The Best Luxury Train Journeys in 2026: Twelve Trains Scored

Seven Stars in Kyushu is the best luxury train in the world in 2026, at 93 out of 100 on route, cabins, dining, rarity, value and record; the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express scores 92, Train Suite Shiki-shima 91, Rovos Rail’s Pride of Africa 89, the Twilight Express Mizukaze 88 and the Royal Scotsman 86. The Orient Express starts at GBP 3,885 for a Historic Cabin on the Paris–Vienna night and runs to GBP 19,900 for the five-night Istanbul journey; Japan’s three trains are allocated by lottery rather than sold, and two of the three application windows are shut as this is published; Rovos runs the longest journeys on earth at sixteen nights. The index below says who operates each train, where it goes and what decides its score; the breakdown, the booking calendar and the questions readers ask follow.

Europe: Belmond, Accor and the Alps

The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express had eleven journeys still bookable for 2026 when this page was re-read on 14 September, and publishes thirty-five for 2027 — the classic Paris–Venice night, Paris–Florence, Paris–Portofino with a stay at the Splendido, Istanbul–Paris over five nights, and Paris to the Amalfi Coast, which turns out to run in 2027 as well as its 2026 inaugural year. Belmond prices 2026 in sterling and 2027 in euros, and it is worth reading the route each price belongs to: a Historic Cabin from GBP 3,885 is the Paris–Vienna night via Budapest, GBP 4,275 is Venice–Paris, and GBP 19,900 buys five nights Istanbul–Paris. Paris–Florence is from GBP 10,625 in a Suite; the three-night Paris–Portofino and Splendido is from GBP 9,550 in a Historic Cabin. The 2027 season opens at EUR 4,510. The train carries 32 Historic Cabins, 16 Suites, 6 Grand Suites and L’Observatoire. Every route and cabin is priced on what the Orient Express costs, with the itineraries compared on Orient Express itineraries and the full guide at the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express guide. The Royal Scotsman circles the Highlands from Edinburgh Waverley with 18 sleeper cabins, two dining cars and a Dior Spa car, two to seven nights; the guide is here. The Britannic Explorer takes London to Cornwall, Wales and the Lakes over three nights and scores 78 because it has no record yet; the group has covered Belmond’s trains, hotels and boats in the Belmond dossier.

La Dolce Vita Orient Express, Accor’s train rather than Belmond’s, has outgrown the four-destination description it launched with: twenty-four overnight itineraries of one to four nights now leave Rome, Venice, Palermo and Istanbul, across 31 cabins, with a restaurant car under Heinz Beck. A four-night Rome–Istanbul route joins the programme in October 2026. It scores 80 with the same new-entrant deduction. The Glacier Express Excellence Class is the exception on the index: a day train from Zermatt to St. Moritz, 7h 45m eastbound and 8h 29m coming back. Excellence Class is not a fare but a mandatory CHF 540 seat reservation on top of a full-route first-class ticket, which at CHF 272 makes the real number about CHF 812 — and buys a guaranteed window seat, a champagne aperitif, a five-course menu with wine and a concierge for the twenty seats. It scores 25 out of 25 on route and 8 out of 20 on cabins, which is the honest shape of a train you do not sleep on. The wider European circuit is on the best luxury trains in Europe.

Japan: three trains you apply for

Seven Stars in Kyushu runs the Yufuin and Unzen circuits over three nights and the Waita course over one, across seven cars and ten guest rooms that are all suites, and tops the index on cabins, dining and rarity together. Train Suite Shiki-shima loops Tohoku and Hokkaido from Tokyo over two to four days in ten cars and fifteen suites. The Twilight Express Mizukaze runs San’in and Setouchi courses between Kyoto and Shimonoseki, one night one-way or two on the round tour, and its whole-car room is THE SUITE rather than the Royal Twin and Royal Single that fill the other cars. It is the one of the three this site has covered cabin by cabin: the guide, routes and itineraries, the suite cabins compared, what it costs and how to apply. Nankai’s new train to Mt Koya is covered on its own page, and the practical side of Japanese rail, from the Japan Rail Pass to data on the Shinkansen (Airalo, affiliate link), is on the desk.

Africa and the Americas

Rovos Rail scores 25 out of 25 on route and 12 on rarity: the three-night Pretoria–Cape Town runs often, the long journeys a handful of times a year. Rovos does not publish fares on its own site, but its 2026–27 rate sheet does, and the numbers are worth knowing before you enquire — three nights Cape Town–Pretoria from ZAR 54,000 per person in a Pullman suite, the sixteen-night Cape Town–Dar es Salaam from USD 18,200, the fifteen-night African Trilogy from ZAR 286,000. Suites run 7, 10 and 16 square metres. The guide is Rovos Rail, Pride of Africa. The Andean Explorer runs one and two nights at altitude with a spa car and an observation deck; the two-night Peruvian Highlands from Cusco to Arequipa is the one to take. Rocky Mountaineer is scored as what it is, the best daylight train in North America with hotel nights between its two days. Its map has changed since the last scoring: Rockies to the Red Rocks, the Denver route, now runs under Canyon Spirit, a separate brand in the same ownership, while a fourth Canadian route, Passage to the Peaks between Jasper and Lake Louise, started in summer 2026. The routes are compared on the Rocky Mountaineer routes guide. Multi-day rail packages that bundle the hotel nights, transfers and a guide are sold on TourRadar (affiliate link); for the nights before and after any of these trains, Booking.com (affiliate link) has the widest inventory in Pretoria, Cusco and Vancouver.

How the twelve trains are scored

Trains are re-scored quarterly. Nothing on this page is scored on request, the operators had no input, and the case against each train, the daylight-only format, the new-entrant record, the application lottery, is printed in the same row as the case for. A train can move: the Britannic Explorer and La Dolce Vita will gain record points as their second seasons complete.

New trains, and what is coming

A train joins this index once it has carried passengers. That is not caution for its own sake: a record is 10 of the 100 points and cannot be awarded in advance, which is why the Britannic Explorer and La Dolce Vita both sit lower than their hardware deserves. Canyon Spirit is the clearest case of the opposite problem — a route that already has a record, now sold under a different name, which is why Rocky Mountaineer keeps its 77 while losing a route. Arsenale, which owns La Dolce Vita and bought Golden Eagle Luxury Trains in 2025, is quietly assembling the first multi-continent luxury rail group: its September 2026 stake in SJourney adds Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City to a portfolio that already runs Italy and Saudi Arabia. Of the three genuinely new trains, Luna Azul is the one to watch for reasons of price rather than luxury — JR East has indicated a fare close to a Shinkansen Green Car, which would put a private room on an overnight Japanese train within reach of people who will never win the Seven Stars lottery.

When and how to book

Two rules beat brand knowledge. First, buy the route, not the train: the same Belmond carriages feel different on a one-night Paris–Venice and a five-night Istanbul, and the Rocky Mountaineer is a different product on Rainforest to Gold Rush than on First Passage to the West. Second, price the whole trip: the nights before and after, the transfers and the excursions can double a two-night fare, and the complete guide to luxury train journeys walks through the arithmetic. Day trips at the rail gateways, Venice, Cusco, Cape Town and Banff among them, are on GetYourGuide (affiliate link). Belmond’s hotels at either end of its trains, the Cipriani in Venice, the Splendido in Portofino, the Monasterio in Cusco, are in the Belmond dossier; the wider expeditions desk is at expeditions.

Straight answers to the questions readers ask