Adrian, this is one of your best reviews yet. While there were a few hickups along the way the views, the food and the people made it worthwhile - even at that price ! I burst out laughting at your bad nights, not even a hook in the bathroom, and trying to hold your martini on a particularly rocky patch. Well done - just great.
It's a good product which we could do with more of. It's expensive but it's the kind of thing international tourists love. The big plus over cruising is that the dollars stay in Australia. We don't do cheap in the outback as I found out on a recent trip to Uluru Great video mate as usual
Adrian, I really enjoyed this video even though I would never do this trip due to age and mobility issues. My husband and I are avid cruisers so we will stick with that while we can. I have also watched your Discovery Princess tour video and that has convinced me to book an NZ on that for January 2026. Keep up with your video reporting, you are my 'go to' guy when I want to watch anything cruise related.
This is a trip I've been wanting to do forever. I love train travel, whether it's a VLine train or a train through regional Italy, I love them all. It's a shame you didn't receive the full experience though, but it still looked like a fun experience. PS. Good to see the Espresso Martini made a brief appearance 🤣
Did Indian Pacific Sydney to Adelaide back in 2019 in a Gold Twin. Similar experience to you - great food, staff and experiences, but not everything advertised happened and comms were poor. There is something alluring about train travel (even if sleep can be hard to come by) but it is not cheap!
I have done The Ghan both ways and the Indian Pacific from Adelaide to Perth. Your review is close to our experience, but if you travel with two in a cabin you would have had a much better time in your room. We had dinner in the terminal in Adelaide, it seems they have changed it so all go to the winery, so that is new. Looking forward to our next journey Perth to Sydney in early March. I would always travel by train over flying if possible - the journey is a big part of the trip.
I’ll be taking the Indian pacific as a solo traveler from Sydney to Perth in March, and later the Ghan from Darwin to Adelaide. I treated myself to a Gold Twin room solo occupancy.
Great to watch you and your experience would love to do this in Australia as I live in Australia. We did the Blue train from Johannesburg to Cape Town last April and loved the experience, yes the food was amazing and meet lovely people it is so different to cruising and we like smaller ships the train experience was so different luckily we had a table for two on the train. Thank you loved watching this .🥂
we were just recently on the Crown Princess to Fiji and someone posted on our cruise group asking the question - "who feels like they're on a train?" It was the perfect description of what the day on board had felt like but I hadn't thought of it as being on a train, it was very jerky and jolty that day. Maybe we might have to try a trip on a train to experience it for real, with eyemask and earplugs at the ready 😉 Thanks for the review 😊
Great review. I see there have been some changes since we travelled on the IP just after covid. Having done the Ghan also we found that the track is a little better but still takes some getting used to. Food is great considering the size of galley. It is certainly a different experience to cruising but still good. Looking forward to our next trip on the Ghan in July Adelaide to Darwin.
Great review. Thanks for posting. The train itself looks amazing and the food looks top notch. I can see thst there are a few drawbacks, such as too much movement and noise at night, but I still think it would be a wonderful experience.
Great review I did the old Trans Australian (Adelaide to Perth) in the 80s and it was a much more basic experience although we did see some wonderful sights . I don’t think this would be for me it made me feel a bit claustrophobic. However, once again a great video from you with some wonderful insights and beautiful scenery.
I am so glad you enjoyed the experience. Even though you had a few concerns, I have had a lot of hick-ups with cruising also. Ports of call closed due to bad weather, shore excursions cancelled and delays due to helicopter medical evacuations plus mechanical failure etc. It is all part of travel and always gives many stories to tell later. I have learnt to just "Suck it up Princess" and go with the flow and not to let it ruin the remainder of the holiday. Let us know when you do the next. Thanks Adrian.
Hi Adrian, another great review as always) Sorry you had a few hiccups along the way, getting off at Lithgow now that's a bummer. For you loyal audience you cannot compare this type of travel with cruising.. two completely different things.( as you probably found out) Having said that I would highly recommend and I mean highly recommend the Gan (as in Afghan) from Darwin to Adelaide (not the other way around four nights compared to three nights) My wife and I took this trip and we booked superior gold and it was possibly one of the best short holidays ever and that includes a lot of overseas holidays and cruises etc. From checking in at the hotel in Darwin to the disembarking at Adelaide was first class all the way. The staff, the food the excursions and of course the train (we had the big red Ghan loco on this journey ) everything was just brilliant. ( yes getting to sleep was problematical) I do hope you get to do this one day. Keep up the good work
We did overnighter from Sydney to Melbourne never again we had a sleeper cabin and of course i had the top bunk it was worse than the heaviest seas that we have ever been in.
Wow that bathroom is HUGE...the bathrooms in the twin rooms are tiny....I hope you do the Ghan sometime soon and maybe do the twin room...we preferred that trip over this one...though thoroughly enjoyed both...
We did not stop at broken hill for some reason… but shelitta boarded the train. Can’t remember why. Didnt stop at kalgoulie either . And our train terminated also at Lithgow. Still a good trip
Glad you enjoyed your trip onboard. Shelita was telling me they've recently updated the Indian Pacific schedule, so instead of boarding, she now runs the walking tours in town with the performance at her establishment in town.
Hi Adrian, It looked like an interesting experience. We love Broken Hill. The train sounds noisy. There are many interesting train trips in Queensland, and we are thinking about one. We have cancelled our next cruise and probably won't go on another cruise as we don't like the industry changes for Australian residents. I look forward to seeing your next post. ❤ Sue
Thanks Sue! I hope you enjoy your upcoming train travel. Take a look at the Great Southern - it goes between Brisbane and Melbourne or Adelaide (v.v) I believe.
Just more excuses Adrian. Gary Pembridge's Platinum west bound journey started in Lithgow just as yours ended and neither of you were informed of the quite substantial change in advance. So glad you did the Gold run as it's given me a better idea of the difference between the classes. There were so many avoidable stuff ups by the operating company, I'll now rule out taking the Sydney/Perth journey by train and cruise instead.
Yes, that’s right - I had forgotten about Gary’s experience. I did (and still do) think there’s more to it. It was a shame to have a large chunk of the experience cut off at the end.
Great honest review. Not my cup of tea but I know a lot of people love train travel. I’d rather spend $1700 on a cruise upgrade or towards a flight upgrade 👍
Hi andrian could you talk about the island royalcarrabean brought and are they going to make it like cocoacae for Aussie cruisers been on the ghan was great hoping to hear about the island
Hi Janice. I covered this in September: ruclips.net/video/TvYxr0ofI4I/видео.html there haven't been any updates since - just further delays, really. Once more information is released, you can trust that you'll find it here on my channel. For now, nothing new to report.
The problem with Journey Beyond products, especially since they were privatised (always a mistake IMO), is they are too expensive for what they are, especially if you consider 2 people can take a decent overseas cruise, ex Sydney, for less than the fare on these trains...except maybe the Overland, which, IMO, should be a regular VLine service instead.
Oh, Priscilla, this looked quite difficult !! There wasn't a Large blue PUMP on top of the Engine Car, and no ABBA !!! Obviously a "Queen of the Desert Experience !!" "Where do I put my stuff ??" I guess you pile it all in the sink while you showered. Maybe carry a "Shower Duffle Bag to hold your stuff" while in the bath!! Shelita Queen of the Outback !! Mama Mia, here I go again ... My My how can I resist you ... Finally it has happened to me right in front of my face And I just cannot hide it ...
Thanks for the review but it’s not for me. You can get a decent cruise for the current price of that trip. I have travelled extensively throughout the outback so my experience would not be as exciting as other people’s. BTW, did you get a partial refund? Cruise lines would give you some credit back for the shortcomings of the trip.
No refund, not even an acknowledgement onboard apart from the letter... According to several reviews and past passengers, the Lithgow termination is quite common.
I appreciate the sentiment, but as fans of my channel, I would certainly hope that you can look beyond a thumbnail and instead to the content that I have invested my time, energy and money in creating. Particularly if you know and enjoy the type of videos that I create - nothing has changed. In simple terms, I put my heart and soul into creating my videos, only to have an unknown quantity (in this case, the "algorithm") ultimately determine whether or not it's a success. Maybe it looks easy to viewers, but this really isn't, and I don't have a roadmap, a guidebook, or a team behind me. Anyway - sorry to see you were disappointed in me trying to make sense of the RUclips world, but I hope you enjoyed the video nonetheless.
@ We get you. You gotta play the RUclips game, and we wish you all the success you deserve. We will continue to suppprt the channel, but you have to agree the thumbnail is a bit cringe though 😬. Glad to hear it was a reluctant decision
@ aww thank you, guys. While I’ll stop short of agreeing with the cringe aspect (I support plenty of creators that “play the RUclips game”, maybe because I understand it a little more intrinsically) I appreciate your continued support. Thank you ❤️
Great review thanks Adrian and fully agree with your assessment both the good and not so good. We have done both The Ghan and Great Southern in the last couple off years and while they were great experiences for the cost I find that I can't actually recommend others do it unless they really want to see a lot of Australia. A particularly disappointing aspect of our Great Southern trip was that our toilet didn't work and despite reporting it immediately upon boarding it and being promised that it would be fixed it never was. Oh and the rocking!!! We too got very little sleep either night despite a few nightcaps. But man the food was good. I took the time to write a letter to them expressing my disappointment about both the toilet and also a particularly rude staff member, who I chose not to mention by name, but never received a reply. As I said, a great experience, but for the money we paid it was a little rough around the edges.
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
Adrian, this is one of your best reviews yet. While there were a few hickups along the way the views, the food and the people made it worthwhile - even at that price ! I burst out laughting at your bad nights, not even a hook in the bathroom, and trying to hold your martini on a particularly rocky patch. Well done - just great.
Thanks! I'm really glad you enjoyed it, even with the hiccups 😂 appreciate your kind words
It's a good product which we could do with more of. It's expensive but it's the kind of thing international tourists love.
The big plus over cruising is that the dollars stay in Australia.
We don't do cheap in the outback as I found out on a recent trip to Uluru
Great video mate as usual
Loved the video! It’s a view into another world for me, and I really enjoy your presentation.
Thanks so much, glad you enjoyed the video.
Adrian, I really enjoyed this video even though I would never do this trip due to age and mobility issues. My husband and I are avid cruisers so we will stick with that while we can. I have also watched your Discovery Princess tour video and that has convinced me to book an NZ on that for January 2026. Keep up with your video reporting, you are my 'go to' guy when I want to watch anything cruise related.
Thanks so much, Sylvia. That means a lot. I'm glad you enjoyed the review and I'm excited you'll be onboard Discovery Princess in 2026.
This is a trip I've been wanting to do forever. I love train travel, whether it's a VLine train or a train through regional Italy, I love them all. It's a shame you didn't receive the full experience though, but it still looked like a fun experience. PS. Good to see the Espresso Martini made a brief appearance 🤣
Good review and you raise a lot of valid points … good and bad! Nice one. 😊
Thanks so much - appreciate you watching! Your Indian Pacific review is excellent.
@ Thank you! I need to try a cruise one day. 🛳️
Did Indian Pacific Sydney to Adelaide back in 2019 in a Gold Twin. Similar experience to you - great food, staff and experiences, but not everything advertised happened and comms were poor. There is something alluring about train travel (even if sleep can be hard to come by) but it is not cheap!
I have done The Ghan both ways and the Indian Pacific from Adelaide to Perth. Your review is close to our experience, but if you travel with two in a cabin you would have had a much better time in your room.
We had dinner in the terminal in Adelaide, it seems they have changed it so all go to the winery, so that is new.
Looking forward to our next journey Perth to Sydney in early March.
I would always travel by train over flying if possible - the journey is a big part of the trip.
I’ll be taking the Indian pacific as a solo traveler from Sydney to Perth in March, and later the Ghan from Darwin to Adelaide. I treated myself to a Gold Twin room solo occupancy.
Our experience on the Ghan was truly fantastic
Hope you enjoy it as much as we did
Great to watch you and your experience would love to do this in Australia as I live in Australia.
We did the Blue train from Johannesburg to Cape Town last April and loved the experience, yes the food was amazing and meet lovely people it is so different to cruising and we like smaller ships the train experience was so different luckily we had a table for two on the train.
Thank you loved watching this .🥂
Sounds like you had a great time on the Blue Train. I'd love to do that one someday!
we were just recently on the Crown Princess to Fiji and someone posted on our cruise group asking the question - "who feels like they're on a train?" It was the perfect description of what the day on board had felt like but I hadn't thought of it as being on a train, it was very jerky and jolty that day. Maybe we might have to try a trip on a train to experience it for real, with eyemask and earplugs at the ready 😉 Thanks for the review 😊
Great review. I see there have been some changes since we travelled on the IP just after covid. Having done the Ghan also we found that the track is a little better but still takes some getting used to. Food is great considering the size of galley. It is certainly a different experience to cruising but still good. Looking forward to our next trip on the Ghan in July Adelaide to Darwin.
Glad you enjoyed the review. Sounds like you’ve had some great train experiences already! Enjoy your upcoming trip on the Ghan.
Great review. Thanks for posting.
The train itself looks amazing and the food looks top notch.
I can see thst there are a few drawbacks, such as too much movement and noise at night, but I still think it would be a wonderful experience.
I’m glad you enjoyed the review, it’s definitely a unique experience! I think everyone should try it at least once.
awesom video, really interesting
Great review I did the old Trans Australian (Adelaide to Perth) in the 80s and it was a much more basic experience although we did see some wonderful sights . I don’t think this would be for me it made me feel a bit claustrophobic. However, once again a great video from you with some wonderful insights and beautiful scenery.
It sounds like you had a memorable trip! Thanks for watching.
I am so glad you enjoyed the experience. Even though you had a few concerns, I have had a lot of hick-ups with cruising also. Ports of call closed due to bad weather, shore excursions cancelled and delays due to helicopter medical evacuations plus mechanical failure etc. It is all part of travel and always gives many stories to tell later. I have learnt to just "Suck it up Princess" and go with the flow and not to let it ruin the remainder of the holiday. Let us know when you do the next. Thanks Adrian.
You are absolutely right, things happen - and like you said, it's all part of the journey!
Hi Adrian, another great review as always) Sorry you had a few hiccups along the way, getting off at Lithgow now that's a bummer.
For you loyal audience you cannot compare this type of travel with cruising.. two completely different things.( as you probably found out)
Having said that I would highly recommend and I mean highly recommend the Gan (as in Afghan) from Darwin to Adelaide (not the other way around four nights compared to three nights)
My wife and I took this trip and we booked superior gold and it was possibly one of the best short holidays ever and that includes a lot of overseas holidays and cruises etc.
From checking in at the hotel in Darwin to the disembarking at Adelaide was first class all the way.
The staff, the food the excursions and of course the train (we had the big red Ghan loco on this journey ) everything was just brilliant.
( yes getting to sleep was problematical)
I do hope you get to do this one day.
Keep up the good work
Thanks for the Great review.
Typical Aussie half-arsed organisation Sadly.
Lucky we are a resilient lot.
Cheers Mate 🥂
Thanks mate - appreciate you watching!
Interesting you reviewed another form of holiday travel.
Thanks - I hope you enjoyed watching something different.
Awesome review Adrian. Always wanted to do this. Will get a cabin with an ensuite I think.
Glad you enjoyed the review! And definitely a good choice to go for the ensuite!
This is cool. Like this coverage of something different.
Thanks! I'll try to cover some different experiences going forward this year.
Love it well done 😊
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.
We did overnighter from Sydney to Melbourne never again we had a sleeper cabin and of course i had the top bunk it was worse than the heaviest seas that we have ever been in.
I can imagine! It's a very jolty experience, quite different to the rocking of a ship.
@@TheCruiseandTravelGuy We went down to get the QM2 back to Sydney. Great ship and great experience.
Wow that bathroom is HUGE...the bathrooms in the twin rooms are tiny....I hope you do the Ghan sometime soon and maybe do the twin room...we preferred that trip over this one...though thoroughly enjoyed both...
I would love to do the Ghan. My idea (who knows if I will do it) is to link the Ghan with the Perth-Adelaide portion of the Indian Pacific.
We did not stop at broken hill for some reason… but shelitta boarded the train. Can’t remember why. Didnt stop at kalgoulie either . And our train terminated also at Lithgow. Still a good trip
Glad you enjoyed your trip onboard. Shelita was telling me they've recently updated the Indian Pacific schedule, so instead of boarding, she now runs the walking tours in town with the performance at her establishment in town.
Hi Adrian, It looked like an interesting experience. We love Broken Hill. The train sounds noisy. There are many interesting train trips in Queensland, and we are thinking about one. We have cancelled our next cruise and probably won't go on another cruise as we don't like the industry changes for Australian residents.
I look forward to seeing your next post. ❤ Sue
Thanks Sue! I hope you enjoy your upcoming train travel. Take a look at the Great Southern - it goes between Brisbane and Melbourne or Adelaide (v.v) I believe.
Just more excuses Adrian. Gary Pembridge's Platinum west bound journey started in Lithgow just as yours ended and neither of you were informed of the quite substantial change in advance. So glad you did the Gold run as it's given me a better idea of the difference between the classes. There were so many avoidable stuff ups by the operating company, I'll now rule out taking the Sydney/Perth journey by train and cruise instead.
Yes, that’s right - I had forgotten about Gary’s experience. I did (and still do) think there’s more to it. It was a shame to have a large chunk of the experience cut off at the end.
We did Sydney Adelaide in September. Did not sleep. It was so rough.
Totally understand - it was a lot rougher than I expected.
Great honest review. Not my cup of tea but I know a lot of people love train travel. I’d rather spend $1700 on a cruise upgrade or towards a flight upgrade 👍
Appreciate your feedback and thoughts on the train! Thanks for watching.
Must be a great experience, but i prefer cruise ships much more😊
Hi andrian could you talk about the island royalcarrabean brought and are they going to make it like cocoacae for Aussie cruisers been on the ghan was great hoping to hear about the island
Hi Janice. I covered this in September: ruclips.net/video/TvYxr0ofI4I/видео.html there haven't been any updates since - just further delays, really. Once more information is released, you can trust that you'll find it here on my channel. For now, nothing new to report.
How were the speciality dishes Adrian?! 🙏 Engagement emoji 🍕
The dishes onboard were beautiful! Well presented and very tasty. The menus weren't over the top either, quite simple and elegant.
The problem with Journey Beyond products, especially since they were privatised (always a mistake IMO), is they are too expensive for what they are, especially if you consider 2 people can take a decent overseas cruise, ex Sydney, for less than the fare on these trains...except maybe the Overland, which, IMO, should be a regular VLine service instead.
Oh, Priscilla, this looked quite difficult !! There wasn't a Large blue PUMP on top of the Engine Car, and no ABBA !!! Obviously a "Queen of the Desert Experience !!"
"Where do I put my stuff ??" I guess you pile it all in the sink while you showered. Maybe carry a "Shower Duffle Bag to hold your stuff" while in the bath!!
Shelita Queen of the Outback !! Mama Mia, here I go again ... My My how can I resist you ... Finally it has happened to me right in front of my face And I just cannot hide it ...
I definitely would have planned for the shower better had I known haha.
Thanks for the review but it’s not for me. You can get a decent cruise for the current price of that trip. I have travelled extensively throughout the outback so my experience would not be as exciting as other people’s. BTW, did you get a partial refund? Cruise lines would give you some credit back for the shortcomings of the trip.
No refund, not even an acknowledgement onboard apart from the letter... According to several reviews and past passengers, the Lithgow termination is quite common.
Disappointing.. Shocked open mouth thumbnail.. working the algo 😔
I’m not clear on how that matters enough that you commented just to express your disappointment. Strange.
@ because my wife and I love your work, and we don’t want you to become one of them.
I appreciate the sentiment, but as fans of my channel, I would certainly hope that you can look beyond a thumbnail and instead to the content that I have invested my time, energy and money in creating. Particularly if you know and enjoy the type of videos that I create - nothing has changed.
In simple terms, I put my heart and soul into creating my videos, only to have an unknown quantity (in this case, the "algorithm") ultimately determine whether or not it's a success. Maybe it looks easy to viewers, but this really isn't, and I don't have a roadmap, a guidebook, or a team behind me.
Anyway - sorry to see you were disappointed in me trying to make sense of the RUclips world, but I hope you enjoyed the video nonetheless.
@ We get you. You gotta play the RUclips game, and we wish you all the success you deserve. We will continue to suppprt the channel, but you have to agree the thumbnail is a bit cringe though 😬. Glad to hear it was a reluctant decision
@ aww thank you, guys. While I’ll stop short of agreeing with the cringe aspect (I support plenty of creators that “play the RUclips game”, maybe because I understand it a little more intrinsically) I appreciate your continued support. Thank you ❤️
Great review thanks Adrian and fully agree with your assessment both the good and not so good. We have done both The Ghan and Great Southern in the last couple off years and while they were great experiences for the cost I find that I can't actually recommend others do it unless they really want to see a lot of Australia. A particularly disappointing aspect of our Great Southern trip was that our toilet didn't work and despite reporting it immediately upon boarding it and being promised that it would be fixed it never was. Oh and the rocking!!! We too got very little sleep either night despite a few nightcaps. But man the food was good. I took the time to write a letter to them expressing my disappointment about both the toilet and also a particularly rude staff member, who I chose not to mention by name, but never received a reply. As I said, a great experience, but for the money we paid it was a little rough around the edges.