10 Best Scenic Train Rides (Costs & Tips, 2026)

Called the slowest express train in the world for a reason — it takes nearly 8 hours to cover a route you could drive faster, entirely on purpose, crossing 291 bridges and 91 tunnels through the Alps. It's genuinely not cheap, around $160 for the seat reservation on top of a rail pass, and it's still the single most famous scenic train ride on Earth.

You don't have to do the full 9,289km to Vladivostok — the Moscow to Irkutsk stretch alone is roughly 5,000km and gets you to Lake Baikal. Platskart (open third-class) tickets run around $150 for the multi-day journey, dramatically cheaper than a private cabin, and arguably more in the spirit of the thing.

Nicknamed the 'Toy Train' for its narrow gauge, and it's been climbing the same steep mountain route since 1881, UNESCO-listed for the engineering alone. A ride costs around $18 and the steam locomotive still runs on select sections — book the joy ride from Darjeeling to Ghum if you only have a few hours.

One of the steepest standard-gauge railways in the world, dropping 866m over 20km through waterfalls and fjord views that don't really photograph as well as they look in person. About $75 for the round trip, and the train genuinely slows down at the best waterfall specifically so passengers can take photos.

Crosses the Southern Alps between Christchurch and Greymouth, through the Waimakariri Gorge and over Arthur's Pass, with open-air viewing carriages for when the glass windows aren't enough. Around NZ$130 one-way — book a window seat regardless, but the open carriage is worth braving the cold for at least one stretch.

Crosses the Glenfinnan Viaduct, which most people now recognise as the bridge the Hogwarts Express flies over rather than a real piece of Victorian engineering — it's both. Around £50 return, and book weeks ahead in summer; the Harry Potter fame means seats sell out fast.

Built by forced labour during WWII, and the section crossing the Bridge on the River Kwai carries real historical weight alongside the scenery. Genuinely cheap — around $3 — and the track runs directly along a cliff edge above the river for one stretch, close enough that you can reach out and touch the rock face from the window.

A heritage railway carved through rainforest and past waterfalls up to the village of Kuranda, built in the 1880s without modern machinery — the engineering is as much the story as the scenery. About AUD $55 one-way; pair it with the Skyrail cableway back down for a completely different view of the same rainforest.

The first mountain railway in Europe built with standard gauge, completed in 1854, and still UNESCO-listed for how far ahead of its time the engineering was. You don't need a special ticket — regular regional trains run the route for about €25, one of the cheapest UNESCO experiences on this whole list.

Four days across the entire country, through the Canadian Shield, the Prairies, and the Rockies — economy seats run from around CAD $400, a genuine fraction of what comparable luxury rail products elsewhere charge for similar scenery. Bring your own food for the economy class; the dining car is reserved for sleeper passengers.