orientrailjourneys
Traveller
0 comments
Posted 1 month ago
Hey fellow travelers!
I’m planning a luxury trip to India later this year, and I’ve been reading up on the Maharajas’ Express. It looks like an absolutely incredible way to explore the country — super royal and full of amazing destinations.
https://www.orientrailjourneys.com/maharajas-express/routemap
But I noticed there are several different routes offered, and I’m a bit confused about which one to choose. Here’s what I’ve found so far (please correct me if I’m wrong or if there’s an updated route list!
Maharajas’ Express Routes (2025-2026)
The Heritage of India (7 Nights / 8 Days)
Route: Mumbai – Udaipur – Jodhpur – Bikaner – Jaipur – Ranthambore – Agra – Delhi
Highlights: Palaces, forts, tiger safari in Ranthambore, Taj Mahal
The Indian Panorama (7 Nights / 8 Days)
Route: Delhi – Jaipur – Ranthambore – Fatehpur Sikri – Agra – Gwalior – Orchha – Khajuraho – Varanasi – Lucknow – Delhi
Highlights: Spiritual Varanasi, erotic temples of Khajuraho, Mughal & Rajput heritage
The Indian Splendour (7 Nights / 8 Days)
Route: Delhi – Agra – Ranthambore – Jaipur – Bikaner – Jodhpur – Udaipur – Mumbai
Highlights: Taj Mahal, desert cities, safaris, luxury palaces
Treasures of India (3 Nights / 4 Days)
Route: Delhi – Agra – Ranthambore – Jaipur – Delhi
Highlights: Short and sweet – ideal if you’re short on time
Which Route Is Best?
I’m interested in a mix of history, nature, and cultural experiences. I'm leaning towards The Heritage of India or The Indian Splendour. But I’d love to hear from anyone who’s actually done one of these journeys:
Which route did you choose and why?
Was it worth the price?
How much sightseeing time did you actually get off the train?
Any must-do activities at the stops?
Also, if you’ve done the Treasures of India short trip — was it too rushed or just right?
MisterSteve
Traveller
1135 comments
Nobody on this forum knows anything about Indian public trasnport, and even less about specialist tourist attractions like what is being romoted here.
But I do know a bit about the spammers that try it on. Problems with this post are:
After the happy greeting the first paragraph does not fit a simple query, it's too enthusiastic about something which apparently still needs explaining.
The rest is too detailed for a simple query, it's just an attempt to get the details published.
And the biggest giveaway is that this person has for some reason chosen a User name which is the same as the company being promoted. Which suggest to me that neither can be trusted.
I wonder if this is connected with the other indian travel spammer from earlier this week who made the mistake of using her real name as a User name?
nltrainer
Traveller
1467 comments
Hmm-have been there-long ago, and did it as about always on my own-with at that ime the help of guidebooks-that famous Lonely Planet- bekpek on the low-budget way. So did experience the always late railways in a sleeper and a very small bite of what India has to offer-with loads of experience to compare-how it CAN be done-in ASEAN. It was not that appelaing-for me- to come back since.
To or .jo: the not that nice but more honest answer is that you have landed (againa mr google?) on the wrong forum for this. Go to a well known and full of own experience forum for unknown with it tourists like TripAdvisor- use the search first,, I bet there will be some reports of people having done it-at least some of parts/places.IF you post there, also ask what the main group of users will be- if these are also Indians-or migrants from there to come back to home-country-think again.
My own advice/tip would be to include at least Varanasi and Agra, IMHO the best/most interesting of all those cities-besides the big ends, Delhi/Mumbai- to get a ´protected´ glimpse of what India is. Its not a country that will appeal to anyone. But things change-and that may also be the case for this.
MisterSteve
Traveller
1135 comments
NLtrainer - pay better attention. This was not a question about traveling in India, it was a spam ad for the company. And second of this sort this week.