31-07-2025
Women Who Travel Podcast: The Allure of European Night Trains
Sponsored By Get Your Guide.
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The idea of train travel commands an immediate allure, and come nighttime, that intrigue is only dialed up. Our guest this week is award-winning travel writer and journalist Monisha Rajesh, whose new book Moonlight Express: Around the World By Night Train chases dusk across Europe's most legendary railways, from Austria's Nightjet to the Scotland's Caledonian Sleeper. Lale chats with Rajesh about the endearing nostalgia of train travel, the reality of riding the Orient Express, and her favorite mementos gathered from globe-trotting by track.
Lale Arikoglu: Hi there. I'm Lale Arikoglu, and I am so happy this week to have one of our favorite returning guests on Women Who Travel. She's journalist and award-winning travel writer, Monisha Rajesh, who was on Women Who Travel's Power List in the past, she is a regular contributor to Conde Nast Traveler, and her new book is about night train trips across Europe, the magic and the mayhem. It is lovely to have you back on the podcast. You are our go-to woman about train travel, I'm going to say in the simplest plainest terms. You have a new book coming out later this year in November, correct?
Monisha Rajesh: Yes, I have. Yes.
LA: Called Moonlight Express: Around the World by Night Train, a mode of transport that I love and romanticize. In that book, you say you've traveled on over 200 train journeys for over 15 years. That's an unbelievable amount of trains. What's the reason for this I was going to say a passion, but it really seems a little bit more of an obsession?
