From Delhi: 6-Day Golden Triangle Tour –Delhi, Agra & Jaipur

Six days, and where the extra time actually goes

A three-day Golden Triangle gives each city one day and both drives inside sightseeing days. Six gives each city two, which changes what you can do rather than only how fast you do it.

In Delhi that means Old Delhi on foot. In Agra it means the Taj twice, at two different hours. In Jaipur it means a fort on the ridge at sunset and an evening in the markets.

Delhi

Qutub Minar and the iron pillar. Humayun's Tomb, the 1560s Mughal garden tomb that set the pattern the Taj followed. India Gate and the Lutyens axis.

And the walled city: Jama Masjid, and Chandni Chowk from a cycle rickshaw — still organised trade by trade three hundred and seventy years after Jahanara laid it out.

Agra

The Taj Mahal at sunrise, when the marble goes grey to pink to white and the crowd is thin. Agra Fort, Akbar's red sandstone city of 1565 with Shah Jahan's marble inside, and the Musamman Burj where he died a prisoner of his own son looking at his wife's tomb.

With a second day: the Baby Taj across the Yamuna, the 1620s marble tomb that introduced pietra dura to India, and Mehtab Bagh for the reflection at sunset.

Fatehpur Sikri on the road west: Akbar's capital of 1571, abandoned fourteen years later when the water failed, and preserved because of it.

Jaipur

Amber Fort above Maota Lake with the Sheesh Mahal, the City Palace, Jantar Mantar and the Hawa Mahal. Then Nahargarh at sunset for the best view of the city, and the bazaars around Johari and Tripolia.

Three options

Car, driver and guide; or with three-star or five-star hotels.

Practical

The Taj is closed on Fridays. Entrance fees are separate unless your option includes them — roughly ₹2,600 a head for a foreign adult across the three cities.