Top Trips for Scenic Train Journeys

This gorgeous island nation off the coast of China glistens with the green of its rice paddies, forests and valleys, not to mention a huge coastline. Our Taiwan trip is an almost perfect loop of the island, starting at the northern tip in the capital, Taipei, heading down the west coast to Taichung and Kaohsiung in the south, before heading up the east coast to Hualien and back to Taipei. Every journey between the country’s skyscraper cities offers a beautiful insight into rural Taiwan, but the locomotive highlight of our trip has to be the eastern stretch. We’ll wind directly along the stunning East Coast National Scenic Area, sandwiched between the island’s luscious greenery and the shimmering blue waters of the Pacific Ocean. You’ll pass mountains, volcanic rock formations, sandy beaches and coastal terraces, spotting a diverse array of flora and fauna as you go.

Nowhere captures the romance of train travel quite like Central Europe, which is why we simply had to bring this classic Euro Rail Trip to life. It focuses in on five of the region’s most historically significant, culturally rich and aesthetically delightful capital cities – Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest. The train rides along the way will showcase the charm of rural Europe, from its fairytale towns and villages to vast forests and famous river valleys. Our favourite route is the journey from Berlin to Prague, which ploughs straight through the verdant greenery of the German-Czech border, passing countless quaint little medieval towns along the way. An honourable mention goes to our regional train detour, from Vienna to the picturesque Danube town of Krems, which acts as our gateway to the sumptuous Wachau Valley.

The eye-watering speeds of Japan’s bullet train network allows us to see so much of this country’s surprisingly diverse natural landscape in so little time. That’s the inspiration behind this comprehensive 12-day Rail Trip, which manages to fit Osaka, Hiroshima, Kyoto, Hakone and Tokyo in one trip, and that’s just the cities. You’ll also get to explore Lake Ashi, Miyajima Island, Arashiyama bamboo forest and the Japanese Alps. It’s hard to pick just one route as the most scenic stretch, but keep an eye out for Mount Fuji on the journey between Takayama and Hakone, seeing Japan’s tallest mountain from one of its iconic high-speed trains is a moment you’ll never forget.

You may not associate Italy with efficient, high-speed rail, but you will after joining us on this nine-day classic across the most iconic regions of the north. We’ll start in Rome, before heading north to Florence and Siena, continuing up through Emilia-Romagna, stopping off at Bologna and Parma, before finally reaching Milan, with an extra little day trip to Lake Como thrown in. It’s a trip full of ancient cities, glamorous piazzas and utterly sumptuous culinary delights, but the most scenic stretch of our Italian extravaganza has to be the early routes through the Tuscan countryside. The journey from Rome to Florence is spellbinding, as you whizz through the rolling hills of Tuscany, embellished with local vineyards and olive groves, the occasional ancient church or cute medieval town. You’ll never want the journey to end, not until you realise that when you arrive you’ll be able to explore those old towns and sample that delicious wine for yourself.