Overnight Taj Mahal/Agra Tour From Mumbai with Return Flight

Agra from Mumbai, in two days

Mumbai to Agra is about 1,200 km. By train that is a day in each direction; by air it is two hours, which is what makes a weekend of it realistic. This package covers the flights, the ground transport, a licensed guide and the night.

Day one

Flight north to Delhi, then a private air-conditioned car on the Yamuna Expressway — three and a half hours.

Agra Fort in the afternoon. A walled city rather than a fort: two and a half kilometres of red sandstone wall begun by Akbar in 1565, with Shah Jahan's marble palaces inside — the Diwan-i-Am, the Khas Mahal, the Sheesh Mahal bath house.

And the Musamman Burj, the octagonal tower on the river wall where Aurangzeb imprisoned his own father for the last eight years of his life, with the Taj visible along the water. Shah Jahan died there and was carried across to be buried beside Mumtaz.

Optionally Mehtab Bagh across the Yamuna for the sunset reflection view.

Day two: sunrise

The Taj Mahal as the gates open, half an hour before the sun. The marble reads grey, then pink, then white; in winter there is mist on the river behind the dome, and the crowd at that hour is a fifth of what it becomes by ten.

Your guide covers the things easy to walk past: the calligraphy cut in increasing sizes so it reads uniformly from the ground; the pietra dura inlay, up to sixty stones in a single flower; the four minarets, tilted fractionally outward so an earthquake would drop them clear of the tomb; and the only asymmetry in the building — Shah Jahan's cenotaph, placed off-axis by his son.

Then back to Delhi and the evening flight south.

Four options

A Delhi-airport-start version with car and guide; flights with car, driver and guide; or flights with a three-star or four-star hotel, tickets and guiding.

Practical

The Taj is closed on Fridays, which fixes the possible dates.