India’s Luxury Trains Compared: Palace on Wheels, Deccan Odyssey, Golden Chariot and Maharajas’ Express
Four trains carry passengers around India in sleeping cabins, travelling by night and stopping at forts, temples and tiger reserves by day. Where each goes, how they differ and which to choose.
India has more luxury tourist trains than any other country in Asia. They follow a common pattern. The train is a hotel on wheels with private cabins and bathrooms, restaurants and a bar. It moves mostly at night. Each morning it stops at a station where coaches wait to take passengers to a palace, a temple or a national park, and each evening they return to the train for dinner. A week covers ground that would otherwise need several flights and long drives.
Four trains matter. They are run by different bodies, cover different parts of the country and differ in age and style. All operate only in the cooler months.
Palace on Wheels: the original, in Rajasthan
The Palace on Wheels made its first journey on 26 January 1982 and created the idea. It is owned by the Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation and run with Indian Railways; its operation and maintenance have been contracted to a private consortium. The first train was made up of the private saloon cars of the former princely states, among them Rajputana, Baroda and Hyderabad. They have since been replaced by purpose-built carriages decorated in the same spirit. The train was refurbished in 2009, suspended from 2020 and returned to service in October 2022.
It has 14 passenger coaches, each named after a Rajput state and each with three twin cabins. The itinerary is a fixed circuit of seven nights from New Delhi: Jaipur, Sawai Madhopur for the tigers of Ranthambore, Chittorgarh, Udaipur, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Bharatpur and Agra. It runs from September to April.
Choose it for the classic route. No other train covers Rajasthan so completely in one week, including Jaisalmer in the desert.
Deccan Odyssey: Maharashtra and beyond
The Deccan Odyssey was launched on 16 January 2004 by Indian Railways and the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation. It is based in Mumbai, usually starting from the Victorian terminus of Chhatrapati Shivaji. The train has 21 coaches and carries 88 guests, with two restaurants, a bar, a spa and a gym. After a break of more than three years it returned to service in 2023.
It offers several routes of seven nights between September and May. Those within its home state take in the painted and rock-cut caves of Ajanta and Ellora, the vineyards of Nashik, Kolhapur, Goa and the tiger reserve of Tadoba. Others run north through Gujarat or to Rajasthan, Agra and Delhi.
Choose it for western India, and above all for Ajanta and Ellora, which are awkward to reach by other means.
Golden Chariot: the south
The Golden Chariot made its first commercial run on 10 March 2008 for the tourism corporation of Karnataka. It was transferred to IRCTC, the catering and tourism arm of Indian Railways, in January 2020, and relaunched in November 2022. It is named after the stone chariot in the temple at Hampi. The train, in purple and gold, has 44 cabins in coaches named after the dynasties of southern India, such as Hoysala, Chalukya and Vijayanagar.
It is based in Bengaluru and runs roughly from October to March. Its traditional routes take in the wildlife reserve of Bandipur, Mysuru, the Hoysala temples at Halebidu, the ruins of Hampi, the cave temples of Badami, Pattadakal and Aihole, and Goa, with extensions to the temple towns of Tamil Nadu. Since its relaunch the operators have also added itineraries elsewhere in India, so the route list should be checked.
Choose it for temples and ruins. Hampi alone justifies it, and the Hoysala temples, World Heritage since 2023, are on the traditional route.
Maharajas’ Express: the most luxurious
The newest and most expensive of the four carries 84 passengers in 23 carriages, which gives it the largest cabins, including suites with a sitting room and a bath. It runs from October to April on four itineraries between Delhi, Rajasthan and Mumbai, some of a week and some of three nights. It is described in full in our guide to the Maharajas’ Express.
Choose it for comfort, and for the choice between a short and a long journey.
How to decide
By region. Rajasthan is served by the Palace on Wheels and the Maharajas’ Express, the west by the Deccan Odyssey, the south by the Golden Chariot.
By length. Most journeys last a week. The Maharajas’ Express and the Golden Chariot also offer shorter versions.
By what the train is for. None of these trains travels through remarkable scenery by day, as mountain railways such as the Darjeeling toy train do. Their purpose is to make a demanding itinerary easy. Travellers who like to linger will find the days tightly scheduled, and may prefer to take a shorter journey and then stay on at a hotel such as Six Senses Fort Barwara near Ranthambore.
For travellers
The season runs roughly from September or October to April or May, and the trains do not operate in the heat of summer or in the monsoon. Departures are weekly at most and should be booked several months ahead. Fares are quoted per person for the whole journey and include meals and excursions. Routes and operators have changed several times in recent years, so confirm the current itinerary before booking.