Delhi: Golden Triangle Tour with Khajuraho & Varanasi 9N/10D

The long version, and the two places that justify it

This is the Golden Triangle with Khajuraho and Varanasi added — and those two are the reason to spend ten days rather than five. Both are a long way east of the triangle, which is why the itinerary uses a flight and a train rather than driving.

Delhi, Agra, Jaipur

The standard circuit given proper time: Qutub Minar, Humayun's Tomb, Jama Masjid and Chandni Chowk; the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort; Fatehpur Sikri; then Amber Fort, the City Palace, Jantar Mantar and Hawa Mahal.

Khajuraho

The Chandela kings built around eighty-five temples here between 950 and 1050. Twenty-five survive, covered in some of the finest sculpture in India — gods, musicians, animals, daily life, and the erotic carvings that make up perhaps a tenth of the total and all of the reputation.

The temples were swallowed by forest after the Chandelas fell and were not rediscovered until 1838, which is why the carving is as sharp as it is.

Kandariya Mahadeva in the western group is the masterpiece: a sandstone mountain of 646 figures rising in deliberate stages toward the shikhara. A guide matters here more than anywhere else on this trip, because the iconography is dense and unlabelled.

Varanasi

Then east to the oldest continuously inhabited city in India. Hindus hold that dying here ends the cycle of rebirth, so the cremation fires at Manikarnika have burned without interruption for centuries.

A dawn boat along the ghats is the thing: the entire waterfront faces the sunrise and thousands bathe in the river at once. At dusk, the Ganga Aarti at Dashashwamedh, performed with fire and bells by priests moving in exact unison.

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

Options

Guides only; car, guides, train and flights; or the same with three or four-star hotels.

No photography at the cremation ghats. It is not a rule you negotiate.