Travel Talk With Jeremy Wayne: All aboard a new golden age of luxury train travel

I’ve always loved trains, from the miniature steam railways we would take as a childhood vacation treat, to the roaring intercity panthers that would wisk me off to my boarding school in Bristol, England, — think Hogwarts without the broomsticks, and I’m thankful, back home again. And how I’ve loved – and love –  those sleek, sexy Swiss, French and Italian trains that carry you between Europe’s cities in great comfort, at reasonable fares and in no time flat. 

Train journeys that have stayed long in my memory must surely include the lumbering three-hour ascent through the verdant Judean hills from Tel Aviv and the coastal plain to Jerusalem. (Today the express train does the journey in 18 minutes.) And the five-hour private and very rickety railway that took me from Dar-es-Salaam station in Tanzania right to the heart of the Selous Game Reserve – now known as the Nyerere National Park and covering 19,305 square miles of Southern Africa. And how could I ever forget the old wooden train that runs from the São Bento Train Station – one of the most beautiful railroad stations in the world, in Porto, Portugal – and takes you through the magnificent Douro Valley, chugging past vertiginous vineyards as they tumble down the mountains slopes towards the Douro River far below. 

But of all the great rail journeys I’ve been lucky enough to take, for sheer breadth and scope the Trans-Siberian Railway would be hard to beat. Running 6,000 miles from Moscow to Vladivostok and crossing eight time zones, this epic seven-day, seven-night trip across the Russian Steppes is the world’s longest railway journey, although in no way could it be described as luxurious. Far from it, it was extremely uncomfortable – but still magnificent and unforgettable. 

For luxury you need to turn your attention to Belmond – formerly the Orient Express Hotels Co., which now operates hotels, trains and river cruises in 22 countries, and whose refurbished, historic trains recreate a bygone era of glamorous travel. Combined with every conceivable modern creature comfort and the latest technology, these trips are every bit about the journey itself as they are about the destination. 

A world leader in luxury train travel, Belmond never stands still, maintaining and upgrading its rolling stock and introducing new, exciting routes to an already extensive existing portfolio.  

The company will start 2024 with the relaunch in February of the Eastern & Oriental Express in Southeast Asia, which was suspended during Covid. The reintroduced route will take travelers from Singapore’s Woodlands station up through Malaysia with stops at Penang, Langkawi and the Taman Negara National Park. The three-day trip will also give guests the chance to discover not only the ravishingly beautiful landscape of the Malay peninsula but also the country’s gastronomy, with celebrated Taiwanese chef André Chiang looking after the train’s two restaurants on each journey. A second route will take passengers on an unforgettable expedition through the jungles of Malaysia. 

In a totally different but still breathtaking setting, namely the Highlands of Scotland, the Royal Scotsman, A Belmond Train, launched its on-board spa in 2023. This will be followed by two new grand suites on the service in 2024, featuring luxurious bathrooms and private dining areas. I can’t think of a more thrilling way to see this ravishing part of Scotland. 

Belmond loves mountains. In Peru, way up in the Andes, it now has two trains running – the Hiram Bingham that connects Cuzco with Machu Pichu; and the Andean Explorer, which leaves from Cuzco and offers an incredible journey along Lake Titicaca.  In 2024, the journeys will also be very much about food, with executive chef Jorge Muñoz (of Belmond’s lovely Hotel Monasterio in Cuzco) offering an exciting new take on Peruvian cuisine on both of the Belmond trains. 

And, of course, there is the original Venice-Simplon-Orient-Express, A Belmond Train – long immortalized in Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express: A Hercule Poirot Mystery” and its various cinematic iterations – and perhaps the only train in the world where murder, and indeed murderers, come across as so impossibly chic and sophisticated.  

With regular routes among London, Paris and Italy, the express will next year see the introduction of suites into the original 1920s Venice-Simplon carriages. And in June 2024, a new route – from Paris to Portofino, culminating in a stay at Belmond’s world-famous Portofino hotel, Il Splendido — will launch. (The inaugural trip is almost sold-out.) Plus, Belmond’s classic annual Paris to Istanbul route will increase to two trips a year, with more “experiences” on board all the trains and an upgraded bar car on the Istanbul train.  

A throwback to a now all but vanished era, the train bar car is another favorite. And I can’t help but feel that Poirot, though not much of a drinker himself (more a lover of herbal teas and sirops, or syrups), would also have approved. After all, there’s nowhere quite like a train bar car as the setting for the denouement of the (near) perfect murder.  

Tuxedos at the ready, gentlemen, and, as my dear friend accessories designer Lulu Guinness would say, “Get out your pearls, girls”:   May the golden age of luxury train travel roll on. 

For more on the Trans-Siberian Railway, visit  russianrailways.com. 

For more on Belmond Hotels, Trains & River Cruises, visit belmond.com. 

Travel Talk’s Jeremy Wayne is a luxury travel adviser with Superior Travel of New York.  Contact him at jeremy@superiortravel.com