Dream of the Desert opens bookings as Saudi luxury train slips to 2027

Dream of the Desert, the luxury sleeper train being developed for Saudi Arabia by Italy's Arsenale, opened reservations on 4 November for first departures from Riyadh in October 2027. The first phase will offer 24 suites on two itineraries through Al Jouf, Hail and Al Qassim.

The launch was announced at World Travel Market in London, in a statement carried by TradeArabia and Arabian Business with comments from the Saudi Tourism Authority and Arsenale International. Besides the 24 suite cabins, the phase-one train will include a restaurant carriage and a Majlis carriage, a lounge inspired by Saudi traditions of hospitality. "We look forward to welcoming our first travellers in October 2027," said Raffaele Breschi, chief executive of Arsenale International and general manager of Dream of the Desert.

The Desert Kingdoms runs for four days and three nights through Al Jouf and Hail, with a gala dinner at Marid Castle in Dumat Al-Jandal and an excursion into the Aja Mountains. Shadows of Aja lasts three days and two nights through Hail and Al Qassim, adding an astronomy session, a meal among the date palms and, in some seasons, the Al-Awshaziyah salt flats. Shorter private trips start at a single day, and an AlUla journey is to be announced later.

Prices start at SAR 86,250 per couple and per suite for a two-night journey, including VAT, meals and excursions, according to the Italian rail site Ferrovie.Info, which puts the figure at about €20,700. Neither TradeArabia nor Arabian Business published a fare, and the source does not say which itinerary the starting price applies to.

The project has shrunk and slipped since it was signed. When Saudi Arabia Railways (SAR) and Arsenale agreed a 25-year partnership in January 2024, the train was to have 40 cabins and enter service in the fourth quarter of 2025, Asharq Al-Awsat reported. By December 2025, Gulf News described a 14-carriage train with 33 cabins for up to 66 passengers, and reservations for a "2026 season" at SAR 30,000 per cabin per night. The phase-one train now has 24 suites, so roughly 48 guests if each suite holds a couple.

The fares are hard to compare like for like. The new starting price works out at about SAR 43,000 per suite and per night, but it now bundles meals and excursions, while the 2025 figure was given without a clear list of inclusions. What the reduced first phase shows more clearly is caution on the operating side: Breschi told Arabian Business in May that the company did not want "to flood the market".

The train runs on SAR's existing northern network from Riyadh, which Arabian Business described in May as running to Qurayyat near the Jordanian border. Asharq Al-Awsat named the same corridor, from Riyadh through Hail to Qurayyat, as the first stage in 2024, and SAR's scheduled passenger trains already use it. Fitting a slow, heavy luxury consist around those services is the part of the project the new statement does not address, nor does it say who will crew the train. Our guide to Saudi Arabia's railway projects sets out how this line fits into the wider network.

The AlUla itinerary is the next announcement Arsenale has promised, with no date given.

Sources: TradeArabia, 4 November 2026; Arabian Business, 4 November 2026; Ferrovie.Info, 4 November 2026; Arabian Business, 23 May 2026; Gulf News, updated 7 December 2025; Asharq Al-Awsat, 26 January 2024.

Photo: Riyadh railway station, 21 August 2012 — haitham alfalah, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0.

Article written with the help of artificial intelligence from the sources cited, reviewed by the TrainsNews editorial team before publication.