Travel in Golden Triangle

The Golden Triangle is Delhi, Agra and Jaipur — three cities that sit roughly at the corners of a triangle on the map of northern India, linked by road. Delhi is the capital, Agra was the Mughal one, and Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan. Between them they hold the Taj Mahal, two Mughal forts, India's largest mosque and the largest stone observatory in the world.

Nine of our ten Golden Triangle trips begin in Delhi. On seven of them the Delhi day takes in the Red Fort from the outside, the Jama Masjid — India's largest mosque, with room for 20,000 at prayer — and the lanes of the old city, where the trade in spices, tea, cloth and street food runs. Most then continue to India Gate, the government quarter, the Bangla Sahib Gurudwara — Delhi's largest Sikh temple — and Lodhi Garden, which holds some of the city's oldest tombs. Four trips take in the Qutb Minar, a victory tower of over 72 metres built in the early 13th century, and one adds Humayun's Tomb. The 21-day North India trip goes deeper into Old Delhi: Chandni Chowk, Khari Baoli — Asia's largest spice market — and Raj Ghat, where Gandhi was cremated.

Agra is usually a single day. Several trips schedule the Taj Mahal for sunrise; the seven-day Colors of India and the twelve-day Colourful Rajasthan & Himalayas say so outright. Agra Fort follows: the Mughal seat of power for several generations, and the place where Shah Jahan, who built the Taj, spent his final years able to see it only from a distance. Two trips add the Taj at sunset from the far side of the Yamuna, one of them from the Mehtab Bagh garden opposite. Four include a cooking demonstration with a local family, usually followed by dinner.

Jaipur usually gets two days. Amber Fort above Maotha Lake, the Jantar Mantar, the City Palace — still partly lived in by descendants of the former ruling family — and a photo stop at the Hawa Mahal appear on all ten trips. What changes is the rest: a rickshaw ride through the bazaars, a current Bollywood release at the Raj Mandir palace cinema, tea with a Jaipur family, hand-block printing with local artisans, a cooking class in a private home, the evening ceremony at the Birla Temple, or Jaigarh Fort and the royal cenotaphs at Gaitore.

Two stops break the drives in and out of Agra. Fatehpur Sikri, on five of the trips, is the capital Akbar built as a meeting point for different religions, then abandoned when the water ran short and the planning proved poor. Chand Baori at Abhaneri, on three, is a stepwell whose stairs drop more than 20 metres to the water.

One thing to be clear about: none of the ten trips stops at the three cities. The shortest is seven days and carries on to Udaipur, timed to the Holi festival. The eight-day trip runs Delhi, Jaipur, Agra and ends in Varanasi. After that the triangle becomes the opening act — of Rajasthan, of tiger safaris in Ranthambore and Sariska, of the Darjeeling hills, of Kerala, or of a beach finish in the Maldives.