How to choose: the river or the garden
The best hours: dawn and dusk, and both happen on the river.
On the ghats: you are there on foot in a minute, stepping out to the sound of oars and bells, and back for a nap between the morning boat and the evening aarti.
The cost of the ghats: they are never quiet. Loudspeakers, temple bells and festival music start early and finish late, and the lanes behind are crowded and steep.
- The ghats
- Old city riverfront, Assi to Panchganga
- The cantonment
- Gardens, wide roads, large hotels
- Sarnath
- A few simple hotels, far from the river
- Ghats by car
- About half an hour from the cantonment
- Access: limited by car, with stairs to climb almost everywhere.
- The cantonment: the leafy colonial district a few kilometres inland, with lawns, pools, parking at the door and calm nights, close to the railway station and the airport road.
- The drive: to the ghats, then the last stretch on foot, because cars cannot reach the river. Longer at festival times.
- A gift, not a cost: for guests who find crowds tiring, who are older, travelling with small children or simply want a sanctuary.
- Sarnath: peaceful, near the Buddhist sites. We use it only for pilgrims who want to be there at dawn.
- Our rule: if this is your one visit and you want to feel the city, choose the river for at least one night.
- At great festivals: Dev Deepawali, Mahashivratri and the like turn the ghats into a sea of people, so decide by how you handle crowds.
BrijRama Palace, Darbhanga Ghat
Who built it: Shridhara Narayana Munshi, a minister of the Maratha state of Nagpur, which is why the steps beside it are called Munshi Ghat.
The Darbhanga years: in 1915 it passed to the royal family of Darbhanga in Bihar, and the ghat in front took their name.
The name BrijRama: in the 1990s a hotel family bought the house, gave it its new name and began a restoration that took many years.
- Completed
- 1812, by Shridhara Narayana Munshi
- Darbhanga family
- Owners from 1915
- Setting
- Darbhanga Ghat, near Dashashwamedh
- Arrive
- By boat, or on foot through the lanes
- Kitchen
- Vegetarian, no alcohol served
- Best for
- Couples, solo travellers, river lovers
- Restored: it opened as a heritage hotel, keeping the sandstone front, the arched windows and the stepped terraces.
- The setting: a short walk from Dashashwamedh and the evening aarti, yet its terraces feel calm, raised above the crowd.
- Arriving by boat: we recommend it for your first arrival, because the view of the facade from the water stays with you.
- Arriving on foot: through the lanes, with porters for your luggage.
- Middays: spend the hot middle of the day on the terrace with a book.
- Sunrise yoga: the hotel offers gentle early morning yoga on the rooftop terrace, shared with pilgrims offering water to the sun below.
- Less suited to: guests who struggle with steps, since the ghats and lanes around it are steep.
- Read more: BrijRama Palace.
Other hotels on the ghats
- Suryauday Haveli
- Small haveli, quiet Shivala Ghat
- Guleria Kothi
- Rooftop terrace, beside Manikarnika
- Kitchens
- Vegetarian at both
Suryauday Haveli, Shivala Ghat
Where: upstream, in the quieter southern stretch of the river.
Its story: said to have been built by a branch of the Nepalese royal family in the early twentieth century.
- The house: only a handful of rooms, a vegetarian kitchen and a terrace looking over the water.
- Its strength: location. The southern ghats are calmer, with fewer touts, and a short boat ride takes you to the busy heart of the city.
- Who it suits: travellers who prefer intimacy to grandeur, and who are happy with a simpler style of service than at BrijRama.
Guleria Kothi, near Manikarnika
What it is: an old riverside mansion on Guleria Ghat, converted into a small hotel with a rooftop terrace.
Its setting: close to Manikarnika, the great cremation ghat, which is both its meaning and its challenge.
- What you'll see: the smoke of the pyres from the terrace, and the chant of funeral processions in the lanes.
- How guests feel: some find it deeply moving, a frank meeting with the city's purpose. Others find it hard.
- Local custom: because of its setting the hotel serves no meat or alcohol.
- Our view: we recommend it only to guests who know exactly what they are choosing.
What every ghat hotel shares
The noise: loudspeakers from temples before dawn, and celebration on festival nights.
The steps: almost everywhere.
- Luggage: cars stop at the edge of the old city, so porters carry bags down the lanes, or a boat brings you and your bags to the hotel steps.
- The rooms: in old buildings they vary in size and light, and no two are alike.
- Light sleepers: bring earplugs, and ask for a room away from the most public terraces.
Taj Nadesar Palace, in the cantonment
The first house: built as a residence for officers of the East India Company, in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century, in the airy bungalow style of the time.
Its style: verandas, high ceilings and deep shade.
- Built
- East India Company era, sources differ
- Later
- Guest house of the Maharajas of Banaras
- Hotel since
- The 2000s, restored by Taj
- Size
- A handful of suites in large gardens
- To the ghats
- About half an hour by car
- Best for
- Older guests, families, privacy
- Royal guest house: in the late nineteenth century it was acquired by Maharaja Prabhu Narayan Singh of Benares, and his family used it for important visitors, sparing them the long crossing to Ramnagar Fort.
- Royal guests: the Prince and Princess of Wales, later King George V and Queen Mary, are said to have stayed during their Indian tour of 1905 and 1906.
- What you pay for: the scale. Service is personal, the grounds are private, and after a dawn on the river you come back to space and silence.
- Who it suits: older guests, families with young children, honeymooners who want privacy, and anyone who finds Varanasi's crowds draining.
- The price: the drive to the ghats, so we plan each outing to make the most of every trip in and out.
- Read more: Taj Nadesar Palace.
More garden hotels in the cantonment
- Taj Ganges
- Larger modern Taj, same grounds
- Its facilities
- Pool, several restaurants
- Chain hotels
- Comfortable, efficient, far from the river
Taj Ganges, in the same grounds
What it is: a larger, modern Taj hotel within the same estate, with a pool, several restaurants and conference rooms.
What it lacks: the palace's history and intimacy.
- What it shares: the gardens and the quiet.
- When we use it: for families travelling in a group, for guests who want more facilities, or when the palace is full.
- The best of both: some of our guests stay here and book a meal at the palace to enjoy its rooms.
The international chain hotels
What they are: a few large modern hotels from international chains in the cantonment and along the main roads.
- Their strengths: comfortable, efficient and well placed for the station.
- Their weakness: they could be anywhere, and they put you far from the river.
- When we use them: only when the palaces are full at peak times, making up for it with extra time on the water.
Which room to ask for, and how to ask
Specific rooms, not categories: we keep notes from our own stays and from guests' feedback, and always ask for specific rooms.
On the ghats, a river view is everything: ask for upper floors facing the Ganga, and confirm in writing that the room faces the water rather than a courtyard or a lane.
- Ask about steps: old havelis may have narrow staircases and no lift to some floors, which matters with knee problems or heavy luggage.
- Light sleepers: ask for a room away from public terraces and festival viewing spots.
- In the cantonment: a garden-facing suite is worth the request, because the gardens are the point.
- At Dev Deepawali: river-view rooms are booked many months ahead. If you want the lamps from your own window, plan the trip around the room.
- Dietary needs: tell us early. Many ghat hotels keep vegetarian kitchens by custom, and some serve no alcohol.
Heritage or modern: what you gain and give up
A real old building: walls a metre thick, windows set for the breeze, staircases worn by two centuries of feet.
Character: rooms have odd shapes, and plumbing has been fitted into structures never designed for it.
- The view: something no modern building can offer, because no new building is allowed so close to the river.
- The trade-offs: steps, smaller rooms and less soundproofing.
- A modern hotel: a predictable room, a pool, a gym, a large breakfast and quick access by car.
- What you give up: the feeling of being inside the city, and more of your day in traffic.
- Two nights: we almost always choose heritage.
- Longer stays or mixed groups: we often combine a modern base with one night on the river, so everyone gets at least one dawn from the window.
An honest note on what money buys here
Fewer grand hotels: Varanasi has fewer true luxury hotels than Jaipur or Udaipur, and none is a grand palace in the style of our Rambagh Palace or the Taj Lake Palace.
What a good budget buys: a room on the river, privacy behind a garden wall, and the people who make the city work for you.
- A scholarly guide: one who can explain the rites at the ghats without sensationalising them.
- A boatman: one who knows where to hold position for the aarti.
- Help in the lanes: someone to carry bags down the lanes and hold your phone outside the temple.
- Time and access, not marble: two boat trips rather than one, a private recital, a car waiting at the edge of the old city, and a planner who adjusts the day around crowds and festivals.
- Value across the trip: our page on what a luxury journey costs.
- One more honest point: service in old riverside buildings can be warm but less polished, and hot water, lifts or lighting may sometimes misbehave. We tell guests in advance, and most decide the view is worth it.
Arriving and getting around from your hotel
To a ghat hotel: we drive you to a point on the river, often near Assi, and a boat brings you downstream to the hotel's steps while porters take the luggage through the lanes.
The best introduction: the whole riverfront unfolding as you arrive.
- Airport
- Lal Bahadur Shastri, Babatpur
- To the ghats
- About an hour
- Ghat hotels
- Car to the river, then a boat
- Cantonment hotels
- Car to the door
- The river as your road: from a ghat hotel you can step into a boat for the aarti, the dawn ride or a trip across to Ramnagar Fort.
- From the cantonment: we drive you to the edge of the old city and walk with you from there.
- Short hops: cycle rickshaws are fun in the lanes near the river.
- Planning: our Varanasi itinerary follows these rhythms, and things to do in Varanasi covers the boat rides, walks and day trips.
Eating and drinking at your hotel
Vegetarian by custom: much of the old city is, and some riverside hotels keep entirely vegetarian kitchens and serve no alcohol, out of respect for the ghats and temples.
- Breakfast
- Kachori-sabzi
- Evening
- Tamatar chaat
- Winter dawn
- Malaiyo, if fresh
- Wine with dinner
- Garden hotels, not most ghat hotels
- If wine matters: tell us, and we will choose your hotel accordingly or plan an evening in the cantonment.
- The garden hotels: full bars and wider menus.
- Ask for Banarasi dishes: a good kitchen will make kachori-sabzi for breakfast, tamatar chaat in the evening and malaiyo in winter if it can get it fresh at dawn.
Splitting your stay, and the hotels before and after
Both faces of the city: splitting a stay costs one short transfer.
Our usual order: start on the ghats while energy is high, then move to the cantonment for a final calm night before the flight.
- Families: sometimes do the reverse, settling children in a garden first and moving to the river for a single dawn on the water.
- From central India: guests arriving from Khajuraho or Orchha can read our guide to where to stay in Orchha and Khajuraho.
- Via Delhi: many spend a night at The Imperial or another of the capital's grand hotels before or after.
- Twelve nights: our Rajasthan and Varanasi journey links the palaces of Rajasthan to the Ganga.
Matching the hotel to the traveller
Couples and honeymooners
Choose the river: a room above the Ganga at BrijRama Palace, a dawn boat from your own steps and a private dinner on a terrace with the lamps below is as romantic as India gets.
- If privacy matters more: a suite at Taj Nadesar Palace gives you gardens to yourselves.
- Journeys: our Rajasthan honeymoon journeys often end here.
Families with children
Choose the garden: children need space to run, a pool to splash in and a calm place to sleep after the noise of the ghats.
- Where: the cantonment, at Taj Nadesar Palace or Taj Ganges, with one or two short trips to the river at dawn and dusk.
- Older, curious children: they may enjoy one night on the ghats as an adventure.
Older travellers and those with limited mobility
The garden hotels are kinder: cars reach the door, paths are level and the nights are quiet.
- On the river: we plan outings by boat from the nearest accessible point and keep walking in the lanes short.
- A night on the ghats: we pick the room with the fewest steps and arrange porters and a boat transfer.
Solo travellers, writers and photographers
Where: a small haveli on the southern ghats, or a river room at BrijRama.
- Why: the city at the hours that matter, without a car between you and the light.
- Photographers: sleep on the river, because the best dawn light lasts minutes. Read our photography tips on asking permission and respecting the cremation ghats.
Pilgrims
- Where: as close to the river and the Vishwanath temple as you comfortably can, to bathe, pray and take darshan at the quiet hours.
- Rites: tell us which you hope to perform, and we will arrange a priest from a family you can trust.
Staying for the great festivals
Dev Deepawali: the night everyone wants, after Diwali. The ghats are lined with clay lamps, the river fills with boats and the crowds are vast.
The best seat: a ghat hotel with a river terrace lets you watch from above without joining the crush. We book boats and rooms many months ahead.
- Dev Deepawali
- Kartik full moon, about two weeks after Diwali
- Mahashivratri
- February or March
- Ramlila season
- Autumn, at Ramnagar
- At festivals
- Higher rates and minimum stays
- Mahashivratri: huge numbers come to the Vishwanath temple, and the lanes around it are packed for a day and a night.
- Holi: joyful but wild near the ghats, and a garden hotel gives you a place to retreat once the colour has been thrown.
- Ramlila: guests at the garden palaces have easier road access to Ramnagar.
- Every month: our best time to visit Varanasi guide sets them out.
What we tell our own family about Varanasi hotels
Book early: for Dev Deepawali, the full moon of Kartik, and for the peak months from November to February.
Pack light: or accept that porters will carry your bags down the lanes to a ghat hotel.
- Bring earplugs: if you sleep lightly. The temples start early.
- Check the policy: on alcohol and non-vegetarian food before you book a riverside hotel.
- In the lanes: leave valuables in the room safe, and keep your phone in a zipped pocket.
- Before you arrive: read the main Varanasi guide for the ghats, the aarti and cremation-ghat etiquette.
