{India} India’s Golden Triangle, 7-day Itinerary

We had a few friends ask us over the past few weeks to share our North India trip itinerary. Figured it could be useful to others as well, so here it is! New Delhi, Agra and Jaipur makes up what is known as India’s Golden Triangle. On our trip, we added an additional stop in Jodhpur. Here’s our 7D/6N itinerary.

Day 1: Arrival in Delhi, Check into Hotel, Chill

The hotel we stayed at was Hotel Bright. It is located right in the middle of Connaught Place. Connaught Place are rows and rows of shops, restaurants, bakeries, fast food and bars. You should not miss Connaught Place when you visit New Delhi.

Photo Credit: Stephy Lim

Pros: 

1. Beautiful and cozy boutique hotel with modern, clean and excellent bathrooms
2. Breakfast was included in our reservation – had a choice of western vs indian breakfast
3. Located right in the Connaught Place
4. Very affordable stay.

Cons:

1. A little hard to find. The entrance is through a door on the ground floor. Hotel and lobby is on the second floor.
2. The walk up the stairs might put some people off (it’s a narrow staircase and you pass a walkway with grafiti on the walls.
3. The rooms we got didn’t have windows. It was OK for us since we wanted peace and quiet from all the traffic noise outside anyways

Conclusion: We highly recommend Hotel Bright for a short few days of stay in New Delhi.

Day 2: Delhi to Agra

After breakfast, we (there were 7 of us) were driven (our agent helped us rent a spacious 9-seater Tempo Traveler with a full time chauffeur who drove us around throughout our trip) to Agra. It was a 5-hour drive (including a bathroom stop and lunch). Here, we stayed at Gateway Hotel. After lunch, we visited Agra Fort and Sikandara.

A/C Tempo Traveler. A very comfy way to travel around India. Photo Credit: Stephy Lim

Pros: 

1. 4-star hotel at an affordable price, booked through priceline!
2. Modern, high end hotel with comfy beds and a welcome drink. Friendly staff too!

Cons:

1. None, really!

Conclusion: We highly recommend Gateway Hotel for a stay in Agra.

Day 3: Taj Mahal, Agra – Jaipur, Chokhi Dhani in Jaipur

We were at Taj Mahal by 6am in the morning. Read about our Taj Mahal experience here. After lunch, we drove to Jaipur. It was another 4 – 5 hour ride there. For dinner, we headed to Chokhi Dhani Cultural Village (it’s like an ethnic village theme park located 15km from Jaipur). It’s about 400 Rs for a basic entry and outdoor/floor seating buffet dinner. It’ll be 650 Rs for indoor A/C (with chairs) seating and a host of waiters bringing food to you (also all you can eat). Food was OK. It was all vegetarian though. The quality of the “theme park” could’ve been better. It was very dark with poor lighting. Most of the entertainment were very basic (people dancing, animal rides around the area, fortune tellers etc…). In Jaipur, we stayed at Hotel Four Points by Sheraton. Highly recommend the hotel. It was comfy, great customer service and modern.

Conclusion: Don’t set high expectations when visiting Chokhi Dhani. Visit if you don’t have anything else planned. Recommended hotel: Hotel Four Points by Sheraton

Day 4: Jaipur Sightseeing

Amber Fort is a must visit whenever you visit Jaipur. The royal family (including the king’s 12 wives) used to live here. This is also where you get to go on the famous elephant ride. Tipping for the elephant drivers are expected at the end of the ride. Our english guide at Amber Fort told us 50Rs per elephant was the going rate for tips. On the way down, you can either hire a car to drive you down or walk down. I’d recommend walking down. The walk down is via a path separate from the way you came up on the elephant (the path is filled with elephant poo & pee!). On the way back, we made a photo stop at Hawa Mahal (Palace of Winds). Other places to visit include City Palace and Jantar Mantar.

Conclusion: Amber Fort is a must visit. Hawa Mahal is a nice photo stop.

Shot of Hawa Mahal

Day 5: Jaipur – Jodhpur

After breakfast, we made our way to Jodhpur (another 5 – 6 hour drive). At Jodhpur, we drove another 65km to Osian Village. We then visited Jain temple (we were there at night. We’d recommend going during the day instead) and went on a camel ride.  Our stay in Jodhpur was at Hotel Pal Haveli (It’s a heritage hotel where each room is unique). You need to go past a market in order to get to this hotel. At certain times of the day, cars are not allowed through, so you may then have to carry your bags out onto the main street to catch your cab. The A/C in the rooms were more like fans. We do not recommend this hotel unless you love architecture, history and don’t mind the hassle of going through a market to get there. What we do like about it is the roof top restaurant. Food was satisfactory but expensive.

Conclusion: Osian Village is a nice side trip. But if you only have 7D6N for a Golden Triangle visit, I’d say skip Jodhpur. Pal Haveli is not for everyone.

Day 6: Jodhpur Sightseeing, Train ride back to New Delhi

Mehrangarh Fort is a must visit for Jodhpur. Entrance fee was 300 Rs (students, 250Rs). We also paid the extra 20 Rs to take the elevator ride up 150ft to the top (worth it!). From there, you’ll learn why Jodhpur is known as the “Blue City”. We’ll write more about our visit to the Fort in a future blog post. A couple other places to visit in Jodhpur include  the Fort Museum, Jaswant Thada, Carpet factories, Mandore Gardens, Umaid Bhawan Palace (70% luxury hotel, 30% actual palace). We wanted to go on a Bishnoi Village Tour but did not have time. We also heard that you can learn to cook at Spice Paradise.

We then boarded an overnight train from Jodhpur back to New Delhi. This was one of the fun memories we had on our trip. More to come about our train ride in a future post!

Conclusion: Mehrangarh Fort is a must visit in Jodhpur.

Day 7: Arrived in New Delhi (5:30am), New Delhi Sightseeing

We had a full day of sightseeing in New Delhi. There are plenty to do in New Delhi. It was a sweltering 110 degrees Fahrenheit when we were there, so we didn’t go to too many places. TIP: Do not go to India during summer! We went to Chandni Chowk (worth a visit!). Jama Masjid is in the same area, so worth a visit too. After a full day of sightseeing, our family headed home. Jeremy and I stayed an extra day in New Delhi.

Conclusion: Our 7-day itinerary was a little packed. If we were to do it again, we’d skip Jodhpur just so we’d have more time in New Delhi.

We hope this will help you plan your itinerary!

Do you have a different itinerary to suggest for visiting India’s Golden Triangle? Do share in our comments section!

REMEMBER:

1. 7-days is sufficient to visit the golden triangle (New Delhi, Agra, Jaipur).
2. If you want to go to Jodhpur, add at least 2 more days.
3. Taj Mahal and Agra Fort is a must visit in Agra.
4. Amber Fort is a must visit in Jaipur.
5. Only visit Chokhi Dhani if you don’t have anything else planned in Jaipur.
6. Mehrangarh Fort is a must visit in Jodhpur.
7. Chandni Chowk is a must visit in India.
8. Buy and eat lots of mangoes while you’re in India! They are mouth watering, juicy, sweet and delicious!
9. Go to India when the weather is milder (e.g. Not summer). It’s just way too hot to really be able to “wander” around comfortably. We wished we had been able to walk around more than we did (we were driven around in A/C traveler from place to place). It was so hot during midday that we really couldn’t have enjoyed a proper “wandering about” even if we did so. Wandering around in the morning and late in the evening was fine. Just not during midday.