Let’s talk…about an India odyssey
FROM private trains to pop-art and the best places for romance, NEIL SIMPSON reveals how you can explore the world from home.
CLIMB aboard the brightly coloured Deccan Odyssey train for a coast-to-coast tour across northern India. And as you pass through Rajasthan to see the Amber Fort in the pink city of Jaipur, the foothills of the Himalayas and the Taj Mahal, you’re normally entertained by an array of expert guest lecturers.
This year the private train is spending lockdown in the sidings, but the lecturers are going online to share their expertise. The talks come courtesy of Golden Eagle Luxury Trains, which also offers exclusive train charters across Europe, Russia and China. You’ll find the schedule of talks at goldeneagleluxurytrains.com/news.
Other experts are ready to open the virtual doors of the world’s best galleries.
London’s Tate Modern had to close its blockbuster exhibition of Andy Warhol’s work, but at tate.
org.uk its curators walk through the gallery and explain the significance of his Campbell’s Soup Cans and other works. In the artist’s home city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, staff at The Andy Warhol Museum take a more hands-on approach. Go to warhol.org/lessons to see how to use collage to create a pop art self-portrait.
Some 640 kilometres east of Pittsburgh, Warhol’s adopted home of New York comes second on the list of 20 romantic virtual date destinations put together by vintage jeweller Est1897. First is the Greek island of Santorini.
Read the travel tips by clicking on Blog at est1897.co.uk and find out how to get behind the scenes in the Colosseum in Rome, take a panoramic tour of Rio de Janeiro or cross the water for a drone’s-eye view of Mont SaintMichel in Normandy.
A host of other images from around the world are in the glossy hardback Remarkable Golf
Courses by Iain Spragg, which proves to be an unlikely sporting travelogue. Flick through the pages to be transported from the world’s highest course in La Paz, Bolivia, to the lowest in Death Valley, California.
Go to the Ultra Luxury section of Abercrombie & Kent’s website and enter a world of private islands, yachts and jets.
Get in the mood for a 25-night Around The World By Private Jet tour in a specially chartered Boeing 757 – although if you need to ask the price, you probably can’t afford it. Dream on at abercrombiekent.co.uk.