Four trains work these routes, and each one is really a small hotel on a bogie: a cabin with a made bed and a bathroom, two dining cars, a bar, a lounge with the windows down the length of it. You board in Delhi or Mumbai or Bengaluru, and every morning the train has already done the driving.

What differs is the map. The Maharajas' Express takes Rajasthan, Agra and the Ganges, and is the only one that runs the Mumbai line as well. Palace on Wheels does the classic Rajasthan week out of Delhi. The Golden Chariot heads south into Karnataka, Goa and Tamil Nadu. The Deccan Odyssey runs six different weeks out of Maharashtra, from the Ellora caves to the tigers at Tadoba.