There are trips you plan for months using flights, hotels, itineraries, and Google Maps saved folders. And then there are train journeys in India, where the plan quietly dissolves the moment the wheels start moving. Because trains here don’t just take you somewhere, they show you things. India does scenic rail travel like very few countries can, partly because the landscapes are absurdly diverse, and partly because trains still pass through the kind of in-between worlds that highways skip entirely. So if you’re craving journeys where the window becomes the main event, here are ten of the most stunning ones, counted down from 10 to 1.
Which Are The Most Beautiful Train Journeys In India?
10. Mumbai To Pune Vistadome
This train journey is short, yes, but it doesn’t waste a second. The Vistadome coach feels like a moving glass balcony with wide windows, a transparent roof, and the kind of views that make you forget you’re barely a few hours away from Mumbai’s chaos. Once the train starts climbing into the Western Ghats, the scenery flips as the city fades, hills arrive, and mist hangs low in the mornings, and during the monsoon, everything outside looks freshly washed.
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9. Mandovi Express: Mumbai To Goa
Goa trips usually begin at the beach, but this one begins somewhere between a coconut grove and a sudden glimpse of the sea. The Mandovi Express cuts through the Konkan belt like it’s following a secret coastal map; it is thick greenery, with rivers shining in the sun, tiny villages with tiled roofs, and that salty air that somehow sneaks into the compartment. In the rains, it becomes dramatic in the best way as waterfalls spilling down cliffs beside the tracks, everything outside glowing neon green. You arrive in Goa already feeling like you’ve been somewhere.
8. Nilgiri Mountain Railway: Mettupalayam To Ooty
This isn’t just a train ride, it’s a time machine. The Nilgiri Mountain Railway climbs slowly from the plains into the Blue Mountains, and it does it with an old-school steam engine that hisses, chugs, and sounds like it belongs in another century. The route is packed with the visual magic of tea gardens, eucalyptus forests, waterfalls, tunnels, and bridges that look impossibly placed. By the time you reach Ooty, the air is cooler, the world smells like pine and tea leaves, and the whole journey feels strangely cinematic.
7. Kangra Valley Railway
Not every beautiful train journey is famous. The Kangra Valley Railway is one of those underrated gems. This narrow-gauge train moves gently through Himachal’s softer landscapes, with terraced fields, river bends, mustard patches, and small stations where locals wave like it’s still 1995. And then, always in the background, the Dhauladhar range sits there, snow-dusted and unreal, like a painting someone forgot to take down. It’s peaceful and almost meditative.
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6. Kalka To Shimla
This is the train journey that feels like a childhood memory, even if you’ve never done it before. The Kalka-Shimla toy train climbs through pine forests, curls around hillsides, dives into tunnels, and pops out into sudden valley views that make people go quiet for a second. It’s also a ridiculous engineering flex with over 100 tunnels, hundreds of bridges, and a steady climb into Shimla’s crisp mountain air. Winter adds extra charm with snow in patches, chai at tiny stations, the whole ride feeling like a slow-moving postcard.
5. Ooty To Coonoor
If the full Nilgiri route is a novel, this section is the best chapter. The Ooty-Coonoor stretch is short but visually stacked with tea estates rolling like green waves, clouds drifting so low they seem to touch the tracks, and tiny hillside homes appearing and disappearing around bends. Every few minutes, someone leans out for a photo.
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4. Konkan Railway: Ratnagiri To Madgaon
Konkan Railway in the rain is not scenery, it’s more like a theatre. This route runs through forests, over thousands of bridges, through tunnels, beside rivers, and under hills that look like they’ve been painted too green to be real. During the monsoon, waterfalls just… happen right next to you. It’s one of India’s greatest rail achievements, but honestly, it’s also one of its greatest travel pleasures.
3. Darjeeling Himalayan Railway
The Darjeeling toy train is iconic for a reason. It winds through tea plantations, loops around hillsides at the famous Batasia Loop, and climbs slowly into that cool and misty Darjeeling atmosphere. On clear mornings, Kanchenjunga shows up in the distance; it looks massive, silent, and yeah, unforgettable too. The whistle is sharp, the pace is unhurried, and everything about it feels charmingly old-world, like the hills are letting you enter gently.
2. Jammu To Baramulla
This journey feels unreal in parts. The Kashmir Valley railway cuts through wide green stretches, rivers that reflect the sky like mirrors, and mountain backdrops that don’t look like they belong in the same country as the plains. In winter, snow transforms the landscape completely and in summer, the valley looks impossibly fresh, and there’s something absolutely serene about it.
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1. Mumbai To Goa Coastal Vistadome
If one train journey captures India’s scenic range in a single ride, it’s this. The Mumbai-Goa route along the Konkan coast is already legendary. Add Vistadome-style panoramic coaches, and it becomes something else entirely. Sea glimpses on one side and forested hills on the other. Rivers crossed on high bridges, and Monsoon waterfalls tumbling down like the landscape can’t hold them back. This is not a journey you “get through,” this is one you sit with.
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Flights shrink distances, highways blur landscapes, but trains don’t. Trains let you see the in-between India, the parts that don’t make it into postcards but end up being the most beautiful. Some journeys are destinations, these are stories on tracks.
Cover Image Courtesy: kamiyajani/instagram and nandakalajna_photography/instagram
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