Jaunted

The Little Things / Queensland Rail / Train Travel / Australia Travel / Queensland Travel / → All Tags

The Little Things: Unique Orchids in Queensland Rail Cabins

In the midst of the bustle of travel, it's all too easy to overlook the details. We're talking about special touches others have stressed over just so you can enjoy a unique experience, whether you know it or not. Every so often we'll highlight The Little Things like this, so now you will know.

The Little Thing: Queensland Rail's Cooktown Orchid spray in the overnight sleeper cabins.

Boarding a train with plans to share some stories with fellow travelers in the club car and then retire to your berth is super glamorous as it is, but when we walked into our cabin to find a delicate orchid spray in a bud vase, it put a smile on our face and added to air of retro travel glamor.

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Amtrak / Train Travel / Travel News / → All Tags

Be Friends with 'Select Executive Benefits' on Amtrak

If you see the inside of an Amtrak train more than you see your house, apartment, or your loved ones—we’ve got good news. You’re still probably going to ride the rails more than you’d like, but at least Amtrak is getting ready to award your loyalty for choosing them for your trips.

Amtrak has already had a couple different flavors of frequent traveler perks and benefits, but they’ve upped the ante with their latest offering. The new top tier of their Amtrak Guest Rewards program is known as Select Executive Benefits—not the cleverest name—and will get you all kinds of neat travel benefits and other stuff.

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Train Travel / China Travel / Beijing Travel / Guangzhou Travel / High-Speed Trains / Travel News / → All Tags

The World's Newest (and Longest) High-Speed Rail Line is Officially Open

Earlier this month, we gave you a exclusive look at traveling on the high speed train that zips between Beijing and Shanghai. While we still think that line is super cool, China has given everyone even more train porn to drool over.

Just this week, the nation's newest and longest HSR (high-speed rail) line opened up between Beijing and Guangzhou cutting travel time between the two cities to a fraction.

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Movie Travel / Harry Potter Travel / London Travel / Train Stations / Train Travel / Shopping Travel / → All Tags

The Newest Addition to London's King's Cross Station is Harry Potter's Platform 9 3/4

Platform 9 3/4 at London's King's Cross stationis best known as the fictional place where young wizards catch the Hogwarts Express in the Harry Potter books and films. For years, fans of the books and movies have gone to pose with only a sign, but now the station and platform has its very own Harry Potter store.

The store was created by Jonathan Sands, the founder of London Film Museum, who said in a statement, "King’s Cross Station has recently undergone the most amazing re-development and we are delighted to be a part of it thanks to Network Rail.”

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China Travel / Beijing Travel / Shanghai Travel / Train Travel / Photo Gallery / First Class Travel / → All Tags

Beijing to Shanghai the Fast Way: Bullet Train Adventures in China

During a trip to China earlier this year, we had to make our way from Beijing to Shanghai. Always keen to try out new modes of transport, we opted to forego our usual choice of flying and took the bullet train instead. Since this Jaunted writer lives in Europe, rail travel—even the high-speed kind—is something we’ve done many times, but we were still pretty excited to try this and would definitely recommend it as one of the best ways to travel between these two cities.

Running between Beijing South Railway Station and Shanghai HongQiao, the fastest service takes roughly 4 hours and 45 minutes, with a top speed of 190 miles per hour (300+ km/h). China is a land of contrasts, and you see this clearly as the landscape zips by outside your window. Before we tell you more about the journey itself, a few words on booking a ticket.

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Train Travel / Lists / Funiculars / Europe Travel / Historical Travel / → All Tags

These are a Few of My Favorite Funiculars

An example of a historical funicular: Budapest's Budvari Siklo

How many ways to climb a hill or mountain can you name? Cable car. Donkey. Hiking on foot. Helicopter. Cogwheel train. Funicular. Let's focus on that last one for a moment, as funicular/funiculaire/funicolare railways prove intriguing to travelers for both their historical significance (funicular installations hit their peak in the early 1900s) and the awesome views they offer.

Though you'll find funiculars all over the world, Europe is undoubtably the capital. The Reisszug in Austria was not only the first funicular, built in the early 16th century, but it's also the oldest railway (period). In any case, we play favorites when it comes to funiculars. Here's a few we've been on and loved:

· The Budvari Siklo of Budapest, Hungary
An excellent example of an older, ornate funicular that's been kept alive. Simply put, it's gorgeous (and see so for yourself in the image above).The Siklo puts people up on Buda Hill with its crazy view of the city.
1500 HUF roundtrip ($7)

· The Città Alta funiculare of Bergamo, Italy
If you arrive to Bergamo's train station expecting to walk out into a medieval Italian town (as Bergamo is often advertised), you'll be disappointed. Instead hop a cab or to the funicular station and ascend to the Città Alta (high city) to think you've time traveled back to the 1500, even if the funicular's only been there since 1912.
€3 roundtrip

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Making It to Machu Picchu / Travel Tips / Machu Picchu Travel / Cusco Travel / Peru Travel / Food Travel / Train Travel / PeruRail / Orient-Express / Luxury Travel / Photo Gallery / → All Tags

Riding the Hiram Bingham Orient-Express Train from Machu Picchu: Part 2

Talk about bucket list locations, Machu Picchu is up there (literally). The sacred Inca city high in the Andes mountains of Peru isn't an easy place to visit, but thousands head there every day for a glimpse at the archaeological site. Having just returned ourselves, all this week we'll give you the low-down on how to get to this high place.

The Jaunted Goes to Machu Picchu Series:

So you've been hiking Incan ruins all day, likely in the sun, and you've been fed finger sandwiches and teacakes until your stomach bulged...so the last thing you'd want to do is eat again, right? Wrong. The grueling daytrip of Cusco to Machu Picchu and back made us ravenous like no other and so, when it came time for a four-course meal and drinks onboard the Hiram Bingham Orient-Express train, "si" was the answer to every question asked by our waiter.

Si, keep the agua flowing (con gas, yummy).

Si, I'm having the steak.

Si, there's no way I'm skipping dessert.

Si si si after-dinner drinks in the bar car.

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Making It to Machu Picchu / Travel Tips / Machu Picchu Travel / Cusco Travel / Peru Travel / Train Travel / PeruRail / Orient-Express / Luxury Travel / Photo Gallery / → All Tags

Riding the Hiram Bingham Orient-Express Train from Machu Picchu: Part 1

Talk about bucket list locations, Machu Picchu is up there (literally). The sacred Inca city high in the Andes mountains of Peru isn't an easy place to visit, but thousands head there every day for a glimpse at the archaeological site. Having just returned ourselves, all this week we'll give you the low-down on how to get to this high place.

The Jaunted Goes to Machu Picchu Series:

The train is blue. Unlike its European cousins, the cars are not painted with "Orient-Express" down the sides, but "Hiram Bingham" in gold lettering.

What would Hiram himself, explorer/Yale professor/politician, think of this train that makes traversing such forbidding terrain look so easy? Hiram Bingham discovered the site of Machu Picchu in 1911 and worked to uncover and preserve it for study and, yes, tourism. Even the switchback road up to the ruins from the town of Aguas Calientes and the Urubamba River is named the Hiram Bingham Highway (though it's hardly a 'highway').

But before we digress on some History Channel-ish tangents, back to the train! A one-way ticket averages $329 per person, in high contrast to the Vistadome which runs $76 and the Expedition at $62. There are a few dining cars and one bar car with a lounge and rear observation area, complete with an open-air platform. The locomotive is also blue, though a lighter shade that's the signature of its operator: PeruRail.

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Making It to Machu Picchu / Travel Tips / Machu Picchu Travel / Cusco Travel / Peru Travel / Train Travel / PeruRail / Photo Gallery / → All Tags

Clickety-Clack Down the Track: Riding the Vistadome Train to Machu Picchu

Talk about bucket list locations, Machu Picchu is up there (literally). The sacred Inca city high in the Andes mountains of Peru isn't an easy place to visit, but thousands head there every day for a glimpse at the archaeological site. Having just returned ourselves, all this week we'll give you the low-down on how to get to this high place.

The Jaunted Goes to Machu Picchu Series:

You've got options. What train to take to Machu Picchu? There are three choices: the Expedition (cheapest, minimal), the Vistadome (affordable, comfortable), and the Hiram Bingham Orient-Express (pricey, but over-the-top luxurious). Booking a Machu Picchu trip on your own versus with a tour company means you've got the option to mix it up and try different trains. Here, we focus on the Vistadome.

It's far from a high-speed journey. The train trip takes 4 hours and averages $76 per person each way (bookable online at PeruRail), so turning Machu Picchu into a day trip from Cusco is doable (it's what we did!), but brace yourself to be utterly exhausted on the return and, well, pretty much over riding trains for a little bit.

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Making It to Machu Picchu / Travel Tips / Machu Picchu Travel / Cusco Travel / Peru Travel / Train Travel / → All Tags

The Paper Trail to Machu Picchu: Necessary Documents and Tickets

Talk about bucket list locations, Machu Picchu is up there (literally). The sacred Inca city high in the Andes mountains of Peru isn't an easy place to visit, but thousands head there every day for a glimpse at the archaeological site. Having just returned ourselves, all this week we'll give you the low-down on how to get to this high place.

The Jaunted Goes to Machu Picchu Series:

Despite the difficulty of reaching Machu Picchu, visitors pack into trains and buses to swarm the site. This has recently been calmed a bit with the introduction of a daily limit of 2,500 visitors. The way to ensure you're in that 2,500 is by reserving your Machu Picchu entrance in advance and paying the admission fee to score the needed ticket. Once you have that, you're all good. Buy your train tickets (but it's wise to check availability of these on your preferred day before reserving the site entrance). It's not as confusing as guidebooks would have you think.**

Here's six documents you should have in hand:

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Literary Travel / Train Travel / → All Tags

And Now, a Poem on Travel

Today, October 4, 2012, is recognized as National Poetry Day. Typically we don't go in for these secondary holidays, but since writing and travel have always gone hand-in-hand, today we bring you one of our own personal favorite poems.

The simply titled "Travel," is by American poet Edna St. Vincent Millay. She didn't do much traveling outside the east coast in her lifetime, but the desire was there. Tip: replace the train imagery with that of airplanes, and it's instantly applicable to today.

Travel — Edna St. Vincent Millay

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Design Travel / Train Travel / Switzerland Travel / Apple / iPad / Travel Tech / → All Tags

Why Apple is in Trouble with the Swiss Federal Railway

Let's talk iOS 6. Passbook? Check. Maps? Check. iPad update? Hmm—let's discuss that just a bit, because there is a hidden tidbit in the update you may not have noticed, but the Swiss Federal Railway (SBB) sure has.

If you've got an iPad and you've upgraded the operating system to iOS 6, then one small change will have been the switch of clock icons. From the standard black-bordered clock, the icon has changed to a cleaner, whiter one. It's lovely—the only problem is that it's the registered design property of the Swiss Railway, who've used that particular analog clock face throughout the nicely neutral country flowing with chocolate and muesli.

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