Ranked, with the working shown
The best train tours in India
27 hotel-based trips in India had enough verified data to score; hostel and self-guided rail-pass trips are not ranked here. The ranking below is fully mechanical; here is exactly how it works:
- Eligibility: only hotel-based tours are ranked. Trips built around hostels or self-arranged accommodation are left out, since these guides recommend hotel-inclusive tours for the general traveller.
- Rail share (35%): the percent of the trip actually on trains, from the itinerary.
- Value (20%): price per day against the other hotel-based trips on this page (cheaper per day scores higher).
- Data completeness (25%): full day-by-day itinerary, imagery, inclusions, and verified price.
- Departure breadth (20%): how many months the operator publishes departures for.
Sacred sites and Himalayan foothills across Northern India by rail
- Rail share
- 65
- Value
- 100
- Completeness
- 100
- Departures
- 100
15 days · from $2,446 ($163/day)
14-day India tour: Delhi, Shimla Toy Train, Taj Mahal, tiger safaris, Jaipur
- Rail share
- 30
- Value
- 89
- Completeness
- 100
- Departures
- 100
14 days · from $3,751 ($268/day)
Escorted 10-day tour of Delhi, Agra, Rajasthan with tiger safaris and rail travel
- Rail share
- 25
- Value
- 93
- Completeness
- 100
- Departures
- 100
10 days · from $2,545 ($255/day)
Luxury train loop through Rajasthan, Taj Mahal, and Varanasi from Delhi
- Rail share
- 75
- Value
- 4
- Completeness
- 100
- Departures
- 75
9 days · from $11,556 ($1,284/day)
17-day escorted tour through southern India by rail, coach and houseboat
- Rail share
- 20
- Value
- 96
- Completeness
- 100
- Departures
- 75
17 days · from $4,287 ($252/day)
Luxury train journey through India: Delhi, Shimla, Amritsar, Jaipur, Agra, Varanasi
- Rail share
- 45
- Value
- 33
- Completeness
- 100
- Departures
- 88
16 days · from $13,399 ($837/day)
17-day journey across India by rail from Kolkata to Delhi with private guides
- Rail share
- 65
- Value
- 81
- Completeness
- 100
- Departures
- 0
17 days · from $4,817 ($283/day)
Ten-day luxury train through Rajasthan's forts, palaces, and wildlife on Palace on Wheels
- Rail share
- 85
- Value
- 44
- Completeness
- 100
- Departures
- 0
10 days · from $7,270 ($727/day)
Luxury rail odyssey from Delhi through Shimla, Rajasthan, Agra, and Varanasi
- Rail share
- 65
- Value
- 37
- Completeness
- 85
- Departures
- 50
15 days · from $11,785 ($786/day)
Fifteen-day luxury train journey across India from Mumbai to Kolkata on the Deccan Odyssey
- Rail share
- 75
- Value
- 26
- Completeness
- 100
- Departures
- 13
15 days · from $13,572 ($905/day)