From Mumbai : 3 Days Taj Mahal & Golden Triangle Tour in Delhi

The Golden Triangle from Mumbai, in a long weekend

Mumbai to Delhi is 1,150 km, which is why this runs by air. Flights both ways, ground transport in the north, and a government-approved guide — three days, and you are back at work on Monday.

Day 1: fly, then Agra

Morning flight to Delhi, then the Yamuna Expressway to Agra in a private air-conditioned car — about three and a half hours.

Agra Fort in the afternoon: Akbar's red sandstone city of 1565, two and a half kilometres of wall, with Shah Jahan's marble palaces inside. The Diwan-i-Am, the Khas Mahal, the Sheesh Mahal — and the Musamman Burj, the octagonal tower where Aurangzeb imprisoned his own father for the last eight years of his life, with the Taj visible along the river.

Night in Agra.

Day 2: sunrise Taj, then Jaipur

The Taj Mahal as the gates open, half an hour before the sun. Grey, then pink, then white; mist on the Yamuna in winter; and a fraction of the mid-morning crowd.

Shah Jahan began it in 1632 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 evenly from the ground, the pietra dura flowers of dozens of inlaid stones, the minarets tilted outward so an earthquake would drop them clear of the tomb, and the one asymmetry in the whole building.

Then Fatehpur Sikri on the road, and Jaipur by evening.

Day 3: Jaipur, then home

Amber Fort early, then the City Palace, Jantar Mantar and the Hawa Mahal, before the flight back from Jaipur or Delhi.

Three options

Flights, guide and transport; or with four-star or five-star hotels, lunch and entries.

The Taj is closed on Fridays, which fixes the departure dates.