Eternal Ganges: Sacred Rivers & Cities

The Ganga is not one river but a sequence of arguments about how to live. You follow it from the cold gates at Haridwar, through Rishikesh’s ashram bells, down to the confluence at Prayagraj…

Length: 10 days, 9 nights
From: ₹2,48,000 per person
Pace: Balanced
Stops: 5
Best months: October to March

The route

5 stops over 10 days

Delhi
Haridwar
Rishikesh
Prayagraj
Varanasi

Ganga Aarti at Har-ki-Pauri from a reserved riverside platform
Dawn boat from Assi Ghat as the lamps go out
Beatles Ashram at Rishikesh, empty before the tour groups arrive
Triveni Sangam by rowing boat where three rivers meet
Sarnath’s Dhamek Stupa with a Buddhist studies scholar

Day by day

What actually happens

Length: 10 days
Stops: 5
Pace: Balanced
From: ₹2,48,000

1

Delhi

Arrival in Delhi

Your flight lands at Indira Gandhi International and you are met past immigration, garlanded with marigold, and driven to Lutyens’ Delhi. Nothing is scheduled. If you have slept on the plane, walk the lawns at Lodhi Garden before dusk, where parakeets crash about in the neem trees and the tombs of the Sayyid kings go copper at six.

Night: The Imperial, New Delhi
2B

Delhi

Old Delhi and the Yamuna’s city

Morning at Humayun’s Tomb, where the Persian charbagh was rebuilt with 12,000 tonnes of hand-dressed stone. Afternoon in Shahjahanabad on foot: the spice market at Khari Baoli, the Sikh langar at Gurudwara Sis Ganj where 10,000 are fed daily. At dusk, Nizamuddin Dargah for Thursday qawwali — heads covered, shoes left with the keeper, women seated to the side.

Night: The Imperial, New Delhi
3B D

Haridwar

North to the river’s gate

The Shatabdi north to Haridwar, then the short transfer to a haveli on the water at Kankhal. Late afternoon you walk to Har-ki-Pauri, where pilgrims hold the chains against a current that runs at eight degrees even in November. At seven the aarti begins: brass lamps the size of chandeliers, leaf boats of marigold sliding downstream.

Night: Haveli Hari Ganga, Haridwar
4B

Rishikesh

Ashram bells and the Lakshman Jhula

An hour upriver to Rishikesh. You cross at Ram Jhula on foot, past sadhus in saffron and the sweet-shop queues at Chotiwala. Parmarth Niketan for the evening aarti is smaller, sung by boys from the gurukul. Between times, the abandoned Chaurasi Kutia — the Beatles Ashram — where roofless meditation pods stand under sal trees and grey langurs sit on the walls.

Night: Taj Rishikesh Resort & Spa
5B L

Rishikesh

A morning on the water, an afternoon still

Six o’clock on the terrace with tea while the Ganga runs jade-green below. A private yoga session with a teacher trained in the Sivananda line — pranayama first, then asana, ninety minutes. Later, a gentle raft down from Shivpuri, mostly float, two small rapids. Evening satsang at the ashram of your choosing, or nothing at all.

Night: Taj Rishikesh Resort & Spa
6B D

Prayagraj

Flights south-east to the confluence

A morning transfer to Jolly Grant airport and two flights, via Delhi, to Prayagraj. The city that the British called Allahabad is low, green and unhurried. You arrive in time to walk the ramparts of Akbar’s fort at the water’s edge and see the Ashokan pillar, its edicts cut in Brahmi in the third century BC, now standing indoors.

Night: Hotel Kanha Shyam, Prayagraj
7B

Prayagraj

Where three rivers are said to meet

Out at six by rowing boat to the Sangam, where the brown Ganga meets the green Yamuna and, by tradition, the invisible Saraswati. Pandas keep their family ledgers on the sandbank, some going back nine generations. Afternoon at Anand Bhavan, the Nehru family house, kept as it was in 1930, and the Khusro Bagh tombs under old guava trees.

Night: Hotel Kanha Shyam, Prayagraj
8B D

Varanasi

Downstream to Kashi

Three hours east by road along the Grand Trunk, or the Vande Bharat if the timings suit. Your hotel is on the ghats themselves, reached by boat from Rajghat. At dusk you take a private boat out for the Ganga Aarti at Dashashwamedh — watched from the water, at a distance, which is both more comfortable and more beautiful.

Night: Brijrama Palace, Varanasi
9B L

Varanasi

Sunrise on the river, and Sarnath

The boat leaves at half past five. You drift north past Kedar Ghat while the bathers arrive and the dhobis start slapping cloth on stone, then walk back through the lanes to Vishwanath Gali for kachori sabzi and a clay cup of milk. Afternoon at Sarnath: the Dhamek Stupa, the museum’s lion capital, and the Mulagandhakuti murals.

Night: Brijrama Palace, Varanasi
10B

Varanasi

Departure from Varanasi

A last hour on the terrace as the light comes up over Ramnagar, then breakfast and a transfer to Lal Bahadur Shastri airport for the connection to Delhi and your flight home. If you have the afternoon, we can arrange a weaver’s workshop in Madanpura first, where Banarasi brocade is still cut on pit looms.

Night: No overnight — departure day