5 Train Rides Everyone Should Experience In Their Lifetime
Travel
By Alexandra Wade - April 4, 2022

There’s something incredibly romantic about a train ride. Some of the world’s most breathtaking vistas may be seen best from a train window. After all, how often does the journey match the beauty of the destination? And, because trains frequently travel through lesser-known cities and landscapes, you’re more likely to see something unusual. So let’s go through some of the most beautiful train rides. This exquisite Art Deco train from Venice Simplon Orient-Express, London, to Venice is steeped in romance and immersed in elegance. Passengers sit in beautiful wood-paneled automobiles, bathed in sophistication, to the sounds of piano playing and clinking crystal glasses. Vineyards, Swiss Alps, studded with cottages, and the sparkling Venetian Lagoon glide past the window.

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The Rocky Mountaineer is a luxurious and leisurely train that travels through the breathtaking scenery of the Canadian Rockies. Travelers can stare at a landscape of deep gorges, stunning snow-capped peaks, flowing rivers, and beautiful lowlands for two days. The Gold Leaf carriages provide sumptuous settings, domed glass ceilings, large windows for complete pleasure, and incredible views. This lovely blue steam train, affectionately known as The Toy Train, teeters along a narrow-gauge track that runs through the mountainous foothills of the Himalayas. The sluggish 16km/h pace offers enough opportunity to appreciate the spectacular surrounding terrain of sculpted tea plantations and lush rainforests throughout the seven-hour ascent from New Jalpaiguri to Darjeeling via India’s highest railway station.

The Glacier Train dubbed the world’s slowest express, strolls across the Alps for 180 miles from picturesque lakefront St Moritz to Zermatt. The train rumbles across over 290 bridges, dips into several tunnels and meanders past forested valleys, winding streams, and Alpine villages before approaching the looming shadow of the Matterhorn. This West Highland Line, Scotland, takes you across barren, windswept moors, past rocky hills, calm lochs, and the towering heights of Ben Nevis, sweeping through the raw beauty of the Scottish highlands. Yet, even with such breathtaking surroundings, the views from Glenfinnan’s towering viaduct, where you may gaze down over the tranquil depths of Loch Shiel, are undoubtedly the most stunning.