Luxury hotel names such as Ritz Carlton and Four Seasons are find their way on from fixed locations to luxury-level yacht cruises and over-the-top railway experiences on a growing scale.
Ritz-Carlton’s Yacht Collection, which is about to debut its first and long-delayed ship, the 149-cabin Evrima, has ordered two more ships, a little bit larger but still in the small-ship class with features and fittings to match the hotel reputation.
And they’re not the only ones seeing a future at sea: Four Seasons, which has for several years offered luxury air tours on a private jetliner, with stays between flights at Four Seasons hotels, has now ordered a small fleet of luxury yachts, the first to enter service in 2025. The Four Seasons yachts will have 14 decks, nearly as many as large cruise ships, but only 95 cabins, one of which is a huge 9600 square feet, including private pool and sauna.
On land, a similar brand extension is taking place, with Accor planning to launch its own version of a luxury tour train, borrowing the venerable Orient Express name for its Orient Express La Dolce Vita, which will feature six luxurious trains on leisurely tours connecting to cities in Italy, including Rome, where the chain will open its first Orient Express-branded hotel, the Minerva, next year.
Accor is not alone in the luxury train business, or even in the use of the Orient Express name; Belmond operates Orient Express trains that follow portions of the classic Paris-to-Istanbul route; five nights of luxury can go as high as $36,000 on that route, and is expanding its offerings. If you’d like to add a moment of further confusion: Belmond is a relatively new name for a company that used to be called Orient Express Hotels.
