Charles Dickens once observed: “All locomotive engines are low-spirited in damp and foggy weather.”

And it is true that spending an hour commuting by train through gloomy industrial scenery is rarely the stuff of travel dreams.

Yet rail travel can also be one of the most atmospheric ways to explore a country — from sunrise rides beside the coast to warm, rain-streaked journeys through the Scottish Highlands.

The Daily Mail has rounded up some of the finest overnight railway adventures available, ranging from a £2,119-per-person expedition across the Australian outback to standout UK journeys and European routes costing less than £50.

Caledonian Sleeper

London – Inverness, UK

Covering roughly 500 miles in 12 hours and 45 minutes, the Caledonian Sleeper is now the longest direct rail journey in the UK.

Passengers can watch for a succession of spectacular landmarks, including Rannoch Moor, Loch Lomond and Loch Ness, along with coastal scenery near St Andrews and Arbroath.

As the train nears its destination, the first light of morning spreading across the Highlands creates one of the journey’s most memorable sights.

Departing London Euston at 9.15pm six nights a week, from Sunday to Friday, the service travels overnight through Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen before reaching Inverness.

Travellers can choose from reclining seats costing about £50 to private compartments with beds, charging points and washbasins. Premium cabins, which include en suite facilities, cost up to £570, according to sleeper.scot.

Royal Canadian Pacific

Canada

The Royal Canadian Pacific Railway uses restored trains dating from 1916 to 1931. Originally created to unite Canada and make cross-country travel possible, the railway now offers far more than simple transportation.

Today, the journey is presented as an experience in luxury as much as a means of getting from one place to another.

“The silver settings, brass fittings, burled tables, brocade chairs, wall paneling of Circassian walnut and bird’s eye maple imported from Russia, and open vestibules are the pinnacle of a bygone tradition of elegance,” the railway’s website says.

Among the train’s notable passengers have been US President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, as well as the late Queen Elizabeth II, according to royalcanadianpacific.com.

Maharajas Express

India

The Maharajas Express is one of the country’s more luxurious travel options – here, live bands play music for departing passengers.

Measuring almost half-a-mile in length, it runs four routes that take round trips from Delhi, and from Delhi to Mumbai and back.

The cabins of the train are set inside carriages named after gemstones and there are four types to choose from – deluxe, junior suites, suites and a presidential suite.

Ticket prices for a deluxe cabin on the three-night Treasures of India itinerary start at $4,000 (£3,025), while the presidential suite costs up to $26,800 (£20,268), the-maharajas.com.

Santa Claus Express

Helsinki – Rovaniemi 

Lapland trips top Christmas season wish lists, and this night train can take you direct into the heart of this Finnish wonderland. 

With the Santa Claus Express, you can travel to Lapland by taking the original train from Helsinki or Turku to Rovaniemi. 

The double-decker night train has several daily connections, and you can choose between a seat or a sleeper cabin. 

The trains feature Wi-Fi, cabins are equipped with power sockets and at your choice even your own shower and toilet. 

Tickets start from €67 (£57), vr.fi/en/santa-claus-express

Venice Simplon-Orient-Express

Paris to Venice 

Aboard the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express you can travel to destinations including Paris and Venice, with extended routes to Vienna and Prague, in what can only be described as the utmost glamour.

1920s carriage accommodation includes historic cabins, suites, grand suites, and the extraordinary L’Observatoire, a private carriage designed in collaboration with world-acclaimed French street artist JR. 

Each category has been restored or designed to reflect the heritage of the train, with grand suites offering additional space, private bathrooms and 24-hour dedicated butler service. 

An uber-exclusive Paris-Istanbul journey is the creme de la creme of luxury, taking place only twice a year, and costing around £19,900 per person, belmond.com/en/trains/europe/venice-simplon-orient-express

Royal Scotsman

Scotland 

As the train weaves through the awe-inspiring peaks and valleys of Scotland, you can settle into your luxury cabin while being serenaded by bagpipes.

With 18 sleeper cabins, two dining cars and a lavish Dior spa, the Belmond train offers incredible trips, including a three-night Highland tour passing through Edinburgh, Keith, Kyle of Lochalsh and Boat of Garten, as well as a seven-night Grand Tour of Scotland.

In 2026, the train has introduced a ‘Tastes of Scotland Culinary Series’, a celebration of Scottish cuisine across three exclusive journeys. 

Shorter journeys start from £4,500 per person, making this a once-in-a-lifetime break for many, belmond.com/en/trains/europe/uk/royal-scotsman 

Belmond Andean Explorer

Peru

The Belmond Andean Explorer is a super-luxury piece of transport taking passengers from Cusco, the ancient capital of the Inca Empire to the reflective beauty of Lake Titicaca, onto Arequipa, a Unesco World Heritage site.

Customers can choose from a range of cabins for their accommodation, including suite/double, twin and bunk bed configurations. 

These bedrooms all come with their own en suite toilet and shower. 

There are also two dining cars where chefs from Belmond Hotel Monasterio, Cusco, will serve up dishes using locally sourced ingredients from the Peruvian Andes. 

Prices start from £2,500, belmond.com/en/trains/south-america/peru/andean-explorer

The Ghan

Adelaide-Darwin, Australia

In Australia, the fabulous Indian Pacific sleeper train goes across from Perth to Sydney, but our pick of the top train is The Ghan, which goes from north to south.

With 44 carriages and two locomotives all measuring at 0.7 miles in length, The Ghan is one of the longest trains in the world. 

The journey takes four days and three nights, and departs on Wednesdays and Saturdays from March to November.

Occasionally, the train stops early morning (around 5.30am to 6am) if there’s a particularly good sunrise.

Prices start from £2,119 per person, journeybeyondrail.com.au/journeys/the-ghan

Seven Stars 

Kyushu, Japan

Those wishing to sleep on the move might want to journey to the Japanese island of Kyushu for the luxurious Seven Stars train experience. 

Travelling through breathtaking scenery, this train hotel offers five-star service with spacious suites for its guests and a fine dining room where food is served from Japan’s top chefs. 

There is also a cocktail bar, so travellers can relax in style as they stare at the scenery out of the panoramic windows and listen to live piano performances. 

Following cancelled journeys due to the Kumamoto earthquake of 2026, the service is back up and running again, cruisetrain-sevenstars.jp/english/train

SJ Norge

Norway 

A daily sleeper is operated by SJ Norge, with standard seats, premium plus ‘rest seats’ (with more recline) and sleeper compartments. 

‘This is an especially good summer ride when it’s light into the early hours of the morning and you can watch Norwegian fjords and mountains pass by,’ writes the Daily Mail train expert Tom Chesshyre, author of Ticket To Ride: Around The World on 49 Unusual Train Journeys.

He adds: ‘But the journey is enjoyable at any time of year.’

Trondheim and Bodo on the route are both great for the Northern Lights, sj.no/en/front-page

Blue Train

South Africa

The Blue Train, which runs from Pretoria to Cape Town, dates back to the 1900s and tickets include meals, drinks and deluxe suites with full-sized baths. 

On your journey, you can expect views to range from vast savannahs to sculpted mountain ranges.

Private suites have butler service, while all passengers can make the most of the classic private club-style Club Car, and even enjoy a handmade Cuban cigar.

‘Everything was perfect,’ one guest wrote of their experience on board. ‘The service and meals were excellent! The staff were friendly. It was my first time on The Blue Train – this journey was unbelievable, you will see me again.’ 

Visit bluetrain.co.za

Nightjet

Across Europe 

On board Nightjet services, you can travel between Vienna, Brussels, Amsterdam and Berlin – among other routes.

The best value is achieved by booking tickets early. 

For example, the Sparschiene ticket for the Vienna – Amsterdam or Innsbruck – Amsterdam route in a seated carriage is available from just €34.90 (£30) per person and direction.

For families or groups, saver fare tickets in couchette cars (compartment space for four to six people) are available from €54.90 (£47.20), and the new Mini Cabins for solo travellers are also offered with a saver fare ticket from €54.90 (£47.20). 

For extra sleeping comfort and even more space and privacy, a berth in a sleeper compartment can be booked with a saver fare from €89.90 (£77.30), nightjet.com

European Sleeper

Brussels-Amsterdam-Berlin-Prague 

The European Sleeper is easy to incorporate into travel itineraries and allows travellers to wake up in a new destination. It may not be fancy, but it’s not too pricey either.

There are routes to some of the most popular cities in Europe including Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels and Prague.

European Sleeper launched the new route on March 26 and it operates three times a week.

The journey from Paris, to Brussels, to Berlin provides a direct, overnight connection between the three bustling cities.

It takes around 15 hours and is one of the best budget-friendly routes on the list, with budget Paris-Berlin seats from €80 (£68), europeansleeper.eu

Glastonbury tickets sold out in just 42 minutes after hundreds of thousands of Britons rushed to secure a place at the festival.

Tickets for next year’s event went on sale at 9am on Sunday, but fans began receiving sold-out messages by 9.42am, leaving many disappointed.

Organisers had introduced a new queuing system in an effort to make the process fairer, with each registered attendee allowed just one place in the queue.

Fans first had to complete a CAPTCHA test before entering their unique registration number to join the queue.

The changes were designed to prevent people from joining the queue across multiple devices or browser tabs in an attempt to improve their chances of getting tickets.

Ticket vendor See Tickets confirmed: “Tickets for Glastonbury Festival 2027 are now SOLD OUT.”

It added: “Confirmation emails are going out now. Thank you to everyone who bought tickets this morning and sorry to those who missed out.”

Thousands of Glastonbury hopefuls were nevertheless left furious by the new system after failing to secure tickets for next year’s festival, which runs from June 23 to 27.

One person questioned the process on X, writing: “I mean it’s great tickets are being sold but there needs to be some transparency too. Did everything asked.”

They added: “Got in the waiting room before 08:50. Stuck on 2 bars. How are the queue places allocated? Random? First come first served. All cloak and dagger.”

Another fan said: “We didn’t get Glastonbury Festival tickets. Absolutely gutted.”

They continued: “But as a consolation prize, we’ve just booked Boomtown tickets, which we are absolutely stoked about. Did anyone else get lucky?”

A third person wrote: “The dreaded year has arrived where I didn’t get Glastonbury tickets. I’m in a period of mourning, do not speak to me.”

Another disappointed hopeful said: “Didn’t get Glastonbury tickets, I’m so upset.”

One more fan wrote: “Once again no tickets. I have been trying to get tickets most of my life, which is a very long time.”

However, not everyone missed out. Fans who successfully bought tickets took to social media to celebrate their return to Worthy Farm.

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One delighted attendee wrote: “Can’t believe I’m going back to GLASTONBURY NEXT YEAR.”

Another said: ‘Glastonbury 2027! I can’t wait to be back on that farm.’

A third wrote: ‘I can’t believe it, after countless years of trying without a sniff, I finally got GLASTONBURY TICKETS!!!’

A fourth said: ‘I can’t believe I’m going to my first ever festival and it’s GLASTONBURY???? Quite the flex if I do say so myself.’ 

Meanwhile a fifth wrote: ‘Got Glastonbury tickets. Worth the trip from Australia for my fav place in the world.’

Last month Harry Styles fans speculated that the popstar is set to headline Glastonbury 2027 after leaving a major gap in his tour schedule. 

The Watermelon Sugar hitmaker, 32, thrilled fans when he announced this week that he is extending his Together, Together tour into 2027, with Harry adding 25 new dates across 12 cities.

As the full list of cities was revealed, it hinted at a key opportunity for the singer to perform at the iconic Somerset festival, which takes place between June 23-27.

The tour will begin on Friday, April 2 and he will play new venues in the United States and Canada with back-to-back shows at State Farm Stadium in Phoenix, AZ, before continuing to Dallas, Los Angeles, Toronto, Atlanta and Chicago till the end of May.

Tellingly, there’s a space of almost a month before Harry takes to the stage in Berlin at the beginning of July, giving him plenty of time to prepare for a gig on the famous Pyramid stage.

And in August it was reported that Olivia Dean turned down the chance to headline the festival next year as she plans to focus on writing new music instead.

The Rein Me In singer, 27, was reportedly offered the opportunity to play at this year’s festival, where her former love interest Harry Styles is tipped to perform.

Olivia is instead hoping to play at the 2028 gig but her decision to not perform has ‘nothing to do with Harry’.

After his split from Taylor Russell, Harry sent tongues wagging after he was spotted on a burger date at Five Guys with Olivia in 2024.

An insider told The Sun: ‘Olivia’s team had conversations with Glastonbury about headlining in 2027 and she was extremely flattered.

‘But after some reflection, she said she wants to take some time to work on new music next year, with a rough plan to return when her third album is ready.

‘Of course, if she did it next year, her name would be right next to Harry’s and she just wants to move on from that now. She’s happy for him to have his moment, but she doesn’t feel like next year is hers.’

• Did you fail to get tickets to next year’s festival? Email William.G.Hallowell@dailymail.co.uk 

The captain of the Flydubai jet involved in Wednesday’s attempted hijacking said his co-pilot asked to pray before attacking him from behind with a cockpit crash axe. New evidence has also pointed to the suspect’s apparent interest in al-Qaeda, while pro-al-Qaeda propaganda has praised the incident and urged further attacks on aircraft carrying Americans and Israelis.

Captain Smit Machchhar, who suffered serious injuries during the attack aboard Flydubai Flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv, provided his fullest account of the ordeal Saturday during a conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“It was a normal flight,” Machchhar said. He recalled that his co-pilot, 29-year-old Omani national Hamam al-Hammami, told him he wanted to pray.

Machchhar said the request initially seemed routine. Out of respect, he turned to face forward.

“Suddenly, after four or five minutes, there was a big blow to the back of my head,” he said.

“My first thought was that there was catastrophic damage to the aircraft,” Machchhar said. “But after that, the blows kept coming, one after the other. That’s when I realized it’s not the aircraft, it’s the other guy who was in the cockpit with me.”

The United Arab Emirates’ attorney general said Saturday that Hammami had taken the Boeing 737 MAX’s cockpit crash axe, an emergency tool carried on commercial aircraft, and used it to attack Machchhar before trying to take control of the plane. Emirati authorities have formally classified the incident as an attempted “terrorist attack.”

Seriously injured and struggling to see after repeated blows to his head, Machchhar said he then felt the aircraft “sharply going down.”

He first tried to open the cockpit door, but Hammami blocked him and also prevented crew members outside from entering with the access code. Lying on the cockpit floor while hearing screams from the cabin, Machchhar said he gathered enough strength for one final attempt.

“I had one last fight left in me,” he said. “If I don’t do it, I’m going to die.”

Machchhar charged toward the door and succeeded in opening it.

“People were waiting to pounce back, and take control, and the rest is what you know, sir,” he told Netanyahu.

Israeli passengers rushed into the cockpit. Passenger Yaniv Hayun seized Hammami by the neck and pulled him away from the controls while others restrained him. Hayun briefly helped steady the aircraft before off-duty pilots on board assumed control and eventually landed the heavily damaged jet safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

As investigators work to establish exactly what happened in the cockpit, fresh evidence has emerged regarding Hammami’s apparent affinity for al-Qaeda.

CNN reported Saturday that social media accounts using Hammami’s name shared footage of Israeli aircraft alongside images of senior al-Qaeda figures.

One video, partly filmed from the cockpit of a Boeing 737 MAX at Dubai International Airport, focused on an El Al aircraft before cutting to images of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the former al-Qaeda leader who succeeded Osama bin Laden, and Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi. Al-Balawi was an al-Qaeda loyalist whose 2009 suicide bombing in Afghanistan killed seven CIA personnel and two other people.

The video appeared on Hammami’s LinkedIn account about nine hours after Wednesday’s attack, at a time when he was already in custody. CNN said it could not establish who uploaded the material or whether it had been scheduled beforehand. The same videos reportedly appeared at roughly the same time on an Instagram account bearing his name, which was later deleted.

The Telegraph separately reported that a social media account strongly linked to Hammami contained more than 2,000 posts dating from 2021 and 2022. The posts reportedly included repeated support for violence against women, harsh religious punishments and other extremist rhetoric.

The revelations come as pro-al-Qaeda propaganda openly celebrates the Flydubai attack and calls for additional assaults on aircraft carrying Americans and Israelis.

The latest edition of Al-Bayan, a weekly publication produced by the pro-al-Qaeda media outlet Al-Yaqin, reportedly featured the attempted hijacking on its front page under the headline “Between 11 September and 30 September.” The wording explicitly linked Wednesday’s incident to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“The war isn’t over yet — planes carrying Zionists, Americans and all the other infidels fighting against Islam are still hovering in the skies and can be targeted, as happened on September 11th and 30th,” the publication stated, according to the New York Post.

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The article reportedly paired an image of an aircraft striking the World Trade Center with imagery from the Flydubai attack.

Despite the al-Qaeda imagery found on accounts bearing Hammami’s name and the subsequent propaganda celebrating the attack, investigators have so far established no operational connection between Hammami and al-Qaeda or any other terrorist organization. The UAE investigation is examining his motives, planning, and any possible outside links.

UAE presidential adviser Anwar Gargash warned Saturday that the attack underscored a broader continuing threat from extremism.

“The region’s struggle with extremism persists, and justifying terrorism through hate speech is part of the danger, not its margins,” Gargash said. “The latest terrorist operation is a new warning that the confrontation has not ended.”

The expanding investigation is also raising increasingly serious questions about how Hammami was able to return to a commercial cockpit after authorities in Oman had already identified him as a security concern.

Hammami had previously been barred from flying by Oman Air after concerns arose over his extremist views. CBS News reported Saturday that Omani authorities had monitored him and discovered that he was visiting extremist websites, prompting the airline to move him from flying duties into an administrative role.

Hammami eventually left Oman Air and later joined Flydubai, which hired him without conducting a background check with the Omani government, sources told the outlet.

Royal Air Maroc, where Hammami’s since-deleted LinkedIn profile claimed he subsequently worked, has said he underwent three months of theoretical pre-employment training in 2025 but was not ultimately selected for employment.

Hammami nevertheless went on to fly for Flydubai and had operated the Dubai-Tel Aviv route several times before Wednesday’s attack, according to Israel’s Channel 12.

The network further reported that Flydubai provided Israeli authorities with the names of the crew, including Hammami, before Wednesday’s flight, but his name triggered no warning. Israeli authorities were unaware that Oman had previously barred him from flying over extremist concerns.

Israeli security officials described the lapse as a “colossal security screw-up,” saying Hammami had been planning the attack for some time while Israel had “not a scrap of information on him.”

The revelation has prompted Israeli and foreign authorities to examine whether other pilots from hostile states have been flying foreign carriers into and out of Ben Gurion Airport. Pilots from Iran, Syria, Iraq and other hostile countries have done so in recent years, sometimes using second passports, according to the network.

The revelations have also exposed confusion over which Israeli agency is responsible for vetting foreign flight crews. The Tax Authority said Israel receives complete passenger and crew manifests before departure, while the Transportation Ministry said it does not receive pilots’ names in advance for background checks and stressed that it is “not an intelligence body.”

The Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security service, has pointed to the Transportation Ministry as responsible for security involving foreign airlines, while Transportation Minister Miri Regev has said determining security threats is the responsibility of Israel’s security establishment.

Israeli investigators, meanwhile, had still not been given direct access to Hammami as of Saturday and were relying on information supplied by the UAE and Saudi Arabia, according to the network.

Hammami, who remains in UAE custody, is cooperating with investigators and has indicated that he intended to crash the aircraft in Israel, ABC News reported, citing sources briefed on the investigation. Authorities are still working to determine whether he acted alone or had outside assistance.

Netanyahu has said Hammami underwent “Islamist radical indoctrination” and intended to crash the aircraft with everyone aboard.

“He intended to crash the plane with all its passengers on board,” Netanyahu said this week. “We are now investigating whether he was sent, and whoever sent him will pay a very heavy price.”

For Machchhar, however, the difference between catastrophe and survival came down to his final effort to open the cockpit door.

“You are a hero of Israel, you are a hero of India, and you are a hero of the entire world,” Netanyahu told the wounded captain Saturday.