Deccan Odyssey India

Carriages in primary colours of red and blue flecked with golden curlicues carry champagne flutes, spas and velvet-soft saloons past India's incredible scenery. The luxurious Deccan Odyssey was launched in 2004 by the state government and Indian Railway to promote tourism in Maharashtra, a forest-rich state in the centre of India's western coast, which is home to Mumbai. Since then, it's become the ultimate in Indian train travel.

Between excursions, landscapes of rural life, villages, people and paddy fields slip past as passengers travel the vast Deccan Plateau, dramatic Western Ghats and coastal Konkan: through rippled mountains and rolling hills, where mists catch like sheep wool on dense, emerald treetops. Sights tumble along, with crumbling ruins and grand edifices, silvery sands and bright, roaring ocean.

The Deccan doesn't have one journey but six, opening up huge swathes of urban and rural India. The Cultural and Heritage Odyssey routes loop from Delhi to take in architectural powerhouses like the Taj Mahal and visit ancient temples and tiger-strewn jungles. The Indian Odyssey and Indian Sojoum travel between Mumbai and Delhi, showing off the best of the north and the west, like Agra, Udaipur, Jaipur and Ranthambore National Park. Finally, Mumbai's two return routes are the Maharashtra Splendour - taking in India's wine capital Nashik, Goa, Kolhapur and Unesco-laden Jalgaon - and the Maharashtra Wild Trail. This is where passengers emerge from air-conditioned comfort to meet the heat and majesty of India's wildlife at Pench National Park and Tadoba tiger reserve.

While all the grit, glory and greenery happens outside, inside it's a five-star fantasy world. Made of 21 Maharajah-inspired carriages, the train includes a gym, lounge-cum-library, Ayurvedic health spa and even a conference hall, and deluxe cabins and presidential suites are decked out with all the expected amenities and 24-hour personal attendants. Two restaurants serve Indian, East Asian and European cuisines, with some menus that change with the regions you pass through, whilse a wealth of international drinks are served in the plush, hushed buzz of its fine bar.

Serra Verde Express Brazil

Emerging from a cloud-dripped tunnel, the Serra Verde Express clings to the cliffside and curves to reveal a vast fertile valley of puffed, pristine green. The Carvalho Viaduct, which sticks resolutely to the sides of Brazil’s Atlantic rainforest, earns wide eyes and gasps from passengers who have only just unfurled bridge, an antique-looking viaduct seemingly made of steel strips, slats and toothpicks that forges a deep ravine.

Brazil has few passenger trains, but the Serra Verde is a world-class trip. The 68km journey begins in architectural gem Curitiba, the 1km-high capital of Paraná state, and ends in the colonial, sea-level town of Morretes. As it snakes through Curitiba countryside, the operatic crags of the Serra Do Mar and ethereal cloud forests of Pico Do Marumbi State Park, merry guides detail not only the scenery but the line’s history. Built in the late 1800s, this single-gauge track was expected to fail – its proposed route seen as almost too brazen in its engineering attempts to tunnel and span dense forest, walls of rock and vertical drops. Yet the extraordinary line was becoming a tourist train in 1997. Today, it plods past tiny 19th-century stations as well as glittering lakes, gushing cascades and white stratus wisps over the deep jungle.

Inside, the train offers laidback camaraderie – with passengers piling from one side to another to catch views – and an informal bar and café. There are three classes of ticket available, but it might be worth swerving the elegant, air-conditioned Litorina Luxury carriage, whose windows stay closed, in favour of one that allows you to breathe the fresh forest air, tinged with the aroma of rain, earth and lush vegetation.

Tazara Railway Tanzania and Zambia

The fact that the Tazara train merely chugs along, a ponderous
pull and bray that never tumbles over 40kmph, is a boon for
wildlife enthusiasts. After all, not many trains come to a chuntering, unexpected stop to convince a pack of lions off the tracks. Built
in the early Seventies, the Tazara railway travels 1,860km from Tanzania’s coastal city of Dar Es Salaam, south-west into Zambia, and ends at Kapiri Mposhi, just short of capital Lusaka. One express passenger train, the Mukuba Express, runs in each direction once
a week, rolling past views of great orange plains, looming green hillsides, towering viaducts and dusty villages – the highlight being the immense Selous Game Reserve, where lucky passengers might see lumbering elephants, the rangy gallop of giraffes, or spot the dance of a lion’s shoulder blades as he stalks the savannah. Selous – one of the largest animal reserves on the planet – also houses zebra, warthog, antelope, buffalo, African wild dog, hippo and the south- central black rhinoceros. Sightings are never guaranteed, but the animals have grown used to the Tazara’s rumble through their home.

Alongside unparalleled safari, passengers marvel at the mirrored spread of the Great Ruaha river, the waterfalls and rainforests of Kilombero Valley and the distant cones of snow-tipped Kipengere and Udzungwa mountains. Innumerable bridges and tunnels culminate in the soaring 50m-high bridge across the Mpanga river. From villages, tea and coffee plantations, children and farmers come through billowing dust to sell cashews, corn and fruits.

It's worth the cost of a first-class ticket, but don't expect luxury - instead, this is a taste of African commuter life, with the restaurant car offering local meals like chicken and manioc, and the roar of brakes and lions as the soundtrack.

California Zephyr USA

You may not have travelled on it, but you’ll have inevitably heard of Amtrak. Shooting through the States courtesy of the famous railroad company feels like a rite of passage to many – and the California Zephyr is one of its most scenic routes. Regularly topping lists of the USA’s best rail journeys, this snub-nosed train travels from the museum-rich, skyscraping streets of easterly Chicago to California’s bayside big-hitter San Francisco. Rumbling through seven states, the 51-hour journey brings some of America’s most remarkable and diverse landscapes up close to the carriage window.

Following Nebraska's rippling golden fields of grain that take over the horizon, the train takes on Colorado’s jaw-dropping Rocky Mountains, pasted with verdant forest and cut through by the thunder and might of the Colorado river. The Zephyr follows the river’s path, running alongside the great blue artery as it bleeds into cantaloupe-coloured cliffs. Colorado mountains also make way for winding, drastic canyons – Byers, Glenwood and Gore – often leading to long pitch tunnels that shoot straight to the heart of the mountains. It’’s an unbeatable array of contrasts: Utah’s cracked arid sandscapes, California’s snow-capped Sierra Nevada, the energy of the rushing Truckee river and the glowing, still blue of Donner lake. Passengers can explore the life and fun of Denver, a vibrant mile-high city, or wildlife spot on the quiet shores of San Pablo Bay. In autumn, the track lights up with yellow aspens and scarlet foliage; in winter, the banks are blanketed in snow.

Covering 3,924km over three days, there’s a range of up- to-date accommodations: coach seats for day-trippers and, for overnight guests, leather-decorated suites, family rooms access and meals. A traditional dining experience focuses on seasonal sit-down menus, complemented by a broad bar selection that brings local wines to your window-lit table.

Coastal Pacific New Zealand

Watching the heavy, graceful arc of a sperm whale’s fanned tail before it cuts back into the water isn’t something often associated with train travel. On the east coast of New Zealand’s South Island, experience. Only a 5hr 20min trip, this 348km trainline running from the northern port town of Picton down to Christchurch packs in an astonishing amount. The route hugs the coastline so close passengers can smell the salt-flecked whip of the Pacific waves. On the other side of the carriage, the Kaikoura mountains erupt skyward, a grand lilac range dusted white. The train lets its passengers sit back and see two dramatic sides of Aotearoa at once.

The train also passes by farmland, remote sand-strewn bays, isolated hinterlands, serpentine rivers and the vineyards of Marlborough and Blenheim. Guests will spot signs of the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake that not only damaged the rail line, but raised seabeds, cracked mountains and created the Elterwater wetlands. The train also slides alongside the incomprehensible Lake Grassmere: a vast salt lagoon that changes from blue to baby pink, sunset orange and claret red come summer.

Fauna is no less spectacular: this is one of the few trains where you can spot seal, albatross, whale and dolphin from the comfort of a carriage. Kaikoura is a sea-life haven, where fur seals loaf along the coastline rocks, dolphins ballet about the sea and the occasional whale tail breaches from the blue. View it all snug inside the lounge, in the glass panoramic viewing car, or breeze-blown in the open-air carriage. Or take it in from the dining room, where New Zealand beef and lamb are served alongside sauvignon blancs and pinot noirs made from the vines just outside the window.