Hope someone can share their experiences. How much from Cape Town to Johannesburg? Thanks...

Do a search for "blue train south africa" - you'll find many sites. Check them out for dates, prices, schedules.

Hi AA,

I have travelled on the Blue Train on two occasions in the past and truly enjoyed both experiences.

The Blue Train is quite an incredible adventure. It is a silent (rubberized wheels) ride through SA taking 24 hours from Cape Town to Pretoria (NOT Johannesburg. The CT > Pretoria ride is one of a couple of routes that the train travels with this route being the most popular one. One always meets every interesting people in the Blue Train lounge carriage however they wont be locals and will only be visitors to SA because of the cost factor. The food is fabulous and the winelist amazing. You see the wonderful countryside passing by you through double glazed windows however at night you see very little in that most areas are not lit up and all is dark outside. The service on the train is amazing to say the very least.

The Blue Train is not only an expensive ride; it is a RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE ride. . If you have money to burn then it is a must do event; if not steer clear.

Is it worth the money? In my opinion it is an amazing experince that is worth the money however with the same amount of money one can attain so much more other experiences that I would argue that no matter what its worth there many other ways to enjoy oneself in SA that would be so much cheaper.

Would I do the ride again? Hand me a free ticket and I will grab the opportunity however if I had to pay for the ride the answer would be a definitive no.

To see more about prices, routes and all else with regard to the Blue Train go to http://www.bluetrain.co.za/

Hope this helps.

Selwyn Davidowitz
[email protected]
Very proudly part of the wonderful nation of South Africa

You might want to look at the Rovos train too -- the trip from Pretoria to Capetown is 2 nights (3 days). We are taking it on Sept. 19. The website is rovos.co.za

Selwyn

I knew you would have just the right information for AA.

We had thought to do the Blue Train on our trip, but the cost put us off. We were already blowing it all for our stay at Singita and knew that "sweetie" could only go ballistic once - so why push it.

Maybe when I win the lottery.

HI AA,
The Blue Train is a marvellous experience and one that I would consider a must do once in your lifetime. We did it on June 26th, 2002 and don't regret a cent of it.

While it is expensive, you should consider what it includes. Transfer from Cape Town to Pretoria, one night luxurious accommodation and 3 delicious meals plus afternoon tea, and all your beverages.
So, it is expensive, but not 'RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE' as Selwyn describes.

I have to contradict Selwyn once more (apologies). We met several couples on the train that were from South Africa, so the passengers are not all foreigners. We still keep in touch with one couple that we met from Pretoria.

It is a lovely experience so give it a second thought if it's not too late. Once we got to Pretoria we rented a car (Avis met us at the train station) and we drove four hours to Blyde River Canyon area just outside of Kruger. We stayed at a magnificent place called Timamoon (highly recommend this too) for two nights before we drove to Skukuza where we dropped off our Avis car (they have an office there) and met up with Welding from Singita who got us organized for our short flight to Singita.

You're going to have such a wonderful time at Singita. Enjoy.

Leaner,

Happy that you had a great journey on the Blue Train. There is no question about the fact that it is a magnificent experience.

In terms of my statement of "ridiculously expensive" I have to stay with this description and will try and qualify it for you.

At an average cost of R7500 ($1000) per person by South African standards the journey is not only only ridiculously expensive, it actually is absurd. If you measure the journey in foreign to SA curency then it might seem reasonable, however in ZAR it is totally out of hand. Recognise that the average salary in SA is R2400/MONTH and you might see why I say that from a SA standpoint it is out of the reach of South Africans. I do appreciate that you had locals travelling with you on the train however imho you were on a journey with a very unusual passenger list if this is the case. I see many people who dismebark or embark from the Blue Train and believe me on average if I see 4 locals on the train it would be a lot.

Back to the costs - To my knowledge there is no other event or establishment in SA that even smells the costs of what the Blue Train charges, however with that said the train is heavily booked with regularity which tells me that obviously travellers feel they are getting good value for money.

My opinion is that a couple travelling through SA can see one heck of a lot more as well as stay in some wonderful venues for R15000 for two weeks, let alone one night when travelling through SA. This brings me back to the fact that the journey BY SA STANDARDS is ridiculously expensive.

I stress that this is just my own opinion based on what I know can be done with R15,000 when travelling through SA.

Selwyn Davidowitz
[email protected]
Very proudly part of the wonderful nation of South Africa

We are traveling on the Blue train in August - You all described the journey, food, train etc but what are the rooms like?

thanks

Hello Barcadi,

There are different types of rooms on the Blue Train so I am going to assume that you are staying in a standard room.

The rooms are well fitted out. They are tightish but certainly comfortable to move around in. When we travelled on the train there was enough place for us to both sit down on the floor and play a game of scrabble quite easily so this should give you an idea of floorspace considering that ther also is furniture in the form of 2 chairs and a pull out table in the room. The train is airconditioned with each room having a double glass window that has an electrical blind in it. There are two single beds in the room although some rooms (more upmarket ones) do have a double bed. When you walk into the cabin you are going ask yourself "where is the second bed?". Dont worry it will appear up when the train staff prepare your room for sleeping. There is a toilet sector in each room with a shower. Btw the honeymoon suite on the train has a bath. The train itself is amazing to ride on as the wheels are rubberised and that means that sometimes you cant hear or feel that you are travelling on tracks. The service on board the train is super slick. Make no error if the bill for the journey can be afforded the ride is a trip of a lifetime and everything lives up this standard.

Enjoy the train ride.

Selwyn Davidowitz
[email protected]
Very proudly part of the wonderful nation of South Africa