THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE & BEYOND
Marble domes, desert forts, wild tigers.
The Taj at sunrise, the forts and palaces of Rajasthan, tiger safaris and the Kerala backwaters. Delhi, Agra and Jaipur, the desert cities, Mumbai and the green south, in day tours and guided trips.
Only in India
Three experiences that are India alone.
Forts and food markets turn up the world over. The Taj Mahal at dawn, a wild tiger on the track and a houseboat drifting the backwaters belong to this country and nowhere else.
One of the seven wonders
The Taj Mahal at Dawn
Shah Jahan raised the Taj over twenty-two years as a tomb for his wife, and the white marble still shifts colour with the light, from grey-pink at sunrise to bright white by noon. Go at first light, before the crowds and the heat, when the dome floats above the Yamuna in the river mist.
- 1 From Delhi: Taj Mahal & Agra Private Day Trip with Transfers
- 2 Agra: Skip-the-Line Taj Mahal & Agra Fort Private Tour
- 3 From Delhi: Taj Mahal & Agra Tour by Gatimaan Express Train
The wild tiger
A Tiger on the Track
India holds around three-quarters of the world’s wild tigers, and parks like Ranthambore and Bandhavgarh are the surest place on earth to see one. You ride out by jeep at dawn, follow the alarm calls of deer and langur, and wait. When a tigress walks the track ahead of you, the whole forest falls silent.
- 1 From Jaipur: Ranthambore National Park Day Trip with Safari
- 2 From Delhi: 4-Day Golden Triangle & Ranthambore Guided Tour
- 3 Jaipur: Jhalana Amagarh Leopard Reserve 4×4 Jeep Safari
The green south
A Houseboat on the Backwaters
Behind the Kerala coast lies a maze of palm-fringed lagoons and canals, farmed and fished and lived on for centuries. You board a converted rice barge, a kettuvallam, and drift past paddy fields, village landings and water lilies while lunch is cooked on deck. Nowhere else in India moves this slowly.
- 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
Start here
The one tour more people book than any other.
If you only have a day, this is the India experience most travellers plan the rest of the trip around.
The classics
India's Most Popular Tours
The Taj at Agra, the Amber Fort, Old Delhi and the backwater cruises. The days most first-timers come for.
Where to begin
The experiences an India trip is built around.
The Golden Triangle, the Taj Mahal, Jaipur's forts, the tiger parks, the Kerala backwaters and the street-food bazaars. The handful of days most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
The first big decision
How to do the Golden Triangle.
Delhi, Agra and Jaipur form the triangle nearly every first India trip is built on. How many days you give it, and where you go next, is the call that shapes the whole journey.
Rajasthan
The land of forts and maharajas.
West of the Triangle lies the old India of desert kingdoms. Amber Fort rises in honey-coloured sandstone on its ridge above Jaipur, Mehrangarh looms over the blue lanes of Jodhpur, and Udaipur’s palaces seem to float on their lakes. Painted havelis, mirrored halls and the long line of the city walls.
Read the guide: the best forts and palaces →Temples and ghats
Where India goes to pray.
India measures its days in temples. Pilgrims bathe in the Ganges at first light, bells ring under the carved gopuram gateways of the south, and incense drifts across marble courtyards and old stone shrines. Spiritual India is less a sight you tick off than the rhythm the whole country keeps.
See the temple and spiritual tours →Jaipur
The city painted pink for a prince.
Jaipur was washed in terracotta pink in 1876 to welcome a royal guest, and the old city has worn the colour ever since. Behind the Hawa Mahal’s honeycomb of windows sit the City Palace, the Jantar Mantar observatory and bazaars of block-print, silver and gemstones.
Tours in Jaipur →Street food
Eat your way through the bazaars.
India is a country you taste. Chaat carts and chai stalls, kebabs grilled over coals in Old Delhi, dosas folded crisp in the south and sweets stacked high in the mithai shops. A food walk with someone who knows the lanes is the quickest way under the skin of any Indian city.
- 1 Heritage Walk & Street Food Tasting in Jaipur
- 2 Agra: Street Food Walking Tour, Spice Market, & Tuk-tuk Ride
- 3 Delhi: Old Delhi City Tour with Tuk-Tuk Ride & Street Food
By pace
Pick the India you came for.
The same country runs at three speeds. Slow and sacred in the temple towns and the backwaters, royal and historic along the fort-and-palace trail, and properly wild out in the tiger parks and the desert.
Slow and sacred
Temples, ghats and quiet mornings.Riverside prayers, old stone temples and the backwater drift. The India you slow right down for.
Royal and historic
Forts, palaces and the Mughal trail.The Taj at dawn, Amber Fort on its ridge, the blue lanes of Jodhpur and the long Golden Triangle road.
Into the wild
Tiger country and desert dunes.Dawn jeep safaris after wild tigers, camel rides into the Thar, and a night out under desert stars.
The Thar Desert
Camel tracks into the golden desert.
Past Jaisalmer the land turns to dune and scrub, and the old caravan routes run on toward Pakistan. Ride a camel over the Sam dunes as the sun drops, then camp out under a sky with no city for a hundred miles, the golden sandstone fort still glowing on the horizon behind you.
See all 5 desert safaris →By city
Pick a city to start.
Delhi for the Mughal monuments. Agra for the Taj. Jaipur for the forts and the pink bazaars. Jodhpur for the blue lanes. Mumbai for the sea and the screen. Kochi for the spice coast and the backwaters.
By experience
Or pick how to spend the day.
The Taj if you came for the marble. A fort if you want the maharajas. A jeep if you want the tiger. Street food, cooking classes, temples, a tuk-tuk through the old town, or a houseboat on the backwaters.
Plan it
A perfect first three days.
Never been? Here is the Golden Triangle as a tight loop, Delhi to Agra to Jaipur, with nothing wasted.
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