Day by Day
Day 1 Arrival in New Delhi Mughal Foundations
Welcome at Indira Gandhi International Airport and transfer to your hotel. The afternoon is oriented toward two very different monuments. The Red Fort, built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in 1638 as the main residence of the imperial family, is a complex of palaces, halls, and gardens enclosed by 2.5 kilometers of red sandstone walls rising 33 meters above the city. Raj Ghat is quieter: a simple raised black marble platform in a park beside the Yamuna River, marking the site where Mahatma Gandhi was cremated on January 31, 1948. The eternal flame has burned here since that day. Both sites are within the old city. Both carry a weight that is difficult to describe and easy to feel.
Stay: Delhi Hotel
Day 2 New Delhi Sightseeing The Garden City
The architecture of New Delhi, the planned capital built under British rule in the early 20th century, is on a different scale than the old city. India Gate is a 42-meter war memorial dedicated to the 82,000 soldiers of the British Indian Army who died in the First World War. Rashtrapati Bhavan, the Presidential Residence, is the largest head-of-state residence in the world by floor area, designed by Edwin Lutyens. Qutab Minar, the 73-meter minaret begun in 1193, is the tallest brick minaret ever built and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Lotus Temple, completed in 1986, is one of the most visited buildings on earth: a Bahai house of worship built in the form of a half-open lotus, open to visitors of any faith, requiring only silence inside.
Stay: Delhi Hotel
Day 3 Delhi to Jaipur The Pink City
A 260-kilometer drive southwest through Rajasthan, arriving in Jaipur by mid-afternoon. The city was built in 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II and painted its distinctive terracotta pink in 1876 to welcome the Prince of Wales. The color has been maintained ever since by municipal regulation. Evening visit to the Birla Temple, a modern marble temple dedicated to Laxmi and Narayan, built by the Birla family in 1988. The white marble is illuminated at night against the Moti Dungri hill behind it.
Stay: Jaipur Hotel
Day 4 Jaipur Forts and Observatories
The Amber Fort sits on a hill above the Maota Lake, 11 kilometers from Jaipur. Built in 1592 by Raja Man Singh I, it is a palace complex of red sandstone and white marble that took over a century to complete. The traditional approach is by elephant up the cobbled path to the main gate. Inside: the Hall of Public Audience, the Hall of Private Audience, the Sheesh Mahal whose mirrored ceiling reflects a single candle into a thousand points of light. Back in the city, the Hawa Mahal is a five-story pink sandstone facade built in 1799 as an extension of the royal palace, with 953 small windows designed to catch the breeze and allow royal women to observe the street below without being seen. The City Palace Museum holds the royal collection of weapons, textiles, and art. Jantar Mantar, built between 1728 and 1734, is an open-air astronomical observatory containing 19 large geometric instruments built entirely of stone and still precise to within two seconds. It is the largest and best-preserved of five such observatories built by Jai Singh II.
Stay: Jaipur Hotel
Day 5 Jaipur to Agra The Ghost City
Drive 221 kilometers east to Agra with a stop at Fatehpur Sikri, one of the strangest places in India. Emperor Akbar built this city as his capital between 1571 and 1585, a planned Mughal city of palaces, courtyards, and mosques built from local red sandstone. He abandoned it around 1585, possibly due to water shortages, possibly for strategic reasons. The debate continues. What is certain is that the city has been largely uninhabited since and remains almost perfectly intact: the Buland Darwaza, the highest gateway in India at 54 meters; the Jama Masjid mosque; the Panch Mahal, a five-story pavilion built in graduated tiers. It stands in the sun exactly as it was left, which is why it is called a ghost city. Arrive in Agra in the afternoon.
Stay: Agra Hotel
Day 6 Agra The Elegy in Marble
The Taj Mahal was built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan between 1631 and 1653 as a mausoleum for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died giving birth to their 14th child. 20,000 workers and 1,000 elephants were employed in its construction. The white marble was brought from Makrana in Rajasthan. The inlay work uses 28 types of precious and semi-precious stones from across Asia. The building is identical on all four sides. It is the same from every angle. Photographs exist of it everywhere, and still, it is not possible to be fully prepared for the first time you see it in person. Afternoon visit to Agra Fort, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in its own right: a 16th-century Mughal fortification of red sandstone enclosing palaces, mosques, and audience halls. Shah Jahan was imprisoned here by his son Aurangzeb in 1658. He spent the last eight years of his life in the Musamman Burj tower, from which the Taj Mahal is visible across the river.
Stay: Agra Hotel
Day 7 Agra to Khajuraho Light and Sound
A 400-kilometer drive southeast to Khajuraho, arriving in the late afternoon. The Chandela dynasty ruled this region from the 9th to 13th centuries and, during their peak, built between 84 and 85 temples over the course of roughly a century. 22 survive. They are known primarily for their erotic sculpture, but the program of carvings covers the full range of human experience: celestial nymphs, warriors, animals, loving couples, and scenes of court life. The sculpture is explicit in places and also deeply philosophical, representing the Hindu understanding of kama, one of the four aims of human life, as a path toward the divine rather than a distraction from it. Evening light and sound show at the Western Group of Temples, narrated by the actor Amitabh Bachchan, tracing the history of the Chandela kings and the creation of the temples.
Stay: Khajuraho Hotel
Day 8 Khajuraho to Varanasi The Temple Trail
Morning exploration of the Western and Eastern Groups of Temples. The Kandariya Mahadeo Temple in the Western Group is the largest and most elaborate, rising 31 meters and covered on every surface with some of the finest medieval sculpture in India. The Eastern Group includes both Hindu and Jain temples and is quieter and less visited than the Western Group. Afternoon flight to Varanasi. Varanasi is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, a city that has existed as a place of pilgrimage on the west bank of the Ganges for at least 3,000 years. Mark Twain described it as older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend. He was not exaggerating. Evening by the river to watch the Ganga Aarti, the nightly fire ceremony at the main ghat.
Stay: Varanasi Hotel
Day 9 Varanasi The Holy Ganges
The boat goes out before sunrise. The Ganges at dawn in Varanasi is one of the most significant sights in the world: pilgrims bathing in the river, priests performing puja on the stone steps, funeral pyres burning at the Manikarnika Ghat, where Hindus believe cremation grants direct liberation from the cycle of rebirth. The ghats stretch for six kilometers along the west bank, and each has its own character. The river moves slowly, and the city wakes slowly around you. After breakfast, the Kashi Vishwanath Temple, one of the twelve Jyotirlinga shrines, was rebuilt in the 18th century by the Maratha queen Ahilyabai Holkar, with its two towers plated in gold donated by the Sikh Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Afternoon drive to Sarnath, seven kilometers from Varanasi. This is the Deer Park where the Buddha, having attained enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, gave his first teaching to five companions in 528 BC. That teaching, setting in motion the Wheel of Dharma, is the foundation of Buddhism. The Dhamekh Stupa marks the spot. The Archaeological Museum holds the Lion Capital of Ashoka, the national emblem of India.
Stay: Varanasi Hotel
Day 10 Varanasi to Kathmandu The Himalayan Leap
Afternoon flight from Varanasi to Kathmandu. The shift from the Gangetic plains to the Himalayan valley is as dramatic as any transition on this itinerary. Varanasi sits at roughly 80 meters above sea level. Kathmandu sits at 1,300 meters and is ringed by peaks. A traditional Nepalese welcome at the hotel. Take the evening to adjust, rest, and prepare for the three days ahead.
Stay: Kathmandu Hotel
Day 11 Kathmandu Medieval Valleys
The Kathmandu Valley contains more UNESCO World Heritage Sites per square kilometer than almost anywhere else on earth. Today covers three of them. Swayambhunath, the Monkey Temple, sits on a hilltop above the city with a white stupa topped by a golden spire, the painted eyes of the Buddha watching over the valley in all four cardinal directions. It has been a place of Buddhist pilgrimage since at least the 5th century. Patan Durbar Square, 6 kilometers south of Kathmandu, is the historic heart of Lalitpur and contains the most concentrated collection of ancient Newari architecture in Nepal: bronze statues, stone temples, and the old royal palace built over many centuries by Malla kings. Hanuman Dhoka, the original royal palace of Kathmandu, stands at the center of the old city, surrounded by the buildings that grew up around it over 400 years of royal occupation.
Stay: Kathmandu Hotel
Day 12 Kathmandu Everest and Ancient Cities
Early morning mountain flight from Tribhuvan International Airport. The one-hour flight follows the Himalayan range eastward, with every passenger given a window seat and a clear view of the peaks. Mt. Everest at 8,850 meters is visible on a clear morning along with Lhotse, Makalu, Cho Oyu, and the full sweep of the eastern Himalaya. The pilots angle the aircraft so both sides of the cabin see the mountains equally. It is, by any measure, an extraordinary hour. After breakfast: Boudhanath, the great white stupa that is the center of the Tibetan Buddhist community in Nepal and one of the largest stupas in the world. Pashupatinath Temple, the most sacred Hindu site in Nepal, is on the banks of the Bagmati River. Bhaktapur, the third of the medieval cities in the valley and the best preserved, has its Durbar Square largely rebuilt after the 2015 earthquake, but still houses the 55-Window Palace and the five-tiered Nyatapola Pagoda. Evening farewell dinner of traditional Newari cuisine with a live cultural folk dance program.
Stay: Kathmandu Hotel
Day 13 Departure
Breakfast at the hotel. Private transfer to Tribhuvan International Airport for your international departure. Thirteen days. Two countries. More than 3,000 years of documented history were visited in person. The spiritual and cultural legacy of the subcontinent travels with you.
Stay: International Departure
