Trips We Won't Be Taking: A Ride on the Orient Express

We read recently on Tony Wheeler's blog (that's Tony Wheeler of Lonely Planet fame) that when he needed to get from the UK to Italy, he decided to skip the affordable, quick trip on Easy Jet and take a ride down on the Orient Express. We were intrigued and the idea of chugging across Europe in a vintage locomotive appealed to our romantic sensibilities. But, his account of his trip was noticeably lacking any details on how one could take such a trip themselves. Details that we quickly learned took this romantic ride deep into luxury travel territory.

While Tony's blog was lacking in details, we did a bit of research and discovered a private company, Orient-Express Hotels, Trains and Cruises, that runs some of the old trains. They have a variety of routes and excursions around the countryside of Great Britain and a few longer routes through Europe. But this isn't just transportation, it's an experience and the ticket prices reflect that. Essentially a cruise over land, a ticket from London to Rome on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express will set you back over $3000 and take four days. They feed you, drop you off at various scenic tourist spots along the way and expect you to foot the bill on the overnight accommodations when they're in "port." I discovered there is an American Orient Express train, as well. A similar service with a similar price tag, that allows you to see the US comfortably from your pullman car as the countryside rolls by your window. Check out this promotional video I found via Debo Hobo (Thanks Deborah!)

While train enthusiasts or amateur sleuths hoping for a murder mystery to solve may find the Orient Express appealing, we quickly decided to stick to regular old rail. While it's nowhere near as glamourous and not nearly romantic, we just can't help but think, just like the cruise ship, these "luxury" trains sound great in theory but never live up to their end of the bargain.