Asia by Train: The Journeys Worth Planning a Trip Around
Sleeper trains with cypress baths, a single luxury carriage on the Vietnamese coast, a forest railway that climbs 2,000 metres, and new lines into Tibet, Kashmir and Laos. A guide to choosing a rail journey in Asia.
Rail travel in Asia has changed more in the past ten years than in the fifty before. Japan has built trains that are hotels on wheels. Private operators in Southeast Asia have put new luxury carriages on old colonial lines. China, India, Laos and Indonesia have opened railways into places that used to take days to reach. This guide sorts the journeys by what they offer, with links to our fuller accounts of each.
Trains that are the destination
Three Japanese railway companies run what they call cruise trains: sleepers for about thirty passengers, which leave from one station and return to it after a circuit of several days. Seven Stars in Kyushu was the first, in 2013. JR East followed with Train Suite Shiki-shima and JR West with Twilight Express Mizukaze, both in 2017. Places are allotted by lottery months ahead. Our comparison of the three explains the differences, and there is a separate account of the Seven Stars journey.
In Southeast Asia the equivalent is Belmond’s Eastern & Oriental Express, which returned in 2024 with two routes from Singapore through Malaysia. Vietnam now has a train of the same kind. SJourney takes eight days to cross the country from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, with stops at Hue and Hoi An.
A few hours in comfort
Not every journey needs a week. The Vietage is a single carriage of twelve seats attached to the ordinary train between Da Nang, Quy Nhon and Nha Trang, and turns a transfer into an afternoon. In Taiwan the Formosensis, a train lined with cypress, runs as a day tour on the Alishan Forest Railway.
Historic mountain lines
Some railways are worth riding for the engineering and the view, in an ordinary seat. The Alishan line, built in 1912 for timber, climbs more than 2,000 metres from the plain through spirals and switchbacks, and reopened in full in 2024 after fifteen years. In Sri Lanka the main line from Kandy to Ella passes through the tea estates at walking pace, with the doors open. It is described in our guide to the tea country by train, and now pairs with the Pekoe Trail for those who want to walk part of the way.
New lines that open up a region
The most useful railways are often the newest. The Laos-China railway of 2021 put Luang Prabang two hours from Vientiane and within a day of Kunming. In Yunnan a line from Lijiang to Shangri-La opened in 2023 and brought the Tibetan highlands within little more than an hour of the old town. In Tibet itself the Lhasa-Nyingchi railway follows the Yarlung Tsangpo to the forests of the south-east.
In India the railway to Kashmir was completed in 2025 by the highest rail bridge in the world. In Japan the Hokuriku Shinkansen now reaches Fukui and the hot-spring towns of Kaga. Indonesia’s Whoosh has made the hill city of Bandung a day trip from Jakarta.
How to choose
For a celebration, and with a year to plan, the Japanese cruise trains have no equal for craftsmanship and service. They are also the hardest to book. The Eastern & Oriental Express is easier to reserve and suits travellers who want a classic train with a tropical landscape. The Vietage is the best value and fits into any journey along the Vietnamese coast.
The ordinary trains ask for more patience and give more contact with the country. Book reserved seats as early as the system allows, which is usually two weeks to a month ahead, carry food and water, and take the slow train in daylight.