A Sampling of the World’s Great Train Rides

Some of the world’s great journeys start with a great train ride. You can ride the rails on all continents but Antarctica. Choose from the 400 mile Copper Canyon trip to the 5771 mile Trans Siberian trip to the short St. Moritz to Zermatt trip.

Here’s a sampling of the world’s greatest train rides:

• Copper Canyon Railway will take you from Los Mochis to Chihuahua, Mexico.

• Trans-Siberian Railway takes you 5771 miles from Moscow to Vladivostok on the Pacific Ocean across 10 time zones.

• Lhasa Express takes you from Beijing, China to Lhasa, Tibet. This is a 4,064 km trip and if you’re a budget traveller you’ll be thrilled with the $US49 hard seat price. Try that for 3 days!
• The Ghan Train is a journey from Adelaide to Darwin, Australia. You will travel 2979 kms over 2 nights and 3 days through the outback.

• The Glacier Express is only a 7.5 hour trip and takes you from St. Moritz to Zermatt, Switzerland.
• The Rocky Mountaineer offers a few options but the most popular one leaves from Vancouver, BC and heads to Jasper, Alberta over one night and two days.

• Oslo-Bergen Railway in Norway is considered to be one of the most beautiful train rides in the world. It sounds like a true adventure in the winter when major storm cells hit. You can get off along the way and explore on foot, bike or skis.

• Peru Rail takes you from Cusco to Machu Picchu, Peru

• The Pride of Africa links Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania to Capetown, South Africa on one of the most luxurious trains in the world.

I have omitted many of the shorter, scenic trips and barely touched on Europe. The Man in Seat Sixty-One is an excellent resource to help you with further planning.

Leigh McAdam

HikeBikeTravel

You might also like: