Signature Aviation Spring 2025

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About three hours from Bangkok, the InterContinental Khao Yai Resort shows you don’t need an authentic link to train travel to capitalize on its sense of adventure and beauty. When creating the resort, designer Bill Bensley conjured up a fi ctional conductor to serve as a fi gurative linchpin for his outlandish train-themed property on the borders of Thailand’s fi rst national park. The hotel reception resembles a railway station ticketing o ffi ce; train related trinkets and evocative old posters decorate Thai restaurant Somying’s Kitchen (supposedly named after the conductor’s mother); and, best of all, the resort’s candy-colored signature villas sit within salvaged rail carriages, and feature leafy private terraces with plunge pools and outdoor bathtubs. By comparison, the rail revolution currently happening in Uzbekistan isn’t as madcap, but it does hark back to the palpable sense of excitement and discovery that de fi ned the earliest train journeys. An expansion of the country’s high-speed-rail network has made journeys between the Silk Road cities of Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara as quick and easy as can be, and will be extended in the fall when upgraded links cut hours o ff the transit time between the capital and 2,500-year-old Khiva, where the golden-hued old town is a fabled open-air museum embellished with gleaming turquoise tiles and studded with minarets. The route’s inauguration will be followed by the debut of Uzbekistan’s Samarkand Express in 2026. Another elevated train service accommodating up to 76 guests, it will shimmy between the country’s most magical historic sites and ancient cities.

This image The bar on the Brittanic Explorer

Around the world, a resurgence of interest in train travel has precipitated the launch of ambitious new rail routes and hotel concepts that draw fr om the age-old allure of the locomotive

will feature locally inspired interiors, with majlis -style reception lounges, hand-carved decorative details and evocative artworks depicting remote Saudi landmarks and natural wonders. The experience aboard Dream of the Desert will be unprecedented, but fi rst-time visitors to Saudi Arabia may be surprised to learn the country’s association with rail travel stretches back well over a century. The newly opened Chedi Hegra resort in AlUla is located on the site of the old Hegra Railway station, which was founded in 1907 and was a stop on the Hajj route until the 1920s. With its glass walls, brass accents and private bedroom terraces illuminated by fl ickering fi repits, the 35-key resort is the epitome of desert chic, though train lovers are typically most astounded by the Prima Classe, or ‘First Class,’ restaurant. Its cross-continental menu celebrates cuisine from cities like Venice and Cairo; its crowning decorative feature is an original 1906 Locomotive 964 train that crisscrossed the country in the early 20th century and was immaculately restored before being installed at the property.

This image and left InterContinental Khao Yai Resort