Back on Track

A growing crop of redesigned, redeployed sleeper trains will transport you to another era.

- Lucy Alexander

To celebrate her 25th birthday in December, Natalie Belden decided a trip to Paris with her boyfriend was the only way to go. But after booking the voyage, the Washington, DC–based pharmaceutical sales representative happened to check tickets for the Venice SimplonOrient-Express (VSOE)—a luxury train service on her travel bucket list. “Somehow there was an opening for the day after my birthday, for two people,” she says. “It was a one-night from Vienna to Paris. We weren’t even planning on going to Vienna.” But she rearranged her itinerary anyway. “That’s how badly I needed to go on this trip. I have been wanting to go on this train for years and years and years.”

What’s so special about this particular locomotive? “It’s the lure of being in Europe and getting that old-timey feel,” Belden explains, “but also being on this luxurious train that is so glamorous, and you have cocktails and Champagne.” Even though the only lodging she was able to snag was a Historic Cabin, the VSOE’s smallest room category, the experience didn’t feel like settling.

“It literally looks like a movie, like you’re getting on a Disney ride,” she says—and everything from the service to the food left an impression. She recalls a waiter at lunch telling her: “Today we have scallops with truffle, but if you don’t want this, chef can prepare anything else for you.” Here at home, she adds with more than a modicum of understatement, “there’s nothing like that”.