Wealthy travelers are flocking to luxury trains costing more than $4,000 a night

04.01.2025 - 13:29 / insider.com / Rocky Mountaineer

Vintage luxury is making a comeback. Not just with clothes, but with a particularly beloved mode of transit — trains.

Set to debut in April, Italy's La Dolce Vita Orient Express would offer guests luxuries like a stylish lounge, Champagne buckets from Giobagnara (which can command more than $500 each), and meals curated by the chef of Rome's three-Michelin-starred La Pergola.

Expect dishes like calamari carpaccio and lamb with artichoke and truffle shavings — for lunch, no less.

"It's all a bit pricey, but we're determined to put all the finest stuff made in Italy on board this train," Samy Ghachem, the coming train's general manager, told Business Insider.

La Dolce Vita Orient Express is not to be confused with Belmond's iconic Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, best known for its sumptuously restored century-old carriages. Both trains are helping lay the tracks for a revitalized rail renaissance characterized by surging demand and increasingly high-end amenities.

Train-focused tour company Railbookers had been experiencing double-digital growth before 2020. However, after the pandemic and the subsequent boom in "slow travel," popularity started going express.

Frank Marini, president and CEO of Railbookers Group, told BI that 2023 and 2024 have consecutively been the company's best-performing years, with no signs of slowing down. During this period, Railbookers also saw a 68% spike in luxury-level bookings.

"It keeps snowballing," Marini said. "We see passengers that have come back traveling with us on a lot of luxury rail, and they're like, 'well, where else is there luxury rail?'"

Unlike bus tours or flights, the vacation experience doesn't begin when you arrive at your destination. Instead, like cruises, it starts when passengers board.

And unlike their at-sea counterparts, trains are one of the most eco-friendly ways to travel.

Plus, the amenities can be as lavish as a five-star hotel. Guests traveling Canadian Via Rail's Prestige Class have enhancements like a butler and a private bathroom with heated floors. Gold-level US and Canada's Rocky Mountaineer travelers get a dining room, an open-air viewing platform, and glass dome lounges.

On Belmond's Andean Explorer, based in Peru, suite guests slumber in 141-square-foot bedrooms with private bathrooms and lounges.

Such luxury comes at a cost, of course.

Andrew Channell, Railbookers Group's senior vice president of product and operation, estimates a typical multi-day luxury train trip, but not of the highest-end tier, could cost around $3,000 per person and day.

And then there's the iconic Venice Simplon-Orient Express, where a one-night journey from Venice, Italy, to Paris starts at about $4,370 per person for a basic cabin with a shared bathroom.

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