No name in rail travel carries more romance than the Orient Express, and today that legacy lives on not in one train but three. The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express preserves the original Art Deco carriages that first crossed Europe a century ago. La Dolce Vita Orient Express reimagines the legend as a brand-new Italian icon. And on the other side of the world, the Eastern & Oriental Express carries the Orient Express spirit through the jungles and cities of the Malay Peninsula.
Through the journeys we arrange at Palace Trains, this is one of the questions our guests ask most often: which Orient Express is the right one? Each train shares a lineage, an ethos of slow, theatrical travel, and an obsession with the golden age of the railway — but the routes, the design language, and even the decades they evoke are entirely distinct. Here is how they compare, and how to choose between them.
One legend, three very different trains
It helps to understand why there are three trains at all. The historic Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits ran the original Orient Express and its sister services across Europe from the 1880s onward, with an Eastern & Oriental Express later launched in Southeast Asia in the same spirit. Belmond restored a set of genuine 1920s and 1930s Wagons-Lits carriages to create the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, which has run across Europe since 1982. More recently, Accor's Orient Express brand commissioned an entirely new train, La Dolce Vita, built from the ground up in Italy and launched in 2025. The Eastern & Oriental Express, meanwhile, has operated independently in Asia since the early 1990s, carrying the same name but running an entirely separate itinerary and fleet.
The result is three trains for three different moods: European vintage grandeur, contemporary Italian glamour, and tropical Southeast Asian adventure.
Venice Simplon-Orient-Express: the original, restored
The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express is the train most people picture when they hear the name — polished teak marquetry, brass fittings, and hand-restored 1920s and 1930s sleeping cars that once carried European royalty and spies alike. It runs seasonally, roughly March through November, on a network of routes anchored by the signature London–Venice journey, with the London leg completed aboard the vintage British Pullman before guests cross the Channel to join the continental train. Longer seasonal itineraries extend to Paris, Istanbul, and other classic Orient Express waypoints.
Cabin categories matter here more than on most trains: standard Historic Cabins use a wash basin with shared end-of-corridor facilities, while Cabin Suites and the top-tier Grand Suites add a private bathroom and, in the Grand Suites, a full en-suite with shower. Dining is formal and theatrical across three original restaurant cars, and the piano bar car is as much a part of the experience as the destinations themselves. For guests who want the actual, physical carriages of Orient Express history — not a recreation — this is the train. Read more in the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express journal.
La Dolce Vita Orient Express: a new train, an old name
La Dolce Vita Orient Express is the newest member of the family, and it deliberately looks nothing like its European cousin. Rather than restoring vintage rolling stock, Accor built the train from scratch, dressing it in a design language borrowed from 1960s and 1970s Italian modernism — the era of Cinecitta, sports cars, and La Dolce Vita itself. Every cabin, including the entry-level Deluxe Cabins, has its own en-suite bathroom with a shower, a meaningful comfort advantage over the vintage VSOE.
The routes are purely Italian in character even when they cross borders: journeys radiate from Rome's Ostiense station to destinations such as Venice, Florence, Siena, Matera, Palermo, Taormina, and beyond, with longer editions running as far as Istanbul. Most itineraries run two to five days, making this the more accessible entry point for guests who want the Orient Express name and aesthetic without committing to a week-long European crossing. For itinerary specifics and seasonal availability, our La Dolce Vita journal tracks what's currently on offer.
Eastern & Oriental Express: the tropical outlier
Geographically and culturally, the Eastern & Oriental Express stands apart from its European relatives. Its green-and-cream liveried carriages run between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, with itineraries also reaching Penang and the rainforest interior of the Malay Peninsula. Where the VSOE trades on Art Deco Europe and La Dolce Vita on Italian glamour, the E&O leans into colonial-era Southeast Asian design and the drama of jungle, coastline, and city sliding past the window.
Journeys typically run two to four nights round-trip from Singapore, threading through rubber plantations and limestone karst country before returning south. Cabins are compact but handsomely finished in teak and brass, and the open-air observation car at the rear of the train is the best seat on any Orient Express service for watching a Southeast Asian sunset. It is a fundamentally different kind of trip from its European siblings — shorter, warmer, and built around jungle and coastline rather than grand European capitals.
How to choose between them
In practice, most of our guests decide based on geography and mood rather than trying to rank the three trains against each other. If a European itinerary that takes in Paris, Venice, or Istanbul is already on the agenda, the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express delivers the most historically authentic version of the Orient Express experience, carriages and all. If Italy itself is the destination — a shorter trip built around Rome, Tuscany, and Sicily — La Dolce Vita offers modern comfort with the same theatrical spirit in a more compact itinerary. And for guests combining a Southeast Asia trip with stops in Singapore or Kuala Lumpur, the Eastern & Oriental Express adds a completely different landscape to the same storied name.
Guests who want to go further into Europe's golden age of rail travel by luxury train often pair an Orient Express journey with time aboard the Royal Scotsman in Scotland or the Danube Express through Central Europe. Whichever train you choose, our team can walk through current departures and help match the right route, season, and cabin category to your trip. Browse the full collection of luxury trains we arrange, explore more destinations, or get in touch to start planning.
