From Delhi: Private 3-Day Golden Triangle Tour By Car

A pickup window rather than a fixed time

Between 7:00 am and 12:00 noon on day one, which is unusually accommodating — it means you can fly into Delhi in the morning and start the same day rather than losing a night.

Day 1: Delhi, then Agra

Your driver and guide brief you at pickup and then take the capital's highlights before the drive south.

Jama Masjid, Chandni Chowk by rickshaw, India Gate, and Qutub Minar or Humayun's Tomb depending on how much of the day is left.

Then the Yamuna Expressway to Agra, about three and a half hours.

Day 2: Agra, then Jaipur

The Taj Mahal at sunrise — grey, then pink, then white as the sun clears the river, with a fraction of the mid-morning crowd.

Shah Jahan began it in 1632, the year after Mumtaz Mahal died bearing their fourteenth child. Twenty-two years, twenty thousand workers, marble hauled 400 km from Makrana.

Your guide covers the calligraphy cut in increasing sizes so it reads uniformly from the ground, the pietra dura inlay of dozens of stones per flower, the four minarets tilted outward so an earthquake would drop them clear of the tomb, and the one asymmetry in the whole composition.

Agra Fort afterwards, and Fatehpur Sikri on the road west.

Day 3: Jaipur

Amber Fort before the coaches, then Jal Mahal, the City Palace, Jantar Mantar and the Hawa Mahal, and the drive back to Delhi.

Four options

A guide-only rate in Agra; a car-and-guide day starting in Agra; the three-day private tour with car, driver and guide; or the same with lunch and entrances included.

Practical

The Taj is closed on Fridays.

Entrance fees run about ₹2,600 a head for a foreign adult where not included.