Forget the airport security queue. Forget the middle seat. Forget the bloke in 14C who reclines the second the seatbelt sign turns off.

Travel + Leisure magazine has just dropped its 2026 World’s Best Awards, and the train category is basically a love letter to slow, scenic, ridiculously plush travel – voted on by roughly 661,000 readers who have very strong opinions about onboard spas and pisco sours.

Here’s what made the cut.

1. Andean Explorer, a Belmond Train – 96.84 points

Peru takes the crown, with the Andean Explorer, South America’s first luxury overnight train, running a three-day, two-night route between Arequipa and Cusco that has zero direct competition on the continent – which might explain why it’s clearing 96 points.

Launched in 2017, the train threads through the Peruvian highlands with stops at Lake Titicaca, all while passengers tuck into signature Andean cuisine, get treatments in an onboard spa carriage, and take in scenery that will blow you away.

This isn’t a quick transfer – it’s an immersive, multiday journey for people who want the trip to be the destination.

2. Hiram Bingham, a Belmond Train – 96.46 points

Peru pulls off the rare feat of taking out the top two spots. Named after the American explorer credited with bringing Machu Picchu to international attention in 1911, the Hiram Bingham is the glossy, dark-wood, live-band, welcome-cocktail version of getting to Machu Picchu.

Think traditional dancers on the platform, a five-course dinner on the way there, and a bar carriage full of live music and pisco sours on the way back.

It’s shorter and livelier than the Andean Explorer, more group celebration than private hideaway – but it delivers one of the most theatrical arrivals in world travel.

3. Royal Canadian Pacific – 90.93 points

The Royal Canadian Pacific runs vintage rail carriages out of Calgary through the Canadian Rockies.

Unlike everything else here, you can’t just book it off a website – it operates mostly through private charters and limited special departures, with no standing public timetable. That scarcity is basically the point: This is old-money rail travel, heavy on restored heritage carriages and light on crowds.

4. Rocky Mountaineer – 90.80 points

The people’s champion of luxury rail, the Rocky Mountaineer, runs daytime routes with glass-domed carriages through British Columbia, Alberta, and down into Colorado and Utah, turning the Canadian and American Rockies into a rolling widescreen movie.

It’s more accessible than most trains on this list – no overnight cabins, no need for a private charter – which is probably exactly why so many readers have actually ridden it and voted accordingly.

5. Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, a Belmond Train – 90.78 points

The name that started the whole luxury train fantasy. The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express (VSOE)’s 1920s-vintage Art Deco carriages – navy-and-gold livery, polished wood, white roof – have been the definitive symbol of golden-age rail travel since 1883, running routes between Paris, Venice and other storied European cities.

It might land at No.5 on points, but in terms of pure name recognition, it’s still the train every other train on this list is being measured against.

Republished from International Traveller