Luxury trains
Luxury train routes of the world
22 trains · 20 countries · ≈ 30,700 km of routes
Open the world railway map →These are the trains you ride for the train itself: restored Pullman and Belle Époque saloons, palace trains looping Rajasthan and the Konkan coast, multi-day rail cruises across the Australian outback and the Karoo. Every luxury train in the TrainRouter atlas is listed here by country — from the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express to Japan's Seven Stars in Kyushu — each with its distance, duration, operator and the story that earned it a place.
🇦🇺 Australia
- The Ghan
Named for the Afghan cameleers: 2,979 km straight through the Red Centre, completed to Darwin only in 2004.
- Indian Pacific
Ocean to ocean across Australia, including the world’s longest railway straight: 478 dead-level kilometres on the Nullarbor.
- Great Southern
The Ghan’s summer sibling. Adelaide to Brisbane the long way round, with Grampians sunsets, Canberra and a Coffs Harbour beach stop en route.
🇨🇦 Canada
- Rocky Mountaineer
All-daylight luxury through the Canadian Rockies: glass-domed coaches, an overnight hotel stop and the Kicking Horse Pass.
🇫🇷 France
- Venice Simplon-Orient-Express
Belmond’s restored Art Deco sleepers of the 1920s–30s: black tie encouraged as the Alps slide past the champagne bar.
🇮🇳 India
- Maharajas’ Express
IRCTC’s rolling palace: a week-long royal loop from Delhi through Ranthambore’s tigers, champagne breakfast beside the Taj, and evening prayers on the Ganges.
- Palace on Wheels
India’s original luxury train (1982): a week-long Rajasthan circuit in carriages styled on the private saloons of the maharajas.
- Deccan Odyssey
Maharashtra’s answer to the Palace on Wheels: a blue-liveried luxury rake looping the Konkan coast to the Ajanta and Ellora caves.
- Fairy Queen Express
Hauled by the 1855 Fairy Queen, the world’s oldest working steam locomotive, on a heritage run from Delhi out to the tiger country around Alwar.
🇯🇵 Japan
- Seven Stars in Kyushu
Japan’s first luxury cruise train: ten suites and a piano bar on a slow lap of Kyushu’s volcano country; berths routinely go to a lottery.
- Twilight Express Mizukaze
Heir to the beloved Twilight Express: emerald art-deco suites and open observation decks drifting along the San’in coast’s empty beaches.
🇵🇪 Peru
- Andean Explorer
South America’s first luxury sleeper: over a 4,319 m pass and along Lake Titicaca under Andean stars.
- Belmond Hiram Bingham
Belmond’s navy-and-gold Pullman to Machu Picchu, with brunch, a pisco bar and citadel entry folded into the fare since 2003.
🇵🇹 Portugal
- Presidential Train
Royal-blue saloon carriages built from 1890, which once carried heads of state, now a fine-dining train up the terraced Douro wine valley.
🇸🇬 Singapore
- Eastern & Oriental Express
Cream-and-green carriages gliding past rubber plantations: colonial-era glamour from the Lion City to Siam.
🇿🇦 South Africa
- The Blue Train
A five-star hotel on rails: butlers, marble bathrooms and the Karoo semi-desert rolling past for 1,600 km.
- Rovos Rail
“The Pride of Africa”: teak-panelled suites through the bushveld to the smoke that thunders.
🇪🇸 Spain
- El Transcantábrico
Spain’s first hotel-train (1983): an eight-day, metre-gauge cruise along the green Cantabrian coast from the Basque Country to Galicia.
- Al Ándalus
A rolling Belle Époque palace whose 1929 sleeping cars once carried the British court from Calais to the Riviera: now easing from Seville to Madrid in seven days.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- Belmond Royal Scotsman
Just 40 guests aboard mahogany-panelled Pullmans that cross the Forth Bridge outbound and stable each night in Highland sidings.
🇺🇸 United States
- Napa Valley Wine Train
Guests wine and dine in restored early-1900s Pullman lounge cars behind vintage 1950s Alco diesels, rolling past Napa vineyards at a tasting pace.
🇻🇳 Vietnam
- Hue–Da Nang Heritage Train
Launched in 2024 on the 1906 colonial mainline, it eases over the Hai Van Pass with clouds above and fishing fleets directly below the rails.
Photos via Wikimedia Commons — each route page credits the author & licence