Quite a few of our rail vacations are tailor made to suit your timing, but some, like the Reunification Express in Vietnam, Trans-Mongolian Express and the Moorish Spain to Marrakech by rail vacations are in small groups with maximum group size of 16 travelers. However, this doesn’t mean that you will feel ‘chaperoned’ – it is your vacation after all, but it means that a group leader will be on hand to assist with anything you need during your time in the places you visit along the way. And it means you can totally chill when it comes to connections and reservations.

Again this depends on the trip. It’s first class all the way on the super luxurious “El Transcantabrico” train that shimmies its way rather sleekly across Northern Spain. Or the Maharajas’ Express, which takes you to all points on India’s Golden Triangle in award winning luxury. As part of the Scotland Luxury Rail Vacation, you travel first class on the Jacobite steam train from Fort William to Mallaig, over the equally first class Glenfinnan viaduct and top notch highland scenery, as well as a first class Scotrail service back down through the Highlands to Pitlochry.

In general, it is always good to stock up on snacks before you board a train. There are exceptions, of course, but food and trains do not usually a happy marriage make. You will have an adventure, however, on board the likes of the Trans-Mongolian Express, where the buffet cars change according to the country you are in: Russia, Mongolia and China. So, lunch is chicken or meat borsht in Russia, with vodka flowing freely, rice and mutton in Mongolia, and a proverbial Chinese cacophony once you cross that border.

The joy of not flying is that you don’t have the luggage restrictions. However, you really don’t want to be hauling big, cumbersome suitcases on and off trains, especially if they are crowded and there isn’t much time at one spot. Try and pack lightly, and have all your immediate requirements in a daypack that is kept by your feet, or overhead.