Delhi: 6 Days Golden Triangle Tour with Varanasi & Boat Ride

The Golden Triangle, and then the river

Four days of Mughal and Rajput India, then two on the Ganges — which is the change that makes this worth six days rather than four.

Day 1: Delhi

Met on arrival. India Gate, Parliament House, Humayun's Tomb — the 1560s garden tomb the Taj descends from — and Qutub Minar with its unrusted iron pillar.

Raj Ghat, where Gandhi was cremated in 1948, and a drive past the Red Fort and Chandni Chowk.

Days 2–3: Agra

The Taj Mahal, best at sunrise when the marble runs grey to pink to white and the crowd is a fifth of what it becomes. Agra Fort, with the Musamman Burj where Aurangzeb imprisoned his father for eight years with the Taj in view along the river.

Fatehpur Sikri on the drive to Jaipur.

Day 4: Jaipur

Amber Fort above Maota Lake, the City Palace, Jantar Mantar and the Hawa Mahal, with the bazaars in the evening.

Days 5–6: Varanasi

The boat ride is the centre of this half of the trip, and it should be at dawn. The entire waterfront turns to face the sunrise while thousands of people bathe, wash clothes, pray and practise yoga on the steps at once. From the water the ghats read as one continuous stone facade — which is how the maharajas who built the palaces above them intended.

At dusk, the Ganga Aarti at Dashashwamedh Ghat: tiered brass lamps, bells, conch shells and incense, performed by priests moving in exact unison.

At Manikarnika, the cremation fires have burned without interruption for centuries, because Hindus hold that dying here ends the cycle of rebirth. Photography there is forbidden — absolutely.

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

Four options

Guide only; or with three, four or five-star hotels.

The Taj is closed on Fridays.