Best time to go: October, November or March. The temperature during the summer is too high to enjoy the sightseeing, in particular, because everything to see it is outside. We went in March and the weather was absolutely incredible.
What to wear: comfy and fresh clothes (i.e. linen trousers or a similar fabric). I would recommend covering your shoulders and legs. During the night a jacket is handy. It is not a good idea to wear sandals…
Day 1: Delhi
We arrived to Delhi in the evening. We went directly to the hotel after a surprisingly fast passport control. We were staying at "The Leela Ambience Gurugram Hotel & Residences", not far from the airport as we were hitting the road quite early morning after. The hotel breakfast was incredible!
Day 2: Delhi - Agra
The driver picked us up at the hotel at 9 am, destination Agra. During the next few days we used a private driver that we hired through the agency "Indianinvitations". The car that we chose was a Toyota Innova (sub) very comfortable, it cost us 250 EUR for 2 nights and 3 days and this was including all expenses.
We arrived to Agra after a 5 hour drive (due to the traffic and road works , it took us one hour more than expected), we checked in and went straight to the Agra fort (latest entrance time is 16:00 and closing time is 18:00). We really enjoyed the fort and I would definitely recommend a visit.
The Agra Fort (also known as Agra's Red Fort) served as the main residence of the rulers of the Mughal dynasty until 1638, when the capital was shifted from Agra to Delhi. Before capture by the British, the last Indian rulers to have occupied it were the Marathas. In 1983, the Agra fort was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its importance during the Mughal Dynasty. The fort can be more accurately described as a walled city.
In Agra I recommend the hotel "The Oberoi Amarvilas", which is in a very convenient location as you can walk from the hotel to the Taj Mahal and the swimming pool is just spectacular.
Our chosen restaurant for dinner was "The Salt Café" excellent service and the best chicken tandoori that we had in India!
Day 3: Agra - Jaipur
We woke up early to go to the Taj Mahal. We were there at 9.30 as we were told that during the day it is very crowded and they recommended the earlier we go, the better. To be honest it is completely worth it! It was a wonderful experience with an OK amount of people and we did enjoy it very much! We were there for approximately 2 hours.
The Taj Mahal was commissioned in 1631 by the fifth Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan (r. 1628–1658) to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal; it also houses the tomb of Shah Jahan himself. The tomb is the centrepiece of a 17-hectare (42-acre) complex, which includes a mosque and a guest house, and is set in formal gardens bounded on three sides by a crenellated wall.
Construction of the mausoleum was essentially completed in 1643, but work continued on other phases of the project for another 10 years. The construction project employed some 20,000 artisans under the guidance of a board of architects led by Ustad Ahmad Lahori, the emperor’s court architect. Various types of symbolism have been employed in the Taj to reflect natural beauty and divinity.
I recommend the hotel "Jai Mahal Palace", it has an amazing garden area.
Our selected restaurant was Bar Palladio, beautiful decoration (everything is full of small blue tails) and it has a fantastic terrace. The food is Italian and ok quality wise.
Day 4: Jaipur
We spent the full day exploring Jaipur and visited the different areas in the following order:
1. Hawa Mahal - on our way to the Amber Fort. The Hawa Mahal is a palace built from red and pink sandstone. The structure was built in 1799 by the Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh. He was so inspired by the unique structure of Khetri Mahal that he built this grand and historical palace. It was designed by Lal Chand Ustad. Its five-floor exterior is akin to a honeycomb with its 953 small windows called Jharokhas decorated with intricate latticework. The original intent of the lattice design was to allow royal ladies to observe everyday life and festivals celebrated in the street below without being seen. This also allowed cool air to pass through, thus making the whole area more pleasant during the high temperatures in summer.
2. Amber fort - Amber Fort is known for its artistic style elements. With its large ramparts and series of gates and cobbled paths, the fort overlooks Maota Lake which is the main source of water for the Amer Palace. Constructed of red sandstone and marble, the attractive, opulent palace is laid out on four levels, each with a courtyard. The palace was the residence of the Rajput Maharajas and their families. At the entrance to the palace near the fort's Ganesh Gate, there is a temple dedicated to Shila Devi, a Goddess of the Chaitanya cult, which was given to Raja Man Singh when he defeated the Raja of Jessore, Bengal in 1604. (Jessore is now in Bangladesh).
3. Gaitore Ki Chhatriyan - a Hindu crematorium and almost empty with no tourists!! Gatore Ki Chhatriyan is a beautiful and quiet place in Jaipur where the royals were cremated. Majestic, intricately carved stone monuments are the highlight of this royal crematory. The location was designed by Maharaja Jai Singh II, the founder of Jaipur. The Gatore compound is characterized predominantly by Vedic architecture with Indo-Persian structural and arcuate building influences.
4. City Palace - I found the city palace to be a bit disappointing to be honest… The City Palace is a royal residence and former administrative headquarters of the rulers of the Jaipur State. Construction started under the reign of Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, who moved his court to Jaipur from Amber, in 1727. Jaipur remained the capital of the kingdom until 1949—when it became the capital of the present-day Indian state of Rajasthan—with the City Palace functioning as the ceremonial and administrative seat of the Maharaja of Jaipur. The construction of the Palace was completed in 1732 and it was also the location of religious and cultural events, as well as a patron of arts, commerce, and industry. It was constructed according to the rules of vastushastra, combining elements of Mughal and Rajput architectural styles. It now houses the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum, and continues to be the home of the Jaipur royal family.
5. Patrika Gate - beautiful spot for pictures. It was constructed and opened to the public in 2016. Patrika Gate was built as a unique memorial showcasing the architectural and cultural heritage of all the regions of Rajasthan. This memorial is an attempt to integrate the art, craft, and cultural heritage of Rajasthan into one structure.
We did not have more time but another 2 interesting places to visit are: Monkey Temple & Albert Museum.
Dinner that night was at "Nixo" typical Indian restaurant.
The private driver finished his services at this point.
Day 5: Varanasi
We took an early flight to Varanasi. Varanasi is a very difficult city to see with a lot of misery and poverty; if you are not prepared for this I would suggest you to go to Udaipur instead. But at the same time… Varanasi is the real India.
We went to the airport by Uber, as we didn’t have the driver any longer, so this was our way of transport until the end of the trip. We flew with Spicejet with no issues.
Our selected hotel was "Taj Ganges" a fantastic hotel with a very nice service . I would not recommend to stay close to the Ganges.
The most typical thing to do is a boat ride along the river. You can choose between a rowing boat or a motor boat, and for obvious reasons you can visit a longer distance with the motor boat. This trip was facilitated by the hotel and included a driver to take us to the car park that is "close" to the river plus the motor boat. The car park is actually 15 min walk from the river and we had our guide waiting for us at the car park. I must say this walk was one of the most stressful moments of my life!! There was people everywhere, plus cows, scooters, cars and many people very sick asking for money…
The boat ride you have to do it either at 6 am to see how the people does the pilgrim bathing or in the evening around 5 pm so you can see the ritual ceremonies. We chose the evening one and we really liked it. We did the typical boat ride to the main 2 crematories and ended up seeing the ceremony that is performed every day at 7 pm at the biggest Ghats from the boat.
That night we had dinner at the hotel.
Day 6: Varanasi - New Delhi
We flew mid-day to New Delhi with India Air and took an Uber to go to the hotel.
We stayed at The Leela Palace New Delhi, located at the diplomatic enclave which is a really nice area.
That night we briefly saw the Qutub Minar and from there we went for dinner to "Lazzez Affaire" a very elegant restaurant with very nice Indian food in the diplomatic area. The chicken tandoori was a bit disappointing but the Lazzez kebab was incredible!
Day 7: New Delhi
We spent the full day exploring Delhi and we were going from point to point via Uber. We visited the different areas in the following order.
1. Lotus Temple - The Lotus Temple is a Baháʼí House of Worship that was dedicated in December 1986. Like all Bahá’í Houses of Worship, the Lotus Temple is open to all, regardless of religion or any other qualification. The building is composed of 27 free-standing marble-clad "petals" arranged in clusters of three to form nine sides, with nine doors opening onto a central hall with a height of slightly over 34 meters and a capacity of 1,300 people. The Lotus Temple has won numerous architectural awards and has been featured in many newspaper and magazine articles.
2. Humayum's tomb – highly recommended. Humayun's tomb was commissioned by Humayun's first wife and chief consort, Empress Bega Begum under her patronage in 1558, and designed by Mirak Mirza Ghiyas and his son, Sayyid Muhammad, Persian architects chosen by her. Besides the main tomb enclosure of Humayun, several smaller monuments dot the pathway leading up to it, from the main entrance in the West, including one that even pre-dates the main tomb itself, by twenty years; it is the tomb complex of Isa Khan Niyazi, an Afghan noble in Sher Shah Suri's court of the Suri dynasty, who fought against the Mughals, constructed in 1547 CE.
3. Raj Ghat – Raj Ghat is a memorial dedicated to Gandhi. It is a black marble platform that marks the spot of Mahatma Gandhi's cremation, on 31 January 1948, a day after his assassination. It is left open to the sky while an eternal flame burns at one end.
4. Gurudwara Bangla - one of the most prominent Sikh gurdwaras known for its association with the eighth Sikh Guru, Guru Har Krishan, as well as the holy pond inside its complex, known as the "Sarovar." It was first built as a small shrine by Sikh General Sardar Baghel Singh in 1783, on the bungalow donated by king Raja Jai Singh of Amer, who supervised the construction of nine Sikh shrines in Delhi in the same year, during the reign of Mughal Emperor, Shah Alam II.
5. Connaught place – in theory this is an area to go shopping but in my view there's not much that you can buy here…
We didn’t visit the city fort (Red Fort) as apparently the other 2 forts above are much better and this one isn't worth it.
Our last stop was going to be Dilli Haat, an outside market, but started raining so much that we decided to come back to the hotel earlier.
We went for dinner to Gulati restaurant, the most authentic restaurant from the trip, we were the only foreigners there as it was full of local people! This was in a square (Pandara Road Market) with few restaurants, where all of them looked nice to be fair. The only problem was that they don’t sell alcohol!
Day 8: flying back home
Do you have more days? A good option can be to extend your holidays to Maldives! It is very close to India and you can enjoy the beach, sea and sun.
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