ACROSS INDIA
Every wonder, from the Taj to the backwaters.
The Golden Triangle and the forts of Rajasthan, the Kerala backwaters and the cities of the plains, street food, spice markets, temples and tuk-tuks. Every great Indian journey, and the tours that do it best.
Only here
Three experiences that are pure India.
Boat trips and food tours exist the world over. A sunrise at the Taj Mahal, a houseboat night on the Kerala backwaters and the gold of the Harmandir Sahib do not.
Wonder of the world
Sunrise at the Taj Mahal
No photograph readies you for it. The white marble shifts from grey to pink to gold as the sun comes up over the Yamuna, the inlaid flowers catch the light, and for a few minutes the most famous building on earth is nearly empty. Go at dawn, take a guide for the story, and let Agra Fort fill the rest of the day.
- 1 Agra: Skip-the-Line Taj Mahal & Agra Fort Private Tour
- 2 From Delhi: Taj Mahal & Agra Tour by Gatimaan Express Train
- 3 Agra: Taj Mahal and Mausoleum Guided Tour with Skip-the-Line
Life on the water
The Kerala Backwaters
Down on the spice coast, a thousand kilometres of canals, lagoons and rice paddies thread between the coconut palms. You board a converted rice barge, drift past villages where everything moves by boat, and sleep on the water as kingfishers work the banks. The south of India at the pace of a paddle.
- 1 Cochin: Backwater Village Eco Boat Cruise with Lunch
- 2 Cochin : Alleppey/Alappuzha Backwater Canoe (Shikara) Cruise
- 3 Alleppey: Shikara Boat Ride with Village Tour & Canal Cruise
Gold on the water
The Golden Temple
The holiest place in the Sikh world floats on its own sacred pool, gold leaf doubling in the still water while hymns play day and night. Anyone may enter, and the free kitchen feeds a hundred thousand people a day at the world’s largest langar. Come after dark, when the gold burns against the black water.
- 1 Amritsar: Small Group Sightseeing Tour with Wagah Border
- 2 Amritsar: Golden Temple, Jallianwala Bagh, Wagah Border Tour
- 3 Amritsar: Golden Temple and Jallianwala Bagh Guided Tour
Start here
The tour almost everyone books first.
More India trips begin with this than anything else on the list.
Where most people start
India's Most Popular Tours
The Taj at sunrise, Old Delhi by rickshaw, the backwaters of Kerala, a fort in Rajasthan. The tours travellers come to India for.
Where to begin
The journeys an India trip is built around.
The Taj Mahal, the Golden Triangle, the Kerala backwaters, the forts of Rajasthan, the street food and the temples. The handful of journeys most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
The classic circuit
How to see the Golden Triangle.
Delhi, Agra and Jaipur form the loop nearly every first trip is built around. Three ways to do it, depending on the days you have.
Street food
The best meals are at a roadside stall.
India eats on the street. A plate of chaat off a Chandni Chowk cart, a dosa folded on a Chennai griddle, kebabs over coals in Lucknow, a thali on a banana leaf in the south. The food that defines a city has no menu and no walls, and the queue of locals tells you where to stop.
Read the guide: the best street food tours in India →After the heat drops
India lights up after sunset.
The evening is when India performs. The Ganga aarti at Varanasi with its lamps and bells, a kathakali dancer in Kochi, the bazaars of Jaipur strung with bulbs, a sound-and-light show against a floodlit fort, dinner drifting past the lights on the water. The day’s second act, once the sun lets up.
See the evening experiences →Rajasthan
A land of forts and painted palaces.
West of the triangle, the desert state of Rajasthan is one long parade of citadels: the amber ramparts above Jaipur, Jodhpur’s blue city under the Mehrangarh, the lake palaces of Udaipur, and Jaisalmer rising from the sand like a sandcastle. Maharajas built to impress, and the forts still do.
Forts & palace tours →Temples & ghats
Where India goes to pray.
Faith runs through everything here. Dawn on the ghats of Varanasi as the city bathes in the Ganges, the carved towers of the south, a Sikh gurdwara’s open kitchen, a Jain temple cut entirely from marble. A guided visit reads the symbols and keeps you welcome, whatever you believe.
- 1 Bangalore: Palace, Temples, Fort & Markets Walking Tour
- 2 Delhi: Akshardham Temple Tour with Light and Water Show
- 3 Delhi: 6-Hours Delhi Spiritual Sites With Famous Temples
Plan by time
Pick how far you want to roam.
India rewards a long stay, but a single city pays off too. Spend an afternoon in the old town, take a day out to the Taj, or give a week to the road.
An afternoon
Stay in the city.Old Delhi by rickshaw, the bazaars of Jaipur, a street-food crawl or a heritage walk. A half-day that never leaves town.
A day out
Out to the Taj.Agra and back in a day by express train, or a fort and a temple within reach of the city. Gone after breakfast, home by night.
A week on the road
The grand circuit.The Golden Triangle into Rajasthan, or the long run south to Kerala. The big journeys that need a string of days.
By tuk-tuk
The old city, from the back of an auto.
The lanes of Old Delhi and the bazaars of Jaipur were never built for a coach. From the seat of a rickshaw you slip through gaps a car can’t, pull up at a sweet shop the guidebooks miss, and let a local driver and the horns carry you through the oldest, loudest part of town.
See all 6 rickshaw rides →By place
The cities, and the country between them.
Delhi for the Mughal monuments and the old lanes. Agra for the Taj. Jaipur for the pink-city palaces. Mumbai for the waterfront and Bollywood. Kerala for the backwaters. Amritsar for the Golden Temple.
By activity
Pick what kind of day you want.
Street food if you want to eat the city. A temple if you want the ritual. A fort if you want the history. A houseboat if you want to slow right down.
Plan it
The Golden Triangle in three days.
First time in India? Here is how the classic loop plays out, one city at a time.
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