Delhi: Private 5-Day Golden Triangle Tour with Female Guide

A female guide for the whole trip

Guiding in north India is overwhelmingly male, and plenty of travellers — solo women, mothers travelling with daughters, older couples — would simply rather spend five days with a woman. The guides on this itinerary are licensed by the same state examination as their male colleagues.

That is the difference here; the route is the classic one, given five days rather than three.

Delhi

Qutub Minar with the iron pillar that has stood over sixteen hundred years without rusting. Humayun's Tomb, the 1560s Mughal garden tomb that the Taj was modelled on — and the best-restored monument in India, after a decade of work by the Aga Khan Trust.

India Gate, and Old Delhi's Jama Masjid and Chandni Chowk, best from a cycle rickshaw.

Agra

The Taj Mahal at sunrise, when the marble moves from grey through pink to white and the crowd is a fifth of what it becomes.

Agra Fort, and the Musamman Burj where Aurangzeb imprisoned his father for eight years with the Taj in view along the river.

Fatehpur Sikri on the road west.

Jaipur

Amber Fort above Maota Lake with the Sheesh Mahal, the City Palace, Jantar Mantar's nineteen stone instruments, and the Hawa Mahal.

Five days leaves room for Nahargarh at sunset and an evening in the bazaars — where a female guide is genuinely useful, because the price you are quoted moves depending on who is asking.

Four options

Without accommodation, or with three, four or five-star hotels.

Practical

The Taj is closed on Fridays.

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