Steam without speed in India

As it climbs from the arid plains of Tamil Nadu into the cool forests around the Victorian hill station of Ootacamund, India's Blue Mountain Railway transports you into another age, says Julia Hollander in the Sunday Telegraph. The British took 50 years to build it, completing work in 1899 – and little about it has changed since then. The same steam engines are still in use, so light they are ideal for negotiating the vertiginous track, the steepest in India. Accordingly, the 6,000ft ascent still takes nearly five hours, although it is only 28 miles long. Few passengers seem to mind, so "stupendous" are the views. "Ooty" itself is also wonderfully preserved, its charming English cottage gardens interspersed with just the occasional "startling" coconut palm.
Cox and Kings (0207 873 5000) offers a 15-night tour of India including Ooty from £2,695pp. ·