A 70-day bus journey from London to Delhi will take in Moscow, Prague and even the Great Wall of China in an incredible new £15,000 excursion across 18 countries.
The ‘Bus to London’ is the first ever ‘hop on, hop off’ service between India and England and will accommodate 20 passengers on the 12,000 mile grand tour.
Passengers will be able to choose whether they want to take the entire journey, or one of the four legs (South East Asia, China, Central Asia, Europe), and they can choose to start in Delhi or London.
The cost includes all hotels, all visas, an experienced English-speaking guide in each location, local cuisine, as well as a fully stocked snack and drinks bar on-board the coach which is fitted with Business Class seats, including WiFi and TVs.
Starting in Delhi, passengers will first arrive in Myanmar where they will spend a week, taking in the ancient city of Bagan, filled with thousands of temples and pagodas, and the Buddhist pilgrimage site, the Golden Rock.
The luxury bus is the first ever ‘hop on, hop off’ service between India and England and will accommodate 20 passengers on the 12,000 mile grand tour
UNITED KINGDOM: A double-decker bus drives over Tower Bridge in London. Passenger stating in Delhi will take the ferry from Belgium across the English Channel and arrive in Britain on Day 68 of their grand tour
INDIA and RUSSIA: People gather near India Gate on the occasion of the country’s 74th Independence Day in New Delhi (left) and the Cathedral of Saint Basil on the Red Square, Moscow
CHINA: panoramic view of the Great Wall built by ancient Chinese states to protect their territory from nomadic tribes and stretching across the north of China over the course of 5,600 miles, with the total length of 13,000 miles taking into account all of its branches
UZBEKISTAN: Registan Square in the city of Samarkand. Believed to have been inhabited continuously since the 8th or 7th century BC, Samarkand was conquered by Alexander the Great, later falling to Iranian and Turkic rulers, before it was seized again by Genghis Khan of the Mongols in 1200.
CHINA: Panda Xing Er eating bamboo leaves at Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Chengdu
The following week will be spent in Thailand, with the coach driving through Bangkok and Laos before entering China.
Day 15 to Day 34 will be spent in the colossal country, where of course tourists will walk the Great Wall, as well as gaze at the Giant Buddha of Leshan, touch the sands of the Gobi Desert, visit pandas in Chengdu and venture into the Magao Caves.
The third leg of the journey drives through the vast plains of central Asia, first into the former Soviet enclave of Kyrgyzstan, exploring the markets of Bishkek, before following the Silk Road into one of the oldest cities in the world, Samarkand in Uzbekistan.
Believed to have been inhabited continuously since the 8th or 7th century BC, Samarkand was conquered by Alexander the Great, later falling to Iranian and Turkic rulers, before it was seized again by Genghis Khan of the Mongols in 1200.
It is one of the greatest cultural crossroads known to mankind.
The luxury coach will arrive at the Kazakh Steppe on Day 46, the 1,300 mile flat grasslands which lie south of the Urals – the traditional dividing line between Europe and Asia.
Their bus will hook around the Caspian Sea and head northeast into Russia, arriving in Volgograd on Day 50, the site of the Second World War’s Battle of Stalingrad which is celebrated by a huge statue, The Motherland Calls.
Moscow is three days later, rich with modern history of the Russian Revolution and the Cold War, where the Red Square and the Kremlin will be taken in by the tourists..
Leg four starts on Day 55, and takes the passengers across Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany and Belgium before they will board a ferry over the English Channel for the final leg of the journey into London.
Bus to London has been founded by Guinness World Record Holders Sanjay Madan and Tushar Agarwal, who have already gained experience with their globe-trotting Adventures Overland tours.
The tour has been dreamed up for passengers who want to take a big road trip without the driving, so with that in mind, the organisers have made comfort a number one priority
The coach is fitted with luxurious Business Class seats, with two seats per row to maximise space for each passenger
The seats are fitted with TVs, tray tables and there are also numerous charging ports and on-board WiFi for those who rely on their tech
Founded in 2012, Adventures Overland tourists are personally led by Mr Madan and Mr Agarwal across continents full of exotic landscapes and harsh terrain.
They have taken passengers from as young as five to over 70-years-old, on their self-driving tours.
They have already made the colossal drive from Delhi to London in convoys of up to 15 SUVs for the last three years, leading around 30 participants.
Mr Agarwal said the idea for the bus journey was originally inspired by a road trip he made to London in 2010.
‘It is an absolutely fantastic journey,’ he told CNN. ‘There are a lot of people, travellers, who want to experience these overland journeys, but they don’t want to drive.
‘So, we came up with the idea of putting together a bus in which people can sit comfortably and go on long distance journeys. And that’s how the idea of the Bus to London was born.’
LAOS: A slow boat cruise on the Mekong River in Laos
CHINA: The Magao Caves, also known as the Thousand Buddha Grottoes or Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, are a labyrinth of 500 temples along the religious and cultural exchange of the Silk Road in Gansu province
UZBEKISTAN: The Gur-e Amir or Guri Amir is the mausoleum of Tamerlane in Samarkand. Tamerlane was a Turco-Mongol conqueror who founded the Timurid Empire and believed himself to be the heir of Genghis Khan
CZECH REPUBLIC: Artists perform an acrobatic performance of the literary fairy tale “The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep” by Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen on the rooftop of the Lucerna building on August 25, 2020 in Prague, Czech Republic. A nine-minute performance was a combination of acrobats, actors, circus, dancers and pianists over the rooftops of Prague during sunset
CHINA: A panoramic view of the Great Wall built by ancient Chinese states to protect their territory from nomadic tribes and stretching across the north of China over the course of 5,600 miles. The Great Wall belongs to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites
GERMANY: The Römerberg in central Frankfurt, it is in the centre of the medieval Altstadt (old town) of the city
RUSSIA: A serviceman handles a rifle during the celebrations of Paratrooper’s Day in Red Square on the feast day of St Elijah the Prophet, patron saint of the Russian Airborne Forces
The first journey is due to go ahead in May next year, depending on how the pandemic continues on its course.
‘The best time to do this journey is between April and June, because that’s when the weather is favorable to start the journey from India through to Myanmar, and to cross the high mountains of China and Kyrgyzstan,’ Mr Agarwal said.
For a passenger starting in London, the first leg costs £4,350, for 15 nights to Moscow; the second is £5,000 from Moscow to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; the third is £4,350 from Kashgar, China, to Chengdu, China; and the fourth is £3,500 from Bangkok, Thailand to Impal, India.
Mr Agarwal said his travel firm has already received an overwhelming response from more than 40,000 people who have registered their interest in the journey of a lifetime.
‘It’s a life-changing journey, something that people will always remember and they will cherish it forever.’ He told CNN.