Two carriages changed hands at an auction in Monte Carlo in 1977. On 10 May 2027 the train they became will pull in under the rock, fifty years later.
The railway into Monaco runs out of daylight before it arrives. The line cuts into the mountainside above the harbour, and the station waits inside the stone, a platform hollowed out beneath the principality. Trains come in from the Mediterranean and stop in the dark.
Belmond announced the route on 5 October. The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express will leave Paris, run the coastal railway of the Côte d’Azur overnight, and call at Monaco-Monte-Carlo for the first time in its history. The journey carries on to Venice, and the stop becomes an annual fixture from there.
The line
Boarding is on the platform in Paris, where the midnight-blue carriages take guests in one at a time. Dinner follows in one of two restaurant cars, Étoile du Nord or L’Oriental, each with its own Art Deco character. Afterwards the Bar Car ‘3674’ fills up, with a pianist and cocktails, and keeps going into the night.
Breakfast arrives at the cabin door in the morning, pastries and pressed juice brought by liveried stewards. By then the train is on the coast. It follows the red cliffs of the Massif de l’Estérel, runs through Saint-Raphaël towards Cannes and Nice, and keeps the sea in the window most of the way.
A suite aboard the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express · Courtesy of Belmond
The cabins
Accommodation runs from Historic Cabins through Suites to Grand Suites, all of them restored or built to the train’s own Art Deco vocabulary. Grand Suites add floor space, private bathrooms and a butler on call around the clock.
Above those sits L’Observatoire, a whole carriage given to one party, made with the artist JR. A bedroom and en suite with a freestanding bath, a living area, a library, and a tearoom concealed behind the panelling.
A night train is only worth the fare if the morning is worth waking for. This one spends it on the French Riviera.
The Splendid EditThe auction
Monte Carlo is where the modern train started. Two original carriages were acquired at auction in the town in 1977, and the service that grew out of that sale became the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express. The inaugural run arrives half a century after the lots went under the hammer.
Pascal Deyrolle, who runs Belmond’s trains in continental Europe, has described the addition as a natural one, pointing to the long pull the Côte d’Azur has exercised on travellers and to Monaco’s understanding of arrival. He has also noted what the town meant to the train’s own beginnings.
The fare
Prices open at €4,870 per person for two sharing a Historic Cabin. That buys the overnight journey, all meals with the sommelier’s choice of wine, unlimited soft drinks, a steward on duty through the night, and transfers at either end.
The route joins a second year of Villeggiatura by Train, the series that links the train to Belmond hotels in Italy. Those itineraries end in Florence, Portofino, Venice and on the Amalfi Coast. This one gives the schedule a French ending.
Route, inaugural date, cabin categories, on-board detail and fares from the Belmond press announcement of 5 October 2026 and belmond.com, accessed 14 October 2026. Remarks by Belmond executives are given in summary and are not quoted here.
Photography courtesy of Belmond — © Belmond, Venice Simplon-Orient-Express