These train journeys are the peak of rail travel perfection.
Eight train trips from around the world that will transport you through spectacular mountain scenery.
What’s more, they all have the seal of approval from the adventure experts at Lonely Planet, because they feature in the guide’s Amazing Train Journeys tome.
From the Scottish Highlands to the gargantuan granite peaks of the Rockies, you’ll trundle past dizzying cliff edges, clatter over epic bridges and leg it through ‘logic-defying tunnels’.
Scroll down to discover which sensational service you’d most like to board.
Rocky Mountaineer, Canada
The Rocky Mountaineer traverses spectacular scenery best seen from the GoldLeaf class viewing carriage (above)
A trip on Canada’s Rocky Mountaineer sleeper service between Vancouver and Banff sits at the top of bucket lists the world over – and no wonder. For starters, it snakes through some of the planet’s most spectacular scenery.
Lonely Planet says: ‘This train journey clatters along a pioneering 19th-century railroad and is all at once a geological field trip, a sightseeing adventure and a wildlife safari. It promises cinematic views of Canada’s quintessential mountain landscapes, plus a bevy of engineering marvels, from dizzying bridges to logic-defying tunnels.’
If you’re lucky, the tome remarks, you might spot a bald eagle, moose, or grizzly bear.
Passengers travel in style, too. Lonely Planet adds that those with top-tier ‘GoldLeaf’ tickets have access to a double-decker carriage with a viewing deck on the top level and dining room on the lower level.
Visit: rockymountaineer.com.
La Trochita, Argentina
Passengers ride Argentina’s Andean La Trochita train in carriages with barely enough room for standing up. But the views are incredible
What Argentina’s La Trochita (Little Gauge) lacks in luxury, it makes up for with incredible views.
Lonely Planet explains that this ‘antique steam train chugs through a desolate landscape’ between Esquel and Nahuel Pan in the Argentinian Andes, with passengers riding cars so compact there’s barely enough room to stand up inside.
The guide adds: ‘Heated by old-fashioned wood-burning stoves and dwarfed by the mountainous terrain, the train has to stop at regular intervals when gusty winds blow hard across the sweeping scenery.’
Visit latrochita.org.ar.
Serra Verde Express, Brazil
The Serra Verde Express ‘winds its way through dramatic mountain passes covered with tropical rainforest’
The Serra Verde Express is ‘one of Brazil’s most spectacular train journeys’, declares the Lonely Planet book, which says that it ‘winds its way through dramatic mountain passes covered with tropical rainforest’ and takes in ‘canyons, jagged mountain peaks and lush lowlands’.
What’s more, it ‘provides a fascinating glimpse into the past as it trundles through tiny stations dating back to the late 1800s’.
The journey starts in the town of Curitiba in the state of Parana and ends in Morretes, a ‘picturesque colonial town on the banks of the Rio Nhundiaquara’.
Visit: railsouthamerica.com
Glacier Express, Switzerland
Switzerland’s Glacier Express (above) ‘unzips lovely Alpine terrain and teeters across 291 bridges’
If the Swiss could pick their definitive train ride, the honour would surely go to the Glacier Express.
So says Amazing Train Journeys.
The entry for this journey in the book reads: ‘This eight-hour journey from ritzy St Moritz to Matterhorn-topped Zermatt unzips the lovely Alpine terrain in the country’s south, corkscrewing up to wind-battered mountain passes, teetering across 291 bridges and rumbling through 91 tunnels.
‘The slowest express train on the planet, it intentionally moves at a snail’s pace so as to big up those out-of-this-world views of meadows, forest, falls and mountains.’
Visit: glacierexpress.ch/en.
Le Petit Train Jaune, France
Le Petit Train Jaune inches along canyons to the highest station in the French rail network
Le Petit Train Jaune (Little Yellow Train), is a mountain railway ‘frequently cited as the most scenic in France’, with passengers ‘rattling through the saw-toothed mountains of the Pyrenees’ in sunflower-yellow carriages.
The train, which has been running since 1910, begins its journey in the walled town of Villefranche-de-Conflent, the book explains, then ‘inches along canyons and teeters past dizzying cliff edges’ to Bolquère-Eyne – which, at 5,223ft (1,592m) is the highest station in the French rail network.
The final stop is Latour-de-Carol near the Spanish border.
Visit: raileurope.com
Bernina Express, Switzerland
The Bernina Express offers passengers views of ‘glacier-capped mountains, waterfall-draped ravines and jewel-coloured lakes’
The Bernina Express, which travels from Chur in Graubünden to Tirano in northern Italy is, as the tome points out, often polled as one of the world’s most beautiful rail journeys.
Why? Because it offers passengers views of ‘glacier-capped mountains, waterfall-draped ravines, jewel-coloured lakes and endless spruce forests glimpsed through panoramic windows’.
The book notes that the railway itself is also a marvel – ‘taking 55 tunnels and 196 bridges in its stride’.
Visit: tickets.rhb.ch.
Kalka to Shimla, India
Board a service on the Kalka–Shimla line and you’ll enjoy ‘soul-stirring views’ and a journey to ‘ear-popping heights’
The narrow-gauge Kalka–Shimla line in the Himalayas ‘paces the foothills of the world’s mightiest mountains’, says Amazing Train Journeys.
Board and you’ll enjoy ‘soul-stirring views’ and a journey to ‘ear-popping heights’, with Kalka located at an altitude of 2,150ft (665 metres) and Shimla at 6,811ft (2,076 metres).
Services on the line are operated by Indian Railways.
Visit: railyatri.in
Caledonian Sleeper, London Euston to Fort William
The Caledonian Sleeper (above) epitomises the romance of rail travel, according to Lonely Planet
The train crosses the Allt Kinglass Viaduct (seen in the distance) and Corrour in Scotland
The Caledonian Sleeper takes passengers from London Euston to Aberdeen, Inverness and Fort William. For Lonely Planet the trip to Fort William – which includes crossing the dramatic Allt Kinglass Viaduct and stopping at Corrour, the highest station in Britain at 1,338ft (408m) – is the pick of the bunch.
It says: ‘Segueing from the sooty suburbs and crowded concrete-lined cul-de- sacs of central London to the crisp air and soaring vistas of the Scottish Highlands, via one overnight train journey, epitomises the romance of rail travel.’
Visit: sleeper.scot.
Amazing Train Journeys – 60 Unforgettable Rail Trips and How to Experience Them, by Lonely Planet, is out now (£22.99)