The Golden Quadrilateral of North India

Four cities and one stepwell, arranged so you are never rushed. Delhi’s Mughal tombs, the frescoed merchant havelis of Shekhawati, Jaipur’s astronomical instruments and indigo vats, the thirteen storeys of Chand Baori, and the…

Length: 8 days, 7 nights
From: ₹1,89,000 per person
Pace: Balanced
Stops: 6
Best months: October to March

The route

6 stops over 8 days

Delhi
Mandawa
Jaipur
Abhaneri
Fatehpur Sikri
Agra

Taj Mahal at opening, before the tour coaches arrive
Chand Baori: thirteen storeys and 3,500 steps underground
Painted merchant havelis of Mandawa in raking evening light
Indigo and dabu mud-resist printing at a Bagru workshop
Amber Fort by eight, Jantar Mantar by eleven

Day by day

What actually happens

Length: 8 days
Stops: 6
Pace: Balanced
From: ₹1,89,000

1

Delhi

Arrival in Delhi

You land at Indira Gandhi International and are met beyond immigration; the drive into Lutyens’ Delhi takes forty minutes on a quiet morning. Nothing is asked of you today. If you have slept on the flight, walk the Lodi Gardens at four o’clock, when the parakeets come in over Sikandar Lodi’s tomb and the joggers give way to families.

Night: The Imperial, New Delhi
2B

Delhi

Old Delhi and Humayun’s Tomb

Old Delhi first, before the heat. A cycle-rickshaw through Chandni Chowk to Jama Masjid, red Dholpur sandstone and white marble laid down by Shah Jahan in 1656; then paratha at Gali Paranthe Wali. Afternoon at Humayun’s Tomb, the prototype the Taj refined, and Agrasen ki Baoli, a fourteenth-century step-well sunk between the office blocks of Connaught Place.

Night: The Imperial, New Delhi
3B D

Mandawa

West into Shekhawati

West by road into Shekhawati, roughly five hours with a stop for tea at Behror. Mandawa’s merchants grew rich on the opium and cotton routes and spent it on painted walls: Krishna in a motor car, the Wright brothers, gods in bowler hats. You walk the Goenka and Murmuria havelis at five, when the light rakes the pigment.

Night: Castle Mandawa
4B

Jaipur

South to Jaipur

An early walk through the bazaar, brass, bangles, the smell of hot ghee from the sweet-shops, then three and a half hours south to Jaipur. The afternoon is yours: the Albert Hall Museum with its Egyptian mummy, or the Anokhi Museum of Hand Printing at Amber, where printers still cut teak blocks in a restored haveli courtyard.

Night: Samode Haveli, Jaipur
5B

Jaipur

Amber, Jantar Mantar, block printing

Amber by eight, before the buses: pale yellow sandstone and white marble, the Sheesh Mahal lit by one candle. Then Jantar Mantar, where Jai Singh’s marble instruments still tell the time to two seconds, and the City Palace armoury. Late afternoon at a Bagru workshop, indigo vats, dabu mud-resist, cloth drying flat on the riverbank.

Night: Samode Haveli, Jaipur
6B L

Abhaneri and Fatehpur Sikri

Chand Baori, Fatehpur Sikri, on to Agra

Leave at eight for Abhaneri, where Chand Baori drops thirteen storeys and some 3,500 steps into the ground, dug in the ninth century to hold monsoon water. Lunch nearby, then Fatehpur Sikri, Akbar’s red sandstone capital, abandoned after fourteen years for want of water. You reach Agra at dusk, the Taj a grey outline from the terrace.

Night: The Oberoi Amarvilas, Agra
7B

Agra

The Taj at first light

Up at half past five for the Taj at opening, when the marble turns grey to apricot to white and the pietra dura, carnelian, jasper, lapis carried from Badakhshan, catches the low sun. Breakfast afterwards. Agra Fort at four, then Itimad-ud-Daulah across the Yamuna, the small jewel-box tomb that came first and taught the rest.

Night: The Oberoi Amarvilas, Agra
8B

Agra to Delhi

Departure

A last look at the river from Mehtab Bagh if you are up early, then back to Delhi, three hours on the Yamuna Expressway, or the Gatimaan Express from Agra Cantt in one hour forty. Day rooms near the airport if your flight is late. We see you through check-in, and you fly home tonight.

Night: Day rooms at Andaz Delhi, on request