Luxury train travel is booming. Here’s why, and the trips you must book

Luxury train travel is booming. Here’s why, and the trips you must book

Luxury train travel is booming. Here’s why, and the trips you must book Bloomberg | | Posted by Tapatrisha Das Jan 16, 2025 01:41 PM IST Share Via Copy Link Whether the trains are crisscrossing Europe or venturing into the Japanese countryside, the business model comes with significant built-in advantages.

In 2025 the most luxurious new hotel room may be on wheels.

Passengers are obsessed with this new way of traveling on wheels.(Unsplash)

L’Observatoire, a two-person suite on Belmond’s Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, will command rates of £80,000 ($101,000) per night when it enters service in March, making it the most expensive train cabin ever. For that sum, guests will get to sleep inside a cabinet of curiosities created by French photographer and street artist JR. It includes two oculus-shaped skylights that open for stargazing, a “secret” tearoom with a fireplace hidden behind a bookshelf, and a freestanding brass bathtub near the foot of the double bed. All of it moves with the Belmond train, on voyages that connect cities like Geneva and Innsbruck or Venice and Amsterdam on one- to five-night trips. Also read | Japan’s new luxury train with tickets costing $20,000

“There’s a lot of art in hotel rooms,” says Belmond Chief Executive Officer Dan Ruff. “But this is the first time in hospitality that the art is the room.”

That may be true, but the one-of-a-kind L’Observatoire is part of a growing number of opulent, artist-created train suites crisscrossing the European continent in 2025. The first came in 2021, when Wes Anderson designed a custom carriage for the British Pullman; now the Royal Scotsman has added two Grand Suites designed by Parisian interior designer Tristan Auer. (Both are similarly owned by Belmond, which itself is owned by LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE.) In the year ahead, several more luxury trains will debut across the continent, both from Belmond and other companies, with designs each more opulent than the next.

This luxury rail renaissance “reflects a structural shift in how people want to spend their time,” says Samy Ghachem, general manager of La Dolce Vita Orient Express, a new luxury train outfit whose first hotel on wheels will have 1960s Italian interior style and en suite bathrooms for all cabins and suites when it enters service from Rome to Montalcino on April 4.

Travel advisers agree. Some of the most sought-after journeys are already sold out for the entirety of 2025 and booking well into 2026. “Think about how River Cruises blossomed in the past decade,” says Jack Ezon, founder and managing partner of luxury travel consultancy Embark Beyond. “Train travel, which is super niche and limited, will go prime time in the same way by 2030.”

“Requests for train trips have grown 158% in the past five years, especially among a younger generation,” he adds, as part of a zeitgeisty obsession with throwback luxuries. “It’s the millennial and Gen Zer obsessed with vintage record players and Polaroid cameras, buying the $1,000 cashmere Ritz Paris Frame hoodie and clamoring for a room in an uber-traditional hotel.”

It’s also a business that can grow easily in tandem with demand, says Ghachem. New trains have only a few rooms apiece, which makes them easy to fill, and then there’s “the opportunity to grow or expand by adding additional trains with new and different itineraries.” Track infrastructure is growing worldwide—consider the Tren Maya in Mexico and new routes sprouting across Europe—meaning those expenses, too, are defrayed. Also read | ‘Spa, gym, exotic food’: Inside India’s luxurious train filled with ‘royal elegance’

Ezon, Ghachem and Ruff all see the growth of ultra-luxe train trips as tapping into other trends, too, be it the thirst for slow travel, to see less-touristed (and uncrowded) towns or to shell out for longer leisure trips.

But Gary Franklin, vice president of trains and cruises at Belmond, says there’s more to it. “I’ve been on the platform when the train comes in and watched adults, who have seen and done it all, light up like children. It’s escapism and magic they’re after,” he says. It’s that experiential aspect that Belmond parent company LVMH has been prioritizing for years in response to consumer demand. “We’re in the business of travel experiences. Trains are an extension of this,” he says.

“There’s something about being spoiled, about looking at this incredible marquetry, about looking out of the windows as you pass through the Alps. It creates this magic, and that’s why people come back time and time again,” Ruff adds. “We have people just begging us to do more of these trips,” he says, pointing to repeat guests who have taken upwards of 20 train trips with the company.

To Ghachem, train magic means watching from inside a carriage as a Dolce Vita train decouples in Calabria and gets loaded onto a ferry one car at a time, just so it can cross the Strait of Messina. “There’s nothing else like it,” he says.

Both Ghachem and Ruff say that connecting train trips with hotel stays is yet another advantage. Dolce Vita guests will be able to extend their stay on land at La Minerva, the first Orient Express hotel in Rome with 93 rooms designed by the hot designer of the moment, Hugo Toro; the hotel will open in April by the Pantheon, just in time for the company’s first train departure from Roma Ostiense station. Belmond similarly runs resorts across Europe that can connect with train itineraries.

“Americans tend to come to Italy for 10 days and hit their trifecta of big cities,” says Ghachem of La Dolce Vita Orient Express’ main clientele. “The train becomes an easy [two- or three-day] add-on at the beginning or end of a trip.”

Dolce Vita has plans far beyond Italy, with three additional trains rolling out in 2026 and beyond; they’re expected to explore such places as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Uzbekistan. Belmond, too, is doubling down on global service, and operators like Seven Stars in Japan are seeing such a rush of demand that bookings are now offered only by application.

“Trains are an incredible way to experience the countryside,” says Ruff. “We can unlock things and go places that you can’t get to easily otherwise. And all this comes at a time when slow travel has never been more appealing.”

Eastern and Oriental Express, a Belmond Train, Singapore and MalaysiaFollowing a four-year pause in service due to the pandemic, this vibrant route through Southeast Asia returned in early 2024 with revamped cabins and two new seasonal, three-night journeys. They begin in Singapore and cruise through Malaysia’s dynamic cities and jungle landscapes, on a train that claims the first Dior spa in the region. From $3,410 per person.

Seven Stars in Kyushu, JapanWith only 12 suites and seven carriages, Japan’s first luxury sleeper train is as intimate as it is exclusive. In operation since 2013 and refurbished in 2022, the four-day, three-night journey through the southern island of Kyushu incorporates occasional stops so travelers can get a much closer look at the region’s mountains, seaside and hot springs. Securing a suite is a tall order, however. Interested travelers must first submit an application. Only those selected are able to book a cabin; the criteria are a mystery. From $4,293 per person. Also read | Pride of Karnataka: Golden Chariot luxury tourist train set to reignite travel with unique routes in 2024-25

Venice Simplon-Orient-Express (VSOE), a Belmond Train, EuropeEven if L’Observatoire, the JR-imagined suite, isn’t in the cards, the other cabins on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express make good on the sleeper train’s legend. Each grand suite comes with a 24-hour butler and en suite bathroom, while guests in all cabin categories can rub elbows with their fellow bons vivants in the restored 1920s bar car; dinners are concocted by the in-demand French chef Jean Imbert. The most unique itinerary is the one that operates only once a year: Paris to Istanbul in six days, with stops in Budapest and Bucharest for guided historic tours. From $22,000 per person.

La Dolce Vita Orient Express, ItalyWhen the first La Dolce Vita train enters service in April, it will take its design cues from 1960s Italian glamour. One- to three-day itineraries will take travelers around Italy in lavish, midcentury modern style, with fine dining menus created by chef Heinz Beck of the three-Michelin-starred La Pergola in Rome. Making the journey easier: Private car service will be available directly from Roma Termini station or sibling hotel La Minerva. From about €4,160 ($4,285) per person.

Rovos Rail, South AfricaSince 1989, Rovos Rail has offered 11 luxurious train safaris across South Africa in wood-paneled sleepers kitted out with art deco antiques and plush furnishings. Beyond the two- to three-day itineraries, the more complete experiences extend 11 to 15 days everywhere from Pretoria to Victoria Falls and may include mini safaris, national park drives, elephant sanctuary visits and rounds of golf. Whatever the route, all guests should make the most of the open-air balcony in the train’s observation car for exceptional views. From 34,000 ZAR ($1,796) per person.