Travel into the Past on a Historical Train Journey

Great Rail Journeys offer one of the most romantic, carefree and downright civilized ways to travel across the world. But travelling across the distances of our planet is just one of the benefits that Great Rail Journeys can offer.

By choosing an historical train Journey, you’re not only visiting a place and moving through it, but you’re travelling to a different time that our ancestors would recognise more easily than we do.

Steam train tours

The quickest and most dramatic way to step back in time is to board one of the best-loved types of train: the steam train.

Step straight into the glorious past of steam, where the plumes of smoke and the chug-chug of the engine accompany you each mile as you forge ahead.

Many vintage rail lines have been preserved across the world and steam travel is possible around the beautiful Isle of Man, Germany’s Black Forest, the Austrian Tyrol and even New England in the USA.

Some steam Great Rail Journeys are seasonal – so you can visit the Harz Christmas Markets in 2013 for example, or tour the tulip fields of Holland by steam train during springtime 2014.

Battlefield tours

For those with an interest in military history, Great Rail Journeys offer trips to the Battlefields of Europe – the perfect opportunity to step into the living past.

A 7-day Great Rail Journey across Normandy from Honfleur, to the D-Day Landing beaches, will allow you to take in Monet’s Garden in addition to the Commonwealth War Graves.

If your interest is in World War I tours, a moving 5-day Great Rail Journey across the Battlefields of Flanders takes in memorials, museums and even the unforgettable Last Post ceremony at Menin Gate.

 Historic cities

Europe is a continent that’s steeped in history and culture and what better way to experience this than by taking a leisurely Great Rail Journey to the continent’s most historic cities?

In just 11-days you can take the time to see cultural Berlin, ornate Dresden and the melting-pot of Prague in an architectural and artistic tour that will leave you wanting more.

A Grand Imperial Tour can take you across four of the most impressive and historically significant cities on Earth, which will take you around 13 days to see, all in all. These unforgettable cities include: the former capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire: Vienna, the second-city of Empire: Budapest, the one-time capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia: Prague and again, Berlin.

From Berlin you can even travel off the continent to London, Britain’s capital for 2,000 years, where you can enjoy the history dating from the Roman occupation, through the Middle-Ages into the Industrial era and right up to the present.

By taking a historic Great Rail Journey, you are not only enjoying a slice of the past, but giving yourself and fellow travellers memories to last a lifetime.