Top 10 Most Beautiful Train Journeys To Travel Around the World

Mixi April 13, 2022 | 07:38

Sometimes sitting back in a comfortable seat on a train and watch the scenery roll by is something exciting since you have chances to contemplate these marvellous train journeys.

Train journeys. Photo: KnowInsiders

What makes the train journey extremely fascinating is the fact that they mostly run along the periphery of cities; penetrating the vast landforms, embracing the wilderness. Far away from the population, the trail meanders close to nature.

A ride on these train journeys would leave you pulsating, make you eerie, and take you into a dreamy world where wide angle views are a privilege.

List of Top 10 Most Beautiful Train Journeys in the World

1. Rocky Mountaineer’s First Passage to the West, Canada

2. Glacier Express, Switzerland

3. The Bergen Railway, Norway

4. Derry-Coleraine railway, Northern Ireland

5. Barcelona to Montserrat, Spain

6. Kandy — Ella, Sri Lanka

7. Konkan Railway, India

8. The Serra Verde Express, Brazil

9. Nice to Ventimiglia, France, Monaco, Italy

10. West Highland Railway, Scotland

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What Are the Most Beautiful Train Journeys in the World Right Now?

1. Rocky Mountaineer’s First Passage to the West, Canada

Photo: Dynamic Travel & Cruises

The Rocky Mountaineer company provides a number of trips and holidays by train, and the First Passage to the West is the most well-known. From Vancouver, the routes take you high into the Canadian Rockies, through mountain passes and vast canyons, and across the wilds of British Columbia. Into Alberta and onto Banff, you’ll see some of the most jaw-dropping scenery anywhere in the Americas.

There are curated packages depending on what you’re looking for. From the basic two-day trip from Vancouver to Banff, you can also opt for extra sightseeing tours, or to do a 4–5 day round trip. Their Rainforest to Gold Rush route is even longer, again starting in Vancouver, but winding its way north and east for three days, traveling via Whistler and ending in the town of Jasper, surrounded by snow-capped alpine peaks.

2. Glacier Express, Switzerland

Photo: Trip

Route : Zermatt – Brig – Andermatt – Chur-St. Moritz – Davos

Duration : 7 hours 30 minutes

The Glacier Express work as a bridge between two mountain resorts: Zermatt and St. Moritz. The train ride takes you through 91 tunnels and 291 bridges. The total distance is 290 km and it takes 7½ hours to cover the distance.

It is one of the most beautiful train rides around the world where you can witness stunning beauty that includes mountain lakes and Swiss Alps. The train crosses the Oberalp Pass at 6,706 feet high as ride starts. It is one of the slowest trains as it takes you to the world’s best known scenic train.

3. The Bergen Railway, Norway

Photo: Lonely Planet

The 371 km line is correctly named as one of the most beautiful train journeys in the world. The train takes you to the most beautiful plateaus and beautiful nature in the serenity of Norway.

In northern Europe, the Bergen Railway from Oslo to Bergen is one of the highest railways. While traveling through this train you will experience Norway’s most beautiful landscapes.

Daily 4 rides are available between Bergen and Oslo, even overnight journeys are also available and it is practical but people take a day journey to experience scenic beauty. The train journey is 7 hours long that passes through 180 tunnels and has 22 stoppages.

4. Derry-Coleraine railway, Northern Ireland

Photo: Independent.ie

Travel maven Michael Palin called this “one of the most beautiful railway journeys in the world” — what more do you need to know? The 38-minute journey follows the Foyle river out of Derry, weaving through the countryside until it empties into the Atlantic Ocean at Benone Strand, one of CNN Travel’s best loved beaches. The tracks run right beside the sand here, although you can get off just afterward at Castlerock if you can’t resist a walk on the beach.

From there, the train turns inland again, following the river Bann this time, to Coleraine. You’ll be following in some important footsteps — the earliest human settlement on the entire island of Ireland is Mountsandel Fort, high up on the Bann’s high bank. It was inhabited from 7600-7900 BCE.

5. Barcelona to Montserrat, Spain

Photo: Trip

Barcelona’s grand Plaça d’Espanya is the departure point for the fearsomely beautiful journey to Montserrat, the saw-toothed mountain range rearing up in the distance behind the seaside city, and home to a Benedictine abbey since the 11th century (although the current building is from the 1800s). The 23-mile railway line rumbles through the Catalan countryside to the foot of the mountains, where the Cremallera rack railway has been heaving visitors up the mountainside since 1892 (with a break from 1957-2003).

It’s a truly astonishing ride, climbing 1,800 feet in the first 2.5 miles, helped by rack traction. Once you’re at the level of the monastery, you can take a further funicular, the Sant Joan, higher up into the peaks. From there you can hike in the mountains.

6. Kandy — Ella, Sri Lanka

Photo: PandaReviewz

Taking anywhere from eight and a half to ten hours, Kandy to Ella is in fact just one section of a longer line that runs from Colombo to Badulla. Initially built by the colonial British to transport goods such as tea, the line is now a vital transport link for locals.

It’s dusty, it’s hot, it’s exhausting, but it’s also exhilarating as carriages fill with people singing songs, selling delicious home-made food and drinks, laughing and smiling. The train heads through the hills and through the open windows you can see the dots of people in brightly-colored saris working on the tea farms. You can, if you want, ride this route in a first-class carriage, but why would you do that? This is one route where the stiff, stuffy world of first class goes against the whole point of the journey.

7. Konkan Railway, India

Photo: GIRI THE GALLIVANTER

Route : Mumbai (CST) – Roha – Veer – Khed – Chiplun – Ratnagiri – Rajapur – Kudal – Sawantwadi – Pernem – Vema – Madgaon – Cancona – Karwar – Ankola – Honnavar – Bhatkal – Kundapura – Udupi – Thokur – Mangalore

Duration : 8 Hours 30 Minutes

Goa-Karnataka border is one of the most spectacular train rides that take you to the Dudhsagar falls which is a 600 m long waterfall. The waterfall looks like the milk falling from heights andmake your trip worth your money.

The passengers on board take the train ride to watch the mesmerizing view of Dudhsagar waterfalls. Konkan railways definitely change the Indian railway’s reputation to the best and it is also pride train route for Indians.

8. The Serra Verde Express, Brazil

Photo: PandoTrip

Running from the city of Curitiba, almost a kilometer above sea level, the Serra Verde is a route that began in the 19th century through the Belgian-French company Chemin de Fer Bresilien acquiring permission to build a railway to open up trade routes. It now exists as a train carrying tourists for three hours down to the town of Morretes.

It begins in the heavily forested mountains and heads into the Pico do Marumbi State Park. A tropical wilderness of crashing waterfalls and cloud forests, make sure you get a seat by an open window to experience the full sensation of the breeze, the smells of vegetation and water, and the thrill of flying over viaducts with seemingly nothing beneath you. That, by the way, means getting a cheaper ticket: the only class that’s air-conditioned (and therefore has sealed windows) is the top Litorina de Luxo class, so get anything but that. What’s the point in being sealed in on a trip like this?!

9. Nice to Ventimiglia, France, Monaco, Italy

Photo: Viator

You’re here for the views, of course — stonking vistas of the sparkling Mediterranean, between some of its most delightful towns. But this 50-minute route is also one for your inner travel buff, since it clocks up no fewer than three countries in under an hour, starting in France, dipping into Monaco, coming back out into France and finishing just across the Italian border.

For most of the trip, starting out from Nice Riquier station, you’ll have beautiful views, clonking past Art Deco villas, and alternating between snatches of the Med between the trees, and rattling along entire bays, with towns stacked up the cliffsides. You’ll pass through some of the most fabled towns on the Cote d’Azur, like Èze (above) and lemon-filled Menton, as well as getting prime views of Monte-Carlo. You’ll know you’ve hit Italy when the smell of blooming bougainvillea hits the air.

10. West Highland Railway, Scotland

Photo: McKinlay Kidd

You’ll likely recognize the Glenfinnan viaduct, which sprawls 1,250 feet through the Scottish Highlands, trains chugging across the river Finnan at a height of 100 feet — from “Harry Potter,” if nothing else.

No wonder this is one of the world’s most spectacular train rides — the epic views on Scotland’s most famous railway line draw you straight into the Highlands without so much as leaving the carriage. Leaving Glasgow, it points straight northwest, finishing at Mallaig, where you can take a ferry to the Isle of Skye.

En route, you’ll be whisked through Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park (yes, you chug alongside the loch), past Ben Nevis and across Rannoch Moor, where the line is “floated” above the peat bogs — with red deer and stags often your nearest neighbors for miles.