The Blue Train
A 27-hour rolling palace between Cape Town and Pretoria — the same carriages that carried Nelson Mandela and Margaret Thatcher across 1,600 kilometres of South Africa.
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The Blue Train is marketed as a "magnificent moving five-star hotel," and the details justify it: butler service, soundproofed fully carpeted compartments, en-suite bathrooms, and an observation car for watching the landscape pass. It runs diagonally across the country, making it as much a journey as a destination.
What to look for
- Gold-tinted picture windows that frame the landscape from every compartment
- Full-sized bathtubs fitted inside the en-suite bathrooms of many carriages
- The observation car — the designated spot for watching South Africa roll past
The main route operates between Cape Town and Pretoria; the average travel duration is 27 hours, so plan an overnight stay on board.
The Blue Train is one of 7 sights worth the detour in Cape Town, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Cape Town pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Cape Town
- Cape Town StadiumThe World Cup bowl squeezed between Signal Hill and the Atlantic is still Cape Town's biggest live-sport stage.
- Castle of Good HopeSouth Africa's oldest building — a pentagonal VOC fort that once faced the sea and now sits landlocked by centuries of reclaimed ground.
- Table Mountain National ParkThe park runs the full spine of the Cape Peninsula — city overlooks at one end, the most southwestern point of Africa at the other.
- South African Astronomical ObservatoryEvery day at noon, a cannon fires on Signal Hill — triggered by a time signal sent from this observatory.
- Kirstenbosch National Botanical GardenThe world's first garden built exclusively for native plants — founded in 1913 when nobody else thought invasive species were a problem.
- Royal Observatory, Cape of Good HopeThe hill where astronomers first measured the distance to a star — then lost the credit for it.