Best of the best

Our picks of the top railway journey experiences, gear, accommodation, food and more

CASTLES OF TRANSYLVANIA, GOLDEN EAGLE LUXURY TRAINS You’ll feel like a modern-day Poirot on the Golden Eagle Danube Express — especially on the Castles of Transylvania journey ( BELOW), which wends through western Turkey, up through the Balkans and on to Budapest, Hungary. The rail cruise begins with a night in Istanbul’s grand old Pera Palace Hotel, where in the early 1930s Agatha Christie wrote Murder on the Orient Express. goldeneagleluxurytrains.com