From Delhi: Golden Triangle with Pushkar – 5 Nights, 6 Days

The triangle, plus a town with one Brahma temple

Pushkar is small, strange and completely unlike the three cities before it. It sits around a lake in the Aravallis, 150 km south-west of Jaipur, and Hindus hold that the lake formed where Brahma dropped a lotus.

There are perhaps a dozen Brahma temples in the world. This is the principal one.

Day 1: Delhi

India Gate, Rashtrapati Bhavan and Parliament House from the road. Qutub Minar, Humayun's Tomb — the 1560s garden tomb the Taj descends from — and the Lotus Temple.

Days 2–3: Agra

The Taj Mahal at sunrise, and Agra Fort, with the Musamman Burj where Aurangzeb imprisoned his father for eight years with the Taj in view. Fatehpur Sikri on the road on.

Day 4: Jaipur

Amber Fort, the City Palace, Jantar Mantar and the Hawa Mahal, with an evening in the bazaars.

Days 5–6: Pushkar

Fifty-two ghats ring the lake, and pilgrims bathe at them. The Brahma temple, 14th century on a much older site, is the one people come for.

Savitri Temple sits on the hill above, reached by a long staircase or a cable car, and gives you the whole lake and town from the top — best at sunrise.

The town is strictly vegetarian and alcohol-free within its limits: no meat, no eggs, no alcohol, enforced rather than encouraged.

The camel fair falls in Kartik, usually November, when something like fifty thousand animals and a quarter of a million people arrive at once.

One warning worth taking: men at the ghats will offer you a "Pushkar passport" blessing and then demand a large donation. A polite, firm no is all that is required, and no genuine priest will chase you.

Three options

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

The Taj is closed on Fridays.