Luxury train Deccan Odyssey relaunched in stylish new avatar

Ismat Tahseen

Movies and books have always shared an old romance with train journeys. Remember the scenes from Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest or even Before Sunrise, the first instalment in the iconic Before trilogy where Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Céline (Julie Delpy) first meet on a Eurail train and wind up spending an evening together in Vienna? Such trips holds a sense of promise, possibility and adventure, all in one, even more so when it is a luxury train, with stylish interiors, from where you sit and watch panoramic views fly past, perhaps get in a  workout or two or even some me-time at the spa, all on your journey!

No wonder then that this kind of travel ranks high on people’s lists. And fitting in perfectly with the year-end comes the launch of the revamped Deccan Odyssey. It has made a comeback on tracks after four years in a refurbished, 2.0 avatar, offering all this and more!

State-of-the art

With the revamp, the train has a whole new look with has 21 coaches with four gorgeous deluxe cabins in each and two presidential suites in the other coaches as well as gourmet dining, conference room and a health spa, in addition to state-of-the-art amenities – Wi-Fi facilities, special wooden flooring, fireproof curtains and a new fire-fighting system. The refurbished train will run on six routes including to new places outside Maharashtra like Delhi and Varanasi, Gujarat, Rajasthan, MP, UP and West Bengal. A travel experience on the train gives a taste of erstwhile royalty with each of the train’s coaches inspired by a different royal era of Maharashtra. As per reports, the train’s first trip will be a journey from Mumbai to Delhi (over seven nights and eight days) with stops at Vadodara, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Agra, and Sawai Madhopur.

A cool INR 6.5 lakh!
If you’re wondering how much this will cost, it’s reportedly quite a tidy sum – INR 6.5 lakh per person, and INR 9 lakh for a couple, say officials.

The train is one of India’s five luxury trains – the others being Palace on Wheels, Golden Chariot, Royal Rajasthan On Wheels and the Maharajas Express. It has bagged the title of Asia’s Leading Luxury Train at the World Travel Awards in 2010–2012, 2014, and 2015–2019.

This year end, how about climbing aboard to enjoy some of the opulence?