Eleanor Hardy

The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, Rovos Rail’s Pride of Africa, Golden Eagle Trans-Siberian Express, Belmond Royal Scotsman, The Blue Train, the Belmond Grand Hibernian— these are some of the luxury trains I have personally inspected for you. (Somebody has to do it!) I love being the Virtuoso Luxury Rail Experts.

My husband and business partner, Owen, and I and our staff have traveled literally millions of miles on trains over 37 years to test them out. My expertise also includes safaris, hotels, and expedition cruising.

I am also proud to announce that I am now among the top 1% of Virtuoso travel advisors who has completed training for the exciting new travel planning experience called Wanderlist. This is an exclusive, invitation-only process akin to that of a wealth advisor. Your wealth advisor manages your finances. As a Wanderlist Advisor, I will help you manage your leisure time. Our clients and my team and I will plan journeys for 3-5 years out, enabling our IRT guests to obtain the perfect cabin on every train, cruise or hotel room. And it will allow you to anticipate from trip to trip — something that will definitely increase your Return on Life. You’ll never miss a Milestone trip that you wished you had booked.

My focus is personal, amazingly detailed service based on direct experience and sound relationships with our Virtuoso suppliers. Our company is family-owned and our team is fabulous.

Nothing’s more wonderful than a luxury rail journey. Safaris, cruises, fab hotel stays – these are icing on the cake, and we know just the ones you will want! We meet the owners and managers of the most wonderful tour operators, safari outfitters and hotels every year, face to face, at Virtuoso Travel Week. And we meet them when we travel on study tours around the world. Our powerhouse Virtuoso network gives us $26.4 billion in buying power to give you, our guests, the very best in exclusive amenities and VIP treatment. Once you travel the IRT Virtuoso way, you will never look back.

The unusual, the fun, the adventurous is what makes me want to share the excitement. This is why my job as President and co-owner of The Society of International Railway Travelers® and luxury travel advisor is perfect for me.