The places inspiring your return to travel.

By Todd Plummer, January 24, 2022

Ah, the allure of train travel.

“Slow travelers” are drawn to this glamorous, old-world mode of exploration, but there’s also something to be said about the perspective found onboard a train–you’re really experiencing a landscape in a way that you can’t experience any other way.

A train trip often brings you where everyday roads cannot, whether it’s through untouched Malaysian jungles or high into the Canadian Rockies.

For our 34th annual Readers’ Choice Awards, we called on all of you to rank the world’s best train journeys–here are the 15 you loved most.

15. Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, Europe

Year after year, the world’s most iconic locomotive continues to be a standard-setter in luxury. Of course, the decadent interiors are a fantasy of 1920’s Art Deco design, but it’s the impeccable service that keeps this train firmly ensconced in a class of its own.

Bags are whisked off from the platform and magically reappear in your cabin, no glass ever runs empty, and the beds seem to make themselves anytime you step outside of your cabin.

By day you can revel in the scenery of French countrysides and Swiss mountain scenes, and by night, the formal dress code feels anything but stuffy—in fact, playing dress up and making your way to the art deco Champagne bar is, we think, one of the coolest experiences anyone could have on a train.

Source: The Best Train Trips in the World: 2021 Readers’ Choice Awards | Condé Nast Traveler