Why Every A-Lister is Train-Hopping in 2026

Private jets are so 2025. the real status symbol this year is moving at a glacial pace. Discover why the ultra-wealthy are ditching first-class cabins for multi-week journeys on the rails, and how you can sneak a peek into their gilded, slow-travel world.

If you think luxury travel is defined by how fast you can get somewhere, you are fundamentally missing the point of 2026. The most exclusive circle of global travelers has traded speed for spectacle, swapping chartered jets for a series of connected luxury train cabins. This isn’t just a trip; it’s “luxury train hopping,” the definitive status symbol for the year, and it’s reshaping the very geography of high-end travel.

The trend’s immediate catalyst is a flood of new, impossibly romantic routes. Belmond, the LVMH-owned titan of luxury rail, is extending its legendary Venice Simplon-Orient-Express service from Paris to the Amalfi Coast in May 2026. But the real gossip isn’t about a single journey. It’s about linking them. Travel agencies are now packaging multi-rail odysseys, catering to clients who think nothing of connecting the Golden Eagle Silk Road Express with South Africa’s Rovos Rail and the new Britannic Explorer in the UK. The pinnacle of this? A 60-day, nine-country “Around the World by Luxury Train” itinerary with a starting price of about $130,000 per person. Demand is so fierce that specialist agency Railbookers is launching four shorter month-long itineraries next year to meet it.

I think the appeal is a potent cocktail of nostalgia and novelty. In an age of digital saturation, there’s a raw authenticity to watching a continent unfold outside your window, untouched by airport security lines. “It’s not just about the past; it’s about how that past informs who they are today,” observes genealogist Lorna Moloney, hinting at a parallel search for connection that defines modern travel. This movement has lifted the entire rail sector; even adventure travel specialist Explore Worldwide reports its rail bookings for 2026 are up 41 percent year over year.

So, where does a traveler with slightly less than a billionaire’s commute budget experience this? You target the gateways.

Your Hotel Base: London’s Reborn Icons

The grand dame of this trend is London, where two historic landmarks are reopening as hotels in 2026, making them the perfect start or end point for a rail adventure. For pure royal adjacency, you can’t top the Waldorf Astoria London Admiralty Arch. Housed in the monumental arch commissioned by King Edward VII, it offers 100 rooms and suites with views towards Buckingham Palace, with restaurants by chefs Clare Smyth and Daniel Boulud. Alternatively, the Cambridge House, Auberge Resorts Collection, is set within a magnificent Georgian mansion on Piccadilly, offering 102 suites and a brasserie from the group behind Carbone. Both are part of massive heritage regeneration projects, echoing the train trend’s theme of glorious revival.

Your Restaurant Stop: Manchester’s New Power Lunch

Before you depart from London, a one-hour train north lands you in the UK’s most dynamic food scene. Manchester is exploding with openings that rival the capital’s. For a truly theatrical meal, book Chotto Matte. This Nikkei (Japanese-Peruvian) restaurant occupies a huge 20,000-square-foot space in the St. Michael’s development, complete with rooftop terraces, live entertainment, and sushi torched at your table. For a more intimate, clubby vibe, seek out Bar Shrimp from the team behind award-winning Flawd. It’s a sleek seafood and listening bar serving British bluefin tuna crudo and oysters to a soundtrack from an unbeatable sound system.

Summary

Luxury train hopping in 2026 is more than a trend; it’s a statement. It signifies a shift from efficient travel to experiential odyssey, where the journey itself is the exclusive destination. Driven by new routes and packaged itineraries, it caters to a deep desire for tangible, slow-moving connection. While the epic multi-week journeys command astronomical sums, the trend’s energy is accessible through the landmark hotels opening in rail hubs like London and the vibrant restaurant scenes in connected cities like Manchester.