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There are faster ways to cross a country, and certainly cheaper ones, but none that feel quite as civilised as the right train at the right hour. Rail travel has an old-world talent for elevating the in-between: the corridor becomes a promenade, a window becomes a cinema screen, and the gentle choreography of lunch, tea and dusk gives a landscape permission to reveal itself slowly. For travellers who care as much about the journey as the arrival—who prefer their scenery with a soundtrack of wheels over rail—these are the routes that consistently stop conversation mid-sentence.
Some of them are icons with polished heritage and dinner jackets; others are simply masterpieces of geography and engineering, where a timetable happens to align with mountains, deserts, rainforests or sea lochs. What they share is a sense of inevitability: once you’ve watched the world unfurl from a well-situated seat, airports begin to feel like an overcomplicated idea.
Glacier Express, Switzerland: the long way through the Alps
Switzerland treats rail travel less like transport and more like a national art form, and the Glacier Express is its most cinematic gallery. The route links Zermatt—framed by the Matterhorn—to St. Moritz in the Engadin, unspooling across eight unhurried hours of alpine drama. Officially it’s a panoramic journey that traverses 291 bridges and 91 tunnels, numbers that read like trivia until you notice how often the train seems to defy topography.
The magic is in the pacing. Villages appear like stage sets, then vanish behind a fold in the mountains. You glide past pine-dark valleys into high, bright worlds where snow lingers. If you’re choosing where to pay closest attention, the Glacier Express itself highlights the stretch between Preda and Bergün—an engineered ballet of curves, tunnels and gradients that feels like the Alps showing off.
To make it sing, treat the trip like a day-long tasting menu: settle in, look up often, and resist the urge to “save” scenery for later. The point of this train is that later is always different.
Bernina Express, Switzerland to Italy: a UNESCO ribbon of rail
Where the Glacier Express is alpine grandeur, the Bernina Express is contrast—Switzerland’s crisp order dissolving into Italian softness, often in the space of a single descent. Operated by the Rhaetian Railway (RhB), it runs over the Albula and Bernina lines, a UNESCO World Heritage pairing since July 2008, and the designation feels earned the moment you sense how seamlessly the track threads wild terrain.
The journey’s headline act is altitude without theatrics: the route climbs into high mountain landscapes and then, as if turning a page, drops toward the south where palms and pastel buildings can feel improbably close to glaciers. Even if you’ve seen photos of the famous viaducts, the lived experience is better—the way the train curves, the way valleys open, the way light changes on snowfields and lakes. (If you’re the sort who likes to hop off for a viewpoint or a proper espresso, this is a line that rewards lingering.)
Rocky Mountaineer, Canada: daylight through the Canadian Rockies
Canada does scale like few places on earth, and Rocky Mountaineer was built around the idea that you should see every mile of it. Its routes are designed for all-daylight travel through Western Canada and the Canadian Rockies, with service that leans into comfort and a steady stream of “look up now” moments.
If you’re deciding between signature journeys, “First Passage to the West” is the classic, tracing a storied rail corridor between Vancouver and Lake Louise or Banff—an itinerary that feels like a greatest-hits album of rivers, canyons and mountain silhouettes. “Journey through the Clouds” trades some of the headline towns for the pleasure of rolling toward Jasper, with scenic highlights called out by the operator—Hell’s Gate, Pyramid Falls and the looming presence of Mount Robson among them.
This is a journey best approached the way you’d approach a national park: with a sense of generosity. Give it time on either end—Vancouver’s coastal polish, then the Rockies’ crisp air and lodge culture—and the train becomes the elegant connective tissue between two distinct Canadian moods.
Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, Europe: a moving Art Deco dream
There are trains that take you somewhere, and trains that take you somewhere else entirely. The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, operated by Belmond, is the latter: a rolling Art Deco reverie whose glamour doesn’t come from novelty so much as conviction. Its signature journey runs overnight from Paris to Venice, a route that turns “arrival” into a slow reveal, timed perfectly for that first view of lagoon light.
Belmond’s own notes underline its European range—“Paris to Venice and beyond”—and the “beyond” matters. Part of the appeal is that you’re not simply recreating a scene from a classic; you’re participating in a living itinerary that keeps evolving, stitched together by impeccable dining rituals, polished service, and the particular romance of falling asleep to motion and waking up somewhere new.
The smart way to ride is to treat the dress code as part of the theatre. Even if you’re not normally one for black tie, the point is that the train creates a world, and you get more out of it when you agree to live inside that world for a night.
Belmond Royal Scotsman, Scotland: Highlands at an unhurried tempo
Scotland’s Highlands can be bracing by road—single-track lanes, sudden weather, the constant temptation to stop for yet another view. On the Belmond Royal Scotsman, the landscape comes to you in a series of curated tableaux: lochs that mirror the sky, glens that widen and narrow like breath, and villages that feel as if they’ve been waiting for a story to pass through.
Belmond offers a roster of journeys (including culinary-forward itineraries), but the deeper pleasure is the sense of enclosure: rich interiors, a sociable rhythm, and the ability to step off for experiences that feel rooted in place rather than bolted on. It’s a train that suits travellers who enjoy Scotland’s romance, but also its details—architecture, food, and the way history still seems to cling to the edges of everyday life.
If you’ve ever wanted to see the Highlands without feeling you’re racing daylight, this is the antidote.
Eastern & Oriental Express, Southeast Asia: Singapore to Malaysia in style
Rail travel in Southeast Asia has its own kind of allure: humid air, dense green, sudden flashes of coastline, and cities that hum late into the night. Belmond’s Eastern & Oriental Express departs from Singapore and traverses Malaysia, offering a corridor through culture and landscape that feels both intimate and expansive.
Belmond highlights routes that bring you toward island escapes and cultural touchpoints—Langkawi and Penang among them—making the train a graceful alternative to short-haul flights and highway transfers. The pleasure here isn’t only the scenery (though the rainforest-green views are reason enough); it’s the shift in perspective. Singapore’s gleaming precision gives way to Malaysia’s layered textures: food, heritage, and a coastline that feels like it was designed for lingering.
Belmond Andean Explorer, Peru: altitude, elegance, and Lake Titicaca
Peru’s southern landscapes have a way of recalibrating your sense of scale. On the Belmond Andean Explorer, you travel through high plateaus and big skies, moving between the historic gravity of Cusco, the mythic calm of Lake Titicaca at Puno, and the white-stone beauty of Arequipa.
This is rail travel as immersion. There’s something profoundly satisfying about reaching places associated with altitude and effort—where most itineraries involve buses and backtracking—by simply waking up to a new horizon. Belmond positions it as a journey across the Andes to Lake Titicaca, and that single phrase captures the sensation: a slow ascent into a rarefied world, with comfort and considered dining as a counterpoint to the ruggedness outside.
Pair it with a night or two in Cusco before boarding, so you can acclimatise gently and enjoy the city’s galleries, courtyards and restaurants without rushing. Then let the train do what it does best: turn altitude into atmosphere.
The Ghan, Australia: a continental crossing through the outback
Australia’s interior is not scenery in the usual sense—it’s presence. The Ghan, run by Journey Beyond, is the classic way to experience that presence without the fatigue of long drives and remote logistics. The operator describes it as more than transit between Adelaide and Darwin, and that’s accurate: it’s a multi-day narrative of changing light, red earth, and sudden pockets of green as you head north.
Even a shorter segment, such as the Alice Springs–Darwin journey Journey Beyond spotlights, delivers the outback’s essential drama: vast distances, star-heavy skies, and the satisfaction of covering serious ground while your only task is deciding whether you want another coffee or another chapter.
Travel is at its best when a landscape has time to sink in. The Ghan understands that—and the outback rewards it.
Rovos Rail, South Africa: the slow arc from Pretoria to Cape Town
South Africa may be one of the world’s great road-trip destinations, but there is an undeniable romance in crossing the country by rail, especially when the journey is designed as a rolling hotel. Rovos Rail, established in 1989, has built an international reputation for “train safaris” that link destinations with off-train excursions, leaning into the golden-age spirit without feeling like a museum piece.
Its Pretoria–Cape Town route is a signature: a journey that threads the Cape Winelands, traverses the Karoo, and includes a stop in Kimberley for diamond-rush history. It’s an itinerary that reads like a cross-section of South Africa itself—city energy, open-space grandeur, and the quiet drama of changing geology.
If you have the time, this is the kind of trip that benefits from bookending: a few nights in Cape Town for food and design, then perhaps the Winelands or a safari extension. The train becomes the elegant bridge between worlds.
The Blue Train, South Africa: a classic between Pretoria and Cape Town
If Rovos Rail is boutique grandeur, the Blue Train is the great classic: an institution with a route that has become a benchmark for South African rail. The Blue Train’s Pretoria–Cape Town journey is described as a 54-hour trip covering 1,600 kilometres (994 miles), passing through diverse scenery and including a stopover in Kimberley with an excursion tied to the diamond era.
Part of its appeal is the clarity of the proposition: two nights, a celebrated route, and the particular satisfaction of arriving in Cape Town by rail—Table Mountain as a slow crescendo rather than a sudden reveal from a taxi window. Even seasoned travellers often find that this approach changes their relationship with distance; the country doesn’t feel “far” in the way it can by air. It feels continuous.
A note on today’s “grand” overland epics
Some of the most storied rail itineraries in the world have been reshaped by geopolitics and operations, and it’s worth travelling with up-to-date expectations rather than nostalgia. Golden Eagle Luxury Trains, for example, notes that it no longer operates in Russia and has reimagined its offering around a Silk Road collection in Central Asia—an important reminder that the romance of long-distance rail exists, but routes can change.
That doesn’t diminish the appeal; it sharpens it. The best train journeys are alive, adapting to the world while holding onto what makes rail special in the first place: the privilege of time, and the quiet thrill of watching a landscape tell its story in full.
How to choose the right journey
The most memorable rail trips aren’t always the longest or the most famous—they’re the ones that match your temperament. If you want visual fireworks without too much commitment, Switzerland’s panoramic routes deliver maximum return for a single day. If you’re drawn to ceremony—dinner, dressing up, and that delicious sense of stepping into another era—the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express is unrivalled. If you crave big nature with a soft landing, the Canadian Rockies in daylight are hard to beat. And if your idea of indulgence is space—real, horizon-level space—then Australia’s outback or South Africa’s interior will feel like a kind of cleansing.
Whichever route you choose, the best advice is simple: build breathing room around it. Arrive a day early. Stay a day after. Let the journey be the centrepiece rather than a connector. Trains are, by design, an argument against rushing—an invitation to travel as though time is not a problem to solve, but a pleasure to savour.
