Delhi: Varanasi Overnight Spiritual Escape by Private Car

Varanasi is worth the drive

The road from Delhi is long — around 800 km, a full day in a private air-conditioned car with stops. Most people fly or take the train, and this is for travellers who would rather keep their own vehicle and stop where they like along the Grand Trunk Road.

There is a break at a proper highway dhaba on the way: aloo paratha with butter, and a glass of lassi thick enough to stand a spoon in.

The evening you arrive

Check in on the riverfront — the heritage properties on the ghats put you inside the old city rather than a taxi ride from it.

Then a night boat on the Ganges, which is the right introduction. The city is lit, the aarti platforms are being prepared, and the whole waterfront reads as one continuous stone facade from the water, which is how it was built to be seen.

Ganga Aarti at Dashashwamedh Ghat afterwards: priests in exact unison with tiered brass lamps, bells, conch shells and incense, in front of a crowd of thousands on the steps and in boats.

Dawn

The reason to be here. A boat at first light, going upstream past the ghats as the whole waterfront turns to face the sunrise — thousands of people bathing, washing, praying, doing laundry, practising yoga on the steps, all at once.

Manikarnika and Harishchandra are the cremation ghats, and their fires have not gone out for centuries. Hindus hold that dying in Varanasi ends the cycle of rebirth, which is why bodies arrive here from all over India.

Photography at the cremation ghats is forbidden. This is not a soft rule and your guide will tell you where the line is. Respect it absolutely.

The old city

Lanes too narrow for cars, the Kashi Vishwanath temple, silk weavers' workshops, and kachori-sabzi for breakfast standing up.

Practical

Private car and driver throughout, with the riverside hotel night included. Two days is short for Varanasi; it is enough for one dawn and one aarti, which is the core of it.