Three capitals, one family history
More than a circuit: people call this route the Golden Triangle, and it can sound like a package tour. To a Jaipur family it is the map of a long relationship between Rajput kings and Mughal emperors.
Delhi: Delhi was a Rajput city under the Chauhan king Prithviraj in the twelfth century, long before Shah Jahan moved his court there from Agra in the 1640s.
Agra: Agra was the first great seat of the Mughals.
- Nights
- Five: Delhi two, Agra one, Jaipur two
- Pace
- One great sight at its best hour each morning
- Best months
- October to March
- Good for
- First-timers with a week, couples, families
- Starts
- Delhi
- Ends
- Jaipur, back to Delhi to fly
- Jaipur: Jaipur was founded in 1727 by Sawai Jai Singh II, whose Kachwaha ancestors had married into the Mughal family and served it as generals.
- A marriage in 1562: Raja Bharmal of Amber gave his daughter in marriage to the young emperor Akbar, and she became the mother of Jahangir.
- Another Rajput mother: Shah Jahan's own mother was a Rathore princess from Jodhpur.
- The Taj's land: the riverside site had belonged to Raja Man Singh of Amber. Shah Jahan's written order records that Man Singh's grandson gave it up for four havelis in the city.
- Rajasthan's marble: much of the Taj's marble came from the Makrana quarries in Rajasthan.
- The astronomer-king: the founder of Jaipur built the first of his stone observatories, the Jantar Mantar, in Delhi in 1724.
- One story, told in order: the Mughal capital at Delhi, the marble tomb at Agra, Akbar's abandoned city at Fatehpur Sikri, an ancient stepwell on the road west, then the planned Rajput city that learned from all of them.
- The family resemblance: by the time you reach the Pink City, you can read it in every jharokha and chhatri.
- Luxury is timing: the Taj at the hour it was built for, Old Delhi before the shutters lift, Amber as the gates open, and a private car or fast train between, so you never spend the best light on the road.
Day by day, at the right hour for each place
- Taj Mahal
- Closed to sightseers every Friday
- Red Fort
- Closed on Mondays
- Our fix
- We set your arrival day around them
- Fixed dates
- We simply reorder the days
Day 1: Delhi, a soft landing
Late arrivals: most long-haul flights reach Delhi late at night or before dawn.
Met inside arrivals: we drive you to a central hotel in the leafy heart of New Delhi, usually about forty minutes at night.
- Sleep at once: we ask the hotel to hold your room from the night before.
- An empty first morning: a late breakfast, a swim and a gentle walk among the fifteenth-century tombs of Lodhi Garden.
- Humayun's Tomb: in the last two hours of light visit Humayun's Tomb, finished around 1570, the first great garden tomb in India and the direct ancestor of the Taj.
- Sunder Nursery: walk on into it as the sandstone turns rose.
- On a Thursday: end at the shrine of Hazrat Nizamuddin for qawwali, then dinner at your hotel and an early night.
Day 2: Old Delhi at dawn, New Delhi at dusk
Six o'clock start: leave with your guide for Shah Jahan's walled city and climb the steps of the Jama Masjid as the old city wakes.
On foot and by rickshaw: Chandni Chowk, the silver lanes of Dariba Kalan and the spice warehouses of Khari Baoli, eating as you go.
- Our guides grew up near these lanes: they know which closed shutter hides the best shop.
- The Red Fort: in the late morning, walk through the Red Fort, built between 1639 and 1648, to the white marble Diwan-i-Khas where the Peacock Throne once stood.
- Afternoon: rest.
- At dusk: drive down Kartavya Path past the Jaipur Column to India Gate, where Delhi families walk the lawns as the lights come on.
- Prefer the Qutub Minar: we swap it in for the morning and keep Old Delhi for a later visit.
Day 3: the fast train to Agra, and the river at sunset
The train: the Gatimaan Express from Hazrat Nizamuddin reaches Agra in under two hours. By road, the Yamuna Expressway takes three to four.
Straight to Agra Fort: we meet you on the platform and go to Agra Fort in the late morning.
- Inside the fort: walk from Akbar's red sandstone Jahangiri Mahal to Shah Jahan's white marble Musamman Burj, where the old emperor spent his last years as his son's prisoner, looking down the river at his wife's tomb.
- Midday: check in, have lunch and rest.
- The Baby Taj: cross the Yamuna to Itimad-ud-Daulah, finished around 1628, while the soft light lies on its inlay.
- Sunset at Mehtab Bagh: Mehtab Bagh, the moonlight garden on the Taj's own axis. The dome turns amber, buffaloes wade home and the city noise fades.
- Dinner: at your hotel, with the Taj lit beyond the terrace.
Day 4: the Taj at sunrise, then west to Jaipur
Before sunrise: pass through the great red sandstone gateway, the Darwaza-i-Rauza, and watch the Taj Mahal change from grey-blue to pink to gold.
Go close: the calligraphy grows larger towards the top so it reads evenly from the ground, and the inlaid flowers are so fine you cannot catch the joins with a fingernail.
- Read the night before: our note on the Taj at sunrise.
- Fatehpur Sikri: after breakfast, about an hour west to Fatehpur Sikri, Akbar's red city, walked with a guide before lunch.
- Abhaneri: in the afternoon, the Abhaneri stepwell, Chand Baori, thirteen storeys of zigzag steps down to the water, which almost every other car drives straight past.
- Jaipur by evening: dinner at your palace hotel.
Day 5: Amber at opening time, the palace in the afternoon
Amber as the gates open: you will have the Sheesh Mahal, the hall of mirrors, at Amber Fort almost to yourself.
No elephants: we walk you up the old ramparts or drive you to the upper gate, and we don't book elephant rides.
- Nearby: Panna Meena ka Kund, the geometric stepwell, and the small Anokhi Museum of Hand Printing in its restored haveli at Amer.
- Jantar Mantar: after lunch and a rest, while the sun is still high and its giant sundial is easy to read. See the Jantar Mantar.
- The City Palace: a private tour of the City Palace takes you into the gilded rooms of the Chandra Mahal, where the former royal family still lives.
- Sunset: at Nahargarh Fort on the ridge, with the pink grid below turning gold.
Day 6: Hawa Mahal at sunrise, and onward
Just after sunrise: stand under Hawa Mahal when the light falls full on its 953 small windows and the street is still asleep.
Chai on a rooftop: opposite, then the bazaars of the walled city with a guide as the shutters lift.
- Snacks: pyaaz kachori and a clay cup of lassi.
- Back to Delhi: most guests fly home from there, so we drive the expressway in about four to five hours, or put you on a short flight from Jaipur.
- If you can stay: Jaipur deserves a third night, and Udaipur and Ranthambore are both within easy reach.
Where you'll stay
We choose rooms as carefully as hotels, and we'll suggest the right mix after one conversation about how you travel.
Delhi: three grand addresses
The Imperial: on Janpath, opened in the 1930s as New Delhi was being built. Its palm-lined drive and colonial-era prints still carry that moment, and it is the most central for Old Delhi.
- The Oberoi, New Delhi: overlooks the Delhi Golf Club, a few minutes from Humayun's Tomb and Lodhi Garden. Ask for the golf course side.
- The Leela Palace, New Delhi: in the diplomatic quarter, the most palatial of the three, with a rooftop pool, and handy for the airport.
- The full list: our guide to luxury hotels in Delhi.
Agra: a room that faces the Taj
The Oberoi Amarvilas: about 600 metres from the Taj Mahal, and every room and suite looks towards it.
- Breakfast on the balcony: as the dome changes colour after your sunrise visit.
- Where we would spend: if this is your one visit to the Taj, here.
- ITC Mughal: for families, or anyone who wants gardens and space over a view. A sprawling low-rise hotel with a fine spa and the Peshawri restaurant, a short drive from the monument.
Jaipur: a palace for every temperament
Rambagh Palace: a garden house in 1835, then the home of Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II and Maharani Gayatri Devi, and a hotel since 1957. Ask for a room facing the Mughal gardens.
- The Oberoi Rajvilas: 32 acres outside the city, with a restored eighteenth-century Shiva temple. The calmer choice.
- Samode Haveli: inside the walled city in a nobleman's painted townhouse, a short walk from Hawa Mahal.
Swaps by style
A fort instead: add a sixth night at Neemrana Fort-Palace, a fifteenth-century hill fort between Jaipur and Delhi, and break the drive back to the airport.
- Jaipur alternatives: Jai Mahal Palace and The Leela Palace Jaipur.
- Heritage or new: our guide to palace hotels explains how heritage palaces differ from new ones built in palace style.
Between the cities: trains, roads and the stops that matter
Delhi to Agra by train: the Gatimaan Express from Hazrat Nizamuddin is one of India's fastest. It reaches Agra in under two hours, quicker and calmer than the expressway on a weekday morning.
Bags by car: your chauffeur carries your luggage, so you step off with nothing but a camera, and the same car waits outside the station.
Or the road: the Yamuna Expressway makes the drive about three to four hours.
- Delhi to Agra
- Under two hours by train, three to four by road
- Agra to Fatehpur Sikri
- About an hour
- Agra to Jaipur
- About four hours, plus stops
- Jaipur to Delhi
- Four to five hours, often less
- Agra to Jaipur by road: there is no train worth taking, because the road has the best stops.
- Fatehpur Sikri: about an hour west. Akbar built it from 1571 and abandoned it around 1585, and its palaces, the five-storeyed Panch Mahal and the white marble tomb of the Sufi saint Salim Chishti are all intact.
- Abhaneri: the village keeps Chand Baori, one of the deepest and most beautiful stepwells in India, beside the ruined Harshat Mata temple.
- The route and the wells: our piece on driving Agra to Jaipur via Abhaneri, and our page on the stepwells of Rajasthan.
- Jaipur back to Delhi: the stops we like are in our note on the Delhi to Jaipur expressway.
- Early flight home: we suggest a final night near Delhi airport rather than a dawn drive.
- Winter fog: in December and January it can slow both roads and trains in the early morning, so we build a little slack into every transfer.
When to go, and the festivals on the route
October, February and March: warm days, cool nights and clear light.
November and December: lovely in Agra and Jaipur, but Delhi can suffer some of the world's worst air for days at a time, from crop smoke and the winter inversion. We watch the forecasts and keep Delhi's outdoor days flexible.
- Easiest months
- October, February, March
- Delhi air
- Often poor in November and December
- River fog
- Agra, December and January
- Hot season
- April to June, often above 40°C
- Monsoon
- About end of June to September
- December and January: cold mornings and river fog in Agra, which can turn the Taj at sunrise into a soft white silence that some guests love and some photographers curse.
- April to June: very hot. We only recommend the route then with dawn-and-dusk sightseeing and long afternoons by the pool.
- The monsoon: heavy downpours, green parks, fewer visitors and the Yamuna at its fullest.
- The whole year: our guide to the best time to visit Rajasthan.
October or November: Diwali
Lit end to end: Jaipur's bazaars compete to outshine each other, with Johari Bazaar and MI Road lit from end to end.
- Our family's choice: if you only see Jaipur once, this is the week.
- Delhi's air: often poor around the festival, so we keep the Delhi days short. Read about Diwali in Rajasthan.
January: kites, books and parades
14 January: Jaipur climbs onto its rooftops for Makar Sankranti, and the sky over Hawa Mahal fills with paper kites.
- Later that month: the Jaipur Literature Festival books out the city's best rooms.
- 26 January: Delhi holds its Republic Day parade, with security tight for days around it.
February or March: Holi, and the Taj Mahotsav
Taj Mahotsav: in February, a crafts and folk music fair near the Taj's eastern gate.
- Holi: the festival of colour falls in February or March.
- A private Holi: we arrange one in a Jaipur courtyard for guests who want to play without the street crowds.
Make it yours: shorter, longer and different
Four nights, if you must
The shape: one night in Delhi, one in Agra and two in Jaipur.
- What you lose: the slow Delhi day. We use your arrival evening for Humayun's Tomb, and see Old Delhi only if you return there at the end.
- Honestly: it works, but it is brisk.
Six or seven nights, the version we prefer
A third Jaipur night: for a morning with a block-printing family at Bagru and an evening at the lit Albert Hall, as in our classic Golden Triangle.
- A seventh night: at Samode Palace in the Aravalli hills.
- Or a second Agra night: for Akbar's tomb at Sikandra and an inlay workshop.
Add tigers, lakes or the Ganges
Tigers: Ranthambore is three to four hours south of Jaipur, and two nights there make this our Golden Triangle with Ranthambore.
- Lakes: Udaipur is an hour's flight from Jaipur, and Golden Triangle and Udaipur finishes by the water.
- The sacred river: our Rajasthan and Varanasi journey adds the ghats at dawn.
For families
What children love: the cycle rickshaw in Old Delhi, the giant cannon at Jaigarh, the mirrors of the Sheesh Mahal and the kites in January.
- One big sight a day: in the morning, with a pool in the afternoon.
- Connecting rooms: we ask early. Our family journeys page has more.
For couples
- The romantic version: a Taj-facing suite at Amarvilas, a private dinner in a palace courtyard in Jaipur and a sunset at Nahargarh.
- More ideas: our Rajasthan honeymoons page. We quietly arrange proposals too.
For repeat visitors
- Seen the Taj before: swap Agra's monuments for Mathura and Vrindavan, an hour north, or a morning at Bharatpur's Keoladeo bird sanctuary on the Jaipur road.
- In Delhi: a Mehrauli walk among the tombs and step tanks replaces the Red Fort.
How we look after you
Private throughout: from arrival to departure. We meet you inside the arrivals hall at Delhi, not outside in the crowd.
One chauffeur: in a comfortable air-conditioned car. He carries your bags to Agra while you take the train, and waits outside each sight so you never queue for a taxi.
Local guides who live there: an Old Delhi guide for the lanes, an Agra guide who knows the gate system at the Taj and can have you inside while others are still eating breakfast, and a Jaipur guide from inside the walls.
- Paid to guide, never to sell: we don't take you to commission showrooms.
- Agra's marble emporiums: the oldest trap on this route. You will not see the inside of one unless you ask.
- All booked: the train seats, any domestic flights and the private tours, including the Chandra Mahal rooms at the City Palace.
- Your planner on WhatsApp: throughout, ready to move a dinner or change a plan when fog or a festival changes the day. Meet the team on our planners and guides page.
- No published prices: the season, the hotels and rooms you choose and the private experiences you add all change the cost.
- After one conversation: we send a full quote and a day-by-day plan. Start on our plan my journey page.
Who will love this journey, and who should choose another
First time in India: and you have a week.
Business in Delhi: and you are combining India with it.
Done well, not in a hurry: you want the three great Mughal and Rajput cities done well rather than all of Rajasthan rushed.
- Who it suits: couples, families with children of any age and travellers who like a little structure and a very good hotel at the end of each day.
- Not right if you want to slow down: you change hotels twice in five nights, and the days start early.
- With nine nights: Golden Triangle and Udaipur adds the lakes and a slower finish.
- Seen the Taj already: for the deeper Rajasthan of forts, villages and desert, choose The Royal Rajputana or Mewar and Marwar.
- Check the day of the week first: the Taj is closed on Fridays and the Red Fort on Mondays.
- Carry very little into the Taj: security is strict, and your guide will tell you what to leave in the car.
- Dress modestly: for the Jama Masjid and temples, and carry a scarf to cover your head where asked.
- Ignore the closed-monument trick: anyone who says a monument is closed and offers somewhere better is playing the oldest trick on this route.
- Delhi in winter: keep a mask in your bag in November and December.
