Nostalgia, adventure and varying degrees of luxury: That’s the promise of a vacation-by-train, and it’s one of the fastest-growing segments in travel. According to industry authority Railbookers, train travel revenue worldwide increased by 30 percent between 2023 and 2024. And as a longtime travel writer and Gen X world traveler, I can tell you why—thanks to my mom.
Back in the ‘80s, my mom, acting on a half-baked mother-daughter vacation idea, whisked me away on an Amtrak train journey across the Southeast. She’d heard rumors that domestic train travel—never exactly a moneymaker—was going to be lessened or even shut down altogether, and so she wanted her daughter to experience the magic while it still existed. I have no memory of the event, but she tells me how disappointed she was by the dirty train cars, poor or non-existent service and downmarket trappings of the fellow t`ravelers. I think my mom was expecting a glamour experience out of Hitchcock’s 1938 The Lady Vanishes or even his 1951 thriller Strangers on a Train. Instead, she got a sort of sad Greyhound bus station on rails.
Well, looks like someone’s turned up the pilot light on this eternal flame for my mom’s generation, since trains are now a hot ticket among luxury travelers. Case in point: Last year, Railbookers strung together seven luxury train trips on four continents (with international flights adjoining) for $114,000—and there was a waiting list of 500 names. Makes sense, since “slow travel” continues to be a travel trend to look out for, and there are now trains which ape the charm and grace of the movies, only this time they’re channeling millennial favorite director Wes Andersen and his cool 2007 flick The Darjeeling Limited. (Fun fact: Anderson designed a dining car IRL for the British Pullman, a Belmond Train.)
