Golden Triangle Tour 6 Days with Fatehpur Sikri

A Payless Tours India representative meets your family outside the arrivals hall at Indira Gandhi International Airport with a name board and helps load the luggage into your private car. If you need a child seat, let us know in advance and the driver will have one fitted. The drive to the hotel takes thirty to sixty minutes depending on traffic. Most long-haul flights from Europe, America and Australia land in the early morning or late at night, so the first part of the day is kept free for sleep, a swim or a late breakfast. There is no fixed sightseeing until mid-afternoon, which gives everyone time to adjust to the time difference.

Around four o'clock your guide meets you at the hotel for a short outing. The first stop is Lodhi Garden, a ninety-acre park where Delhi families jog, picnic and play cricket among the tombs of the Sayyid and Lodi sultans from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Children can run on the lawns while you look at the domed tomb of Mohammed Shah and the Bara Gumbad, and the guide explains how these older rulers came before the Mughals. Squirrels, parakeets and sometimes peacocks wander between the trees. The park is flat and shaded, so it suits pushchairs and grandparents, and there are clean toilets near the main gate.

As the light fades, you drive to India Gate, the war memorial arch at the eastern end of Kartavya Path. In the evening the lawns around it fill with local families buying balloons, coloured candyfloss and ice cream from the carts, and it is one of the easiest places to see ordinary Delhi life without crowds pressing in. The arch is lit up after dark, and the nearby National War Memorial has an eternal flame in a circular plaza. Your driver then takes you back to the hotel for dinner. Hotels in Delhi offer both Indian and continental menus, and staff are used to making milder food for children on request. Overnight stay in Delhi.

After a relaxed breakfast your guide takes you to Qutub Minar in Mehrauli, a 73-metre fluted tower started in 1193 and finished by later sultans, which makes it one of the oldest standing buildings in Delhi. Children usually like the story of the iron pillar in the courtyard, which has stood for about 1,600 years without rusting, and the unfinished Alai Minar, a stump of a tower that was meant to be twice as tall as the Qutub. From there you drive to Humayun's Tomb, the garden tomb built in 1570 for the second Mughal emperor. Its long water channels and wide lawns make it easy for younger travellers to move around while the guide points out the dome and the arched niches.

After lunch you visit the National Rail Museum in Chanakyapuri, an outdoor yard holding more than a hundred real locomotives and carriages, including the Fairy Queen, one of the oldest working steam engines in the world, built in 1855. There are royal saloon coaches used by maharajas, a toy train that circles the grounds and an indoor gallery with model railways and simulators. Note that the museum is closed on Mondays, so the day is reorganised if needed. The guide explains how railways shaped modern India and why train journeys are still a big part of family holidays here. Adults tend to enjoy this stop as much as children, and an hour and a half is about right.

In the late afternoon you drive across the Yamuna to Akshardham, a large Hindu temple complex opened in 2005 and carved from pink sandstone and white marble with more than 20,000 figures of deities, dancers and animals. Phones, cameras and bags must be left at the cloakroom, so your driver keeps them safely in the car. Walk around the temple, then stay for the water show after sunset, which tells a story from the Upanishads using fountains, lasers and projections on screens of water. The show lasts about twenty-five minutes and children are usually glued to it. Akshardham is closed on Mondays. You return to the hotel for a late dinner. Overnight stay in Delhi.

There is no early start today. After breakfast and check-out around nine, you head south on the Yamuna Expressway, a smooth six-lane road that reaches Agra in three and a half to four hours. Families can pack snacks, and the expressway food plazas have clean restrooms, coffee shops and familiar fast-food chains if children want something plain. Your driver will stop whenever you ask. Along the way, younger travellers can keep a lookout for simple roadside sights, such as tractors loaded with sugarcane, camels, brick kiln chimneys and buffalo resting in ponds. You arrive in Agra for lunch and check in at your hotel, which gives time to rest before the afternoon.

Around three o'clock your Agra guide takes you to Agra Fort. The massive outer walls are more than twenty metres high, and the moat and drawbridge entry at the Amar Singh Gate make it feel like a castle from a storybook, which always helps younger visitors. Your guide explains how Akbar built the fort from 1565 and how his grandson Shah Jahan was later locked up here by his own son. Inside, the Jahangiri Mahal has a huge stone bathtub said to have belonged to Jahangir, and the Khas Mahal has marble pavilions overlooking the river. From the balcony of the Musamman Burj, you get your first view of the Taj Mahal across the bend of the Yamuna.

After the fort, the rest of the day is yours to enjoy slowly. Many families like to return to the hotel for a swim, as most mid-range and luxury hotels in Agra have pools, some with views towards the Taj Mahal. If you would rather go out, your driver can take you to Sadar Bazaar for petha sweets or to Kalakriti, where a stage show tells the love story of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal in a theatre setting, with English audio. Show tickets are payable directly. Go to bed early, as tomorrow is the one early morning of the trip and the Taj Mahal is best seen before the heat and crowds build. Overnight stay in Agra.

Your guide meets you at the hotel shortly before sunrise. Electric buses and golf carts carry you the last stretch to the East Gate, as fuel vehicles are not allowed near the monument. After security, the family walks through the great gateway and sees the white dome straight ahead, reflected in the long central pool. The guide tells the story of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal, then points out details that children can look for, such as tiny inlaid flowers made of coloured stones and the way the four minarets tilt slightly outward. Remember that the Taj Mahal is closed on Fridays, so this morning is always planned for another day of the week.

You return to the hotel for breakfast and check-out, then drive forty kilometres west to Fatehpur Sikri, which Akbar built as his new capital in the 1570s and left after about fourteen years, probably because of water shortages. A local guide walks you through the royal enclosure: the Diwan-i-Khas, where a single carved pillar supports a circular platform on which the emperor sat, the Pachisi court laid out as a giant board game said to have used people as playing pieces, and the five-storey Panch Mahal. Next door, the Jama Masjid is entered through the Buland Darwaza, a 54-metre gateway, and holds the white marble tomb of the Sufi saint Salim Chishti, where visitors tie threads on the screens to make a wish.

After about two hours at Fatehpur Sikri, you continue to Jaipur, roughly four hours by road through Bharatpur and Dausa. The road is good, and your driver will stop for lunch at a highway restaurant with a garden where children can stretch their legs. As you enter Rajasthan, look out for camel carts and the first hill forts rising from the plains. You reach Jaipur in the late afternoon and check in for two nights. With a long day behind you, the evening is free to rest, order room service or have a quiet dinner at the hotel. Your guide will confirm the time for tomorrow, which starts at a comfortable hour. Overnight stay in Jaipur.

After breakfast you drive to Amber Fort, about eleven kilometres from the city. The walk up from the parking area takes around fifteen minutes on a cobbled ramp; with small children or older relatives, an open jeep to the top is the easier choice. Inside, your guide shows you the Ganesh Pol gate painted with natural dyes, the cool marble rooms of the Sukh Niwas, and the Sheesh Mahal, where children can watch the guide hold up a phone light and see the mirrored ceiling sparkle like a night sky. Watch for the maze-like corridors of the Man Singh palace, which the guide explains were designed to confuse anyone who did not belong there.

On the way down you stop at the roadside promenade for a look at Jal Mahal in the middle of Man Sagar Lake. Then you enter the old walled city, painted the colour of terracotta in 1876, and pause at Hawa Mahal for photographs from the street. The City Palace comes next, with its painted courtyards, royal textile gallery and the two enormous silver jars that a maharaja filled with Ganges water to carry to England in 1902. After a lunch break, the guide takes you into Jantar Mantar, where children can stand in the shadow of the giant sundial and watch the time move along its marble scale. Afterwards, return to the hotel for a rest.

In the evening your driver takes you to Chokhi Dhani, a mock Rajasthani village about twenty kilometres south of the city. It opens around five and is set up for families: you walk between mud huts and courtyards where Kalbelia dancers twirl in black skirts, puppeteers perform kathputli shows, and magicians, acrobats and mehendi artists work the crowd. Children can ride a camel or a bullock cart. Dinner is a traditional thali served sitting on the floor, with dal baati, gatte ki sabzi and bajra rotis brought round until you say stop. Entry and dinner are paid at the gate, and your driver waits and brings you back to the hotel afterwards. Overnight stay in Jaipur.

After a leisurely breakfast you check out and drive back to Delhi, a trip of five to six hours with a break on the way. Your driver will drop the family at Delhi airport for your onward flight or at a Delhi hotel if you are staying on. This brings your golden triangle tour with Payless Tours India to a close.