With "tequila tourism" gaining popularity in Mexico, a train taking tourists to the home of the spirit has relaunched after nine years away. The Tequila Express offers a gateway to an intriguing culture, alongside impressive on-board cocktails.

As I boarded the Tequila Express at Guadalajara railway station, a tour guide with curly gelled hair was holding court in a bar carriage. Holding a gold-coloured microphone and a bottle of tequila, he spoke enthusiastically to a group of Mexican tourists about their country's famous spirit. At 10:30, when the train left the station, he handed out shot glasses.

From Nuremberg's Techno Train to the late-night London to Margate Train, I've witnessed many chaotic alcohol-soaked railway adventures. I wondered if the long-awaited return of the Tequila Express, the tourist train running between the city of Guadalajara and the town of Tequila in Mexico's Jalisco state, would signal a similar experience.

The Tequila Express launched in 1997 to serve the nascent "tequila tourism" industry in Tequila, its namesake city, which now has a population of around 45,000 and is the epicentre of the tequila industry, home to around 25 distilleries. Knocking back tequila on the two-hour, 65km ride across Jalisco's cactus- and agave plant-lined landscape proved popular, and, in 2012, the Jose Cuervo tequila company launched a rival – and much more expensive – tourist train on the same route.

The original Tequila Express stopped running in 2015; in 2017, the train was used for a tourist service in collaboration with the Herradura tequila brand. In 2020, the Herradura service was also shuttered, as Covid decimated tourism.

The Tequila Express finally returned in September 2024. Mexico's tourism industry was healthy again, and by 2023, Tequila was attracting 1.2 million visitors a year, with more distilleries offering tours. Government authorities and tourism companies reportedly invested around 170 million pesos (£7m) to get one of the world's most unique short-distance tourist trains, which offers a trip directly to the heart of the culture behind Mexico's most famous export, back on track.

Carriages were refurbished for the relaunch, to the degree that my journey felt more boutique hotel than party train. I'm teetotal, so at a marble-topped bar I ordered Almave, a non-alcoholic spirit made from the same agave plants used for tequila. Piped mariachi music was constant, and tasteful low-light lamps were attached to wood-panelled walls. TV screens showed distilleries and tacos: pleasures awaiting us in Tequila.

Onboard, I chatted to Antonio Cabrera from northern Mexico, who told me he was 55, but only now taking his first Mexican train journey. With Mexico currently lacking a country-wide passenger rail network, its best-known trains are arguably tourist routes such as the Tequila Express, the controversial new Tren Maya, and the Chepe Express Copper Canyon train. There were a few European backpacker types dotted throughout the carriages, but most passengers were well-dressed middle-aged Mexicans, like Cabrera.

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