From Delhi: 4-Day Golden Triangle Luxury Trip with Hotels

Four days, and you choose the comfort level

The itinerary is fixed; the accommodation is not. There are four price points — transport and guiding alone, or with three, four or five-star hotels — which is unusually transparent for a packaged tour and lets you put the money where you want it.

Day 1: Delhi

Private car from the airport or your hotel.

India Gate on Rajpath and the drive past Rashtrapati Bhavan, 340 rooms under a dome Lutyens borrowed from a Buddhist stupa. Qutub Minar, the 12th-century victory tower with the rustless iron pillar at its foot. Humayun's Tomb, the 1560s Mughal garden tomb the Taj was modelled on.

Old Delhi if the timing allows: Jama Masjid and Chandni Chowk from a rickshaw.

Day 2: Agra

The Yamuna Expressway south. The Taj Mahal with a licensed guide — the calligraphy cut in increasing sizes so it reads evenly from the ground, the pietra dura flowers of dozens of inlaid stones, the minarets tilted outward so an earthquake would take them clear of the tomb, and the single asymmetry in the whole building.

Agra Fort, and the Musamman Burj where Shah Jahan spent his last eight years imprisoned by Aurangzeb, looking at his wife's tomb.

Day 3: Jaipur via Fatehpur Sikri

Akbar's capital of 1571, abandoned fourteen years later when the water gave out: the Buland Darwaza, the Panch Mahal, and the marble dargah of Salim Chishti.

Day 4: Jaipur, then Delhi

Amber Fort early, then Jal Mahal from the causeway, the City Palace, Jantar Mantar and the Hawa Mahal, and the drive back.

Practical

Private air-conditioned vehicle and driver throughout, with licensed guides for sightseeing.

The Taj is closed on Fridays. Entrance fees are separate on every option.