Taking a luxury train ride is a lot more than just getting from A to B. Travel is changing, and our desire for slower ways to travel is enforcing the notion that the travel itself is as important as the destination. In some ways this is a waft of nostalgia, taking us back to a time when great attention was given to travelling in luxury, a golden age of travel when decadence inhabited steamer ships and roamed the corridors of luxury trains.

Sustainability is an increasingly important topic. According to Euromonitor, two thirds (66.4%) of consumers globally now want to have a positive impact on the environment through their daily actions, and choosing a sustainable holiday by rail is a great way to incorporate eco-friendly activities into your leisure plans.

Ferdinand Magellan, Captain James Cook, Marco Polo, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Ranulph Fiennes. What do they all have in common?

As luxury train rides go, it would be misguided to not consider South Africa's The Blue Train amongst the very best.