Agatha Christie travel tips

“If you need to update Facebook, do it now,” the conductor announces over the tannoy. The passengers chuckle but dutifully pull out their phones. As we trundle into the snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountains, we’re about to enter another mobile dead zone.

Luxe train travel aboard the Orient Express is expanding, but expect this growth to be more about modern luxury and less about Agatha Christie and murder.

Belmond, the luxury company behind the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express (VSOE), made a historic announcement this week that will delight those who love luxury European luxury train travel. The company said that in June 2024, the VSOE will travel to the Italian Riviera for the first time on a three-night experience that links Paris and the Ligurian coastal resort of Portofino. Once in Portofino, guests check into the Splendido, A Belmond Hotel, for two nights.

Demand for luxury train travel has surged in the wake of the pandemic. The leisurely pace and atmosphere of Old-World glamour that define these voyages appeal to travelers seeking time for reflection and deeper connections to the people and places encountered along the way. While Europe boasts the Orient Express, Japan’s Seven Stars in Kyushu represents the pinnacle of luxury rail travel in Asia. Newly renovated last year—and a reader favorite—the Seven Stars celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. With only 10 cabins and a maximum of 20 guests, the deluxe liner elevates the art of omotenashi (Japanese hospitality) to new heights.

While many films have been set in Venice, Kenneth Branagh’s latest murder mystery reveals a less glimpsed—and more ghostly—side of the city. A Haunting in Venice, based on Hallowe'en Party by Agatha Christie, finds Hercule Poirot, played by Branagh himself, in retirement in the Italian city in 1947. However, given the Belgian detective's knack for getting ensnared in a mystery, he is soon enticed into attending a séance in a grand palazzo on Halloween night, where a murder reveals possible supernatural occurrences. Once inside the house, Poirot is haunted by unseen spirits in his search for the truth.

Those who love to be the among first guests to experience a new hotel have one thing going for them—the world keeps opening more. From the Maldives to Milan to Manhattan, here are the top new luxury hotels to check out (and into) this fall.

The Nile River has long been one of the most mysterious, glamorous, and legendary destinations in the world. It has attracted well-heeled travelers and adventurers for centuries, well after the Pharaohs roamed. In 1933, writer Agatha Christie immediately put the Nile River on everyone’s bucket list when she sailed from Cairo to Aswan. Her experiences were documented in one of her most well-known novels Death on the Nile.

It’s trendy for hotels to try to create a live-like-a-local experience for travelers, but Sommerro House in Oslo, which launched in September 2022, will prompt its rivals to level up their games.

Everybody knows the Isle of Man, Guernsey, Skye. But what about the other 6000-odd British Isles? Yes, we did say 6000. From the chunky Shetland Islands in Scotland’s far north to the sunny Isles of Scilly slung out from the coast of Cornwall, the British Isles are made up of islands of all shapes and sizes. Pick the right one and you could even have it all to yourself.

Over 100 people were trapped for several hours in Greenway, the former home of famed British mystery writer Agatha Christie, in the English countryside on Friday.