Recently updated on January 14th, 2020 at 02:58 pm
What do Brief Encounter, Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express and the poet John Betjeman, all have in common? The answer: they’ve all immortalised train journeys and helped cement the romance of rail travel in popular culture. With much-loved books and films like The Railway Children playing a memorable part in childhood for many, it’s not hard to see why this romantic view of the railway endures today.
In Britain, the advent of train travel during the Industrial Revolution gave cheap transport to the masses, meaning that many were able to go away on holiday for the first time. But latterly, train travel has been sadly overlooked by the rise of budget airlines, which dispassionately ferry millions of passengers from A to B each month. However, the golden age of the railways now looks set to make a comeback, with train tours once again becoming increasingly popular as a holiday option.
Train travel isn’t just about getting from A to B; the journey itself is as much a part of the holiday experience as the ultimate destination. Advocates for travelling by train enthuse about the dramatic landscapes they have travelled through, offering views that they wouldn’t otherwise have had the opportunity to see. Fellow passengers are equally intriguing: where are they from, where are they travelling to, what is their story?
Trafalgar tours allow you to discover a range of destinations from around the world by train, so you too can embark on a romantic railway-based adventure.
On our Canada’s Rockies tour you travel aboard the Rocky Mountaineer train from Banff to Vancouver via spectacular glaciers, canyons and rivers. If it’s an exhilarating train tour you’re after, you can’t do much better than our Mexican Copper Canyon tour – billed as ‘the most exciting train journey in the world’. Known as the ‘Train in the Sky’, the railway took just shy of 100 years to construct, and there’s no better way of seeing Mexico. Your tour will give you unparalleled views of a series of stunning canyons, culminating at the Copper Canyon which is a whopping four times the size of the Grand Canyon in Arizona.
For train tours of Europe, the Glacier Express offers spectacular Alpine views like no other, steaming through Switzerland across no fewer than 291 bridges. Alternatively, embark on our Contrasts of Italy tour and explore this beautiful country on a breathtaking train journey from Rome, through Florence and up to magical Venice.
For something a little different, discover Scandinavia and Russia by train from Copenhagen to Moscow. You’ll journey through mystical forests, picturesque meadows, scenic lakes and snowy landscapes, stopping to see incredible palaces and innumerable other cultural treasures along the way.
From the Rockies to the Alps, Trafalgar puts the world’s most magnificent railways at your disposal: so what are you waiting for?
Have you been on a train tour? What did you think?
Are you planning on travelling the world by train? Let us know by commenting below!
Steam train image by m0gky on Flickr.
Rocky Mountaineer train image by Mark and Andrea Busse on Flickr.
Florence image by Martin Sojka on Flickr.