BLUE TRAIN SOUTH AFRICA

From Pretoria to Cape Town, the train travels south through spacious farmlands to Kimberly, the epicenter of the worldwide diamond rush. After an off-train excursion through this historic town with the “Big Hole,” a name that screams “Must See,”

The Blue Train continue south through the heart of Great Karoo, where vineyards and summer roses line the train’s descent through beautiful valleys and mountains toward Cape Town’s imposing and instantly recognizable Table Mountain.

The second route from Pretoria to Victoria Falls (by charter only)  is a journey deep into the continent, through the enduring plains of Botswana and Zimbabwe. The train rambles through Matobo Hills National Park, commonly described as a moonscape of endless granite humpbacks, before reaching Victoria Falls, the greatest curtain of falling water on earth, known in Zimbabwe as “the smoke that thunders.”
On the return trip, an excursion to Hwange National Park, one of Africa’s last great elephant sanctuaries, completes the experience.

Pretoria to Hoedspruit is the shortest of the Blue Train routes, but the best to view the big five: elephants, rhinos, buffalos, lions and leopards.

The train cuts through the Valley of the Olifants, the largest aggregation of privately-owned wildlife reserves in the world, along with Kruger National Park, the Drakensberg escarpment and Blyde River Canyon.

Renowned for its dramatic views of the Indian Ocean, the Garden Route transports passengers from Cape Town east to Port Elizabeth. The route wanders lazily through the Langeberg mountains, across fruit and wine regions toward the spectacular eastern seaboard. Giant yellowwood trees and wildflowers surprise passengers en route to the friendly city of Port Elizabeth, an historic landing place of the British settlers of 1820.

Whether you’re starting in Cape Town or Pretoria, or you know that Victoria Falls is your final destination, the Blue Train will get you there in pure South African style. To enjoy the best of South Africa without feeling cheetah’d, plan your trip in pure travel agent style.
 
The Blue Train mainly runs between Cape Town and Pretoria in either direction.  Occasional trips along the Garden Route between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth are on offer when both trains are running.  It can also be chartered to Victoria Falls or to the Valley of the Olifants (Kruger National Park).

Traveling by train is a highly enjoyable, hypnotic escape into another world. The preferred method of adventure by millions, trains romantically carry wide-eyed travelers to the very brink of all that is wild and wonderful, smoothly covering diverse terrains to connect the four corners of the world.

The Blue Train does not go around mountains; it goes through them. It glides through thick forests where leopards stare down from trees with fiery and curious eyes, and over deserts where watering holes draw giraffes, elephants, wildebeests and zebras.   It chases galloping herds of gazelles across great fields of wildflowers and races cheetahs through rocky brush

And it serves a fabulous Karoo lamb, with a side of ostrich soup and a superb South African Shiraz from a vineyard passing just outside your window. For the Blue Train’s finest grace is its luxury, second to none in the train world, schizophrenically rolling down the track as both a train and a world-class hotel.