Maharajas' Express

The Maharajas' Express is a hotel that travels at night. Its days are spent standing still: at Agra for the Taj Mahal, at Sawai Madhopur for a game drive in Ranthambore, in Jaipur, Bikaner, Jodhpur and Udaipur for their forts and palaces. Most of its distances are covered after dinner. On the Indian Splendour the train leaves Jaipur at 23:00 and reaches Bikaner after breakfast; it leaves Bikaner at 21:30 and is in Jodhpur by 04:00. While its guests are out at a fort, it goes off to the yard for fuel and water.

The train is IRCTC's, the tourism arm of Indian Railways, and it runs only from October to April, on four fixed journeys of three or six nights that start in Delhi or Mumbai. It is almost half a mile long and carries 88 guests in 43 cabins, with a butler to every carriage and two restaurant cars that each seat 42. Every meal, the house drinks, the guides and the entrance fees are in the fare.

The Indian Splendour is the classic run. It leaves Delhi Safdarjung, a small suburban station in south Delhi, at 07:30 on a Sunday and reaches Agra at lunchtime. From there it works west into Rajasthan: Ranthambore, Jaipur, then out into the Thar Desert to Bikaner, south to Jodhpur and Udaipur, and finally down to the coast and into Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus in Mumbai at 16:40 the following Saturday. The Heritage of India runs much the same route the other way, from Mumbai to Delhi, and stops at Fatehpur Sikri on its last afternoon.

The other two stay closer to Delhi. The Indian Panorama goes east after Agra, to Orchha, the temples of Khajuraho and Varanasi, where guests take a boat on the Ganges for the evening aarti, and returns to Delhi. The Treasures of India is the short version: Jaipur, Ranthambore and Agra in three nights.

The train

Every carriage is named after a gem. The Deluxe Cabins are in five, Hakik, Firoza, Katela, Beruz and Pitoniya (agate, turquoise, amethyst, aquamarine and bloodstone); the Junior Suites in six, Moti, Panna, Manik, Gomed, Moonga and Pukhraj; the four Suites in Heera and Neelam, diamond and sapphire. The Presidential Suite fills a carriage of its own, Navratana, the nine gems: 448 square feet with two bedrooms and a living room. Meals are taken in two restaurant cars, Mayur Mahal, after the peacock, and Rang Mahal, the palace of colours, under a hand-painted ceiling; drinks in the Safari Bar and the Rajah Club lounge.

Indian Railways supplies the locomotives, diesel or electric according to the line. In the Thar Desert in April 2026, in the photograph at the top of this page, a pair of WDP-4D diesels was at the head.

And the Palace on Wheels

India's first luxury train is older. The Palace on Wheels was launched on 26 January 1982 by Indian Railways and the Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation, with carriages built to recall the private saloons of Rajasthan's princely states, and it still runs a seven-night circuit of Rajasthan and Agra from Delhi. The Maharajas' Express followed in March 2010, and its journeys reach beyond Rajasthan, to Khajuraho, Varanasi and Mumbai.

The train runs one journey at a time, so each of the four leaves about once a month, October to April. Every departure in the table is a Sunday.

Departures, 2026–27

The 2027–28 season is published too, starting with the Indian Panorama on 3 October 2027.

Boarding and arrival

The Indian Splendour, stop by stop

Dates and times are IRCTC's, as of October 2026, and the operator warns that timings can change with the weather; in December and January, fog in northern India can delay the train, so leave time before an onward flight. Check the Maharajas' Express departure dates (opens in a new tab) before booking.

The fare buys the whole journey, per person, sharing a cabin: every meal, soft drinks and the house wines, beer and spirits, a butler, and every excursion on the itinerary with its guide, transport and entrance fees. GST of 5% is added, and premium drinks, laundry, tips and transfers to the station are extra. Travelling alone costs a single supplement, from $6,300 in a Deluxe Cabin on a six-night journey to the full fare again in a Suite.

Book on the Maharajas' Express (opens in a new tab) website or through its agents. Children under five travel free in their parents' double bed, and those from five to twelve pay half. Prices are also quoted in rupees. The fares below are for 2026–27, in US dollars, per person.

No rail pass covers the Maharajas' Express. It is sold only as a whole journey, and Interrail and Eurail are European schemes: India is not among the countries in Interrail's list of covered railway companies. Indian Railways' own pass for foreign visitors, the Indrail Pass, was withdrawn by Railway Board order on 19 September 2017.

A pass would not help here anyway. The fare already includes every meal, the excursions and the guides, and the train cannot be boarded on an ordinary ticket.

Checked October 2026 against Interrail's list of railway companies (opens in a new tab) and the Indrail Pass (opens in a new tab).

Every stop below is part of at least one of the four journeys, and the visit is included in the fare. They run in the order of the Indian Splendour, with Fatehpur Sikri and Khajuraho, from the other routes, at the end.

The operator recommends at least one night in a hotel before and after the train. Check-in at Delhi Safdarjung is at 06:15 or 06:30, so a night in Delhi is close to essential. Guests on the Heritage of India meet at the Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai.

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