Travel the World's Luxury Trains at a Discount

By Diana Korte

The most popular route on The E&O, an elegant Orient-Express train, is the four-day itinerary between Singapore and Bangkok.

Many regard riding the rails on fabled trains as one of the world's great travel experiences.

These great trains, which hark back to the golden age of rail travel when every moment of a journey was to be savored and enjoyed, are located on most continents and offer a level of service, posh surroundings and all-inclusive fine dining that you will not find on a typical airline flight today, never mind on a road trip where you have to do all the driving.

Pay attention to your driving.

And in these tough economic times, you'll be surprised to find that booking passage on a luxury train may just be the best travel buy of the year, as current discounts include reduced prices, extended stays, new stops and added amenities.

Following are details about three of these trains -- the Hiram Bingham in South America, the Royal Scotsman in Europe and the Eastern & Oriental Express in Asia -- which offer fine china, white linen, handsome rail cars, musical entertainment and the opportunity to enjoy the sights and sounds of the magical world of storied rail travel!

THE HIRAM BINGHAM

There are no roads to Machu Picchu.

You either walk from Cusco on the Inca Trail (some five to six days at a good clip) or you get there by rail. PeruRail (www.orient-express.com/web/tper/tper_luxurytravel_introduction.jsp), a division of Orient-Express, offers two trains.

One of them, the Hiram Bingham, will get you to this fabled destination in high style.

Peru's Machu Picchu, one of the most fabled destinations in the world, is what's waiting at the end of the line on the posh Hiram Bingham train.
Peru's Machu Picchu

This 84-passenger train is named for the Yale anthropologist who first traveled from North America in 1911 in search of the Lost City of the Incas. He didn't find it, of course. Instead he discovered Machu Picchu, today, the most visited archeological site in South America.

In today's Peru you can taste the foods that were daily fare more than 500 years ago when the Incas ruled.

Even the Pisco Sour served on the Hiram Bingham is made with a bit of local brandy enjoyed by Incans centuries ago. Some of the recipes on the train's menu also make use of Peruvian ingredients, including the smoked alpaca quiche with artichokes and the asparagus and scrambled eggs on a quinoa tart. The quinoa and the alpaca are particularly Peruvian, but the ancient people who lived here also developed tomatoes, potatoes and chilies.

Included with the Hiram Bingham ticket is an afternoon tea at the Orient-Express Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge, the only hotel at the ruins. The afternoon tea takes place after a private tour of the site and most of the tourists have left for the day. This point is far more important than it might seem at first reading. The ruins attract thousands of visitors a day and they must all leave the site by 3 p.m., when the last tour bus rolls out. Unless they're traveling with Orient-Express (www.orient-express.com).

SPECIAL OFFER:

First-Class Peru currently offers an eight-day tour of the greatest cities and sites in Peru. It includes accommodations at three of their hotels, internal air, a number of meals, complimentary spa treatments and other services, as well as travel on the Hiram Bingham train.

THE EASTERN & ORIENTAL EXPRESS

The gleaming carriages of this 132-passenger Orient-Express train carried us over four days on the most popular Eastern & Oriental Express itinerary from Singapore and Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok. While viewing the exotic lushness of the Southeast Asian landscape through the train's windows, it was easy to imagine an earlier time of linen suits and tea dances.

One evening we dined lavishly on Thai-style baked salmon, papaya salads and Panaeng Khai chicken curry with jasmine rice. When we weren't eating breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner, we stopped a couple of times a day for excursions that took us on ferries, boats, and once on a trishaw ride through Butterworth in Malaysia.

On one excursion, we boarded a local raft moored near the bridge over the River Kwai, walked through a houseboat where locals danced to Western music and walked in silence along the path to Don Rak War Cemetery. The uniform rows of white grave markers honor the nearly 7,000 Australian, Dutch and British war prisoners who lost their lives nearby during World War II.

SPECIAL OFFER:

E&O offers train journeys in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Laos, as well as all-inclusive holidays that feature hotel stays and tours of famous sites (http://www.orient-express.com/web/eoe/eoe_a2a_home.jsp).

THE ROYAL SCOTSMAN

Scotland is known for it's castles and Scotch whisky -- you'll enjoy both on this train -- as well as its lochs and glens, firths and forths. Even golf. But Scotland's also on the map for having one of the most glamorous of all luxury trains, the Royal Scotsman, which offers journeys of two to seven nights. Our popular four-day journey, The Classic, aboard the 36-passenger, maroon-and-gold liveried train began with a traipse to the tracks led by a kilted bagpiper at Waverly Station in Edinburgh. We then headed off across the Scottish Highlands.

We soon grew accustomed to a wee bit of coddling and comfort, which included divine meals and castle visits, especially to Glamis Castle, the family home of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mum, mother of Elizabeth II, who grew up here as the ninth of 10 children. It was spring in the highlands, raining and we were only a dozen miles from the frigid North Sea, but the Scots are used to that. We stopped at Strathisla Distillery, which dates back to 1786, the home to Chivas Regal, and learned how to party Scots style at a ceilidh. One of the requirements for this sort of merrymaking is drinking a little whisky. Once we did that, our central heating switch turned on, we didn't feel the cold anymore, and we danced away learning the steps to the Gay Golden and Stripping the Willow. And that was just the first night on the train.

SPECIAL OFFER:

If you book a trip on any of this exquisite train's 2009 already discounted departures, you stay a night for free at Edinburgh's Hotel Balmoral, another classic gem (http://www.royalscotsman.com). Abercrombie & Kent (www.abercrombiekent.com) made our travel arrangements on this train. They're one of the world's leading luxury tour operators.

OTHER LUXURY TRAINS

The British Pullman travels on full-day outings from London with restored art-deco coaches that were the fastest and grandest way to travel from London to Paris and London to Brighton 75 years ago. Today, this train is the British section of the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, which travels across Europe. A new travel package features day trips with fine dining onboard and stays at London's historic Goring Hotel, located a block from Buckingham Palace.

For more information about train travel, visit The Society of International Railway Travelers (www.irtsociety.com). They offer bookings and provide information for luxury, first-class and steam train tours in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America.

Travel | World's Luxury Trains at a Discount - Diana Korte World's Fare