Have you ever wondered how far you could go traveling exclusively by train? If you’ve got the time and money to spare, it’s possible to get from Portugal to Singapore by train, a distance of around 11,654 miles (18,755 km). You’d pass through 13 countries on a journey lasting several weeks.
The starting point is Lagos, in Portugal’s popular Algarve region, on a train bound for Lisbon. The next part of the journey crosses Spain, with a change in the Basque country, then onto Paris. The next leg of the journey involves traversing Europe, passing through Germany, Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia. Getting from Latvia to St. Petersburg requires you to temporarily switch to bus travel before getting back on a train for the journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow.
Then comes a massive 60-hour trip on the Trans-Siberian and Trans-Manchurian railroads across Russia and China, bound for the Chinese capital, Beijing. Next comes the Chinese city of Kunming, then it’s on to Laos, Thailand, and Malaysia before the last leg takes you to Singapore, at the tip of the Malay Peninsula.
Obviously, such a trip requires a fair amount of advance planning and plenty of flexibility and patience. Adding a few extra connections to European cities like Vienna, Budapest, and Prague would help you see even more without taking you too far from your itinerary. The trip through China from Beijing to Kunming can be accomplished on a high-speed train in just 12 hours, though that would prevent you from visiting the Terracotta Army in Xi’an and the panda sanctuaries of Chengdu. An alternate route from Beijing to Kunming passes through Lhasa on the Tibetan Plateau—one of the world’s highest train journeys.
See you in Singapore:
- While this journey remains geographically the longest possible train trip a passenger can take, political tensions have made it far less feasible, namely Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the war that has raged there since 2022. The Berlin-Moscow train route is no longer operating, so travelers will need to pass through the Baltic states instead. Traveling through Russia requires significant advance planning, as there are strict visa requirements and travel restrictions in place.
- Completing the journey from Portugal to Singapore by train rather than plane is far better for the planet, contributing roughly 0.08 tonnes of CO2 compared to 1.67 tonnes of CO2 from a comparable flight.
- Train travel aficionados have estimated that tickets for the one-way trip would cost around $1,350, though obviously the entire journey would also need to include multiple hotel stays, meals, and other expenses.
