The Best Luxury Train Journeys in Europe in 2027, Ranked

Every autumn the 2027 fares arrive and every autumn the same question lands in my inbox: which of these is actually worth it? Here is my ranking for 2027, with the prices operators have published so far and honest verdicts on each. I build rail journeys for a living, so I have travelled on most of these and I sell none of them except my own, which sit at the end where you can judge them against the rest.

One distinction first, because it decides everything below. A hotel-train is a hotel that moves: you sleep on board, meals are included, and the carriage is the destination. A scheduled scenic train is public transport with extraordinary windows: you ride it for a few hours with an ordinary ticket and sleep in a hotel. The first costs from about €1,600 to £3,900 per person per night. The second costs under CHF 1,000 for the best day on rails in the world. Comparing them on price without knowing which is which is how travellers end up disappointed in both directions.

The ranking, in one table

Fares are the lowest published per person for two sharing, in the operator's currency, as of September 2026. Where an operator has not yet released 2027 prices, the 2026 figure is shown with a note. Alpina prices are per person from the two-guest rate, all rail and hotels included.

1. Glacier Express Excellence Class

Zermatt to St. Moritz in eight hours: 291 bridges, 91 tunnels, the Rhine Gorge and the Oberalp Pass at 2,033 metres. In Excellence Class you are in a twenty-passenger carriage with a guaranteed window seat, a champagne welcome, a five-course lunch with matched wines and a concierge who explains what you are looking at. In 2026 the supplement was CHF 540 on top of a first class fare of around CHF 270, so about CHF 810 all in. The 2027 price was not published when I wrote this; expect a modest rise. It ranks first because nothing else in Europe delivers this much landscape per franc, and because it fits into a real holiday rather than replacing one. It sells out about a year ahead for summer, and the train pauses for maintenance from mid-October to early December. My full guide to the Glacier Express covers seats, seasons and the lunch.

2. Venice Simplon-Orient-Express

The icon, and it earns the place. Genuinely restored 1920s and 1930s carriages, one night from Paris to Venice, dinner in the dining cars, breakfast as the Dolomites go past. The 2027 season starts at £3,885 per person in a Historic Twin cabin, the least expensive on the train, and runs well past £8,000 for a Grand Suite with its own bathroom. Two things to know. The London leg is now a separate Eurostar booking rather than a vintage Pullman crossing, and the cabins are small by five-star standards because they are original. Book it for the carriages and the theatre of it. If you are weighing it against the alternatives on value, I have done that comparison in detail.

3. La Dolce Vita Orient Express

The other Orient Express, carrying the name legitimately because the brand belongs to Accor and LVMH while Belmond runs the Venice Simplon. Italian-built, 1960s in style, working a network out of Rome to Venice, Tuscany, Matera, Sicily and the Dolomites. One-night itineraries start at €4,160 per person in 2027 and two nights from €6,560, with excursions and wine included. It ranks above the Royal Scotsman because the multi-night itineraries make the money work harder and because Italy through a train window in spring is hard to beat. If your idea of glamour is Fellini rather than Agatha Christie, this is your train.

4. Golden Eagle Danube Express

The operator still running the route the original Orient Express actually took, across central Europe towards Istanbul. Six-night Castles of Transylvania itineraries out of Budapest were about £9,800 per person in 2026, and the eight-day London to Istanbul journey is listed at £18,315 for 2027. Divide by the nights and you land near £1,600, with meals, excursions and some five-star hotel nights included, which makes it the best value hotel-train in Europe by a distance. Two caveats keep it off the podium: the carriages are comfortable rather than glamorous, and Golden Eagle does not publish full fares online, so you will be quoted by email and should ask in writing what is included.

5. Belmond Royal Scotsman

Same operator and service standard as the Venice Simplon, in the Scottish Highlands from Edinburgh between April and October, with a spa carriage and the new Grand Suites. The 2027 fares have moved sharply: two nights now start at £7,050 per person in a Double Cabin, against about £4,800 a year earlier, which is why it has slipped to fifth. Three and four night journeys run past £10,000. The train and the whisky are superb. The honest caveat is that Scotland is not the Alps, so if the window is the point this is a different proposition, and at the new price you are paying close to Venice Simplon money per night.

6. Belmond Britannic Explorer

Britain's first luxury sleeper train south of the border, launched in 2025 out of London Victoria with three-night journeys to Cornwall, the Lake District and Wales. Three nights from about £6,000 per person in a Suite in 2027, with the Grand Suites well beyond £13,000. The interiors are contemporary British rather than period, the food is serious and the excursions are good. It ranks sixth because it is new, because the landscapes are gentle rather than dramatic, and because at £2,000 a night it is priced like the classics without their history yet. Book it for the train and the food.

7. Al Andalus

Spain's grand old hotel-train, run by Renfe, six nights between Seville and Madrid through Córdoba, Cádiz, Jerez, Granada and Toledo. From €7,700 per person for 2027 in a Gran Clase cabin, €9,200 in the larger Deluxe, with meals, excursions and wine included. At around €1,280 per night it is the cheapest way to sleep on a genuinely luxurious train in Europe. The carriages are 1920s originals, restored well. Less polished than Belmond, more generous with time in each city.

8. El Transcantábrico Gran Lujo

Al Andalus's northern sister, seven nights along the green coast from San Sebastián to Santiago de Compostela, through Bilbao, Santander, Oviedo and the Picos de Europa. From €11,328 per person for 2027, again with everything included and an early-booking reduction if you commit in the season before. The suites are the largest of the Spanish trains. It ranks below Al Andalus only because the price per night is higher and the weather less reliable.

9. Le Grand Tour

The newest of the ten, a Belle Époque train assembled by the Puy du Fou theme park, five nights from Paris around France: Lake Annecy, the Arcachon basin, the Loire châteaux and Avignon, ending at Puy du Fou itself. From €8,450 per person. The carriages are handsome and the idea is generous. It sits ninth because it is young, because the itinerary is built around the park's own show at the end, and because for the same money the Italian and Spanish trains give you more nights or more history. Worth watching.

10. Bernina Express

The best value on this list by a mile. St. Moritz to Tirano in four hours over the UNESCO-listed Bernina Pass at 2,253 metres, then down through spiral tunnels into Italian vineyards. About CHF 60 in first class plus a CHF 32 reservation. It runs all year, unlike the Glacier Express. It is tenth only because it is half a day rather than a journey; as a single afternoon it is unbeatable, and I put it into most Swiss itineraries I build. If you can only do one of the two Swiss classics, my direct comparison will settle it.

The alternative: rail journeys where the hotels are the luxury

This is what I build, so read it as an interested party being straightforward. On a hotel-train the whole budget goes into the vehicle, and the vehicle, by five-star standards, is small. On a hotel-led rail journey the trains are spectacular but they are transport, and the money goes into where you sleep, what you eat and what you do with your days.

The Swiss Wellness Grand Tour is ten days and nine nights at CHF 16,000 for two, CHF 8,000 each, around CHF 890 per person per night. It includes first class rail throughout, the Glacier Express, the GoldenPass line and the mountain railways, and nine nights in grand spa hotels above Lake Lucerne and across St. Moritz, Zermatt, Montreux and Interlaken. The Grand Culinary Rail Journey is twelve days from Paris to Milan at CHF 18,400 for two, the direct answer to the Orient Express for anyone who wants Paris, the Alps and Italy with the nights in hotels. Per night, both cost less than any hotel-train on this list, for a week and a half rather than a day or two.

Three I left out, and why

The Belmond British Pullman is a day train, lunch or dinner out of London Victoria from around £435 per person. Lovely, but it is an excursion rather than a journey. The GoldenPass Express, Montreux to Interlaken in three hours for about CHF 50, is on every Swiss itinerary I build, but I count it as part of a route rather than a destination in itself. The Hurtigruten Coastal Express is a ship, and I put three nights of it into every Northern Lights journey, but it belongs on a different list.

How to choose

• You want the carriages and the legend. Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, one night, and spend the rest of the budget on the hotels either side.
• You want more than one night on board. La Dolce Vita in Italy or Al Andalus in Spain, depending on which country you would rather wake up in.
• You want the historic route east. Golden Eagle Danube Express. Nobody else does it properly.
• You want the best single day on rails in the world. Glacier Express Excellence Class, booked a year ahead.
• You want Europe by rail for ten days at that standard. A hotel-led journey. Write to me at hello@alpinatravels.com with your dates and who is travelling, and I will tell you honestly whether I can better the train you have in mind.

If the train on your list is Canadian rather than European, I have written the same comparison for the Rocky Mountaineer, and if you are deciding between the two Orient Express trains and everything else, start with the Orient Express alternatives.