Traveling by train is one of the most luxurious ways to discover the beauty of a country. While some luxury train journeys offer spectacular scenery and gourmet cuisine, each train has its own charm of traveling around the world at a leisurely pace.
This prompted the experts at Japan Rail Pass to analyse the most popular and talked-about luxury train journeys around the world to find the very best. They looked at a variety of factors, including TripAdvisor reviews, Instagram hashtags and global search volume, and then weighted the sum to create an index score.
Top 10 luxury train journeys around the world
Train Location TripAdvisor Average Review Score Instagram Hashtag Global Average Monthly Search Volume Index Score (/10) 1 Rocky Mountaineer Vancouver, Canada 4.5 54,029 368,000 8.92 2 Golden Pass Express Montreux, Switzerland 4.4 15,786 18,100 8.39 3 The Ghan Adelaide, Australia 4.4 12,571 22,200 8.35 4 Rovos Rail Pretoria, South Africa 4.4 12,146 33,100 8.31 4 Seven Star Inn Kyushu Kyushu, Japan 4.4 49,219 3,600 8.31 6 Blue Train Pretoria, South Africa 4.2 41,654 6,600 8.29 4.4 8,731 33,100 8.13 8 British Pullman London, UK 4.4 5,222 5,400 7.77 8 The Royal Scotsman Edinburgh, Scotland 4.3 3,910 8,100 7.77 10 Maharaja’s Express New Delhi, India 4.3 2,282 90,500 7.72
1. Rocky Mountaineer, Vancouver, Canada
The Rocky Mountaineer in Vancouver, Canada, is ranked as the world’s best luxury train journey with a score of 8.92 out of 10. This luxury tourist train runs on four rail lines in British Columbia, Alberta, Colorado, and Utah. The luxury train has an average rating of 4.5 out of 5 on TripAdvisor, 54,000 hashtags on Instagram, and an average of 368,000 online searches per month. Interestingly, these search volumes are 1,933% higher than the second place and 1,558% higher than the third place.
2. Golden Pass Express: Montreux, Switzerland
Coming in second place was GoldenPass Express, which received 8.39 out of 10. Located in Switzerland, GoldenPass Express takes passengers from the resort town of Montreux to Interlaken in the Bernese Oberland. The journey takes three hours and there are four round trips per day. The tour has an average rating of 4.4 on TripAdvisor and the hashtag has 15,600 Instagram searches with an average of 18,100 online searches per month.
3. The Ghan, Adelaide, Australia
Coming in third with a score of 8.35 out of 10 is Australia’s The Ghan. The train travels between the North and South Coasts via the cities of Adelaide, Alice Springs and Darwin on the Adelaide-Darwin Rail Corridor. The luxury train has an average rating of 4.4 on TripAdvisor reviews, 12,500 Instagram tags and an average of over 22,200 monthly searches.
4. Rovos Rail: Pretoria, South Africa & Seven Stars: Kyushu, Japan
South Africa’s Rovos Rail and Japan’s Seven Stars tied for fourth place, with both trains receiving a score of 8.31/10 in the survey. Rovos Rail is a train journey around southern Africa and is said to be one of the most luxurious train journeys in the world. Seven Stars Kyushu, known as Japan’s version of the Orient Express, travels east from Fukuoka Prefecture to Oita Prefecture in four days and three nights. Both luxury trains received an average score of 4.4 on TripAdvisor and 12,000 on Instagram hashtags.
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