Golden Triangle Tour

This 8-day tour features many of India’s most iconic cultural highlights, with stops in the three cities of the “Golden Triangle”—Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur. We’ll also visit Bharatpur, home of Keoladeo National Park, one of the most important bird sanctuaries in Asia.

Our adventure begins in Delhi, India’s capital. We’ll visit many of the city’s monuments: the Red Fort, former residence of India’s Mughal emperors; Humayun's Tomb, India’s first garden Tomb; Qutub Minar, the tallest brick minaret in the world; the Lotus Temple, a modern architectural marvel; Swaminarayan Akshardham, a beautiful modern Hindu temple complex; the India Gate, a war memorial built to commemorate the 70,000 soldiers of the British Indian Army who died in World War II; the Tughlaqabad Fort and the important biodiversity area that surrounds it; and the National Museum of India with its vast collection, ranging from pre-historic artifacts to modern works of art.

Next, we’ll visit the Mughal City of Agra and one of the world’s most famous and beautiful architectural monuments to love, the Taj Mahal. While in Agra we’ll also visit the palace complex of Fatehpur Sikri, the Mughal capital from 1571 to 1585; the Agra Fort, another residence of the Mughal Emperors, Akbar’s Tomb with its beautiful red sandstone outlined with white marble; and Chini Ka Rauza, another funerary monument, this one famous for its colorful glazed tile work are must visits.

Our next stop is the city of Bharatpur, the Eastern Gateway of Rajasthan. We’ll visit important cultural monuments here, like the moated Lohagarh Fort, as well as the city’s markets where you can shop for handmade products. But the highlight of this stop is Keoladeo National Park, which lists almost 400 species of birds, and is one of the top birding hotspots in all of India. Here you’ll experience this region’s natural world, a mosaic of woodlands, wetlands, and dry grasslands.

Our final stop is the Pink City, Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan. Jaipur gets its nickname from an historical event—to celebrate the visit of the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) in 1876, its buildings were painted pink. Many of them remain pink today. Among the places we’ll visit are the Jantar Mantar observatory and the Amer Fort, both of which are World Heritage Sites, Hawa Mahal, a five-story pyramid-shaped monument with 953 windows; three unique palaces—the City Palace, Jal Mahal, and Rambagh Palace. You will once again have an opportunity to shop for unique handicrafts and you’ll also have a chance to ride a camel.