Discover India by rail and steam

Travelling through India by train must surely rank as one of life’s most memorable experiences. Apart from the sheer assault on the senses of its unfamiliar array of sights and sounds, this intoxicating country is also home to some of the world’s most fascinating - and historic – railway experiences, many of which can be enjoyed on an escorted itinerary with specialist tour operator, Ffestiniog Travel.

New for 2015, Great Little Trains of India is a 20-day tour that offers seasoned travellers to India the chance to ride the country’s last three remaining 2 ft. gauge railways: the Neral to Matheran line near Mumbai, the Scindia State Railway at Gwalior and the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. Created with train connoisseurs in mind, the itinerary also features a day-time journey down the Konkan Railway (the ‘railway that the British never built’) along the Arabian Sea coast to Goa and the unusual opportunity to ride up two of the ‘Ghat Sections’ of lines, promising spectacular scenery and unique operating systems in equal measure. Led by Ffestiniog Travel’s India expert – who has escorted the majority of the company’s India tours since it first introduced the destination in 2000 - the tour promises superb sightseeing, too, with Mumbai, Goa, Hyderabad, Gwalior, Darjeeling and the Himalayas all on the tick list.

Departing 10 January 2015, the price of £4,350 pp (two sharing) includes flights (London), B&B, all rail journeys and steam charter trains, meals, transfers and excursions as per the itinerary, and the services of a tour leader from London and throughout the tour.

An established favourite with Ffestiniog Travel clients, Indian Hill Railways is an annual trip visiting the three Hill Station railways of the Kalka Shimla Railway, the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway and the Nilgiri Rack Railway. Slightly revised from previous years’ itineraries, the 2015 edition of this tour now includes a journey on the Rajdhani Express between Delhi and New Jalpaiguri, as well as popular highlights such as a visit to the Golden Temple of Amristar, city sightseeing in Delhi and Agra’s iconic temple to love, the Taj Mahal.

Departing 15 February 2015, the price of £4,550 pp (two sharing) includes flights (London), B&B, all rail journeys and steam charter trains, meals, transfers and excursions as per the itinerary, and the services of a tour leader from London and throughout the tour.

Both of these India tours will feature in Ffestiniog Travel’s 2015 escorted tours brochure, out in August, alongside new itineraries to destinations as diverse as India and rural Romania. For a preview, please click here.

For further information, visit ffestiniogtravel.com.

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