The ‘Danube Express‘ to Istanbul

For many the allure of ancient Byzantium was fashioned by the fertile imagination of many an author - Graham Green’s ‘Stamboul Train’ and Agatha Christie’s ‘Murder on the Orient Express’. It was of course George Nagelmackers’s plush Pullman train - later to be dubbed the ‘Orient Express’ - that was to be the main setting for these stories. Istanbul or Constantinople was truly considered the gateway to the Orient and these novels recount tales of high-class courtesans, seductive spies, secret messengers and assassins.

Voyages Jules Verne has been involved with special train journeys for 30 years and our attention has therefore been caught by the launch of a new luxury train in central Europe. Indeed some of our regular passengers may remember similar journeys on a Hungarian train some years back.

This journey follows part of the original route of the Orient-Express train from Budapest across Serbia and Bulgaria to Istanbul. In Budapest, where the Danube is at its most scenic, stay at the only 5-star hotel in old Buda surrounded by unspoilt town houses and bastions, the Matthias coronation church, Royal Palace complex and Hungarian National Gallery. In Istanbul the former Hotel Merit Antique has been finely restored and re-opened as a Crowne Plaza hotel, preserving the historic character of the building.

Special VJV Event - Ottoman Dinner
A drink in a typical Ottoman house followed by a candlelit dinner in the vaulted dining room of an ancient 6th-century cistern. Click here for more exclusive arrangements by VJV.