The Orient Express is officially setting sail.
The Orient Express is no longer just a train, but a full-blown luxury hospitality company within the Accor family. A revival of the historic train is due to launch in 2025, but the team is also working on opening Orient Express hotels in Paris, Rome, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. And today, the company announced its next project: cruising on what Accor says will be the world’s largest sailing yacht.
The Orient Express yacht will soon become a reality
The luxurious 722-foot vessel, dubbed the Orient Express Silenseas, will have 54 suites (including a 15,200-square-foot presidential suite with a 5,700-square-foot terrace), two pools, two restaurants, an oyster bar, a speakeasy, a theatre, and a private recording studio.
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“With Orient Express Silenseas, we are beginning a new chapter in our history, taking the experience and excellence of luxury travel and transposing it onto the world’s most beautiful seas,” Sébastien Bazin, the Accor CEO, said in a statement released to Travel + Leisure. “This exceptional boat, with roots in Orient Express’ history, will offer unparalleled service and refined design spaces, reminiscent of the golden age of mythical cruises.”
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The yacht will be the first of two built for the Orient Express by luxury shipbuilder Chantiers de l’Atlantique. Its interiors will be designed by architect Maxime d’Angeac, who is also in charge of restoring and updating the historic Orient Express carriages for the 2025 train revival. For the ship, d’Agneac will draw inspiration from the French Riviera; Silenseas will sail the Mediterranean in the summer and the Caribbean in the winter. Its exteriors, designed by Stirling Design International, are inspired by the 1930s-era streamline moderne movement, a branch of art deco.
While the ship will be the largest sailboat at sea, it will also have a hybrid propulsion system that will, at first, use liquified natural gas (LNG) and eventually green hydrogen, once the fuel is approved for commercial vessels.
As of right now, the Orient Express Silenseas is scheduled to commence operations in 2026; bookings should go live in 2024.
This story first appeared on www.travelandleisure.com
Main and Feature Image Credit: © Maxime d’Angeac & Martin Darzacq for Orient Express/Accor
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