Trains are a great way to budget travel – where would thousands of young travellers be without the interrail pass, eh? – but they’re great for getting around luxuriously, too, and sometimes the train journey is the holiday itself.
But which luxury train journeys are the cream of the crop? Japan Rail Pass has done some digging and analysed Tripadvisor reviews, Instagram hashtags and global search volumes to create an index score and rank the world’s best luxury train rides.
Steaming ahead into first place is the Rocky Mountaineer which has a staggering 54,029 Instagram hashtags and is searched 368,000 per month. The operator runs four rail routes in British Columbia, Alberta, Colorado and Utah, and with that epic mountain scenery, it does sound pretty ‘gram-worthy.
In second place is the GoldenPass Express in Montreux, Switzerland which connects with Interlaken, a beautiful lakeside town in the Bernese Oberland. Tripadvisor reviews of this service are a healthy 4.4 on average, and overall the train has an index score of 8.39. Check out the rest of the list below. Oh, and here’s our roundup of the world’s best luxury train rides – there’s plenty of overlap!
These are the 10 best luxury train rides in the world
- Rocky Mountaineer, Canada
- GoldenPass Express, Switzerland
- The Ghan, Australia
- Rovos Rail, South Africa
- Seven Stars in Kyushu, Japan
- The Blue Train, South Africa
- Venice Simplon Orient Express, England
- British Pullman, England
- The Royal Scotsman, Scotland
- Maharajas’ Express, India
Choo-choosing luxury? Read more on Time Out
From Anantara’s five-hour super-luxe train in southern Vietnam to this whopper 80-day journey which zig-zags all over the planet, we’re spoilt for choice when it comes to luxury rail travel.
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