How much do Orient Express tickets cost? Johnny Depp train ride comes up in court

Johnny Depp and Amber Heard honeymooned by taking the Orient Express from Bangkok to Singapore in August 2015 – how much do tickets cost for the journey, and what is it like onboard?

How much does it cost to ride the Orient Express?

Johnny Depp and Amber Heard boarded the Eastern & Oriental – a sister train to the Venice-Simplon Orient Express, on which Depp filmed the 2017 version of Murder On The Orient Express – for their honeymoon in August 2015.

The Eastern & Oriental Express runs from Bangkok to Singapore, and tickets cost from $3,121 per passenger. That’s about £2,500, or just over €2,900.

Passengers are treated to three nights’ accommodation abroad the luxury train, with daily four-course dinners, continental breakfasts and three-course lunches. Plus afternoon tea.

• CELEBRITY: How Raphy Pina’s significant net worth will be impacted by his incarceration

The route cruises alongside the River Kwai, and includes a stopover in Kuala Kangsar, the royal town of Perak, Malaysia.

Cheaper alternatives are available, but they run for shorter distances. For example, tickets for the Orient Express from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok cost $2,072; Singapore to Bangkok is slightly cheaper than the opposite trip, at $2,948 per passenger.

But Eastern & Oriental ticket prices can also be much higher

Note that tickets start at the prices listed above.

Seat61 clarifies prices “start at around $3,100 per person for two people sharing”. If you’re a solo traveller, it’ll cost upwards of $5,400. 

The price also excludes drinks, according to the website.

• TV: Sasha Calle shares full-circle moment as aspiring actor’s dreams come true

For those looking for a slightly longer trip, the Eastern & Oriental Express also runs “occasional cruises for three or six nights”. Routes include Bangkok to Vientiane and Bangkok to Chiang Mai.

The standard luggage limit is apparently 30kg per passenger, although there is no limit for passengers in the “presidential suites”.

What is it like onboard the train Depp and Heard honeymooned on?

“Cocktail hour can be a precarious business on board the Eastern & Oriental Express”, opens Chopstix & The City’s feature on the journey.

But it’s worth it, apparently, for the views of the “verdant scenery of South East Asia”. 

• CELEBRITY: Who is Linnea Miron? Ricky Williams’ wife gives ex-NFL player her last name

Belmond, the company that runs the train, calls it “a travelling memoir of a more elegant age”.

“A cream, green exterior gives way to polished wood-panelled corridors and silken furnishings with a hint of classic Asian design.”

Options for the E&O Royal Celebration Breakfast include Thai prawns, goose liver wonton, scrambled eggs with blinis and caviar, and rice porridge with pork mince. In other words, something for everybody. 

Bruno Cooke

Bruno Cooke has been a freelance journalist since 2019, primarily with GRV Media. He was an early contributor to The Focus, and has written for HITC, Groundviews and the Sheffield University newspaper – he earned his MA in Global Journalism there in 2021. He’s the Spoken Word Poetry Editor for The Friday Poem, and self-published his debut novel Reveries in 2019, which his mum called both a “fine read” and “excellent Christmas present”. Bruno has lived in China, Sri Lanka and the Philippines and likes, among other things: bicycle touring, black and white Japanese films, pub quizzes, fermentation and baklava. In 2023, Bruno will set off with his partner on a round-the-world cycle.