Owen Hardy 

Luxury and deluxe rail travel has been my passion for 34 years.

It’s taken me to Canada, Mexico, Europe, Russia (I’ve ridden across Siberia six times), India, from Cape Town to Dar es Salaam in Southern Africa and Thailand and most recently to Japan. I have traversed the ancient Silk Road by luxury rail from Beijing, through the ‘Stans, to Moscow. We took 2 private trains; hiked the Great Wall, rode a camel in the Gobi Desert, toured cities 2,000 years old.

The rail travel bug bit early – I was an exchange student in Germany and criss-crossed the continent by train. A stint as a sailor on an old, square-rigged Brigantine in the British Virgin Islands expanded my horizons.

And I’ve never looked back. Owning a travel agency like ours -- specializing in adventure and specifically luxury rains -- has been a natural progression. While I love the excitement, glamour and culture of big cities, I’m equally at home in the wilderness – the wilder the better.

Favorite trips? I'm just back (Nov., 2015) from Japan, testing out the brand-new Kyushu Seven Stars train. I will be posting about this on our blog (blog.irtsociety.com) and in several magazines, including Virtuoso Life.

On our safari in Botswana (after we took the Blue Train) we saw a family of lions - including four rambunctious cubs - devouring an elephant. Thailand's Eastern & Oriental Express was a dream of temples, elephants, pageantry.

In 2014, Eleanor Hardy & I hosted river cruises on two new luxury cruisers: the Orcaella up Myanmar's Irrawaddy River; La Estrella Amazonica up the Peruvian Amazon. In 2015, we hosted the Sea Cloud's magnificent program on the Dalmation Coast. In 2016, join us as we head to Ireland -- where we have chartered the Belmond Grand Hibernian or to Japan, where we have chartered the Seven Stars. So many trains! So little time. Join us.