7 Luxury Rail Expeditions Carving Through the World’s Most Remote and Forbidding and Terrain
-
Click here to listen to this article - Share via
- These seven luxury rail journeys pair high-end comfort with landscapes best seen slowly, from Australia’s vast interior to the Swiss Alps and the Andes.
- Routes range from the Ghan’s all-inclusive desert crossing and the Glacier Express’s eight-hour Alpine passage to Peru’s high-altitude railway, which climbs to almost 3 miles.
- New in 2026, Canyon Spirit carries travelers from Denver to Salt Lake City through Ruby Canyon, while journeys in Canada and New Zealand offer glass-dome views and dramatic coast-to-coast scenery.
If you lean toward slow travel and want some scenic adventure with your high-end comfort, the seven luxury train journeys below are a good place to start. Several belong on any list of the most luxurious train journeys in the world. Some play into the past and nostalgia, with velvet curtains and polished brass. Others may be just slightly rough around the edges through the lens of the ultra-luxury traveler. But they are all comfortable and wonderful once-in-a-lifetime journeys nonetheless.
The Ghan
Australia
Adelaide and Darwin sit nearly 1,864 miles apart, and between them is a lot of desert. Crossing this span is the Ghan, which has been running since 1929. Its name honors the Afghan cameleers who hauled supplies into the interior of the country before railways were installed.
Southern Hemisphere Destinations
The Indian Pacific Train Journey: What 4,352 Kilometers of Australian Outback Rail Actually Looks Like
The Indian Pacific runs 4,352 km between Sydney and Perth. Here’s what the 2026 trip includes, which direction to book and what each stop actually gets you.
In Gold Service, your cabin is a lounge by day. Staff turn it into beds while you dine in the Queen Adelaide Restaurant. Platinum guests get double beds and bigger windows. It’s an all-inclusive train journey, so off-train excursions are covered, whether that’s a sunrise walk outside Alice Springs or a boat up Nitmiluk Gorge near Katherine. Most people take the three-day trip. The four-day Expedition adds Coober Pedy, an opal-mining town where many residents live underground.
Bernina Express Pullman Class
Switzerland and Italy
The Pullman Class on the Bernina Express is a single Art Deco carriage that seats 32 guests. The journey starts with a glass of champagne as the train leaves St. Moritz. Fans of Baz Luhrmann’s Celia dining carriage on the Belmond British Pullman will recognize the mood.
The Bernina line tops out at Ospizio Bernina 1,400 miles (2,253 meters) by the pale-green Lago Bianco. Once it reaches this point, the route drops into Italy and loops on the Brusio spiral viaduct, part of a UNESCO World Heritage route. Lunch is three courses with wine pairings at La Gatta, a winery in Valtellina near Tirano. Coffee and petits fours are served on the ride back.
Central Andean Railway
Peru
How high can a passenger train go? The Central Andean Railway reaches 2,970 miles at Galera station, second only to Tibet’s Qinghai line. Construction began in 1870, and getting this high took 69 tunnels, 58 bridges and a run of switchbacks where the train reverses up slopes too steep to curve around.
Be warned, this one’s an adventure-first experience. Tourist class has Pullman-style seats, big windows and an observation car. The train runs only a handful of times a year, mostly around Peruvian holidays, and tickets go fast.
Rocky Mountaineer Rail Travel (Western Canada)
There’s no night travel on the Rocky Mountaineer. The train stops each evening and you sleep in a hotel, so you never miss a canyon in the dark.
The bi-level glass-dome train coaches have a full-length upper deck and a dining room below, where the menus feature British Columbia salmon and Alberta beef. From Vancouver, the route follows the Fraser River through its canyon, overnights in Kamloops and climbs through the Spiral Tunnels into Banff. Pick the Jasper route instead and you’ll pass beneath Mount Robson, at 2,457 miles the tallest summit in the Canadian Rockies.
TranzAlpine
New Zealand
You board on the dry, flat Canterbury Plains outside Christchurch. Five hours later you step off in Greymouth onto a coast wet enough to grow rainforest. The TranzAlpine crosses the Southern Alps in between, making it one of the few scenic train rides that goes coast to coast in a day. It’s a far shorter trip than the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express route to the Amalfi Coast, but the change in scenery along the route is just as striking.
High viaducts carry the train up the Waimakariri Gorge to Arthur’s Pass. From there it’s downhill through the 5-mile Otira Tunnel and on to Greymouth. Scenic Plus class adds dedicated hosts, food and drink served at your seat and a guide to the passing landscape. The open-air viewing carriage is the best seat on the train, though rarely the warmest.
Glacier Express
Switzerland
The Glacier Express is often called the slowest express train in the world, averaging about 40 km/h. The eight-hour run from Zermatt to St. Moritz crosses 291 bridges, passes through 91 tunnels and peaks at 1,263 miles on the Oberalp Pass.
Everyone gets a window and a concierge looks after the small group in the carriage. Watch for the Rhine Gorge, nicknamed the Swiss Grand Canyon, and later the Landwasser Viaduct, where the train rolls straight off the arches into a tunnel in the cliff.
In 2026, the legendary Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, A Belmond Train will embark on a groundbreaking, three-night journey from Paris to Pompeii.
Canyon Spirit
United States
Canyon Spirit is the new name, as of 2026, for Rocky Mountaineer’s U.S. route, and its new three-day itinerary runs between Denver and Salt Lake City. It’s a better way to cross the Rocky terrain than flying if you want to enjoy the journey itself (and skip airport security lines, of course).
While Canyon Spirit is not an overnight sleeper. Hosts on board fill in the history of the mining and railroad towns you pass. The food is regional too, with beer from Colorado and Utah and wine and spirits poured alongside. It’s the kind of trip people save for a milestone vacation or a special occasion.
