Venice-Simplon Orient Express
The Venice Simplon Orient Express (VSOE) is a Pure luxury private train that travels back and forth between from London and Venice , Italy. More popularly referred to as the Orient Express the original founder James Sherwood of Kentucky as recently as 1982. It was only five years earlier when he had bought the first two of the original carriages at auction that he had the idea of reintroducing this famous train journey back into service.
Over the follow few years he reputedly spent another $16 million purchasing and refurbishing thirty five more sleeper, restaurant and Pullman carriages slowly building his collection until on the 25 May 1982 he set off for Venice and the rest is history.
Today the train runs to a d from eight major destinations including London, Paris, Rome,Venice and Istanbul every year between the months March to December. Because of the different track sizes the VSOE has different carriages for use in the UK and Europe, all of course are wonderfully opulent and mostly from the 1920s and 1930s. When leaving the UK the passengers are coached under the English Channel on the Eurotunnel shuttle to re-join their train Journey inFrance. The two trains are quite different as the Brown and Cream Pullman carriages are used in the UK where as in Europe the train is made up from restored dark blue former Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits.
The UK train does not have any sleeper service and is normally used for day trips to castles , spas serving English teas and brunches. The Euro service has sleeping carriages for full overnight, luxury service but both trains are among the World’s Top 25 Trains as listed by The Society of International Railway Travelers .
Robert Louis Stevenson famously said “For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move” and I guess if you are planning a trip to Italy to see Tuscany and enjoy time in a farmhouse chianti then there is no better way to travel.
The train is currently owned by Orient-Express Hotels Ltd. The company owns 50 luxury hotels, restaurants, tourist trains and river cruises in over 20 countries from around the world..
