Europe's new wave of sleeper trains are next-level luxury trips
by SARAH RAPPAPORT
EVEN before I've had a drop of Champagne with my four-course meal, I'm teetering on my heels. I'm dressed to the nines in a floor-length gown, making my way down a wood-panelled hallway that could be straight out of Downton Abbey, though it happens to be on a moving train.
The Belmond Royal Scotsman is gliding along at 65mph through the rolling Highlands of Scotland, rocking me gently until I make it to the cosy safety of my red velvet seat in the dining room.
There, at a long table set with custom china for half the train's guests — about 16 of us — I'm served hand-harvested scallops and a tender cut of beef. It's a country mile from the usual bag of chips and can of Coke I'd scarf down on a train trip, I think to myself, admiring how the suit-wearing waiters can refill tall crystal flutes with precision, never spilling a drop. Then it occurs to me: Getting back to my stateroom is going to be even harder.
Stumble-prone as I might have felt in the moment, it turns out to be quite easy to attune yourself to the rhythms of a luxury train. Yes, there are a few tight spaces to navigate, and the formality of it all is initially intimidating. But on my first night aboard, on a mission to figure out what's behind the great railroad resurgence of the mid-2020s, I begin to see why ultrahigh-end options are popping up from Africa to Japan.
Boarding a sleeper (as I did) 'might be the closest thing yet to time travel', said Henley Vazquez, co-founder of travel agency Fora, which has seen a 300% increase in demand for upscale journeys by rail since 2023. Train travel speaks to people's desire for simpler-seeming times, for slowing down and having all the details planned out. It's like a very fancy cruise — on land.
I've sampled two of these train routes, on the Scotsman and the new La Dolce Vita Orient Express. Both followed loops, starting and ending in Edinburgh and Rome, respectively, with stops in small towns along the way to explore.
A dining cabin aboard the mod La Dolce Vita
Being on a luxe train is so much more than just cosplaying 1920s glamour in refurbished Pullman cars. It's about a style of travel that's more effortless, convivial and deeply engaging than anything else I've experienced. With only about 36 passengers per voyage, you get to know pretty much everyone.
While skimming along the west coast of Italy on La Dolce Vita, I chat with an American businessman who's already counted six trips on Belmond's Venice Simplon-Orient Express, the line made famous by Agatha Christie. Over glasses of wine in the 1960s-inspired bar car, he tells me how he'd been a train-obsessed kid and has found the most grown-up way to enjoy them. All he needs to do is sit back and enjoy the ride: No driving to dinner, no planning excursions, no lifting a finger.
Welcomed aboard to the sound of bagpipes
If trains make sense for luxury-seekers, they also slide right into the business models of hospitality companies such as Belmond and Orient Express. They couple easily with those companies' resorts — you can stay at the just-opened Orient Express hotel in Rome before boarding La Dolce Vita, for instance. They add novelty too: To board the Royal Scotsman, you trail a kilted bagpiper through Waverley station in Edinburgh as curious onlookers snap photos.
My double cabin on the Royal Scotsman is smaller than my college dorm room, but it's crammed with an impossible number of luxuries, from heated floors to fluffy Dior robes. (Belmond, like Dior, is owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.) Gold-coloured reading lamps flank the double bed, and there's a smart little cupboard in which to hang your formal clothes, along with a bijou writing desk. In contrast, La Dolce Vita's vibes mod, with mirrored walls, a groovy orange-patterned sofa bed the staff makes up for you and a compact shower with better water pressure than my London apartment.
In both cabins, wide windows offer constant enchantment, be it views of the North Sea or cypress trees in the Tuscan countryside.
Neither train has TVs and phone signals are intermittent.
Despite there being nowhere to lay your luggage, the cabin prices are staggering: £5,300 (RM30,793) for two nights on the Royal Scotsman and from €5,100 (RM25,347) on La Dolce Vita. But the rates include the extravagant meals, drinks and entertainment.
Entertainment and sweeping views aboard the Royal Scotsman
The Royal Scotsman's rates also cover off-board excursions. Passengers can go 'forest bathing' (read: Peaceful stretching) with a local guide in Cairngorms National Park and learn Highland survival skills from wilderness expert Zeki Basan. A rugged twentysomething, Basan is a captivating custodian of ancient Scottish practices such as sparking a fire from lichen.
In Italy, side trips include private access to the Museo Fortuny, the grand Venetian palazzo once owned by the artist and fashion designer Mariano Fortuny, and a tour of Siena that focuses on the artisans who revive the city's medieval Palio horse race each summer. These outings are intimate and efficient — quick but culturally insightful tours that you might not be able to access on your own.
This writer aboard the Belmond Royal Scotsman
One night, aboard La Dolce Vita, I delight in impeccably rich saffron risotto and cacio e pepe, prepared by chefs under the direction of Heinz Beck, the mastermind of Rome's three-Michelin-starred La Pergola. I chat with some new Russian friends, who invite me to visit St Petersburg. 'Of course, our countries aren't friends,' one of them said, in recognition of my American passport, 'but that doesn't mean we can't be.'
When dinner finally ends, well after midnight, we all spill into the adjacent bar car, where a lounge singer, pianist and sax player get the whole car jamming to Mambo Italiano into the early-morning hours. In Scotland the after-dinner merrymaking is similarly indefatigable, but with folk tunes and a raucous dance party the staff joins in on. With so little time on board, nearly everyone chooses fun over sleep. Sleeping on a sleeper train isn't the highlight, anyway. The beds are plush and comfortable, sure, but the jostling is hard to get used to, and in Scotland at five in the morning, I'm awakened by the screech of wheels against the track. It's lambing season, so rather than count sheep to go back to sleep, I relax and observe the farmers multiplying theirs outside my window. Watching the world calmly pass by turns out to be much more restorative than an extra hour of shut-eye would ever be. — Bloomberg
This article first appeared in The Malaysian Reserve weekly print edition
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Malaysian Reserve
04-07-2025
- Malaysian Reserve
Europe's new wave of sleeper trains are next-level luxury trips
All aboard the Belmond Royal Scotsman and the new La Dolce Vita Orient Express out of Rome by SARAH RAPPAPORT EVEN before I've had a drop of Champagne with my four-course meal, I'm teetering on my heels. I'm dressed to the nines in a floor-length gown, making my way down a wood-panelled hallway that could be straight out of Downton Abbey, though it happens to be on a moving train. The Belmond Royal Scotsman is gliding along at 65mph through the rolling Highlands of Scotland, rocking me gently until I make it to the cosy safety of my red velvet seat in the dining room. There, at a long table set with custom china for half the train's guests — about 16 of us — I'm served hand-harvested scallops and a tender cut of beef. It's a country mile from the usual bag of chips and can of Coke I'd scarf down on a train trip, I think to myself, admiring how the suit-wearing waiters can refill tall crystal flutes with precision, never spilling a drop. Then it occurs to me: Getting back to my stateroom is going to be even harder. Stumble-prone as I might have felt in the moment, it turns out to be quite easy to attune yourself to the rhythms of a luxury train. Yes, there are a few tight spaces to navigate, and the formality of it all is initially intimidating. But on my first night aboard, on a mission to figure out what's behind the great railroad resurgence of the mid-2020s, I begin to see why ultrahigh-end options are popping up from Africa to Japan. Boarding a sleeper (as I did) 'might be the closest thing yet to time travel', said Henley Vazquez, co-founder of travel agency Fora, which has seen a 300% increase in demand for upscale journeys by rail since 2023. Train travel speaks to people's desire for simpler-seeming times, for slowing down and having all the details planned out. It's like a very fancy cruise — on land. I've sampled two of these train routes, on the Scotsman and the new La Dolce Vita Orient Express. Both followed loops, starting and ending in Edinburgh and Rome, respectively, with stops in small towns along the way to explore. A dining cabin aboard the mod La Dolce Vita Being on a luxe train is so much more than just cosplaying 1920s glamour in refurbished Pullman cars. It's about a style of travel that's more effortless, convivial and deeply engaging than anything else I've experienced. With only about 36 passengers per voyage, you get to know pretty much everyone. While skimming along the west coast of Italy on La Dolce Vita, I chat with an American businessman who's already counted six trips on Belmond's Venice Simplon-Orient Express, the line made famous by Agatha Christie. Over glasses of wine in the 1960s-inspired bar car, he tells me how he'd been a train-obsessed kid and has found the most grown-up way to enjoy them. All he needs to do is sit back and enjoy the ride: No driving to dinner, no planning excursions, no lifting a finger. Welcomed aboard to the sound of bagpipes If trains make sense for luxury-seekers, they also slide right into the business models of hospitality companies such as Belmond and Orient Express. They couple easily with those companies' resorts — you can stay at the just-opened Orient Express hotel in Rome before boarding La Dolce Vita, for instance. They add novelty too: To board the Royal Scotsman, you trail a kilted bagpiper through Waverley station in Edinburgh as curious onlookers snap photos. My double cabin on the Royal Scotsman is smaller than my college dorm room, but it's crammed with an impossible number of luxuries, from heated floors to fluffy Dior robes. (Belmond, like Dior, is owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.) Gold-coloured reading lamps flank the double bed, and there's a smart little cupboard in which to hang your formal clothes, along with a bijou writing desk. In contrast, La Dolce Vita's vibes mod, with mirrored walls, a groovy orange-patterned sofa bed the staff makes up for you and a compact shower with better water pressure than my London apartment. In both cabins, wide windows offer constant enchantment, be it views of the North Sea or cypress trees in the Tuscan countryside. Neither train has TVs and phone signals are intermittent. Despite there being nowhere to lay your luggage, the cabin prices are staggering: £5,300 (RM30,793) for two nights on the Royal Scotsman and from €5,100 (RM25,347) on La Dolce Vita. But the rates include the extravagant meals, drinks and entertainment. Entertainment and sweeping views aboard the Royal Scotsman The Royal Scotsman's rates also cover off-board excursions. Passengers can go 'forest bathing' (read: Peaceful stretching) with a local guide in Cairngorms National Park and learn Highland survival skills from wilderness expert Zeki Basan. A rugged twentysomething, Basan is a captivating custodian of ancient Scottish practices such as sparking a fire from lichen. In Italy, side trips include private access to the Museo Fortuny, the grand Venetian palazzo once owned by the artist and fashion designer Mariano Fortuny, and a tour of Siena that focuses on the artisans who revive the city's medieval Palio horse race each summer. These outings are intimate and efficient — quick but culturally insightful tours that you might not be able to access on your own. This writer aboard the Belmond Royal Scotsman One night, aboard La Dolce Vita, I delight in impeccably rich saffron risotto and cacio e pepe, prepared by chefs under the direction of Heinz Beck, the mastermind of Rome's three-Michelin-starred La Pergola. I chat with some new Russian friends, who invite me to visit St Petersburg. 'Of course, our countries aren't friends,' one of them said, in recognition of my American passport, 'but that doesn't mean we can't be.' When dinner finally ends, well after midnight, we all spill into the adjacent bar car, where a lounge singer, pianist and sax player get the whole car jamming to Mambo Italiano into the early-morning hours. In Scotland the after-dinner merrymaking is similarly indefatigable, but with folk tunes and a raucous dance party the staff joins in on. With so little time on board, nearly everyone chooses fun over sleep. Sleeping on a sleeper train isn't the highlight, anyway. The beds are plush and comfortable, sure, but the jostling is hard to get used to, and in Scotland at five in the morning, I'm awakened by the screech of wheels against the track. It's lambing season, so rather than count sheep to go back to sleep, I relax and observe the farmers multiplying theirs outside my window. Watching the world calmly pass by turns out to be much more restorative than an extra hour of shut-eye would ever be. — Bloomberg This article first appeared in The Malaysian Reserve weekly print edition
The Star
03-06-2025
- The Star
Kasada targets first North Africa hotel deal
Kasada Capital aims to close a fund for investments in Morocco by the end of the year. — Bloomberg ABU DHABI: Kasada Capital Management, a private equity firm backed by Qatar's US$524bil sovereign wealth fund, expects to strike a hotel deal in Morocco in the first half of 2026, marking its entry into North Africa's booming hospitality and tourism industry. The hospitality-focused firm, whose backers include the Qatar Investment Authority and French hotel group Accor SA, has set up an office in Casablanca to assess opportunities and aims to close a fund for investments in Morocco by the end of the year. The North African Kingdom received 17.4 million tourists last year. That eclipsed Egypt as the most visited country in Africa. The country is expected to draw soccer fans from all over the world when it holds the Africa Cup of Nations tournament in 2025-26, and co-hosts the FIFA World Cup with Spain and Portugal in 2030. 'North Africa is a priority for us,' Olivier Granet, Kasada's managing partner and co-chief executive officer, said in an interview. 'Morocco is, today, the number one tourism destination on the African continent,' Granet said. 'And, for us, to become the leading platform we have to become pan- African.' Kasada has focused on sub-Saharan Africa since closing its first fund of about US$500mil in 2019. Its portfolio of 19 hotels across seven countries in the region include South Africa's iconic Cape Grace as well as upscale Pullman-branded properties in major cities in Kenya, Ivory Coast and Senegal. Africa is a burgeoning market for travel driven by strong economic growth, an expanding middle class, increasing consumer-spending power and growing air connectivity. It was the best-performing tourism region in the world in 2024 after the Middle East, with foreign arrivals 7% above pre-pandemic levels, according to the United Nations tourism agency. Kasada's ambitions for Morocco dovetail with its plans to grow its portfolio across the budget and luxury hotel segments in key cities in sub-Saharan Africa, while balancing the revenue earned from letting out rooms with that from its food and beverage, co-working and events offerings. 'The African continent is, frankly, enormous but the penetration levels are still fairly low,' said David Damiba, Kasada's managing partner and co-chief executive officer. 'We think that there's scope to increase the scale of what we've built already by a factor of two to three times fairly easily in these markets while being concentrated to take advantage of our scale in core cities.' — Bloomberg
Malaysian Reserve
29-05-2025
- Malaysian Reserve
Five new travel tools to save time and money this summer
New AI-powered travel services that promise customised itineraries and access to the best prices, at your disposal by LEBAWIT LILY GIRMA LONG before there was ChatGPT, you'd have to visit an actual brick-and-mortar travel agency to craft and book your dream itinerary. This month, travel agency Fora has brought that nostalgic experience back to the modern era with a pop-up location — open through May 29 — in New York City. It's more like Soho House than the old AAA mainstays where you'd pick up road maps, with luxury hotel brands and tourism boards carrying out elaborate activations while Fora agents brainstorm vacation ideas with clients at a communal workstation. Yet the reality is that most travellers this summer won't talk to human travel agents face-to-face, or even online, as they plan their trips. Rather, generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools will increasingly play a role in helping us decide where to go. A 2024 survey from global consulting firm Oliver Wyman LLC showed more than 41% of travellers from the US and Canada had recently used this emerging technology for trip inspiration and design — up 30% from a year earlier. (One travel agency is embracing that inevitability, using AI to help turn your emotions into itineraries.) If the latest suite of trip-planning tools is any indication, that percentage is sure to rise. A vast improvement in AI language models is adapting quickly to the ways we research our vacations. Take Gem, a new feature of Google's Gemini that functions like a virtual travel agent, or Mindtrip, a collaborative itinerary builder that helps you map out trips with friends — the latter even uses Instagram images as fodder for inspiration. Other AI tools help travellers land the best hotel rates and airfares. Of course, AI models don't yet match the power of human travel advisors who have the pulse on their destinations and can help you identify your precise wants, but they've come a long way. Here are the latest tools we've tested ahead of summer travel season and what we've found most useful. A Google-powered Travel Concierge Since 2023, Google LLC has been steadily expanding the capabilities of Gemini, its AI-powered assistant. Free with a Google account, Gemini now lets you create a custom 'Gem' for your trips — essentially a digital 'concierge' that remembers your preferences, whether you're into modern art, off-the-beaten-path adventures or local eats. Unlike Google Search, which excels at surfacing static information, it's designed for open-ended, conversational brainstorming even if you're starting with a vague idea, all while pulling from the personal profile you've fed it. Gemini of course then connects with your Gmail, Google Drive, Maps, Flights, Hotels and even YouTube. This means your itineraries, booking receipts and inspiration sources can all live in one ecosystem — and can be shared with a click. After setting up my Gem and filling in my travel quirks — nature over museums, boutique hotels over big brands and no overly touristy sights — I asked it to plan a long, four-day weekend from Washington, DC, to Belize, a destination I know well. My additional search parameters: A vibrant local food scene and outdoorsy activities unique to the country. Gemini suggested staying in the mountain town of San Ignacio, with a day trip to the island of Caye Caulker. The itinerary leaned heavily on Mayan sites and iconic rainforest lodges that were more remotely located in the jungle than I would have liked, while noting that I could opt for a boutique hotel closer to town. It also failed to take distance into account when it crammed the island excursion into the same day as my return flight from Belize. Once I clarified that I was more interested in hiking and snorkelling, Gemini steered me toward Hopkins Village instead of San Ignacio. With reef access and cultural experiences offered by the local Indigenous Garifuna community, it was a much better fit. Running that request a second time yielded an entirely different (but equally credible) itinerary, a reminder that these models don't always produce identical results. When I got more granular, asking for 'community-run experiences' in Hopkins, San Ignacio and Caye Caulker, I hit a limitation: Cultural tours in smaller Belizean towns often exist informally, my AI concierge said, passed through word of mouth or local networks rather than marketed online. It then listed specific search terms to use and recommended I ask around while there. Mindtrip is built specifically for travel planning, combining generative AI with content fact-checked by team of human staffers (Source: Mindtrip) An All-in-one Travel Planner Unlike all-purpose chatbots, Mindtrip was built specifically for travel planning, combining generative AI with content fact-checked by an actual team of human staffers, plus a visual interface that pulls maps, reviews, images and itineraries into a single screen. A quiz at the start asks for basic personal information and travel preferences — if you're an early bird or a night owl, for instance — which helps refine recommendations that are pulled from web searches as well as a library of roughly 25,000 human-curated destination guides. You can then chat with it to refine your options. Use a simple menu on the left side of the screen to add places of interest and reorder them on your itinerary, which is on the right side of the screen, with a simple drag. You can even invite family or friends into your itinerary, so you can co-design the trip and stay on the same page. 'A lot of what's happening in generative AI is very text-based,' said Michelle Denogean, Mindtrip Inc's chief marketing officer. Mindtrip's results are showcased on a split screen — a numbered list appears on the left, with bolded text and blue check marks next to the places and activities it recommends, and a colour map shows up on the right, with all those places pinned. Its value becomes even clearer once you ask more targeted questions. When I searched for community-run experiences in Hopkins, San Ignacio and Caye Caulker, Mindtrip outperformed Google's Gemini. In Hopkins it surfaced the Lebeha Drumming Centre, a popular spot for taking Garifuna drum lessons. It also suggested the Palmento Grove Garifuna Eco-Cultural & Healing Institute, where I learned on a previous trip to make 'hudut' — a coconut-based fish stew served with mashed green plantains. In San Ignacio it recommended Ajaw Chocolate, where you can make your own chocolate and learn about the history of cacao in Belize, as well as the town's farmers market on Saturdays. I found its results more accurate than some competitors'; it was able to flag that restaurants in stories I was reading had closed permanently, for example, thanks to its fact-checking army that keeps listings up to date. A Hotel Price Tracker This one is simple but useful. If you're familiar with tracking flight prices on Google, you'll appreciate that, as of March, you're now able to do that for hotels as well. Navigate to Google's hotels search page, enter the destination and dates and toggle 'track hotel prices'. Kayak offers a similar hotel price-tracking tool. Run a search for places in a specific destination, and you'll find the option to get alerts when prices change at the top of the results page. An Instagram Reel-inspired Itinerary Ever saved an Instagram reel in hopes of re-creating a trip or trying an activity you saw? The new 'Trip Matching' tool from Expedia Group Inc aims to do exactly that. Open the reel, hit the share button and send it directly to @expedia on the Instagram app. You'll then open your direct message with Expedia, and within a couple of minutes you'll get a suggested itinerary based on what's in the reel you shared. I tested this process with a reel I made from my 2023 trip to Morocco that merely shows two guitarists' minute-long performance at the family-owned luxury boutique hotel Riad Kniza in Marrakech. Expedia churned out a small description of the hotel, followed by the best time to visit and a list of top things to do in the area — with links to the activities on Expedia — as well as hidden gems and a four-day itinerary 'to experience Marrakesh magic without rushing'. The downside: There were no specific tour providers or links included for the itinerary beyond the hotels, so you'll have to run that extra leg of research elsewhere. The suggestions leaned toward cultural activities, including exploring the Medina, a 'hammam' spa treatment and a Moroccan cooking class, but it also suggested 'hidden gems' such as the Jardin Secret, a less crowded alternative to Jardin Majorelle. When I pushed further and asked for specific providers I could book with, it said to contact vendors directly — La Maison Arabe for a cooking class, Les Bains de Marrakech and Spa Royal Mansour — or go to Expedia. That makes this tool more of a fun starting point than a one-stop shop. The free version of Going will deliver alerts when any domestic deals pop up, while also letting you track specific routes on exact dates (pic: Bloomberg) An Airfare Insider App OK, this one isn't AI, but you should download it anyway if you're eyeing airfare closely, as many people are this summer. The free version of Going will deliver alerts when any domestic deals pop up, while also letting you track specific routes on exact dates. A premium subscription (US$4.08 [RM17.83] per month) adds international flight deal alerts, including 'mistake fares' that occasionally surface at super steep discounts, while the Elite membership (US$16.58 per month) adds deals on first- and business-class fares. Another new feature, 'Going With Points', helps you find and book flight deals with points and miles. Since I signed up for a premium trial over the past week, the app has sent me a US$453 mistake fare to New Delhi — an economy round-trip flight from San Francisco on Air India, with a layover — bookable via Google Flights, plus a US$265 round-trip flight from Washington Dulles International Airport to Costa Rica, which it recommended booking within two days. Not on the app? Sign up on Going's website, and it will email you these alerts too. — Bloomberg This article first appeared in The Malaysian Reserve weekly print edition
