The Blue Train

Welcome on board
Every epic needs its prologue. So, too, begins The Blue Train experience.
In the departure lounge, a warm-hearted welcome sets the wheels in motion for a voyage defined by the hallmarks of personal attention and devotion to detail. An hour before the train leaves the station, you are ushered into a world where anticipation is quietly heightened by the ease of check-in and the ambience of convivial relaxation, with a chance to enjoy a welcoming cocktail and an appetising delicacy or two from a butler’s silver tray. Your luggage is labelled and safely whisked away, as the stage is set for a personal invitation to stroll onto the platform, step on board, and settle into your own private suite. Bon voyage. The experience is about to begin.

A Space to Accommodate Your Dreams
In a world of ever-shrinking boundaries, ever-intensifying demands, rail travel in the grand old tradition has become a luxury in itself. The luxury of the world outside your window, stretching to the far horizon, shifting to the whispering rhythm of the wheels. The luxury of time: time to indulge, time to reflect, time to savour sights, sounds, senses and sensations. But on The Blue Train, luxury assumes a new dimension, to become the working definition of everything your heart desires.

You’ll feel it from the moment you step into your suite, transformed by a magical act of alchemy from an elegant, spacious lounge by day, into a sanctuary of comfort and slumber by night with goosedown duvet and pillows, 100 percent cotton bedding, and a private bathroom with marble vanity basin, marble tiles and floor, gold fittings, and a choice of shower or bath.

Freshen up and slip into the warm embrace of a Blue Train-monogrammed gown, as you plan your outfit for dinner. All suites come equipped with a writing-desk, ideally positioned next to the window, where you can note the view in style, or pen a picture-postcard to someone special. All on-board correspondence is personally stamped and dispatched by the Train Manager.

Each suite is a world on its own, with airconditioning that is adjustable to your own liking, and radio and movie channels for your listening and viewing pleasure or tune into the driver’s-eye-view camera,and watch the world ahead as you watch the world all around. Thanks to the constantly-updated GPS map, you can also keep close track of where you’re going on the overhead monitor. On The Blue Train, the luxury of personal service comes as standard, with a dedicated butler at your beck and call, ready to meet your every whim and ensure an unforgettable experience.

A late-night snack? An early-morning wake-up call? A dinner jacket in pressing need of a little tender care? At the touch of a telephone, your butler is waiting and ready. Here’s to Suite Dreams…on The Blue Train, the ultimate definition of luxury in motion.

Route: Pretoria – Cape Town
Kimberley Excursion:
Sparkling, flawless gem of the rails, The Blue Train finds a harbour to match its legend on the southbound route from Pretoria to Cape Town. The city of Kimberley, capital of the Northern Cape province, lies at the heart of one of history’s great rushes for the glitter of mineral wealth. In 1869, the discovery of diamonds in the walls of a farmhouse lured thousands of fortune-seekers to stake their claim, clawing into bare earth, scraping away ramparts of gravel and shale, to form what would become the largest man-made hole on the planet: the Big Hole of Kimberley. One-and-a-half kilometres (one mile) in circumference, 365 metres (1 200 feet) deep, the crater would yield more than 14-million carats by the time war forced the closure of the mine in 1914. Today, quietly cloaked in the richness of its past, Kimberley offers the visitor an intriguing glimpse into an age of exploration and obsession, as well as the rare opportunity to prospect for a diamond all of your own…before you return to the glitter and allure of your gem of the rails.

Route: Cape Town – Pretoria
Matjiesfontein Excursion:
A slice of sunbleached Victoriana in the mystical midst of the Great Karoo, the quaint oasis of Matjiesfontein offers guests a leisurely interlude of opportunity to indulge in the ambience of a bygone era. Hop aboard the tomato-red London double-decker that motors up and down the lonely high street, and pause for a
traditional English tea at the Lord Milner Hotel, with its graceful façade and wrought-iron railings. Step into yesterday at the Antique Car Museum, or stroll to the edge of town and enjoy the endless panorama of the semi-desert, shimmering with the otherworldly allure of a mirage. Founded at the turn of the 20th Century by an English industrialist named James Douglas Logan, who was making his way to Australia when his ship was wrecked at the Cape of Good Hope, Matjiesfontein owes its origins to the fortuitous confluence of health-giving mineral waters and the railway that ran by them. A railway superintendent during his long and varied career, Logan understood the importance of a pause for refreshment on the arduous trek through the semi-desert interior. Soon, this “Paradise in the Great Karoo” became a destination in itself, drawing aristocrats, eccentrics, artists and explorers to its middle-of-nowhere charms, and later serving a more utilitarian purpose as an outpost for British soldiers during the South African War of 1899 to 1902. But in all the years, no visitor has been more celebrated or welcomed than The Blue Train that glides up to the platform on the northbound route from Cape Town.