6 stops over 8 days

Bengaluru
Hampi
Badami
Goa
Mysuru
Srirangapatna

Hampi’s stone chariot and the ruined Vittala bazaar
Badami’s rock-cut caves above a green tank
Pattadakal and Aihole, Chalukyan temples almost to yourself
Old Goa’s basilicas, then an afternoon at Sinquerim
Ranganathittu boats among painted storks and marsh crocodiles

Day by day

What actually happens

Length: 8 days
Stops: 6
Pace: Balanced
From: ₹5,05,000

1D

Bengaluru

Arrive in Bengaluru

You land at Kempegowda International, an hour north of the city, and are met on the concourse. The hotel is in the old cantonment. Afternoon free, for Cubbon Park and the State Archaeology Museum, or Blossom Book House on Church Street, which runs to four floors of secondhand stock. Dinner at the hotel; the train boards tomorrow.

Night: ITC Windsor, Bengaluru
2B L D

Bengaluru

Lalbagh, then aboard at Yeshwantpur

Lalbagh’s glasshouse at eight, before the heat and after the walkers have gone, then Bangalore Palace, a Tudor pastiche the Wadiyars still own. Lunch, then Yeshwantpur station at two, where a nadaswaram band plays you aboard. Tea in the Madira bar; dinner in Ruchi, akki roti and Coorg pandi curry; the train runs north overnight to Hospet.

Night: Overnight on board
3B L D

Hampi

Hampi among the boulders

Hospet at dawn, Hampi by seven. Virupaksha is a working temple, so there is a queue of pilgrims and an elephant called Lakshmi being bathed in the river. The Vittala complex after: the stone chariot, the musical pillars, the ruined bazaar street running east. Coracle across the Tungabhadra, and sunset from Hemakuta hill over an ocean of granite.

Night: Overnight on board
4B L D

Badami

Badami, Pattadakal, Aihole

Three sites, seventh century, and almost nobody at any of them. Badami’s four caves are cut into red sandstone above a green tank; Cave One has an eighteen-armed Nataraja. Pattadakal next, where northern and southern temple styles stand in the same compound and argue. Aihole if the light holds. Overnight the train turns west for the coast.

Night: Overnight on board
5B L D

Goa

Old Goa and Sinquerim

Old Goa in the morning, while it is still cool: the Basilica of Bom Jesus and Francis Xavier’s silver casket, then Se Cathedral and the bell they call the Golden Bell. Panjim’s Fontainhas after, ochre and blue houses, azulejo house numbers. Afternoon free at Sinquerim, below the Aguada walls. Dinner ashore, kingfish rechado and prawn balchao.

Night: Overnight on board
6B L D

Mysuru

Mysuru: palace and market

Down the Konkan and inland overnight. Amba Vilas Palace opens at ten; the Durbar Hall’s stained glass came from Glasgow, the doors from Birmingham, and none of it is restrained. Devaraja Market for jasmine strung by the metre, sandalwood and pyramids of kumkum. Chamundi Hill late in the afternoon, and the Nandi bull cut from one black boulder.

Night: Overnight on board
7B L D

Srirangapatna

Srirangapatna and Ranganathittu

Twenty minutes from Mysuru, Tipu Sultan’s island capital. Daria Daulat Bagh’s teak walls are painted floor to ceiling with the rout of Colonel Baillie at Pollilur; the Gumbaz holds Tipu himself. Then boats at Ranganathittu among painted storks, river terns and a marsh crocodile on every rock. Back aboard by four for the farewell dinner and the run to Bengaluru.

Night: Overnight on board
8B

Bengaluru

Bengaluru, and departure

The Golden Chariot comes into Yeshwantpur soon after breakfast and that is the end of it. Bags to the car, and a day-use room at the Taj West End under its rain trees until your flight. Most departures for Europe leave late in the evening, which leaves time for lunch and a last filter coffee. Transfer to the airport.

Night: Day use room, Taj West End, Bengaluru