers every launch. Third, as a Belmond Bellini Club partner we can add benefits and secure space on the Belmond trains that booking direct cannot, and we always build the hotel nights either side, which is where a rail trip is won or lost.

The great trains sell like great hotel openings: small inventories, long lead times, best cabins first. Berkeley Travel’s travel designers know the routes, the cabins worth the difference and the hotels either side, and our Bellini Club partnership works hard on every Belmond train. Contact our team to start planning.