4-Day Delhi, Agra and Jaipur Tour - India Golden Triangle

Four days: arrival, then a city a day

The shape that suits most people. You land, get a half day of Delhi, and then each following day belongs to one city rather than to a highway.

Day 1: Delhi

Pickup from your hotel or the airport in a private air-conditioned car.

Jama Masjid, India's grandest Mughal mosque, finished in 1656 with a courtyard for twenty-five thousand people. A rickshaw ride through Chandni Chowk if you want it — and you should, because it is the only sensible way to travel that street.

A drive past the Red Fort and Parliament House, then India Gate, and Qutub Minar or Humayun's Tomb depending on the hour.

Day 2: Delhi to Agra

The Yamuna Expressway. The Taj Mahal with a licensed guide: the calligraphy cut in increasing sizes so it reads the same height from the ground, the pietra dura flowers of dozens of inlaid stones, the minarets tilted outward so an earthquake would take them clear of the tomb, and the one deliberate asymmetry in the composition.

Then Agra Fort, and the Musamman Burj where Shah Jahan died a prisoner of his own son with the Taj in view along the river.

Day 3: Agra to Jaipur

Fatehpur Sikri on the way — Akbar's capital of 1571, abandoned after fourteen years when the water gave out, and complete because of it.

Jaipur by afternoon, with the evening in the bazaars.

Day 4: Jaipur, then Delhi

Amber Fort before the coaches, then the City Palace, Jantar Mantar and the Hawa Mahal, and the drive back.

Three options

Car, driver and guide; or with four-star or five-star hotels.

Practical

The Taj is closed on Fridays, which sets how the days fall.

Entrance fees are separate — around ₹2,600 a head for a foreign adult across the three cities.