Getting around

By train

Since 2019, Indian Railways (indianrailways. gov.in) has been rolling out smart new Vande Bharat Express trains which have large windows, airconditioning, at-seat service and Wi-Fi. Daily services now operate on 34 routes countrywide and more are planned, including an express to Kashmir. Journey times are greatly reduced on some routes: the Delhi to Varanasi express now takes just eight hours, down from 13.

By air Another infrastructure hit is Goa’s new airport, Mopa International (miagoaairport. com) in north Goa, which opened fully earlier this year. It will become the main gateway to the state and TUI has already transferred its UK flights there. More airlines will follow in 2024 and Vistara (airvistara. com) and IndiGo ( goindigo.in) currently offer a good choice of domestic flights.

By car

Bear in mind that nobody goes anywhere fast on India’s roads (despite new dual carriageways, vehicles rarely average more than 40mph to allow for emergency stops for stray cows and heedless pedestrians), so if you are being driven anywhere, a mellow approach is essential.

Who to book with British tour operators to India can often tailor itineraries to suit your interests using comfortable chauffeured cars to get around. But if you’re a confident traveller, you can make considerable savings by using an Indian travel agent to book ground transport and hotel reservations. Two long-established Delhi-based companies operating countrywide are Bridging Journeys (bridgingjourneys. com), which has a good knowledge of heritage properties all over northern India in all price brackets, and Banyan Tours (banyantours.com) which works mostly at the luxury end of the market.