Travel in North India

Two private itineraries carry the North India tag, and they overlap more than their lengths suggest. Both spend time among the Shekhawati havelis, both take in Jaipur's Amber Fort and Jantar Mantar, both include a Bollywood film at the Raj Mandir cinema, and both end in Delhi with a departure after midnight. What separates them is how they reach the mountains.

Colourful Rajasthan & Himalayas runs 12 days from EUR 1,910. The first week is Delhi, the old caravan towns of Alsisar and Mandawa with a camel ride at sunset, Jaipur, the Abhaneri stepwell and Agra — where the Taj Mahal comes before sunrise, then again at sunset from across the Yamuna. Day 8 turns east: a drive back to Delhi, a flight to Bagdogra, and a climb by road to Kalimpong. Day 9 covers the flower nurseries there and a Buddhist monastery, then transfers up to Darjeeling at 2,134 metres. Day 10 starts at Tiger Hill, 13 kilometres out of town, for Kangchenjunga and — on a clear morning — Everest at sunrise. After breakfast comes the narrow-gauge railway to Ghoom at 10 km/h, and the monastery built in 1875 with its 15-foot Maitreya Buddha. The afternoon holds the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, founded by Tenzing Norgay, and the Padmaja Naidu zoo. Both close on Thursdays.

North India — landscapes and culture runs 21 days from EUR 2,300, and it does not begin in the north. Day 1 lands in Ahmedabad, and the first stretch is Gujarat: the old-city heritage walk from the Swaminarayan Temple to the Jama Masjid, Gandhi's Sabarmati Ashram, the Calico Textile Museum, then the Adalaj stepwell on the way out. The route works through Rajasthan from there — Udaipur and a boat on Lake Pichola, Ranakpur's Adinath temple and its 1,444 carved marble columns, a night at Deogarh Mahal, the small mountain train from Kamblighat to Phulad, Jodhpur under Mehrangarh Fort, two nights in Jaisalmer with a camel ride into the dunes and dinner out there, then Bikaner, Shekhawati, Jaipur, Fatehpur Sikri and Agra.

Its mountains come at the end. On day 17 a train runs from Delhi to Haridwar, at the foot of the Himalayas, and the trip settles into Rishikesh for two nights where the Ganges comes out of the hills. Day 18 is a puja and meditation in an ashram, the Laxman Jhula suspension bridge, and the evening light ceremony at Triveni Ghat. Day 19 moves to Haridwar — the Mansa Devi temple above the town, the cremation ghats, the Aarti on the river in the evening. Then a train back to Delhi for Chandni Chowk and the Khari Baoli spice market, and a last day of the Lotus Temple, Bangla Sahib and India Gate.

Neither trip involves trekking, and both are graded easy. Darjeeling, at 2,134 metres, is the only altitude either itinerary names, and Tiger Hill is a 13-kilometre transfer rather than a climb. What the trips do ask for is stamina on travel days: day 8 of the 12-day trip is a drive, a flight and a mountain road in one stretch, and the 21-day trip is on the move most days by road between Ahmedabad, Udaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Bikaner.

Both run on your dates, for your party alone — there are no fixed departures. Each includes a German-speaking guide, hotel accommodation, breakfast, and someone reachable 24 hours a day for the length of the trip. International flights are not included; the domestic flights written into an itinerary, such as Delhi to Bagdogra and back on the 12-day trip, are.