Venice Simplon-Orient-Express Route

London → Istanbul via the Simplon Pass

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The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express is Belmond's luxury overnight train from Paris to Venice. It runs restored carriages from the 1920s to the 1940s, the era of the original Orient Express, and takes about 24 hours through the Alps. It was revived in 1982 with carriages bought at auction and carries at most 187 guests. It is a private heritage train; the historical scheduled service has its own map on our Orient Express page.

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Route facts

Duration	≈ 24 h; 2026 timetable: Paris dep 21:58, Venice arr 18:25 next day (London leg by Eurostar connection since 2024)¹
Operator	Belmond (LVMH group since April 2019)²
The train	18 carriages built 1926–1949; max 187 guests; three restaurant cars incl. the Lalique-panelled Côte d'Azur³
Fares (2026)	Historic Twin Cabin from ≈ £4,300–4,500 per person incl. all meals; Suites from ≈ £9,700. Book at belmond.com¹
Dress code	No jeans or trainers; formal in the evening¹
Season	Roughly weekly, spring to late autumn; no winter service⁴
First run	25 May 1982, London–Venice⁴

Height along the route

The height of the track, from AWS Open Data terrain tiles along Trainmap's route. Through tunnels and over bridges, which come from OpenStreetMap, the line runs straight from one end to the other. The highest station is Brig, at 672 m.

Scenic highlights

Swiss Alps via the Gotthard. Despite the name, the train has mostly crossed the Alps by the Gotthard line since 2016, not the Simplon. Southbound passengers wake up past Zurich beside the Zürichsee or the Walensee, with mountains behind.¹
Arlberg Pass. Used on northbound trips and other routings through Austria. Seat 61 calls it "wonderfully scenic".¹
Brenner Pass. On routes via the Arlberg, the train enters Italy over the Brenner.¹

Stations on this route

London St Pancras International
Paris Gare de Lyon
Lausanne
Brig
Domodossola
Milano Centrale
Venezia Santa Lucia
Ljubljana
Zagreb
Beograd
Sofia
Istanbul

James Sherwood began the revival in 1977, when he bought two original carriages at a Sotheby's auction in Monte Carlo; in the end he spent $16 million on 35 vehicles. Sleeping car 3309, stuck in a snowdrift for 10 days in 1929 in the incident that helped inspire Murder on the Orient Express, runs in today's train, according to Belmond's official history. A few times a year the train goes further, to Vienna, Prague, Budapest or Istanbul.