Over sixty years, the Maharaja has grown from a shy character on memo pads in 1946, to probably the most successful and enduring airline mascot of all times. The impact of the Maharajah on public image of Air India can be said never before, never since has an airline crossed the boundaries of aviation and touched so many hearts so warmly. In many ways, the Maharaja is a celebration of both, our world in its diversity and India for its humour and creativity.
India, a huge container of history, cultures, religions, ancient traditions and rich natural biodiversity, whose name conjures to mind the fantastic scenery of the jungles and tigers, temples and deities, forts and monuments, deserts, sacred rivers, palaces and maharajas. Maharaja meaning king is the title that was given to the ancient Indian kings, who were not only a breed apart, but a world apart from all the others.
From when they were born, in fact, were adorned with gold and precious stones, with such money available to satisfy every little desire or imagination and, among other things, over time they began to devote himself to the trains and rail, according to the 'impression of their luxurious life.Relive the glamor of the era of Maharaja on a luxury train of modern design and with an excellent level of service.
Fascinated by everything that moved or flew, the maharajas manifested in many ways their passion for the steam engine and the railroad, leaving a rich history of anecdotes and curiosities the silver model of the ruler of Gwalior who worked on the banquet table to serve drinks and tobacco to the real diners, the toy railroad two miles long, on which the prince Madhav Rao Scindia were playing with their friends around the palace to the private railway station in India with the first gentleman of Jodhpur, in 1880 and the state line built in 1936 by the Maharaja of Indore with the carriages larger, luxurious and richly decorated inside never realized before. It is no coincidence then nor by all whether a luxury train has earned the right to be called Maharajas Express.
Today, the Maharajas Express Train, offers travelers the chance to live the experience of a journey in the time of Maharaja with the comfort and luxury of the ancient kings. Maharajas Express takes you to discover the many and beautiful landscapes of India, the artistic treasures of historic cities, the charm and traditions of peoples by the ancient customs.
Full of splendor to the India of the Maharajas new routes and increased supply for the exclusive Maharajas' Express, India's first luxury train launched by Royale Indian Rail Tours Ltd. After the success of the 4 routes launched earlier this year, continuing from September departures that will allow you to discover the most picturesque locations of North India, enriched by new travel solutions specialize further with the two mini tours Jewel of India and Splendor of India, lasting over a 3 days 2 nights 4 days 3 nights.
The rail tour transport passengers between the picturesque towns such as Agra, Gwalior, Khajuraho and Jaipur the pink city, UNESCO world heritage site known for its Hindu and Jain temples, in an intense taste of the inimitable charm of India. New entry for even the most extensive tour in fact launched the Royal Sojourn itinerary, that in 8 days 7 nights touch Delhi, Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, Ranthambhore, Kota, Bundi and Jaipur, and complement the already proven Princely India, Royal India and Classical India.
Trips that are unique adventure featuring exclusive services, classroom environments from the elegant décor and gastronomy premium on board the prestigious Maharajas' Express, and compared to a traditional ground tours offer all the charm of discovery combined with the comfort of not having to never unpack a suitcase and change hotels.
Born from a joint venture between the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) and Cox and Kings India Ltd. (CKIL), the Maharajas Express has 23 coaches, tv and internet in the cabin, two elegant restaurants, a bar exotic with the best choice of beers, wines and spirits, waiting room with bar, game room, boutique.
Maharajas Express is the prestigious new luxury train that carries his lucky travelers to explore the charm of India in a refined and elegant atmosphere with a magical atmosphere with picturesque routes that enchant the visitor. The experience aboard the Maharajas Express allows you to fully enjoy the trip in India thanks to the comfort and the equipment that makes this train is one of the most prestigious luxury trains despite having started operations only in January 2010. We know better the Maharajas Express and begin to dream about the trip to India aboard a luxury train.
The Maharajas Express offers an excellent standard of accommodation and service that places it at the top of the luxury trains. The train consists of 5 deluxe suites, 6 junior suites, 2 suites and 1 Presidential grand suite all with private facilities. built with the most advanced technological systems, the Maharajas Express offers excellent comfort during the trip. The train consists of 5 deluxe, 6 junior suites, 2 suites and a presidential suite with majestic individual temperature control, electronic safe, LCD television, DVD players, direct dial telephone, internet connection. Each cabin has a bright picture window and private bathroom with shower.
The cabins are equipped with a large viewing window, so you can always offer a good overview of the magnificent surrounding landscapes. Passenger coaches and control the temperature of the environment is also included are individual LCD television, DVD player, direct dial telephone, internet connection, and all the amenities that guarantee a trip to high quality standards. The staff is friendly and competent, accustomed to high-class clientele.
The kitchen is well cared for, the Maharajas Express has two upscale restaurants, which can accommodate about 40 people each. Meals are served in single shift. All drinks including wines and beers are included. are two restaurants, upscale, and the Peacock Restaurant Haveli Restaurant, which can accommodate about 40 people each. Meals are served in single shift. Soft drinks, wine and Indian beer with meals, are included.
On board the Observation lounge with its panoramic bar, game tables and a seating area. Also u n exotic bar with a wide choice of drinks, beers wines spirits and snacks is available to travelers, the drinks are included. On board you will also find a small boutique high-level. The Lounge with its panoramic bar, gaming tables and a relaxation area is the privileged place of encounter for all passengers for tea time, for an informal chat or to start an evening. The bar offers a wide selection of drinks, wines, beers and snacks, liquors. On board is also a small boutique offers items and creations of exquisite workmanship.
It will be used for the various excursions comfortable deluxe coach with great amenities for passengers accommodated in deluxe and junior suite, while for those who book the suite is provided a 'passenger cars with driver while traveling in the Presidential Suite has a private limousine available. Also on board during the various tours are offered coolers for beverages, galoshes and hats, and many small details to make your trip truly special and unique
The Maharajas Express offers four different tours of India all with different starting dates with which to discover through views, suggestions, colors and evidence of the past an amazing country and boundless as the' India, a real continent, from the large, undoubted charm. These luxury train tour in India aboard Maharajas 'Express can be combined with stays and or high level routes on an individual basis we produce according to customers' wishes in order to complete the holiday and make a trip to India on is absolutely personalized.
The excursions planned are made with comfortable deluxe motorcoach passenger cabins Deluxe and Junior Suites, in cars with drivers for passengers in suites and Presidential Suite. During the various trips are planned many small details to make your trip truly comfortable and unique. The train has carried out its maiden voyage in the connecting line between Calcutta and New Delhi. Every effort has been made to ensure adequate services and to minimize the inconvenience. The result seems commendable. Moreover, spending is so important, mediocrity would be too bitter a pill to swallow.
Born agreement between prestigious companies, train, operating since 2010, is really the last news of luxury rail and, thanks to the elegance, sophistication and excellence of its services, has been included among the 25 best luxury trains in the world. The 23 coaches are equipped with every comfort and cutting edge technology that money can buy, and science has to offer. The passengers are accommodated in cabins divided into deluxe suites, junior suite, suite and a presidential suite the most spacious in its class all with large windows to not miss a moment of the magnificent landscapes of India crossed from the Express.
From the big screen television in the last generation direct dial telephone, high speed internet connection and individual temperature control, up to the baths are compatible with the environment: everything is treated in detail. Friendly and highly competent, and speakers including scholars of India that help travelers to learn the history, traditions and culture; two upscale restaurants, a bar and an exotic lounge bar, game tables, leaving the area and boutiques.
Drinks all included in the trip fee and manicured transport services for shore excursions, with coolers for beverages, provision of overshoes and hats when needed and other accessories for a trip worthy of a Maharaja! A real luxury hotel for a scenic tour of 10 and 11 day highly competitive routes offered-that otherwise it would take at least 14 - without the hassle of packing and unpacking suitcases or continuous check-in and check-out
No matter how great your determination to put aside cultural prejudices and healthy habits, because India still manages to amaze you with its vastness, its hype and its complexity. In this country nothing is ever exactly as you expected; you can expect only the unexpected, which accompanies you in every experience. For many travelers, India is a litmus test: some tourists can not wait to get back on the plane and run away, but if you love fathom intricate cosmologies, breathe an atmosphere surcharged with sensuality and if you are endowed with a great capacity to understanding of the absurd, then India is one of the most intricate dramas and more dense with satisfaction that take place on our planet.
Discover the natural and artistic heritage of India with the Taj Mahal, the tigers of Ranthambore Park, Rajasthan and Gujarat the least known. All enriched with unique experiences, such as a polo match with the elephants, reception stations with typical dances and the sound of the fans do, aperitifs, lunches and dinners in the strongholds in the wilderness and with the families of the Maharaja.
India has an ancient past and often opulent. Exclusive train journeys allow you to make convenient, though expensive, look at his history. In 1982 came into operation the Palace on Wheels, pulled by a steam locomotive. The luxurious carriages refurbished, once used by the Maharajas and Viceroys, retain the regal atmosphere of the past. The exterior color of the pearl, the interior lined with Burmese teak, crystal chandeliers and ornate brocades, all give an air of splendor. Sumptuous compartments for the night, dining rooms, living room and library, first-class international cuisine and liveried waiters make you feel truly pampered passengers.
The railway network of India is one of the most largest in the world, providing a comprehensive service throughout the country. Rajdhani Express train connects New Delhi with other important cities of India. The Rajdhani Express trains are faster and offer the service between major cities, while the passenger trains are slower.
The Indian railway system is gigantic. Trains are the main means of transport in India, which has more than one billion inhabitants. In addition to the normal daily movements of the population, the cultural tradition of India provides that the millions of people who live far away from relatives go to visit them often for family events such as births, parties, funerals, weddings or disease.
Every day an average of over 8,350 trains travel about 80,000 kilometers on board more than 12 and a half million passengers. Freight trains carrying 1.3 million tons of products. In total, freight trains and passenger trains travel every day three and half times the distance of Earth and the Moon. Think of the 6,867 stations, 7,500 locomotives, carriages and wagons over 280,000 tracks and a total of nearly 108,000 km long, including the connections, and you'll understand why the Indian Railways must employ about 1.6 million people, the largest workforce any company in the world.
Indian trains can not compete with the high-speed trains in France and Japan. However, with 106 pairs of intercity superfast Indian Railways is possible to make long journeys quickly and comfortably. In terms of comfort and service, the trains Rajdhani and Shatabdi, traveling nearly 160 miles per hour, they compete with air travel. The coaches are air-conditioned and have reclining seats or comfortable bunks. In these trains prestigious meals and snacks, sheets, mineral water and medical care are included in the ticket price.
In 1995, due to a change in the track gauge was built another Palace and the old carriages were put to rest. A new luxury train, the Royal Orient, continues to travel on the old meter gauge tracks in the western states of Gujarat and Rajasthan. The trains travel mainly at night and passengers spend their days visiting tourist spots.
Travelers crossing the vast Thar Desert, with its ancient forts, citadels and temples. You can cross the dunes on a camel or elephant up to the famous Amber Fort. In these parts there is Jaipur, the pink city, rich in history and renowned for its gems and handicrafts. The tour includes nature reserves bird, a tiger reserve and the home of the only Asiatic lions in the wild yet. You must not miss the palace on the lake in Udaipur and, of course, the Taj Mahal! All this and much more is an exciting adventure on the rails.
The oldest locomotive in the world still in operation is the Fairy Queen. Built in 1855 in Leeds, England, in the company of engineers Kitson, Thompson and Hewitson, hauled the mail trains from Howrah station in West Bengal, near Calcutta, in Raniganj . In 1909 he ceased to be used and to the delight of the fans was kept in the National Rail Museum in New Delhi. To celebrate 50 years of India's independence this piece of history has been put into operation. Since 1997, the Fairy Queen Express is back in vogue, taking tourists along the 143 kilometers that separate Delhi from Alwar, Rajasthan.
The Konkan Railway line was the greatest work done in the subcontinent in the twentieth century. However, January 26, 1998, after only seven years of work, a record for such a huge project, the Konkan Railway was opened. The journey from Mumbai to Mangalore was 1127 kilometers shorter than the circuitous route that was made earlier, and the trip lasted less than 26 hours. The Konkan Railway passengers offered new vistas and gorgeous scenery, new and exciting places for tourists to explore millions of people and economic benefits.
Were laid 760 kilometers of rail embankments with heights up to 25 meters and 28 meters deep trenches. They built more than 2,000 bridges, including the Panvalnadi viaduct, the highest in Asia, which extends for 500 meters of the large valley, and the bridge Sharavati, about two kilometers long. It was also necessary to penetrate the mountain ranges so that the rails were as straight as possible, and for that you dug 92 tunnels, six of which are more than three kilometers long. In fact, India's longest tunnel ever is one of them, the gallery Karbude, six and a half kilometers.
Three years after the inauguration of the first train Indian engineers rested track between Karachi and Lahore, in what is now Pakistan. The rubble was not available for the railway embankment, which serves to anchor the rails, but near Harappa some workers discovered burnt bricks. The Scottish engineers John and William Brunton thought that this could be a suitable and inexpensive substitute.
Unearthing the huge deposits of brick were brought to light clay figurines and seals with the characteristics of an unknown script, but that did not interrupt the very important work of building the railroad. On the bricks of Harappa were laid 160 kilometers of rails. Sixty-five years after archaeologists excavated the site of Harappa in a systematic and unearthed the remains of the amazing Indus Valley civilization, which dates back more than 4,000 years ago, contemporary to ancient Mesopotamia.
To escape the heat, the English colonists loved to go to the mountains. The prospect of getting there more quickly led to the construction of a railroad in the mountains with toy trains. Then travel became faster, at least with respect to travel on horseback or in a sedan chair. For example, in southern India the toy train immerse yourself in the Nilgiri mountains, or the Blue Mountains.
Proceeding to an average of 10.4 miles per hour is perhaps the slowest train in India. But what a trip! It is through the plantations of tea and coffee in the mountains, up to Coonoor, at 1,712 meters above sea level. Built in the late nineteenth century, the track ascends a slope of one meter every 12 and has 208 curves and 13 tunnels. Use the system of Abt rack rail is a rail with teeth which will then engage the engine, which pushes the train from behind. These rails are among the oldest and steepest in the world to make use of the rack and tack.
The Darjeeling Himalayan railway line climbs on rails that are just 61 cm apart, with a slope of 22.5 feet each, up to Ghoom, the highest railway station in India, at 2,258 meters above the sea level. The rails have three spiral curves and six zigzag paths. The most famous, the curve Batasia, encouraging passengers to the temptation to jump off the train, climb up the slopes covered with grass and back on the train after the curve. The exciting journey reaches its climax with the view of Kanchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world. In 1999, UNESCO bestowed on this railroad status of world heritage, making its future more secure.
To reach Shimla, which was the summer capital of India during the British rule, at 2,100 meters, the train passes through 102 tunnels and crosses 869 bridges is 919 curves in one is only 95 miles! Through the large windows and the roof of transparent fiberglass you can admire wonderful landscapes. Yes, the "toy trains" are a real hoot. Given, however, that the ticket price remained low, mountain railways are unfortunately at a loss. Rail fans hope that a solution is found to save these fun trains.
By 1900 the rail network in India had become the fifth largest in the world. The steam locomotives, diesel and electric rolling stock and carriages, which previously were all imported, were now produced locally. Some engines were real beasts: locomotives weighing up to 230 tons, 6,000 horsepower electric motors and diesel engines weighing 123 tonnes with a power output of 3,100 horsepower.
In 1862 appeared the first double-decker train. India boasts the longest railway platform in the world, 833 meters, which is located at Kharagpur in West Bengal, while the longer tracks, 304 meters each, are located in Sealdah, Kolkata. The first trains ran on standard gauge rails. Later, he was introduced to save the track meter gauge together with the gauge for the hills. In 1992, the plane took off, ties and so far only about 8,000 kilometers of track have gone from narrow gauge to standard gauge and metric.
The Mumbai suburban trains carry millions of commuters and constantly appear overcrowded. Subway of Calcutta can travel 1.7 million passengers every day. In Chennai (formerly Madras) is the first elevated railway in India. Among the recent innovations are the computerized reservation and doors equipped with computers for information. This giant gives you plenty to do and continues to grow.
In the nineteenth century for the few who could afford to travel first class from the heat and dust were tolerable. In a private car was a comfortable bed, toilet and bath, waiters for the food service that ran from morning tea to dinner, a fan installed on a container of ice to make cool, a barber and books taken from the series of Wheeler's Railway Library, including the more recent novels of the writer Rudyard Kipling, born in India. Louis Rousselet, who was traveling in the 60s of the 1800s, said that he could go through this enormous distance with relatively little effort.
It has been said that the advent of the railway in India has marked the end of an era and the beginning of another and that the railroad has joined as India failed to do since no other program integration. If you want, you can hop on a train to Jammu, in the foothills of the Himalayas, and get off at Kanyakumari, the southernmost tip of India, where the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal meet. You will have traveled more than 3,700 miles, through 12 states and spent about 66 hours by train. You will have met friendly people of different cultures who likes to talk and have seen many things in this fascinating country.
Make reservations and bon voyage!