9 of the best rail and cruise combinations

2. Venice Simplon-Orient-Express and Europe

Perhaps the most iconic train of all, the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express transports you straight to the 1920s with its polished wood, sumptuous upholstery and antique fixtures. Itineraries vary in length and connect Europe's most iconic cities, such as Paris, Rome, and Venice, but also Istanbul, Budapest, Vienna, Lyon and Prague.

From Venice you are perfectly placed to embark on any number of luxury cruise options, with most of our favourite oceangoing lines offering select voyages departing from Venice or nearby ports. From Paris, you can pick up a Seine river cruise. From Budapest, Vienna or Prague, the Danube and the rest of Europe's river network is at your door. The airport-free option of joining the train via Eurostar from London remains one of its most appealing features.

For 2026, the route from Paris to Portofino on the Ligurian coast is becoming an established highlight, with a night on the train and two nights at the Belmond Splendido Hotel Portofino. Fine dining on board comes from Michelin-starred chef Jean Imbert.

3. La Dolce Vita Orient Express and Italy

Orient Express's La Dolce Vita, aka the sweet life, began service in April 2025 and has been receiving outstanding reviews. The train is a partnership between Accor Hotels and luxury hospitality group Arsenale S.P.A. and is not to be confused with Belmond's Venice Simplon-Orient-Express. Sumptuous décor, luxurious ensuite cabins and a dining room serving gourmet Italian cuisine sit at the heart of the experience.

Itineraries from 1 to 4 nights include plenty of Rome round-trips taking in much-loved Italian destinations: Venice, Portofino, Siena, Sicily, UNESCO-listed Matera and the wine country of Piedmont. Several point-to-point journeys connect Venice, Palermo and Istanbul to Rome and back. Trains operate year-round, so combinations with cruises are easy to plan.

What is genuinely new for 2026 is how Orient Express has begun packaging the rail experience with its hotels and the Orient Express Corinthian sailing yacht as a single curated journey. The Grand Italian Tour from 22 to 31 August 2026 is a good example of how it works.

The voyage begins aboard the Corinthian in Dubrovnik, sailing the Dalmatian coast with calls at Hvar and Rovinj, where guests are taken into the Istrian forests for a private truffle hunt and tastings among hidden vineyards. Arrival into Venice by sea is followed by 3 nights at the Orient Express Venezia, a 15th-century palazzo in Cannaregio. From Venice Santa Lucia, La Dolce Vita departs with dinner and live music on board, crossing the peninsula to Siena for private access to artistic landmarks and historic palazzi, before continuing south to Rome. The journey ends with an overnight stay at Orient Express La Minerva, near the Pantheon.

Transfers between train, hotels and yacht are included throughout, together with Michelin-starred dining and curated excursions.

4. Eastern & Oriental Express and South East Asia

Belmond's Eastern & Oriental Express runs weekly 3-night round-trip departures from Singapore, exploring the Malay Peninsula's national parks, tea plantations and white-sand beaches. The programme includes traditional village visits, Peranakan cooking classes, walking tours and time at the onboard Dior Spa. Cabins are styled in vintage Belmond fashion, with Malaysian cuisine served alongside expertly crafted cocktails from the bar car.

The journey fits with several sailings. A Ponant departure on 21 April 2027 aboard Le Jacques Cartier sails an unusual itinerary through the Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia before ending in Singapore in time to join the Wild Malaysia departure on 3 May 2027. The combination gives you remote Southeast Asian island cruising followed by the heritage rail experience inland.

5. Belmond Royal Scotsman and Hebridean Princess

The Belmond Royal Scotsman is the most luxurious way to tour the Scottish Highlands, taking you from Edinburgh to the west coast and back. On board you can enjoy exquisite cuisine in the mahogany-panelled dining car and treatments at the Bamford Haybarn Spa, while travelling through some of Scotland's most spectacular landscapes.

The natural cruise pairing is the inimitable and intimate Hebridean Princess, offering voyages around the Western Isles calling at remote castles, glassy lochs and whisky distilleries. The Hebridean Princess is one of the smallest ships we book, and her Scottish itineraries reach harbours and anchorages that few other vessels could attempt.

6. Maharajas' Express and Uniworld's Ganges Voyager II

Uniworld pairs the 56-guest Ganges Voyager II with the Maharajas' Express for one of the most complete India journeys you can put together. The river cruise calls at beautiful monuments and authentic villages along the Ganges, while the Maharajas' Express takes in Agra for the Taj Mahal, the Pink City of Jaipur, frenetic New Delhi, Mumbai and more.

It works well because the two halves of the trip do different things. The river ship gives you slow, immersive time in rural Bengal whilst the train gives you the cultural set-pieces for a comprehensive holiday in India.

7. The Ghan and Australia

The Ghan offers a journey as much about the experience as the destination. Crossing nearly 3,000 kilometres from Adelaide to Darwin, it threads through Australia's vast and shifting landscapes and ochre deserts. The journey unfolds over three days, allowing time to absorb the sheer scale of the Australian interior.

From Adelaide, the train heads north through the wine regions of South Australia, into the dramatic landscapes of the Red Centre and on to Darwin. From Darwin you can pair it with the Kimberley, one of the most remote and rewarding small-ship cruising regions in the world. Several luxury expedition lines operate Kimberley voyages between April and September, and the combination with The Ghan turns a long-haul trip into something that feels genuinely once-in-a-lifetime.

8. Rovos Rail and Africa

Cruising out of Cape Town to explore West Africa or the Indian Ocean is wonderful, but better still when paired with the Victorian charm of a Rovos Rail journey to Pretoria, or further still, to Victoria Falls. This is one of the most luxurious trains in the world, travelling across the barren Great Karoo through grasslands, mountains and scenic winelands.

Cape Town is a popular embarkation port for Regent, Silversea and Seabourn. Some lines, such as AmaWaterways' Zambezi Queen, operate journeys that end at Victoria Falls itself, which is also a start or end point of one of the Rovos Rail routes. That route includes a safari game drive, neatly bridging the cruise and the rail journey with a third element of African travel.

9. Hiram Bingham and the Galápagos

Combining the Galápagos with Peru gives you two of South America's defining experiences in a single trip. The Hiram Bingham, Belmond's luxury train between Cusco and Machu Picchu, is the most refined way to make that famous journey. Polished wood, white tablecloths, brunch served as the train climbs into the Andes, and a bar carriage with live Peruvian music on the return leg. It is a single-day experience rather than an overnight train, but every detail is considered.

Flights operate several times a day between Cusco and Quito in Ecuador, giving you time to explore the city before or after heading to the Galápagos. We book Silversea's all-inclusive journeys on the luxurious Silver Origin most often, paired with their five-day Machu Picchu programme. The Hiram Bingham closes the experience properly and the combination is one of the most complete South American trips we put together.

Talk to us

This is a taster of the rail and cruise combinations we can put together. If there is a journey you have always dreamed of making, give us a call and we will help you build it.

Some of the pairings above are operated as packaged programmes by the cruise line or the train operator. Others we construct from scratch, using our own arrangements for transfers, hotel nights and the right cabins on the right departures.

Either way, the result is the same, a single trip, planned end to end, where the rail and the cruise feel like two parts of one incredible journey.