Luxury route
Venice Simplon-Orient-Express
Paris → Venice · France · Switzerland · Austria · Italy
Venice Simplon-Orient-Express in pictures
Photographs by their authors, hosted on Wikimedia Commons · tap through for the licence
- Distance
- 1,270 km
- Fastest time
- ≈ 21 h
- Average speed
- 60 km/h
- Top speed
- 160 km/h
- Operator
- Belmond
- Train
- 1920s CIWL carriages
- Countries
- France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy
- In service since
- 1982
- Runs
- scheduled departures Mar–Dec, roughly weekly
- Highest point
- 1,370 m
Figures are published values, not live data · corrections log
Belmond’s restored Art Deco sleepers of the 1920s–30s: black tie encouraged as the Alps slide past the champagne bar.
Dinner is served somewhere in Champagne; by breakfast the marquetry-lined restaurant cars are winding between the Zürichsee and Walensee toward the Arlberg. The Brenner crossing is the day’s set piece before the long glide down past Bolzano’s orchards and Verona to the lagoon causeway, where Santa Lucia’s platforms give way to water. It remains the most theatrical way to arrive in Venice: a moving museum in which every guest is part of the exhibit.
How this line was checked
- Line drawn from 2 OpenStreetMap relations, their own nodes end to end: relation 6253934 (488 km), relation 1623486 (134 km) — 622 km of the route between them
- Checked against OpenStreetMap: 96.3% of this line lies within 250 m of real track (median 18 m); the longest stretch away from it is 11.5 km
- The operator publishes this line's timetable: Belmond — a place to look it up, not a check of our drawing
- Wikipedia has an article for this line
Along the way
- Paris Gare de l’Est send-off
- Zürichsee and Walensee at breakfast
- Arlberg Pass ramparts
- Brenner Pass at 1,370 m
- South Tyrol orchards near Bolzano
- lagoon causeway into Venezia Santa Lucia
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More train routes in France · Switzerland · Austria · Italy.
Planning this trip? Journey time & direct trains: Paris → Venice · Venice → Paris.