6-Day Private Golden Triangle & Varanasi Tour from Delhi

The Golden Triangle plus the oldest city

Delhi, Agra and Jaipur are Mughal and Rajput India — forts, tombs, palaces, three or four centuries old. Varanasi is something else entirely, and putting it on the end of this route is what makes the trip worth six days rather than three.

Delhi

Old Delhi first: Jama Masjid, the rickshaw run through Chandni Chowk, and the Red Fort from 1638. Then New Delhi — India Gate, Qutub Minar, Humayun's Tomb, the 1560s garden tomb the Taj was modelled on, and the Lotus Temple.

Agra

The Taj Mahal, ideally at sunrise, and Agra Fort, where Shah Jahan spent his last eight years as his son's prisoner looking down the river at the tomb he built. Fatehpur Sikri usually falls on the drive to Jaipur — Akbar's complete capital, built in 1571 and abandoned when the water failed.

Jaipur

Amber Fort above Maota Lake, the City Palace, Jantar Mantar's stone observatory and the Hawa Mahal screen of 953 windows.

Varanasi

The train east, and a different India. The city claims continuous habitation for three thousand years and Hindus hold that dying here breaks the cycle of rebirth, which is why the burning ghats at Manikarnika never go out.

A dawn boat along the ghats is the thing to do — the whole waterfront turns to face the sunrise and thousands of people bathe in the river at once. In the evening, the Ganga Aarti at Dashashwamedh: fire, bells and priests moving in unison.

Sarnath is eleven kilometres away, where the Buddha gave his first sermon.

Options

Car, driver, guides and train tickets; or the same with three-star or five-star hotels included.

Photography is prohibited at the cremation ghats. Your guide will say so; take it seriously.