HOLIDAYING ONATRAIN? NOWTHAT’S RAILLUXURY
With Belmond (the people who run the famous Venice Simplon-Orient Express) about to take to the rails in Ireland any day now with their much-heralded Grand Hibernian luxury train, it seems that train travel, of the up-market variety, is holding its own in the travel stakes.
Just have a squint at the Belmond website, for example, and you’ll see how many Grand Hibernian journeys are already sold out. And that’s with prices starting from €3,160 per person for the shortest of those journeys – the two-night ‘Realm of Giants’ trip.
Of their four-night ‘Legends and Loughs’ itinerary, priced at €5,420 per person, two of the four trips scheduled for September are completely sold out. Ditto for the six-night ‘Grand Tour of Ireland’, which will set you back €7,722.
I haven’t sampled any kind of preview of this particular train, but I’d imagine that the standards will be on a par with Belmond’s legendary Venice-Simplon Orient Express, which I was lucky enough to experience a few years ago. And all I can say about that adventure can be encapsulated in one word – ‘wow!’
Of course, there is the added plus with the OrientExpress of the sense of history that comes with that particular train, each carriage having its own back-story, as it were. But overall it’s the attention to detail, the beauty of the carriages, the wonderful food and the great Belmond staff that make it so memorable – as well as the scenery, of course, particularly on the Venice to Paris leg of the journey.
The Grand Hibernian, however, isn’t the only new kid on the luxury-train block. Indeed, Belmond themselves have another one up their sleeves – the Andean Explorer, which will start running next summer in Peru. (They already have the Hiram Bingham train operating in that country.)
The Andean Explorer will accommodate almost 70 guests – that’s 30 more than the Grand Hibernian – and will travel on one of the highest rail routes in the world. As with the Grand Hibernian, this train also offers different ‘tours’, so whether it’s Lake Titicaca you want to see, or the World Heritage city of Arequipa, those options are on offer. Prices are from around a fairly reasonable all-inclusive €400 per person for a one-night trip.
Luxury trains are nothing new. The Blue Train in South Africa is long established on the Pretoria to Cape Town route, for example, while India is awash with luxury trains, from the Maharajas’ Express to the Royal Rajasthan on Wheels.
Meanwhile, Japan – known, of course, for its famous ‘bullet’ trains – is about to slow things down somewhat next year. For 2017 is the year that will see the arrival there of two new luxury sleeper services: the Twilight Express Mizukaze and the Shiki-Shima Train Suite. The latter will tour the northeast area of Tohoku and Hokkaido, while the Twilight train will operate in western Japan, touring Osaka, Mount Daison and Kyoto. Both of the new Japanese trains are intimate in terms of guests, accommodating just 30 (Twilight) and 34 (Shiki-Shima).
I love trains. From the bog-standard Regionale locomotives that operate across Italy, and the top-speed TGVs in France, to the sheer luxury of the beautiful Venice-Simplon Orient Express.
There’s something very special, however, about being on a sleeper train, something so comforting about dropping off to the sound of that ‘clickety-clack, clickety-clack’ as you speed through the night to your destination.
And to do it in style, especially if you are marking a special occasion, really does take train travel to a whole new level.