10 Day India Itinerary: Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, and Varanasi
A 10-day Delhi–Agra–Jaipur–Varanasi route for first-timers who want the Taj Mahal and Amber Fort without skipping the ghats — with the Friday closure, the Gatimaan Express schedule, and the Jaipur-Varanasi routing gap mapped out day by day.
This 10 day India itinerary suits a first-time visitor to North India who wants the classic monuments — Taj Mahal, Amber Fort, the Ganges ghats — without compressing them into a single exhausting loop. The pace is moderate: two full days in Delhi, a tight but workable Agra stop, two days in Jaipur, and three days built around Varanasi's slower rhythm. You sleep in Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, and Varanasi in turn, with one travel day in the middle that has no clean fix yet. The trade-off is upfront: adding Varanasi to the standard Golden Triangle means accepting an awkward connection — through Delhi, until a direct flight starts in March 2026 — in exchange for the Ganga Aarti and sunrise boat ride that the triangle-only version skips entirely. If you'd rather compare this against a shorter loop before booking anything, Fortrip's itinerary selection guide lays out what each version gains and gives up.
Hours, fares, and train times below were checked against official railway, monument, and visa sources in November 2025 by Meera Chandrasekaran, a Fortrip correspondent who has covered Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh travel routes since 2018 — see her other reporting on the . Re-verify anything date-sensitive — ghat timings, flight schedules, gate hours — close to your travel dates, since these shift without much public notice in India.
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Before You Fly: Visa Timing and the Friday Collision
Apply for the e-Tourist Visa 4 to 120 days before departure through the official portal. Delhi, Jaipur, and Varanasi are all listed among the approved arrival airports, so you can structure entry or exit around any of the three rather than forcing everything through Delhi.
Check your calendar before booking anything else: the Taj Mahal is closed to general visitors every Friday, and the Gatimaan Express — the fastest Delhi-Agra train — doesn't run that day either, per the Northern Railway schedule notice. If your Agra day lands on a Friday, flip the sequence: do Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri first, then the Taj the following morning, rather than discovering the closure at the gate.
Book Gatimaan Express tickets through IRCTC as soon as your dates are fixed. Seats on the 8:10 AM Hazrat Nizamuddin departure sell out during peak season, October through March.
At a Glance
Day
Base
Key stops
Transit
1
Delhi
Humayun's Tomb, Lodi Gardens
Airport transfer
2
Delhi
Qutub Minar, Jama Masjid, Chandni Chowk
On foot / metro
3
Delhi → Agra
Gatimaan Express, Taj Mahal
Train, 1h 40m
4
Agra → Jaipur
Agra Fort, Fatehpur Sikri
Road, ~5-6h
5
Jaipur
Amber Fort, City Palace
Local transfer
6
Jaipur
Hawa Mahal, Jantar Mantar, Abhaneri
Local / day trip
7
Jaipur → Varanasi
Assi Ghat (evening arrival)
Flight via Delhi or overnight train
8
Varanasi
Dashashwamedh Ghat Aarti
On foot / boat
9
Varanasi
Sunrise boat ride, Sarnath
Local day trip
10
Varanasi → Delhi
India Gate (optional stop)
Domestic flight + int'l connection
Road distances and drive times on this route — Agra to Fatehpur Sikri (40 km), Agra to Jaipur, and Jaipur to Abhaneri (95 km) — are planning estimates, not measured figures. Indian highway traffic can add an hour or more to any of them, so check current distance and duration on a mapping app a day or two before you travel. The Agra-Jaipur leg is the one to watch most closely: it's the longest drive in the itinerary and sets how late you arrive before an early Amber Fort start.
Day 1 — Delhi: Arrival and Humayun's Tomb
Land at Indira Gandhi International, clear immigration with the e-visa printout and return ticket on hand, and treat this half-day as recovery rather than a full sightseeing block.
Visit Humayun's Tomb in the afternoon. It's the garden-tomb template the Taj Mahal's architects later refined, and seeing it first gives the Agra visit more context when you get there on Day 3.
Close the day with a walk through Lodi Gardens before sunset. No ticket required, and it's a quieter introduction to Delhi than Chandni Chowk would be on arrival day.
Day 2 — Delhi: Qutub Minar, Jama Masjid, Chandni Chowk
Start at the Qutub Minar complex in the morning, before tour groups arrive and before the heat sets in if you're traveling March through June.
Midday at Jama Masjid. Carry a scarf or shawl, as modest dress is enforced at the entrance regardless of weather.
Spend the evening in Chandni Chowk on foot: Paranthe Wali Gali for food, the spice market for a walk-through, and Karim's near the mosque if you want a sit-down meal before the Agra leg.
Confirm your Gatimaan Express booking tonight if you haven't already. Same-week purchases are possible but limit you to whatever classes remain.
Day 3 — Delhi to Agra: Gatimaan Express and the Taj Mahal
Board the Gatimaan Express at Hazrat Nizamuddin in the morning; it reaches Agra Cantt by mid-morning, the fastest rail option on this route. See the key facts block below for the exact timetable and fare rules.
Head to the Taj Mahal in the afternoon for softer light than midday glare, but confirm you're not arriving on a Friday — general viewing is suspended that day by official notice.
Decide upfront whether to pay the mausoleum supplement on top of the base entry fee. It gets you inside the marble chamber to see the cenotaphs up close, which the garden-and-exterior ticket doesn't include.
Note the ADA toll that applies to foreign visitors at several Agra monuments beyond the Taj itself. It's billed separately from the base entry fee and easy to miss when budgeting — check the current rate at the ticket counter rather than assuming it matches the Taj's own pricing.
Key facts — Day 3
Gatimaan Express (train 12050): departs Hazrat Nizamuddin 8:10 AM, arrives Agra Cantt 9:50 AM — a 1 hour 40 minute run; does not operate Fridays.
ADA toll for foreign visitors at other Agra monuments: rate not fixed in official schedules checked here — confirm at the ticket counter the day of your visit.
Day 4 — Agra: Agra Fort, Fatehpur Sikri, Onward to Jaipur
Spend the morning at Agra Fort, where the red sandstone ramparts give a working view of the Taj Mahal across the Yamuna River — a useful contrast after yesterday's close-up visit.
Drive about 40 kilometers to Fatehpur Sikri for the early afternoon. It's commonly described as Akbar's capital for roughly a decade before being abandoned for water shortages — check the Archaeological Survey of India's own site for the exact founding and abandonment dates rather than treating the decade figure as precise. The empty courtyards — the Buland Darwaza gate, the Panch Mahal's open-sided tiers — make the half-day worth it even with the drive.
Continue to Jaipur by road, around five to six hours, or by train if you'd rather not drive after dark. This is the leg to pad with slack: plan to arrive in the evening and treat the night as a reset before Amber Fort, rather than scheduling anything after check-in.
Day 5 — Jaipur: Amber Fort and the City Palace
Go to Amber Fort first thing. Opening hours are reported inconsistently even across Rajasthan's own tourism channels, so confirm the current time at the gate or through the Rajasthan OBMS portal rather than trusting a single blog's number — this is exactly the kind of gap worth running through the itinerary validator before you lock in a wake-up time.
Spend the afternoon at the City Palace, still partly occupied by the former royal family, with a museum wing covering Jaipur's Rajput history.
If you're visiting three or more Jaipur monuments in this stretch, price out the composite ticket now rather than at each gate. It bundles Amber Fort, City Palace, Jantar Mantar, and Hawa Mahal at a lower combined rate than paying separately.
Day 6 — Jaipur: Hawa Mahal, Jantar Mantar, Abhaneri Chand Baori
Visit Hawa Mahal in the morning when the east-facing facade catches direct light. The interior is modest, but the view from inside looking out through the latticed windows is the real draw.
Walk to Jantar Mantar next door. The 18th-century astronomical instruments make more sense with a guide than without one, since the signage alone doesn't explain how they were used.
If you have the extra half-day, drive roughly 95 kilometers to Abhaneri to see the Chand Baori stepwell — commonly cited as roughly thirteen tiers of zigzagging stone steps descending to a small pool, though exact counts vary across sources and are worth confirming with a guide on site rather than quoting a fixed number. It's cooler and quieter than anything else on the Jaipur stretch. Budget roughly three to four hours round trip and skip it if you're tight on time; see the note above the Day 1 table for how firm that figure is.
Day 7 — Jaipur to Varanasi: The Routing Problem, Then Assi Ghat
There's no reliable long-standing direct flight between Jaipur and Varanasi. A single nonstop on Air India Express, 1 hour 40 minutes, is scheduled to start in March 2026 — check whether your travel dates fall before or after that.
Until then, plan on a connection through Delhi. That usually means landing at Indira Gandhi International's domestic terminal, collecting bags, and recheck-in for the Varanasi leg at a different gate or even a different terminal depending on carrier — budget the full two to three hours rather than the bare minimum connection time printed on your ticket.
If you'd rather not fly, an overnight train is the alternative. Book AC 2-tier or 3-tier through IRCTC rather than unreserved sleeper if you want a lock and clean bedding; it trades a longer travel time for avoiding the Delhi backtrack, and is worth it if your schedule has slack and you don't mind a berth.
Whichever route gets you in, head straight to Assi Ghat once you've checked into your hotel. It's the widest and southernmost of the major ghats, lined with chai stalls and marigold-garland sellers, with a quieter stretch of steps where boatmen moor for the night rather than hustle for fares — a useful first look at the river before tomorrow's crowd at Dashashwamedh Ghat for the evening aarti.
Day 8 — Varanasi: Ganga Aarti at Dashashwamedh Ghat
Check into your hotel and spend the afternoon getting oriented along the ghats before the evening ceremony.
The Ganga Aarti at Dashashwamedh Ghat has no single official timetable. It's organized by competing religious trusts rather than a government body, with start times that shift by season (see the key facts block below).
Arrive at least an hour before the seasonal estimate to get a usable spot on the ghat steps, or book a boat position on the river if you'd rather watch from the water.
Day 9 — Varanasi: Sunrise on the Ganges and Sarnath
Take an early boat ride along the ghats at sunrise — far fewer crowds than the evening aarti, and better light for photographing the riverfront steps and temples.
Visit Sarnath in the late morning, where the Buddha delivered his first sermon. It's often quoted as roughly 10 kilometers from central Varanasi, but the exact distance depends heavily on which ghat or hotel you're starting from — check the route and drive time on a mapping app, or on Uttar Pradesh Tourism's Sarnath page, before fixing your morning schedule around it. Keep the afternoon loose for markets near the ghats rather than a formal stop.
If this is more slack than your schedule allows, the AI trip planner can help you model a tighter Varanasi stretch and shift the saved day toward Udaipur or Ranthambore instead.
Day 10 — Varanasi to Delhi: India Gate and Departure
Take a morning flight from Varanasi to Delhi — a straightforward domestic hop without the routing issues of the Jaipur-Varanasi segment. Check current schedules on a flight aggregator or the airline's own site rather than assuming a fixed departure time, since frequency shifts seasonally.
Build in at least four hours between your domestic arrival and an international departure from Delhi. Terminal 3 handles most international carriers, and the security line at its departures hall can back up fast during evening peak hours.
If your international flight is late in the day, spend the extra hours at India Gate and the surrounding Rajpath lawns. Families fly kites and vendors sell roasted corn by early evening, and the walk toward Rashtrapati Bhavan's gates gives a free view down the ceremonial avenue without a ticket.
How to Choose: What to Cut, Swap, or Extend
Change
What it does
Choose this if...
Cut to 7 days
Drops Varanasi entirely, keeps the Golden Triangle core
You want a single regional loop without the Jaipur-Varanasi routing problem — map it from scratch with the itinerary selection comparison
Reorder Day 3-4
Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri first, Taj Mahal the next morning
Your Agra day lands on a Friday
Flight via Delhi (Day 7)
Faster door-to-door, but adds a 2-3 hour layover
Your days are tightly booked and you can absorb a connection
Overnight train (Day 7)
Slower, but skips the Delhi backtrack entirely
You have slack in your schedule and don't mind a sleeper berth
Extend to 12-14 days
Adds Udaipur or Ranthambore between Jaipur and Varanasi
You'd rather add a destination than compress the existing stops
Skip the mausoleum supplement
Saves the ₹200 add-on, exterior and garden views only
You're satisfied without seeing the cenotaphs up close
Buy the composite Jaipur ticket
Bundles four monuments at a lower combined rate
You're hitting three or more of Amber Fort, City Palace, Jantar Mantar, and Hawa Mahal within a day or two
