Complete 6-days itinerary in the Indian Golden Triangle + Varanasi
Do you want to discover Indian’s most popular place? In this post we tell you about our 6-days Golden Triangle and Varanasi itinerary.
The Indian Golden Triangle is the route between the main cities in the north area of the country, Jaipur, New Delhi and Agra. In our case, the 6 days that we spent in this area were the second part of our 12 days of trip in India, being the first 6 days in Kerala, in the south-east area of the country (here you can discover our itinerary in Kerala :)). In the Golden Triangle area, you can find a more authentic India, but also a more touristic one, with the advantages and disadvantages that this has. As we went in a very fast way due to our holidays, we had to do this route in 6 days and with a driver/guide.
Honestly, in our opinion and after visiting most of the attractions of the area, we think that 6 days are not enough to visit the area as in India the distances are huge and each journey take a lot of time, so we would recommend you to go more than 6 days if possible and travel slower.
Before starting this 6-days Golden Triangle and Varanasi itinerary, we believe it’s mandatory to remark some key aspects that you should know before entering this fascinating country.
For all of them that has limited holidays and want to visit the area, we strongly recommend to hire a driver service. In our case, we hired the Mahendra Shyam company services, specialists in Spanish clients traveling to India and with a specially good level of Spanish and English, what eases a lot the communication with them. This company did all the required arrangements related with hotel bookings, route between New Delhi, Jaipur, Agra and Varanasi, booking all the required transport (airplanes, trains and our car + driver), for a reasonable price (6 days with all included, except food and activities, 330€ pp approximately). In addition, the payment was done in three times, the first when you contract the service, the second one when you arrive and the third one before ending the trip.
We strongly recommend to do this trip in a guided mode (with a driver) in case of having few days and wanting to see lots of places, because it will ease a lot your experience and you can be focused in the real important thing, enjoying India. Without any doubt, India can be discovered without guides but you will have to be prepared to negotiate prices of transport, long distances, hot weather (specially summer, of course). That can ruin somehow your days and have a bad vision of what India is.
Now, after this brief introduction, we leave you the detailed 6-days Golden Triangle and Varanasi itinerary.
Day 1: New Delhi
Our adventure in the Golden Triangle and Varanasi, started in the country capital, the chaotic and stressful New Delhi. At this point, we would like to mention that our first intention was to avoid visiting New Delhi, as the inputs we had from people that had already been there were not that good. And now, from our point of view, we don’t really understand why. Thanks to a airplane schedule change, we could enjoy one complete day in the city and, the few we could discover seems really interesting for us, so we strongly recommend to stay at least 2 days if possible.
We arrived at the airport of New Delhi soon in the morning and we saw for the first time our incredible driver, Kumal, that will be our partner in the next 5 days. He recommended us to visit 3-4 key points in the city to be able to have an idea of it. Obviously, it’s impossible to see all the touristic attractions that New Delhi has in a single day as the traffic and distances are crazy!
1-day itinerary of New Delhi:
- Qutab Minar
- Lotus temple
- Ministries and President house area.
- Indian Gaye
- Gurdwara Bangla Sahib, Sikh temple of the city
As a first stop, we went to the Qutab Minar. This Arabic minaret is the highest brick minaret of the world. It can be found in a big area with other Arabic ruins that make this place a mandatory visit. We did the visit without any guide, but if you have time and you are interested about history, you can have a guide before entering (try to book it in internet before getting there). In all the touristic attractions in India you will find thousands of persons offering guide services although many of them are not real guides.
The entrance costed 500 Rp (6 €) and it’s opened between 8am to 5pm. The approximate visit time is 1 hour.
After visiting this place, we went to see Lotus Temple. This monument is one of the most visited in the world and it’s internationally famous for it’s characteristic architecture. Furthermore, the entrance is free and it’s found in a big park. We found it an impressive place, as it’s bigger than it seems in the photos and it has an special mysticism around it. The visit is completely worth it. The inside of the building is modern and simple and it’s not the most attractive aspect of the visit. In addition, it has long queues as it’s one of the biggest pray and meditation places of all India, so we just visited it from outside.
Then, the next place we visited was the ministries and presidential area. In this case, the route was done in the car, going around all this area of big and secure buildings that totally contrast other parts of the city and India in general. We could also see the famous Indian Gate, a monument like the Arc of Triumph, that commemorates the fallen Indian soldiers that died in the 1st WW and Afghan wars. Is one of the areas that if you have enough time is interesting due to the contrast as it’s a clean, correctly paved, full of vegetation and it has wide streets, nothing to see with other Delhi places.
Finally, we went to the Gurdwara Bangla Sahib, the Sikh temple of the city. For us, it’s one of the most recommended places of the city. If you have enough time, we recommend you to go to the Tourism office inside the complex, where they will offer you a free guided visit of the temple (bear in mind that free in India would always mean that you will be invited at the end to donate something to the guide), explaining you some curious aspects of this religion and the temple itself. In the visit, you will be able to see the kitchens, dinning place, the temple and the big purification lake.
After this last point, we went to our hotel, the Florance hotel. Delhi has many other interesting places but as we had no time we couldn’t visit other interesting places as the Red Fort and the Jama Masjid. We would also wanted to walk in the Old Delhi neighbor.
Day 2: Jaipur
After this intense first day in New Delhi, we had to leave the Indian capital to go to the second point in our 6-days Golden Triangle and Varanasi itinerary, Jaipur.
We started our day very early as we has a 5-hour journey to Jaipur. In addition, our driver told us that taking the car in the Delhi rush hour can have a big impact in our schedule of the day due to the traffic. Always have the traffic in mind when going to India!
Jaipur is the capital of the Rajasthan, one of the Indian states. It’s commonly called the pink city, due to their curious and colorful constructions. It is a city with a lot of history and culture, so in this occasion we recommend to contract a local guide that accompanies you to see the most important points of the city. We could have a Spanish speaking guide that made a very interesting tour. We contracted him through our agency (Mahendra Shyam).
1-day itinerary in Jaipur:
- Amber Fort
- Jal Mahal or Jaipur’s water palace
- Jantar Mantar
- Jaipur’s palace
- City Bazaar
Our first stop was Amber fort, 11km outside Jaipur. This place is part of a group of big ancient fortifications with a nice architecture. Amber was the capital city of the Rajasthan until XVIII century, so this place was a key and emblematic building for the Maharajá.
It is must visit if you are near Jaipur, as the architecture is crazy and it’s found in the top of a mountain with a big wall around, so it’s easy to imagine all the stories and moments that happened there. The price of the entrance to this area is 500Rp (6€).
Next to that, we went to the Jal Mahal or Jaipur’s water palace. It’s a palace placed in the middle of the Man Sagar lake, that was built by the Maharajá Jai Singh II in the XVII century. Nowadays it’s abandoned and without any maintenance. It’s curious to see a construction of this magnitude abandoned in the middle of a big lake, so it’s interesting to take some photos of it.
Thirdly we went to Jantar Mantar. It’s near the city palace and it’s an astronomic observatory build by Jai Singh II, that was a great astronomy fan. In this open air museum, you could see big tools that were used to read the sun movements, sun watches and horoscope interpretation. We recommend the visit if you are a science lover and you are curious about it. The entrance costs 200Rp (2-3 €)
Due to closeness, the next visit was in the City palace. It’s a big complex compound of impressive patios, gardens and proofs of the big power and money this Maharajás had. There are trully impressive artworks in the palace architecture as the famous peacocks figures in the doors. The entrance costs 180Rp (2-3 euros).
To end this intense second day of our 6-day Golden Triangle and Varanasi itinerary, they showed us two important local commerces, one of precious stones and jewels and the other about textiles.
We were not sure about going there, but finally we were very comfortable there and they showed us how they made the different works and it was an interesting experience. We finally bought a ring and we did a custom piece of clothing.
After that, we went to our hotel, Mahal Khandela to rest after this crazy day. This hotel is a recommended one, it’s a good quality one, with good food and comfortable.
Day 3: Jaipur and journey to Agra
In this third day of this 6-day Golden Triangle and Varanasi itinerary, we started to see the pending places in the Jaipur area.
1-day itinerary in Jaipur and road to Agra:
- Hawa Mahal or Palace of Wind
- Monkeys Temple or Galta Temple
- Chad Baori of Abhaneri
- Fatehpur Sikr
Firstly, we went early in the morning to see the Hawa Mahal. This is another palace built in the XVIII centyrt of the harem women of Maharajá Sawai Pratap Singh, famous for the spectacular pink facade. TIP: If you want to have a good foto in this palace, go early in the morning to avoid the crowd as it’s the most visited place in Jaipur 😉
After that, we left Jaipur to go to another famous place in the surroundings, the Galta temple, popularly known as Monkeys temple. It’s a set of old temples and ruines with some sacred lakes where you can see local people having a bath. The most curious thing about this place is the huge amount of monkeys you can find inside the temples, what makes it a very funny experience. The entrance is free but they charge 50Rs for the photo camera and 150Rp for the video camera.
That was our last visit in Jaipur’s area and we had a 5 hours journey to Agra. This journey takes longer as we visit two places that we wanted to see between the cities.
The first stop was the Chad Baori of Abhaneri. It is a giant step well placed inside a touristic enclosure. It is worth to stop in this small villae to see this impressive well, that was used to store water and the steps were the way they had to reach this water.
Then, near Agra, we found the Fatehpur Sikri, a city created by the mogol emperor Akbar in the XVI century. It was the capital of the mogol empire for 14 years and it’s an amazing enclosure with two different visits, the palace and the religious area, where you can find the Jami Masjid mosque.
We had a love hate story with this place. It was the place in all India that we felt more overwhelmed due to the people. They tried to offer us guide services many times, they tried to scam us to sell us products and we felt so uncomfortable. On the other hand, the place is beautiful, specially the religious place with the mosque and a lookout place. Even with this bad feelings that we had, we strongly recommend to go, as it’s a beautiful and authentic place.
Finally, we reached Agra and we went to our hotel the Atulya Taj, that has a restaurant with views to the Taj Mahal.
Day 4: Agra
This forth day of our 6-day Golden Triangle and Varanasi itinerary started very early in the morning, even before the sunrise.
We wanted to see the Taj Mahal without crowd, so we woke up at 5am to go. Taj Mahal opens with the sunrise, so between 5.30 am and 6 am you can find the doors opened. We managed to visit it without too much people and we dedicate a long time to make photos to this incredible monument.
Our impression of Taj Mahal was that it is an incredible architectural piece, with a perfect symmetry and a majestic sensation due to the marble. What you don’t expect is what it is inside the Palace, as it’s not as impressive as the amazing building. Inside you will find a simple place with two tombs, one of the Shah Jahan emperor (who built it) and his beloved Mumtaz Mahalm.
We enjoyed a lot our visit as we could go calmly, take some photos and sit to admire the Taj Mahal. It was impressive to be seeing one of the worlds most important buildings! Obviously, was one of the key places we wanted to see in the Golden Trianle, but it’s important to choose when and how to visit it to really enjoy and appreciate it.
More or less our visit took us between 1:30h and 2h inside. We went out at 9 am and that was the moment when the crowd started to reach Taj Mahal.
After going out from the Taj Mahal, we had our breakfast and we dedicated the rest of the day to see Agra. Agra has not many attractions apart from the Taj Mahal, so we wouldn’t be more than one day there.
We went to the Red Fort, a big brick fortification built by the same mogol emperor that built the Fatehpur Sikri. It’s an impressive place, similar to other set of buildings that you can see in the Golden Triangle, and it’s a must if you visit Agra
As the last visit in Agra, we visited the Itimad-ud-Daulah or baby Taj Mahal, that is a small mausoleum (like the Taj Mahal) that can be found only 5km from the famous monument. It is worth to go there and admire this beautiful small place as it was a singular charm.
Finally, we said goodbye to our guide Kumal and we took a train to the most sacred city in India, Varanasi, but in a night train.
Day 5: Varanasi
And here it starts one of the biggest adventures in this 6-days Golden Triangle and Varanasi itinerary.
We wanted to live the essence of India as much as we could (having into account that it was a guided trip). So we decided to travel in night train between Agra and Varanasi. Anyway is known that the public transport in India use to be crowded and they don’t have any modern infrastructures. The journey, that initially was supposed to take us 11 hours, ended being a 15 hours one.
Traveling in a night train in India was a great experience. If you decide to do that you must know that you have 4 kinds of wagons:
- SL-Sleeper class. (3rd Class without AC and normal train seat).
- 3AC (3rd class with AC and normal train seat).
- 2AC (2nd class with AC and bed in shared place with curtains).
- 1 AC (1st class with AC, private bed where you can close the door).
We travelled in 2AC. Inside this wagons you can find 2 bunk beds (4 beds) and in the left side just one (2 beds). Chris was allocated in the 4 beds zone and I was sleeping in the 2 beds one. If you can choose it’s better to be in the private stay. I had a curtain that isolated me whilst Chris had to share with 3 other people.
Each bed has clean bed sheets, blankets and a pillow. The wagons are dark enough to be able to rest. It’s true that it looks like the people is used to travel like that as they were so respectful with other people. Along the journey you can see workers distributing the food (a kind of vegetable stew). We didn’t take the food as we had stomach ache on the previous days, so we bought some food before entering the train. You can access the bathrooms there, but they are not clean and you will find Indian baths (a hole in the floor).
The journey has lots of stops between the cities. I managed to sleep well and I didn’t realize of many of the stops and the people moving. As you have many stops during the journey, many people abandon the train, so when I woke up in the morning, we were alone.
We reached Varanasi after 15 hours of train journey and as we just had this day to visit Varanasi and wanted to visit as much as possible, Chris contracted a local guide to help us discover the most sacred city of the Hinduism.
My boyfriend found this guide in a Spanish blog of a girl that was living there working in a ONG and she recommended us. We are not attaching the information of it as we didn’t like the guide ;).
Varanasi is a city on the bank of the Ganges river. This is the holiest city of hinduism and they believe that Buda created the buddhism religion there. The hindus believe that dying in this city and being burned and thrown to the Ganges river will end your reincarnation cicle, so that’s the reason why this is a peregrination place for people who lost a relative and they want to burn them there.
This city has the famous Ghats or stairs to Ganges, that are streets that end in the Ganges mouth. There are 88 ghats in the city.
We recommend to get lost in the streets of the city, walk around visiting the different ghats and observe how the devote people live the religion. There are no specific points to remar, as it’s more about mysticism and living the environment. If you want to see how they burn the people, you can go to the crematories of the city.
We were almost 3-4 hours walking in the city and visiting the ghats and small temples around.
After resting for 2 hours, we wanted to see the famous ceremony called Aarti that each night the devote do in the river bank. It’s a very mystic ceremony, so try to observe how they live their religion as you wont understand what they are doing.
If you go in summer (the monsoon period of India) you could not do it as the river flow will be so high, but one of the cities most important visits is to take a boat to see the city from the river in the sunrise. Is the perfect perspective to see the beauty of this important place.
It’s a very intense city in all the sense, you have to be mentally prepared to all you will find here. It’s important to remark that it’s a very dirty city, the river is very contaminated as they are constantly throwing dead bodies into it, it’s full of street dogs in bad conditions and there are many many flies. That was somehow a little bit disgusting, but you have to live the full Varanasi experience ;).
Day 6: Back to Delhi
In the last day of this 6-day Golden Triangle and Varanasi itinerary, we had time to have our breakfast and walking around the hotel. We took a taxi to the airport to go from Varanasi to New Delhi, where we completely changed our destiny.
After 12 days in India, we wanted to visit the paradise to rest and disconnect before going back home. So if you didn’t think about it, Maldives island are near India and it’s a great end of your trip. You can discover our tips to go to the Maldives in this link.
Maps
Here you can fins the maps of the places we visited in this 6-days Golden Triangle and Varanasi itinerary separated by cities and regions:
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