The Long Way to Cape Town: The Blue Train

Why Take the Long Way?

There is an obvious question when Pretoria and Cape Town are only a flight apart: why spend three days travelling between them by train?

Because from the air, most of what lies between the two cities is somewhere you pass over. On The Blue Train, it becomes somewhere you travel through.

The Highveld gives way to the vast Great Karoo, where towns become fewer and the horizon seems to stretch further. Closer to Cape Town, mountains begin to rise around the railway before the vineyards of the Cape come into view. It does not happen all at once. The country changes gradually, sometimes so subtly that you only realise how far you have travelled when you look outside again an hour later.

There might be a book beside you or a drink on the table, but there are stretches when the window is enough.

For once, the places between where you started and where you are going are not being skipped.

And that is really the case for taking the long way. Not because slower is always better, but because there are parts of a country you only begin to notice when you stop trying to get past them.

What Happens on Board?

The Blue Train has its own little rituals, and they are part of the fun.

Lunch is served as the journey gets under way. Later there is high tea in the lounge, followed by time to return to your suite before dinner. And dinner really is dinner here. Guests change for the evening, with jackets or waistcoats requested for men and elegant evening wear for women, before taking their seats in the Dining Car.

It might sound formal on paper. On board, that sense of occasion is precisely what makes it memorable. There are very few journeys left where you might dress for dinner while the place you are sleeping continues moving across a country.

Afterwards, you can linger over a drink rather than immediately thinking about tomorrow. The Club Car stays open into the evening, your suite is only a few carriages away and a butler is available throughout the journey if you need anything. The train's current itinerary even allows you to have your bed made up during the day if the mood takes you. 

For two nights, the train is not simply carrying you through the holiday. It is where the holiday is happening.

Travel Counsellors' own South Africa material also highlights the butler service, onboard dining, local wines and lounge spaces as central parts of the experience.

Stepping Off in Kimberley

On the second day, the doors open in Kimberley and the story suddenly shifts from what is outside the window to what lies beneath the ground.

Diamonds were discovered here in the 1870s and thousands of people arrived hoping to make their fortune. They dug so relentlessly that the hill they had started with eventually disappeared, leaving behind the enormous excavation now known as the Big Hole. Today, the surrounding museum preserves buildings and stories from those diamond-rush years.

The Blue Train gives you time to get off and see it for yourself. You visit the Open Mine Museum and walk out to the viewing point at the edge of the Big Hole, where the scale of what happened here becomes much easier to grasp than it ever could from a history book.

There is a lovely old-fashioned detail at the end too. Back at Kimberley station, guests are welcomed with a glass of sherry and the engraved Blue Train glass is yours to keep. Then you board again and continue south.

It is only a few hours away from the train, but it changes the journey. One of the places that could have been a name glimpsed from a plane has suddenly given you a story to take with you.

Who Is The Blue Train For?

Not everybody will look at a journey of around 54 hours and think, that sounds better than flying.

And that is probably the easiest way to work out whether The Blue Train is for you.

It is for someone who can enjoy an afternoon without needing to fill it. Someone who does not mind lingering over lunch, who likes the idea of dressing properly for dinner simply because the occasion deserves it, and who would happily sit by a window for longer than intended because something outside has caught their attention.

You do not need to be a railway enthusiast. In fact, the train itself may not be the thing you remember most.

It could be the vastness of the Karoo. A conversation that carries on long after dinner. Standing at the edge of the Big Hole in Kimberley. Or simply realising that you have spent three days crossing a part of South Africa you would otherwise have flown over.

That makes it particularly good as one chapter of a bigger South Africa holiday. You could come to the train after time in a wildlife reserve, then arrive in Cape Town ready for the city, coastline and Winelands. The experiences either side could hardly feel more different.

The luxury makes the journey comfortable. Having the time to actually experience the distance is what makes it interesting.