Himalayas Tour By Train with Amritsar [Golden Temple] & Shimla Toy Train Tour -10 Days

Red Fort → Qutub Minar → Jama Masjid → Humayun's Tomb → Chandni Chowk → India Gate

Delhi's Mughal architecture anchors the morning - the Red Fort (drive-past), Qutub Minar and Jama Masjid - before Humayun's Tomb, the building that directly inspired the Taj Mahal. Old Delhi's Chandni Chowk delivers the city's street food at its most chaotic and best, and an evening ice cream at India Gate closes a genuinely full day of Delhi sightseeing.

TTI Insider ; At Humayun's Tomb, walk to the rear garden instead of stopping at the entrance. The tomb rises against open sky with no one between you and it - the empty view most guests never find.

Morning train → First sight of the Harmandir Sahib

The train to Amritsar carries this Himalayan train tour into Punjab, the sacred heart of the Sikh religion. The Golden Temple's dome, plated with over 700kg of gold, reflects on the Pool of Nectar surrounding it - a sight most guests say outlasts every other memory of North India.

Shoes off, heads covered, feet washed, as is respectful custom at any active place of Sikh worship.

TTI Insider: Arrive after 8pm on this first evening, and come without your camera. The gold dome reflecting on the water, with kirtan playing continuously - guests who simply look, rather than photograph, consistently call this the moment they remember most from the whole trip.

Jallianwala Bagh → Golden Temple → Attari-Wagah Border ceremony

Jallianwala Bagh opens the day with one of India's most difficult histories - the 1919 massacre of unarmed civilians, still marked in the walls. A deeper visit to the Golden Temple follows, including the langar kitchen that feeds 100,000 people daily, free, regardless of faith.

Evening brings the Attari-Wagah Border ceremony, a theatrical display of parade and patriotism between two nations.

TTI Insider: The bullet marks at Jallianwala Bagh have never been plastered over or repaired. Guides say very little standing in front of that wall. It doesn't need commentary — it says everything on its own.

Scenic drive (6-7 hrs) → McLeodganj orientation walk or Norbulingka Institute

A long, scenic drive carries this Himalayan train tour from Punjab's plains into Himachal Pradesh's hills, ending in McLeodganj - seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile and home to the Dalai Lama.
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An orientation walk through town, or a visit to the Norbulingka Institute's Tibetan craft workshops, settles the group into this genuinely different corner of India.

TTI Insider ; Ask to see the Tibetan Library of Works and Archives - over 80,000 manuscripts rescued during the 1959 exodus, when 80,000 Tibetans crossed the Himalayas on foot. Ask the librarians which texts exist nowhere else on Earth; they'll tell you, quietly.

Free day - Kangra Art Museum or Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts

Dharamshala's second day is left open - the Kangra Art Museum in Kotwali Bazaar for local artistry, or a Lhamo folk opera performance at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts. Either way, this hill town offers something for cultural curiosity and mountain calm alike, well away from any usual tourist throng.

TTI Insider : Walk the circumambulation path around the Tsuglagkhang complex at dawn - the same path the Dalai Lama walks each morning. Monks and elderly Tibetans move clockwise in complete quiet, prayer wheels lining the wall, the Dhauladhar range visible on clear mornings.

Long scenic drive into the British Raj summer capital

Today's drive climbs deeper into the Himalayas, Dharamshala's Tibetan hills giving way to the forested ridgelines that lead toward Shimla, the British Raj's former summer capital. It's a long day on the road, but the ascent itself is the point - valleys opening up at every turn before the evening arrives at leisure in Shimla.

TTI Insider ; Ask about a stop in Mandi along the way - nicknamed "Chhoti Kashi," Little Varanasi, for the sheer density of ancient temples lining the Beas river. A worthwhile break most itineraries drive straight past.

The Ridge → The Mall → Viceregal Lodge

Shimla's colonial character shows plainly on an orientation walk along The Ridge and The Mall, past neo-Gothic and Tudorbethan buildings built for a British empire's summer retreat.

The Viceregal Lodge - once the Viceroy's residence - is worth the visit for guests interested in the deeper weight of this hill station's history, not just its colonial charm.

TTI Insider: The Viceregal Lodge library is where Mountbatten, Nehru and Jinnah sat in the summer of 1947 and drew the lines that partitioned the subcontinent. The room is preserved almost exactly as it was - the most historically charged space on this entire tour.

UNESCO Kalka-Shimla Railway → Shatabdi Express, Dinner on board

The Shimla Toy Train, UNESCO World Heritage-listed since 2008, descends through 102 tunnels and over 800 bridges on a narrow-gauge line built between 1898 and 1903 - still running at the same unhurried pace it always has.
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At Kalka, transfer to the Shatabdi Express for the remaining leg to Delhi, dinner included on board, before a final night's rest in the capital.

TTI Insider:  Shimla Toy Train
Keep watch on the left-hand side descending from Shimla to Kandaghat - the valley drops away completely, views wide open through the forest. Seat allocation is set by Indian Railways and can't be guaranteed, so it's worth simply swapping seats with a fellow traveller for that stretch if it works out that way. Nothing about this railway has been modernised. That's exactly the point.

Leisure morning → Airport transfer → Tour Ends

A final free day in Delhi for last-minute shopping or simply reflecting on ten days that carried this Himalayan train tour from the Golden Temple's gold dome to a UNESCO railway threading 800 mountain bridges. The airport transfer closes the trip in due course, though most guests say Amritsar and Dharamshala stay with them longest.

TTI Insider : Keep the morning unhurried rather than cramming in one more sight — guests consistently say the quiet final morning, not the last monument, is what they remember most fondly about the trip home.

​​​​​​​Not sure which rail tour is right for you? Read our complete India train travel guide first.