When clients are looking to book a journey on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, we're often asked "how much is it to upgrade to a Grand Suite, and is it worth the extra?" To answer the second part of the question, The Luxury Holiday Company's managing director Katherine Gershon set off for Italy's floating city to find out for herself.
If you’re a Grand Suite guest beginning your journey in Venice, you will be met in person at your hotel by a Belmond representative and your own private water taxi to whisk you, your loved one and any baggage through the magical waterways of Venice to the main Venice rail station – Santa Lucia. It’s a chance to feel like a Hollywood film star as you arrive in style at the station, admiring the beauty of Venice as you sail into the magic and wonder of staying in a Grand Suite. Clients boarding in Paris, who have stayed overnight, will be met at their hotel by a private car and driver and whisked to Gare D ’Austerlitz or, occasionally, Gare de l’Est on selected journeys.
What’s more, Belmond time the arrival of Grand Suite guests to minimise waiting time at the station. Your luggage, adorned with the classiest of luggage tags, is seamlessly delivered to your suite, with the added advantage that you can keep larger suitcases with you throughout the journey as they are stored under the double bed, something which is simply not possible in the Suites and Historic Cabins. This leaves you, hands-free, to stroll down the platform, admiring the full length and beauty of the world’s most famous train. With the two Grand Suite carriages located at the front on departure and arrival, you’ll also be the first to enjoy the views.
Private water taxi to Santa Lucia Station in Venice
Arriving for the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express
About to board
Nothing can quite prepare you for the magic of opening the door to your suite with your very own old -fashioned key and suite-themed key ring. The space, the decadence, the feeling that you are going to be well and truly spoilt for the next hours of your life. It really is a wonderful moment.
A full-sized bottle of Dom Perignon champagne on ice alongside a tin of the finest caviar await on the table in the suite’s very own private lounge area. Then, as your steward ushers in fresh, warm blinis and cracks open the champagne to signal the start of your journey, you’re underway, the train pulling slowly out of Venice as you sit back, raise a toast and watch the floating city make way for the rolling greenery of Northern Italy.
Vienna Grand Suite on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express
The private bathroom of the Vienna Grand Suite
Welcome onboard with caviar and champagne
It's then that you’ll have time to get properly acquainted with your elegant surroundings, and first-class service, with each Grand Suite carriage sharing a steward between three suites. But such is the attentiveness of the service, you’ll feel like you have them all to yourself. They are on hand to explain the suite’s hidden compartments, such as the hanging spaces, perfectly sized for a black tie and a long gown, to the drawers housing everything you might have forgotten and need for the private bathroom.
A generously sized sofa can convert into a third bed or just be a comfortable space to relax with some of the vintage classic books, thoughtfully shelved in your cabin. If you’ve ever fancied reading an Agatha Christie, Scott Fitzgerald novel, or learning more about Cassanova’s prison stint in Venice, this is your chance.
Before long, your steward is back to discuss which lunch and dinner sittings you’d prefer. Our advice is to go for the first lunch sitting and second dinner sitting, which allows more time between meals – don’t forget the afternoon tea – and a guaranteed seat in the Bar Car before it fills up with guests enjoying either an aperitif or post-dinner cocktail. As a Grand Suite guest, you’ll also have the option of in-suite dining, should you prefer.
If you can tear yourself away from the Dom Perignon and caviar, lunch beckons. On journeys with three meals (typically lunch, dinner and brunch, but not necessarily in that order depending on when your journey departs and arrives) you will dine in each of the three dining cars – Cote D’Azur, Étoile du Nord and Oriental – so you get to experience the unique romance of each. The menu and wine list are identical in all three dining cars, but you’ll be waited on by different staff and enjoy a subtly different ambience. Now back to lunch, a three-course affair followed by coffee and delicate cinnamon wafers - delicious.
Afterwards, take a stroll down the train, passing Suites and Historic Cabins, often with their doors open for the chance of a sneak peek at how your fellow guests might be travelling. There’s also a small observation point at the far end of the train and even a small shop selling everything from ties to bespoke Villeroy & Bosch Orient Express restaurant car plates, should you fancy a memento of your travels. There are even some sparkly jewels, should you feel like splashing out for a special occasion. While on your travels through the train, be sure to visit to the famous Bar Car for a mid-afternoon cup of Earl Grey, or maybe something stronger.
The menu of the Cote d'Azure restaurant
Back in your Grand Suite, it’s highly tempting to have a nap on the wonderfully high thread-count pure linen sheets, or simply take a breath and watch the world roll by.
Before too long, it’s time for afternoon tea and, in a Grand Suite, that’s a truly stylish affair. Delicate mini savouries and sweet patisseries are washed down with delicious, piping hot tea, served of course in proper china cups and saucers.
It’s then time for a shower and the chance to sample the generous selection of Lalique toiletries. There’s plenty of space for you and your travelling companion to get changed at the same time, and no shortage of mirrors and lighting for applying make-up or tweaking a black tie.
Once ready, sashay down the train, through the suites’ carriages and dining cars for a well-earned pre-dinner cocktail in the Bar Car, where old-time jazz classics, performed by the resident pianist, transport you to a bygone era. Whichever dining car you’re seated in, dinner is firmly a black-tie affair, and there’s no such thing as being overdressed. Indeed, it’s fun to watch and enjoy the glamour of your fellow guests as you’re served olives and tasty canapés while sipping a first-class cocktail from the extensive drinks’ menu.
Dinner is a four-course affair, with starter, main, cheese and dessert courses. If you have any energy left, the Bar Car stays open and in full swing until the last guest retires for bed (whatever time that might be), but the lure of your Grand Suite might just be too great. When you do arrive back, you’ll find your bed turned down for the night, plush slippers and dressing gowns to slip into and thoughtful touches including a sizeable jewellery box to deposit your watch and jewels in for the night (there’s no searching for a lost pearl earring the next morning in a Grand Suite).
Pre-dinner champagne...
...and a cocktail
Dinner aboard the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express
The alternating rush of the train as it speeds towards your destination combined with a gentler pace at other points in the night, means by the time you wake you’ll be in a different country with a different view. You can open a blind and stay snuggled up in bed as your steward preps your breakfast table, having asked you for your choices from an extensive menu the night before. Freshen up and get dressed at your leisure, perhaps penning a complimentary postcard to those back home, which your steward will post for you in the special Orient Express post office complete with a special Orient Express postmark. It’s worth noting that these can take up to two weeks to arrive.
After a relaxing morning, all too soon it’s time for brunch, your steward having politely asked you to pack beforehand so they can ready your cases for arrival. The final dining car awaits, and just as you think “I couldn’t eat another mouthful”, truffled scrambled eggs and lobster ravioli make you think again. Washed down with yet more included champagne (note the champagne choices in the dining cars are more modest although you can order up for an extra charge). The tarte tatin, which has been served at brunch since Belmond relaunched the Orient Express back in the early 1980s, is to die for.
Relaxing in the Vienna Grand Suite
Morning views of rural France
Breakfast served in the Vienna Grand Suite
As you return to your Grand Suite for the last time, enjoying a final chance to freshen up and slip on a blazer before returning your trusty key to your ever-attentive steward, you may feel a moment of nostalgia – the closing of a door on a truly special experience. Then, it’s time to disembark. Accompanied by the sounds of a trumpet and small welcome band drifting through your open window, you’ll step off the train feeling a bit like royalty. Indeed, with the train staff line up to bid you a fond au revoir, it’s a jolly farewell on the platform in Paris.
I’m fortunate enough to have travelled on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express twice, experiencing everything this remarkable train has to offer, from the impeccable dining to the world-famous bar car to the first-class service. And, while the Historic Cabins offer a wonderful experience – one true to the unique history of the Orient Express – if you have the opportunity, I have to recommend the experience of travelling in a Grand Suite. It truly is the trip of a lifetime.