If the carriages are the point, book the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express. If Italy is the point, book La Dolce Vita. That is the whole answer, and the rest of this article is the evidence for it, because the two trains that share the Orient Express name in 2027 are built for different people and priced in ways that make a straight comparison misleading. One is a set of genuine 1920s and 1930s carriages owned by Belmond that runs a single night between Paris and Venice and a growing list of other cities. The other is a new Italian train in 1960s style, under the Orient Express brand that belongs to Accor, running loops of one to four nights out of Rome with the country itself as the itinerary.
I am Pau Gallardo Campos, I run Alpina Travels from Zurich, and I sell neither of them. What I build is the third option, a twelve-day journey from Paris to Milan on scheduled trains with the nights in hotels, which I put at the end so you can judge it against the two trains rather than instead of them. If you want the wider field, including the Royal Scotsman and the Golden Eagle, start with the Orient Express alternatives or my ranking of the best luxury train journeys in Europe.
The two trains, side by side
| Venice Simplon-Orient-Express | La Dolce Vita Orient Express | |
|---|---|---|
| Operator | Belmond | Orient Express brand (Accor), Italian-built and based in Rome |
| The carriages | Restored originals from the 1920s and 1930s | New train, 1960s Italian style |
| Core journey | Paris to Venice, one night | Rome to Venice via Bolgheri, one night; loops of two to four nights out of Rome |
| From, per person, 2027 | €4,510 in a Historic Cabin, Paris to Venice | Not published as a list; quoted per itinerary in the booking engine |
| Cabins | 32 Historic Cabins, 16 Suites, 6 Grand Suites, 1 L'Observatoire Suite | Deluxe, Suite and one La Dolce Vita Suite |
| Bathrooms | Washbasin in Historic Cabins, shared facilities at the end of the car; Suites and Grand Suites have their own | Every cabin has its own |
| Dining | Fully inclusive, sommelier's wines included, three restaurant cars and a bar car | Dinner by Heinz Beck, all meals and a selection of drinks included, top-shelf extra |
| Off the train | Nothing on the one-night journey; hotel packages on the three-night ones | Excursions are the itinerary: winery in Bolgheri, Siena, Matera, Taormina |
| Where it goes in 2027 | Paris, Venice, Florence, Verona, Monaco and Cannes, Amsterdam, Brussels, Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Istanbul, Amalfi, Portofino | Rome, Venice, Florence, Portofino, Tuscany, Alba, Matera, Sicily, and once a year Istanbul |
The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express in 2027
Belmond prices its 2026 departures in pounds and its 2027 departures in euros, and the published 2027 guide prices start at €4,510 per person in a Historic Cabin for the one-night Paris to Venice or Venice to Paris journey. The same night via Florence is €5,120, via Cannes and Monaco €4,870, and the new Paris to Monaco route is €4,870. The three-night journeys that pair the train with a Belmond hotel run from €9,510 for Venice and the Cipriani to €14,350 for Portofino and the Splendido. The once-a-year five-night run between Paris and Istanbul is €20,940. For reference, the 2026 Paris to Venice price was £4,275. Suites and Grand Suites are priced on request and run far higher; the Grand Suites have their own bathrooms and the Historic Cabins, which are original, do not.
What you are paying for is the thing itself. Dinner in a Lalique-panelled dining car, the steward who turns the cabin into a bedroom while you are at the bar, breakfast as the Dolomites go past, and the knowledge that these are the carriages, not a homage to them. Dining is fully inclusive with the sommelier's wines, which matters at this price. Two facts to know before you book: the London leg is a separate Eurostar booking to Paris, not a vintage crossing, and a Historic Cabin is small by any five-star standard, with a washbasin and a shared toilet at the end of the carriage. People who know that in advance love it. People who expected a hotel room do not.
La Dolce Vita Orient Express in 2027
La Dolce Vita is a different proposition and should be judged as one. It is a new train, built in Italy in a 1960s idiom, based at Roma Ostiense where guests check in at a dedicated lounge, with dinner by the three-Michelin-starred Heinz Beck, 24-hour butler service, every cabin en suite, and itineraries that are built around what you do when the train stops: a vintage-car drive to a winery in Bolgheri, a stop in Siena, the sassi of Matera, Taormina. The operator lists 21 itineraries for the coming seasons, from a nine-hour gourmet day trip to Venice to four nights around Sicily and a once-a-year Rome to Istanbul, and the booking calendar runs year-round.
On price, be careful with anything you read, including this. The operator does not publish a price list; every itinerary is quoted inside the booking engine for your date and cabin, per person in double occupancy. The one-night Rome to Venice journeys have been sold to agents for 2027 dates in a range of roughly €3,500 to €4,160 per person in a Deluxe cabin, the two-night routes such as the Truffle Route from about €6,560, and the operator's own pages show the four-night Rome to Istanbul from €20,000. Treat those as the shape of the pricing rather than a quote, and get the number for your date in writing before you compare it with Belmond's.
The honest reservations: the carriages are new, so you are buying design rather than history, and the trains run on ordinary Italian lines, so the landscape between stops is the landscape between Italian stations rather than the Alps. Both matter less than they sound once the train has stopped in Bolgheri and the vintage cars are waiting.
Which to book
- You have wanted the Orient Express since you were twelve. The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, Paris to Venice, one night. Nothing else will do, and nothing else should.
- You want Italy, with a train as the way to see it. La Dolce Vita, two nights or more. The one-night journeys are a taste; the loops are the point.
- Bathrooms matter. La Dolce Vita, or a Suite or Grand Suite on the Belmond train at a price you should ask for before you decide.
- You want to do it once and have it be perfect. Book the Belmond train for the night and put the money you would have spent on a second night into the hotels at each end. That is what the three-night Belmond packages do, and it is also what I do, below.
- You want a week or more at this standard. Neither. Keep reading.
The alternative: the same journey with the nights in hotels
Here is the calculation that sits behind every Orient Express enquiry I receive. One night on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express is €4,510 per person before you have slept anywhere else. The Grand Culinary Rail Journey is twelve days and eleven nights from Paris to Milan at CHF 18,400 for two, CHF 9,200 each: Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon, Geneva, Zermatt, the Glacier Express in first class with lunch at the seat, St. Moritz, the Bernina line into Italy, Bologna, Florence and Milan, with the nights in grand hotels and the tables, including two Michelin stars in Bordeaux, held before you fly. Per person per night that is about CHF 840, hotels, trains and the restaurants in, against €4,510 for a single night on board. It is not the Orient Express, and I would never claim it was. It is Paris to Italy by train, eating well the whole way, for a week and a half rather than a night.
If the romance of the carriages is what you want, book the Belmond train and I will happily build the days either side of it. If it is the idea of the journey, write to me at hello@alpinatravels.com with your dates and who is travelling, and I will tell you honestly which of the three you should book.