Twenty-eight states, one itinerary.
Which Taj sunrise beats the queue. What a Chandni Chowk food walk really costs. Whether the Ranthambore permit is worth chasing. Every tour in India, reviewed.
The Golden Triangle: Delhi, Agra, Jaipur.
Roughly 720 kilometres of road and rail closing a loop between the capital, the marble and the pink city. It is the shape of most first visits to India, and every leg of it books differently.
RanthamboreMarble domes, hill forts and tigers: the India everyone comes for.
The Taj at first light, Amber Fort on the ridge above Jaipur, a Kerala backwater at walking pace, and the park permits that decide whether you see a tiger at all. The handful of days most Indian itineraries get built around.
The Taj Mahal: get the morning right.
All 145 Taj Mahal tours →
Agra is three hours down the line from Delhi and the gates open at sunrise, which is why nearly every version of this day leaves the capital in the dark. These three carry the most travellers; the full list splits the rest by how you travel and how long you stay.
Delhi to Agra on the early express
The Gatimaan and Shatabdi run down before breakfast and back after dark, which keeps the whole thing to one long stretch and no road hours.
First light, then Agra Fort
The marble goes pink, then white, and the crowd is a fraction of what it will be by ten. Agra Fort and the Baby Taj fill the rest of the morning.
Agra inside the Delhi–Jaipur loop
One car, one driver, three cities. Agra becomes a morning between Delhi and Jaipur instead of a fourteen-hour round trip.
Old Delhi and New Delhi are two different cities.
Chandni Chowk is spice lanes, rickshaw horns and paratha stalls that predate the British. Lutyens’ Delhi is boulevards, sandstone and space. The best days out cross between the two, and the food walks are why people stay an extra night.
Rupees to dollars: what a day out in India actually costs.
Every tour on the site with its price attached. A good many of the best days in India cost less than the taxi to the airport.
Street-food walks, dawn boats on the Ganges, skip-the-line entries and a whole day in a tuk-tuk.
The standard day out: a car and guide in Jaipur, a Taj sunrise run, a cooking class with the meal at the end.
Multi-day Golden Triangle runs with a driver, tiger permits, Kerala houseboats and private Agra days.
The tours India books out first.
Every review →Old Delhi city runs, Taj day trips and the Dharavi walks carry more travellers than anything else in the country, and each one earns its slot for a different reason.
1
Old & New Delhi City Tour – Half or Full Day Options Available
Explore Old and New Delhi by private car, tuk-tuk, and foot, with major sights, local guides, hotel pickup, and flexible half-day options.
From · $38
Read our review →
2
Old & New Delhi City Tour – Choose Half or Full Day Experience
from $38
3
Same Day Taj Mahal, Agra Fort & Baby Taj Tour from Delhi by Car
from $62
4
Taj Mahal Day Tour from Delhi by Superfast Train – TOP RATED TOUR
from $100
5
Full Day Taj Mahal, Agra Fort & Baby Taj Tour from Delhi by Car
from $62
6
Taj Mahal & Agra Private Day Trip with Transfers
from $4
7
Taj Mahal Tour from Delhi by Express Train (Viator Award Winner)
from $75
8
All Inclusive Private Taj Mahal Luxury Tour from Delhi by Car
from $62
Jaipur is pink sandstone with a fort on every ridge.
Amber sits above a lake north of the city, Nahargarh takes the sunset from the west, and the walled bazaars run gold, block-print and lac bangles street by street. A day with a car and a guide covers more of it than a week on foot.
Kerala moves at the speed of a punt pole.
Behind Kochi the backwaters run for hundreds of kilometres: rice paddy, coir villages and canals too narrow for a motor. Inland the tea slopes start at Munnar. It is the calmest week in India and the one people extend.
- 1Adventure Tuk Tuk Tour in kochi – A Private Guided Tour with Hotel Pick upfrom $14
- 2Backwater Village Eco Boat Cruise with Lunchfrom $33
- 3Full Day Backwater Village Punting Boat Cruisefrom $29
India keeps a few days entirely to itself.
Forts and food markets you can find across Asia. Dharavi, a night on the Thar dunes and a wild tiger belong to India alone.
Dharavi
Dharavi holds around a million people and an economy that recycles a large share of Mumbai’s waste, alongside potteries, tanneries and bakeries all working in the open. The walks are led by residents and by the NGOs that run schools there, photography inside is not allowed, and several operators put a fixed share of the fee back into the neighbourhood. Ask which one does before you book.
- 1Dharavi slum tour in Mumbai by Female tour guides of the slum★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,976 reviews
- 2Dharavi Slum, DhobiGhat, and Dabbawallas Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 689 reviews
- 3Dharavi Slum Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 625 reviews
A Night on the Dunes
West of Jaisalmer the Thar runs to the Pakistan border in low sand ridges and thorn scrub. Camels leave in the late afternoon, dinner happens on a dune as the light goes, and you sleep either in a tented camp or on a rope cot in the open. October to March only; either side of that the desert is unbearable.
- 1Overnight Camel Safari – Sleeping under the Stars★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 390 reviews
- 2Adventure non touristic camel safari★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 300 reviews
- 3Overnight Desert Safari Tour Package★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 255 reviews
A Wild Tiger
India holds roughly three-quarters of the world’s wild tigers, and Ranthambore, Bandhavgarh and Kanha give the best odds of seeing one. Parks sell numbered zone permits for fixed morning and afternoon drives, the core zones shut through the monsoon, and no honest guide will promise a sighting. Two drives beat one long one.
- 1Golden Triangle & Ranthambore: 4-Day Private Tour from Delhi★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 355 reviews
- 2Private 4-Day Golden Triangle Tour with Ranthambore Tiger Safari★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 248 reviews
- 3Ranthambore National Park Day Trip with Safari★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 244 reviews
Varanasi wakes before the sun and burns all night.
All Varanasi tours →
Full Day City Highlights Day Tour & Ganges Cruise
Read our review →
Hidden Secrets of Varanasi: Vibrant Tradition (Guided Tour)
Read our review →India will not let you book these on the day.
Most of India can be arranged from a hotel lobby the night before. These cannot. They run on ticket quotas, park permits and a monument that closes one day a week.
- 01Sunrise Taj Mahal, Agra Fort & Baby Taj Tour from Delhi by CarThe Taj closes to visitors every Friday, and sunrise entry is a timed ticket — the slot decides what light you get.
- 02Taj Mahal & Agra Tour by Gatimaan Express TrainSeats on the fast Delhi–Agra trains come out of a quota that opens ahead of the date. Once it goes, the day trip goes by road instead.
- 03Golden Triangle & Ranthambore: 4-Day Private Tour from DelhiRanthambore runs on numbered zone permits sold in advance, and the core zones shut through the monsoon months.
- 045 Days Luxury Kerala Tour with Houseboat ExperienceKerala houseboats have a fixed number of berths, and the December-to-January weeks are spoken for long before Christmas.
The monsoon reaches Kerala in June and Delhi by July.
From June to September the rain works its way up the country in a wave, and it usually arrives as one hard hour rather than a wet day. Plan around it instead of through it: a cooking class in somebody’s kitchen, a mirrored palace room in Jaipur, a spice market under awnings, a Kochi canal with the paddies flooded green. Munnar is at its best in it.
By place — where you are heading
Delhi191 tours
Jaipur76 tours
Mumbai83 tours
Agra44 tours
Kochi & Kerala35 tours
Varanasi27 tours
Jodhpur25 tours
Udaipur20 tours- All 27 regions →
By experience — what sort of day suits you?
New on the India list.
The full run of reviews →
GROUP YOGA CLASS – BEGINNER / ADVANCED – Sunrise Yoga with Ayush in Varanasi
Read our review →
Golden Triangle with Wildlife and Royal Castle Stay
Read our review →
Ranthambore Tiger Safari from Jaipur – 1 or 2 Days
Read our review →
Rooftop Yoga in Jaipur – Includes Transport, Tea & Instructor
Read our review →
Single Walking Tour. Local culture, religion, traditions and more. Daily Tour
Read our review →
Walking tours – for an authentic Varanasi experience
Read our review →
Cultural & Spiritual Trails of Old Town Varanasi Guided Walking Tour
Read our review →
Private Jodhpur City Sightseeing Tour by Three-Wheeler Tuk-Tuk
Read our review →
Private Full Day Jodhpur CIty Sightseeing Tour By Tuk Tuk
Read our review →
