Luxury rail, by the operators' own pages: Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, Rocky Mountaineer and the Royal Scotsman

"Luxury train" is a phrase that covers a one-night sleeper across the Alps, a daylight-only glass-domed coach through the Rockies with hotel nights in between, and a week-long house party that returns each evening to a siding in the Highlands. They are not comparable products, and the way to tell them apart is to read what each operator actually states on its own pages. Here is what those pages say, and where they fall silent.

Venice Simplon-Orient-Express

Belmond's page for the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express lists eight journeys, most of them a single night: Paris to Venice, Venice to Paris, Vienna to Paris, Paris to Florence, Brussels to Venice, and three longer itineraries — Paris to Portofino and Paris to the Amalfi Coast, each three nights, and Istanbul to Paris, five nights via Bucharest, Sinaia and Budapest.

Accommodation is stated precisely: "32 Historic Cabins," "16 Suites," "6 Grand Suites" and the single "L'Observatoire Suite." The operator describes "restored 1920s carriages" and "opulent sleeper carriages from the 1920s." Inclusions, in its words: "all inclusive meals with sommelier wines," "3 restaurant cars," "1 bar car," "24 hour steward service," live music and, charmingly, "complimentary mail service for postcards and letters."

What the page does not state is as useful as what it does. It does not describe the dress code, does not mention Wi-Fi, and does not give the operating season. A traveller who cares about any of those should ask before booking rather than assume; the absence of a claim is not a claim.

Rocky Mountaineer

Rocky Mountaineer is the opposite proposition: a train you ride by day and leave at night. Its site names four routes — First Passage to the West, Journey Through the Clouds, Rainforest to Gold Rush, and Rockies to the Red Rocks — serving Vancouver, Kamloops, Banff, Jasper, Whistler and Quesnel in Canada, and Denver, Glenwood Springs and Moab in the United States.

The route page for First Passage to the West describes the pattern: "Vancouver to Kamloops to Banff or Lake Louise," in either direction, as two days on the train with "1 night in Kamloops" between them. Named landmarks on that page include Hell's Gate on the Fraser River and Castle Mountain. The operator distinguishes two coach types without naming the service tiers on its home page: a single-level "glass-dome coach" with an "outdoor viewing area," and a "bi-level glass-dome coach" with a "large, exclusive outdoor viewing platform" and "gourmet breakfast and lunch served in a lower-level dining room." Dinner, notably, is not on the train — because you are not on the train at dinner.

The route page also uses a placeholder where the price would appear and gives no detail on the hotels at Kamloops, Banff or Lake Louise. Those are questions for the booking, and Sage's train directory links to the operator rather than guessing.

Royal Scotsman