There is a version of travel that has largely disappeared. It has no security queues, no overhead locker arguments and importantly, no turbulence, but can garner some of the most breathtaking views.
Train travel at its best is not always about the transportation, rather the journey itself. And the journeys on this list are the reason people plan entire trips around a single rail route.
Seven of the finest from the Swiss Alps to the Sri Lankan highlands, for whenever you are ready to slow down on purpose.
1. Glacier Express, Switzerland
St. Moritz to Zermatt in eight hours, through 91 tunnels and across 291 bridges, with the Matterhorn waiting at the other end. The Swiss call it the world’s slowest express train, which tells you everything about how seriously they take the journey itself. The route climbs through the Rhine Gorge, crosses the Oberalp Pass at 2,033 metres and drops into the Valais valley with a view that will make you almost instinctively put your phone down. Excellence Class seats are arranged one by one on each side of the car, everyone gets a window, and lunch is served on real china. Book well ahead, especially in summer.
2. Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, Europe
The carriages date from the 1920s and 1930s, and nobody has tried to update them because there is nothing to improve. Polished veneer, inlaid marquetry, white linen in the dining car, a bar that stays open as long as you need it to. The flagship route runs from Paris to Venice overnight, through the Alps and into northern Italy at a pace that lets you watch the landscape actually change. Routes now extend to London, Istanbul, Prague and beyond. It starts at around £3,900 per person for a twin cabin and gets considerably more serious from there. Worth every bit of it.
Book: https://www.belmond.com/trains/europe/venice-simplon-orient-express/journeys
3. Rocky Mountaineer, Canada
The Rocky Mountaineer runs daylight only, which sounds like a limitation until you realise it means you do not miss a single hour of the Canadian Rockies passing your window. Vancouver to Banff or Jasper, through Fraser Canyon, past Tiffany-blue glacier lakes and forests that go on longer than feels possible. The GoldLeaf service puts you in a glass-dome upper deck with open-air platforms and a private dining room below. It is the kind of train that people describe using words they would normally reserve for hotels, and they are not wrong to.
4. Flam Railway, Norway
Just under an hour long and one of the steepest standard-gauge railway lines in the world. The Flamsbana climbs 863 metres from the Sognefjord shoreline at Flam up to the mountain station at Myrdal, through 20 tunnels, past waterfalls that fall directly onto the track, and into a landscape that does not look entirely real. In winter the whole thing goes white and the waterfalls freeze mid-fall. In summer the valley is so green it looks edited. Either way, it is not a journey you forget quickly. A return ticket costs less than you would expect, and it connects directly to the broader Norway in a Nutshell route if you want to extend it into something longer.
5. The Ghan, Australia
Adelaide to Darwin, or the reverse, is 2,979 kilometres through the red heart of Australia over two nights, with the landscape shifting from the green ranges of the Flinders to the red desert of the Centre to the tropical north as you arrive. The Ghan has been running since 1929 and the Platinum service is about as comfortable as a moving object gets, with private ensuite cabins, a dedicated lounge car and a chef doing things with Australian ingredients that have no business being this good this far from anywhere. The off-train excursions at Alice Springs and Katherine Gorge are legitimately excellent.
Book: https://www.journeybeyondrail.com.au/journeys/the-ghan
6. Bernina Express, Switzerland and Italy
Chur to Tirano, across the Swiss-Italian border and through a UNESCO World Heritage landscape that the Glacier Express does not reach. The line crosses the Bernina Pass at 2,253 metres, the highest railway crossing in the Alps, and the view from the Landwasser Viaduct, a curved stone bridge that disappears directly into a tunnel on the far side, is one of the most photographed moments in rail travel. The whole journey takes about four hours and the panoramic windows tilt to let you look straight up at the peaks without getting a crick in your neck. Deceptively short for how much it delivers.
Book: https://www.rhb.ch/en/panoramic-trains/bernina-express
7. Kandy to Ella, Sri Lanka
The most photographed train door in the world is on this route. You will recognise it when you see it: someone hanging off the open carriage door of a blue Sri Lankan train with tea plantations stacked up the hills behind them. The journey from Kandy into the hill country runs past waterfalls, through tunnels cut into the rock and alongside rows of tea as far as you can see. Ella itself is worth the trip even before you factor in the train. A note worth knowing: parts of the line suffered cyclone damage in late 2025 and services between Kandy and Nanu Oya were still disrupted at the time of writing. Check current conditions before booking, and book as far ahead as you can. Seats on the best trains go quickly.