Golden Triangle with Varanasi

Welcome to India. Our representative meets you at Delhi airport or railway station with a traditional garland welcome and escorts you to your hotel in a private air-conditioned car. After a long journey, the rest of the day is yours to rest and adjust to the new time zone. If you arrive early and feel like stretching your legs, take a gentle evening walk around Connaught Place, the elegant colonnaded circle at the heart of New Delhi, with its cafes, bookshops and busy street life. Your tour manager will brief you on the days ahead.

After breakfast, leave Delhi and drive south-west through the farmland of Haryana and into Rajasthan, with tea stops along the way. Arrive in Jaipur, Rajasthan's capital, founded in 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II and laid out on a grid inspired by ancient Indian planning. The old city's buildings were painted pink to welcome the Prince of Wales in 1876, earning it the name Pink City. Check in and spend the evening at leisure, or visit Birla Mandir, a white marble temple to Vishnu and Lakshmi that glows beautifully after dark.

Start early at Amber Fort, the hilltop palace of the Kachwaha rulers above Maota Lake, riding up to the ramparts by jeep. Explore its courtyards and the Sheesh Mahal, a hall lined with thousands of tiny mirrors. Pause for photos at Jal Mahal, the palace in the lake. In the afternoon, visit the City Palace, still home to the former royal family, and Jantar Mantar, the 18th-century observatory of giant stone instruments and a UNESCO site. See the honeycomb facade of Hawa Mahal, then browse the bazaars for block prints, gems and blue pottery.

After breakfast, drive east towards Agra. On the way, stop at Fatehpur Sikri, the red sandstone city Emperor Akbar built as his capital in the 16th century and abandoned soon after. Walk through the Buland Darwaza, the towering Gate of Victory, see the Panch Mahal and the courts where Akbar met his nobles, and visit the white marble shrine of the Sufi saint Sheikh Salim Chishti. Arrive in Agra in the afternoon. In the evening, watch the sun set over the Taj Mahal from Mehtab Bagh, the Moonlight Garden across the Yamuna.

Start with the Taj Mahal at sunrise, then return to the hotel for breakfast. Explore Agra Fort, the red sandstone citadel of the Mughal emperors, and Itmad-ud-Daulah, the delicate marble tomb known as the Baby Taj. The afternoon is free. You may like to visit a marble inlay workshop, where artisans still use the pietra dura technique seen on the Taj, cutting tiny pieces of stone by hand. In the evening, you are taken to the station to board your overnight train to Varanasi, with dinner packed for the journey.

Arrive in Varanasi in the morning after your overnight train. You are met at the station and taken to your hotel to rest and freshen up. In the afternoon, set out with your guide on a tour of the city: the campus of Banaras Hindu University and its Bharat Kala Bhavan museum, the red Durga Temple and the marble Tulsi Manas Temple, built where the poet Tulsidas is believed to have written the Ramcharitmanas. In the evening, take a cycle-rickshaw to Dashashwamedh Ghat for the Ganga aarti, a ceremony of lamps, bells and chanting by priests on the riverbank.

Take a boat on the Ganges at dawn, gliding past the ghats as pilgrims bathe and pray, and past Manikarnika, the city's main cremation ghat. Then walk through the narrow lanes of the old city to the Kashi Vishwanath Temple, one of the holiest shrines of Lord Shiva, and other temples nearby. In the afternoon, drive about 10 km to Sarnath, where the Buddha gave his first sermon, to see the Dhamek Stupa and the museum with the Lion Capital of Ashoka. Late in the evening, you are dropped at Varanasi station for your overnight train to Delhi.

You are met at the station on arrival in Delhi and taken to your hotel to freshen up after the overnight train. In the afternoon, set out with your guide to see the best of the capital. Visit Humayun's Tomb, the 16th-century garden tomb that inspired the Taj Mahal, and the 73-metre Qutub Minar, begun around 1200. Drive past India Gate and the government buildings of New Delhi, then take a cycle-rickshaw ride through Chandni Chowk, Old Delhi's bustling 17th-century bazaar of spices, silver and sweets.

Enjoy a final, unhurried breakfast in Delhi. Depending on your flight time, there may be a chance for some last-minute shopping: pashmina shawls, tea and spices at Khan Market, or handicrafts from every state at Dilli Haat and the government emporiums on Baba Kharak Singh Marg. Our driver will help with your luggage and stop wherever you need. At the appropriate time, you are transferred to Delhi airport for your flight home. Our team stays in touch until you have checked in, and we hope to welcome you back to India soon.