A Home on Wheels: In Conversation with Tiffany Vos-Thane of Rovos Rail

For over fifteen years, I have admired Rovos Rail from a distance. I knew the carriages by sight long before I knew the people behind them, and I had filed the brand away in my mind as proof that luxury train travel could still belong to another, more gracious age. Our own story with Rovos began more recently, when my business partner, Ujjwal, met Tiffany last November and came back talking about little else.

Some context, for anyone encountering the name for the first time. Rovos Rail is a South African institution, founded thirty-seven years ago by Rohan Vos and run, to this day, as a family business. It is widely held to be the most luxurious train in the world, though that phrase rather undersells it. This is a five-star hotel on wheels that crosses the Karoo, climbs towards Victoria Falls and carries its guests through landscapes most of us only ever glimpse from the air.

The company today employs more than 600 staff, including some 200 who run the train itself, and every carriage is restored by hand at the company’s own station in Pretoria, by a team of more than four hundred craftspeople who keep alive the skills the rest of the world has largely let go.

Tiffany Vos-Thane is Rohan’s daughter and the company’s Chief Operating Officer. She also, quite literally, grew up on the train, walking its corridors as a small girl while her parents managed everything from the bookings to the bed linen. When we finally spoke, after a warm introduction from Rovos Rail’s Sales Manager, Regárdo Lewis, I wanted to understand the things that never make it into a brochure, what it means to inherit a railway. Why switching off has become the rarest luxury of all. And what stays with a traveller long after the final station. What follows is our conversation, lightly tidied, with Tiffany’s own words kept as she spoke them.

Growing Up on the Tracks

Tiffany, I’d love to start at the very beginning, long before Rovos became the institution it is today. When did your love of trains first take hold?

Tiffany: So for me, I have the fondest memories of walking up and down the train, being very small, but then growing up on the train and getting to meet passengers from all over the world, having wonderful conversations, going on incredible excursions with everybody. When you’re a child, or when you’re very young like that, people are very open with you. They talk to you, and they’re just wonderful with you. To be able to have that experience of getting to know people and understand people more, I think it really showed me a side of hospitality that I fell in love with immediately.

"Train travel went hand in hand with that. For anybody sitting in my position, and anybody working at Rovos, the train is such a beautiful space and such a beautiful place, and it just makes you feel right at home from the moment you’re onboard. That’s thanks to my parents for creating that kind of atmosphere."

It’s been a passion for me from a very young age. I went straight into studying hospitality when I graduated from school and studied for three years, working in various hotel jobs. It was always what I was going to do, and being here eventually was always my goal. I just needed to go and grow up a bit and get experience.

You grew up in South Africa when the country still travelled by rail. How much a part of ordinary life and culture were trains in those years?

Tiffany: When growing up, we did have some passenger trains that operated throughout South Africa, but they don’t run anymore. If I think of going on a hockey tour, we used to get on the train in Cape Town and go to Johannesburg. So for my generation, and certainly for any generation before me, we grew up with trains in South Africa, being able to travel on them, and them being part of our community and our culture.

Sadly, that’s not really the case anymore. There are no long distance trains running, so anybody born from 1995 onwards hasn’t grown up with that, which is unfortunate to see.

What Sets Luxury Train Travel Apart

Having experienced luxury hospitality the world over, what, in your view, sets a train journey apart from every other kind of luxury travel today?

Tiffany: There’s something really unique about our business. When you travel around the world, and you’re exposed to luxury products, they can all start to feel a little bit the same, unless there’s something truly unique that differentiates them. It can feel like the same beautiful five-star resort, or the same beautiful five-star hotel. It’s not that they aren’t beautiful; they are.

But I feel like train travel takes you back to a completely different time, before cell phones, computers and distractions. It really does force you to switch off completely. We have a tradition where we don’t allow the use of digital devices in our lounges or our dining cars, and by having that tradition, it prevents people from being on their phones.

It is such a gift, because in any other luxury product in the world, your phone will be in your hand, and it will be distracting you. Whereas on our train, that gift of time is given.

You’re getting to experience luxury in a different sort of way, but also while the beautiful world passes you by. There’s nothing quite like that. I think it sets us apart, because it is a luxury five-star hotel on wheels. You’re getting all of that experience, you’re getting that service, but you’re also getting this very relaxed atmosphere, and a personalised experience that you just can’t get anywhere else.

Rovos has always felt intimate, more like a home than a hotel. How central is that family philosophy to everything you do?

Tiffany: The one thing that we try to do at Rovos Rail is to make sure that our guests feel like they’re part of our family. That’s something that my parents started 35 years ago, and something that we continue today. We want our guests to feel like they’re coming into our home, and that’s why we’re so involved in every aspect of the business.

"Train travel takes you back to a completely different time, before cell phones, computers and distractions. It really does force you to switch off completely."

Keeping the Craft Alive

The carriages are beautifully kept, almost impossibly so. How do you go about restoring and maintaining them?

Tiffany: It’s a lot of hard work, I can tell you that! We have our own station in Pretoria, which is where we do all of our maintenance and restoration. We have a team of over 400 people who work there, and they’re all incredibly skilled.

That’s really important to us, because it means that we can control the quality of everything that we do. And it also means that we can keep these skills alive in South Africa.

"We have our own carpenters, our own electricians, our own mechanics, and we do everything ourselves. We don't outsource anything.”

The Road Ahead

Thirty-seven years in, the brand could easily rest on its reputation. Where are you taking Rovos next?

Tiffany: We’re always looking at new routes and new experiences for our guests. We recently launched our Copper Trail route, which goes from Victoria Falls through Zambia and into the Democratic Republic of Congo, and that’s been incredibly popular. And we’re looking at other routes as well.

Your golf journeys have become something of a signature. Tell me how they work.

Tiffany: Yes, absolutely. We have two main golf journeys. We have the Golf Safari, which is nine nights and ten days days, and then we have the African Golf Collage, which is twelve nights and thirteen days. What’s wonderful about those is that they’re not just for golfers. We have a full non-player programme as well, so if you’re travelling with a partner who doesn’t play golf, they still have an incredible time with game drives and excursions, while the golfers are out on some of the best courses in the world. It’s a very popular way to see the country.

As the company grows, what matters most to you, and what are you most determined to protect?

Tiffany: For us, the most important thing is to make sure that we maintain the quality and the standard of what we do. We don’t want to grow too big too quickly. We want to make sure that we can still provide that personalised, family experience that our guests love.

Stories Between Stations

There’s clearly more to your routes than scenery. Is it the history they carry that matters to you?

Tiffany: Exactly. And it’s also about understanding the stories behind the routes. For example, when we travel through the Karoo, we’re not just moving between two points; we’re moving through history. Each stop, like Matjiesfontein, has its own character and its own legacy. It’s about inviting our guests to be part of that story, even if only for a few days.

It sounds like a deeply emotional experience, not simply a physical journey.

Tiffany: It is. It really is. And I think that’s what people take away with them. They take away those stories and those memories.

“We’re not just moving between two points; we’re moving through history.”

For the First Journey

One last question. For someone stepping aboard Rovos for the very first time, what would you tell them?

Tiffany: My piece of advice would be to make the most of the onboard experience, as well as the off-the-train experiences, of course. I understand some people might be travelling because they’re going through something really hard. People are going through a lot. Maybe they’ve lost somebody, maybe they’re going through a divorce, maybe they are sick.

So I understand that for some people, they just want to be in their suite and relax, and I encourage that. You have to have a healthy balance on the train of enjoying your suite, relaxing to your heart’s content, sleeping, resting, reading, enjoying your suite absolutely.

But what I would say is that enjoying the areas on board, like the dining cars, the observation car, and the lounge car, is essential. Even if you don’t necessarily want to engage with people too much, you can still be in the environment, just absorbing the beautiful feeling that you get.

Because you meet people from all over the world, people who have led different lives, who have got stories to tell. You’ve got the team as well, who are full of stories and full of character. It’s such an important part of the experience, and I highly recommend that you have a healthy dose of both.

"You meet people from all over the world, people that have walked different lives, who have got stories to tell."

I travelled recently with my best friends for my 40th birthday, and I hadn’t travelled with them before. And to be on board with some of my closest friends, of course, I only wanted to be with them, but I made the most of the experience. I took my own advice, and it just enhanced the experience, not only for me but for all the people who were travelling with me.

They said, “This is the best ever, we’ve met people from everywhere, we’ve had the greatest chats.” And I thought, this is what it’s all about.

We had meant to keep talking. Tiffany had a flight to catch, as the most interesting people always seem to, and we said our goodbyes with the easy warmth of two people who will certainly speak again. What stayed with me afterwards was something she had said in her very first answer, that the train makes you feel right at home from the moment you step onboard. It is a simple idea, and yet it accounts for everything. The hand-restored carriages, the phones banned from the dining cars, the four hundred craftspeople in Pretoria, the stories swapped over dinner as the Karoo slips past the glass. All of it exists so that a guest, for a few days, might feel entirely at home while the most beautiful parts of a continent travel by the window.

At Marée & Meridian, this is precisely the kind of journey we love to plan: slow, generous and deeply human. If Rovos Rail has been sitting somewhere on your own list of someday journeys, perhaps this is the year we bring it within reach.

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This conversation was led by Nidhi Gopal, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Marée & Meridian. Nidhi has long been captivated by the stories that luxury trains and river cruises tell, a fascination set in motion when she was involved in the launch of the Maharajas’ Express. It has since driven a career spent exploring and innovating across the world of luxury rail and river travel, curating journeys that celebrate elegance, discovery, timeless luxury, and delighting magnificent destinations along the way. Here she turns that passion towards Rovos Rail, in conversation with its Chief Operating Officer, Tiffany Vos-Thane.

A Home on Wheels: In Conversation with Tiffany Vos-Thane of Rovos Rail

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