Delhi: 6-Day Golden Triangle Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur Tour

Six days is the triangle without a clock

The same three cities everyone visits, given enough time that nothing is a scramble. Two full days in Delhi rather than a morning. A second Taj visit if you want one. An evening in Jaipur's bazaars instead of a photograph of them from a moving car.

Delhi

India Gate and the drive past Rashtrapati Bhavan, 340 rooms under a dome Lutyens borrowed from a Buddhist stupa.

Qutub Minar, begun 1193 — the tallest brick minaret in the world, in a complex built from the stone of twenty-seven dismantled temples, with the iron pillar that has stood over 1,600 years without rusting.

Jama Masjid and a cycle rickshaw through Chandni Chowk, laid out in the 1650s by Shah Jahan's daughter with a canal down its centre that caught the moonlight.

Humayun's Tomb, the 1560s garden tomb that set the pattern the Taj followed.

Agra

The Taj Mahal — with six days there is room to see it at sunrise and again in the late afternoon, which are genuinely different buildings.

Agra Fort, with the Musamman Burj where Aurangzeb imprisoned his father for eight years, the Taj visible along the river. And the Baby Taj across the Yamuna, the 1620s marble tomb that introduced pietra dura to India.

Fatehpur Sikri on the road to Jaipur.

Jaipur

Amber Fort above Maota Lake, the City Palace, Jantar Mantar, the Hawa Mahal — and time for Nahargarh at sunset, which is the best view of the city there is, and for the markets where Jaipur actually works: gem cutting, lac bangles, block printing.

Three options

Private car, driver and guides; or the same with three-star or four-star hotels included.

Practical

The Taj is closed on Fridays. Entrance fees are paid separately unless stated — around ₹2,600 a head for a foreign adult across the three cities.