Golden Triangle Tour with Ranthambore Tiger Safari – 7 Days

Your driver from Payless Tours India meets you outside the arrivals hall at Indira Gandhi International Airport, holding a placard with your name, and takes you to your hotel in a private air-conditioned car. The drive usually takes forty minutes to an hour. After check-in and some rest, your Delhi guide meets you in the lobby to begin the afternoon tour. If your flight lands late in the evening, the sightseeing below simply moves to the following morning before the drive to Agra. Your driver will also give you a short briefing on the week ahead, including the early starts in Agra and the safari timings at Ranthambore, so you know what to pack.

The tour begins in Old Delhi, the walled city that Emperor Shah Jahan built in the seventeenth century as Shahjahanabad. From the road you see the long red sandstone walls of the Red Fort, which is closed on Mondays, before stopping at Jama Masjid, India's largest mosque, with its three marble domes and two tall minarets. From the mosque, you climb into a cycle rickshaw for a ride through the crowded lanes of Chandni Chowk, where shops selling silver, bridal fabric, spices and sweets have traded for centuries. Your guide will point out the old havelis, the Sikh shrine of Sis Ganj Sahib and the paratha lane, famous for its stuffed fried breads.

Later in the afternoon you drive to Humayun's Tomb in the Nizamuddin area, a UNESCO World Heritage Site built in 1570 for the second Mughal emperor. Its large garden, divided into four parts by water channels, and its tall double dome set the pattern later followed at the Taj Mahal, which makes it a good introduction to the Mughal buildings you will see in Agra. Your guide explains how the Persian architect Mirak Mirza Ghiyas planned the site and why so many members of the royal family were later buried here. On the way back to the hotel, you pass India Gate and the government buildings along Kartavya Path. Overnight stay in Delhi.

After breakfast and check-out, you visit Qutub Minar in South Delhi before leaving the city, since it lies conveniently on the road towards the expressway. The tower rises 73 metres in five storeys, each one marked by a projecting balcony and bands of carved Quranic verses. Qutb-ud-din Aibak began it in 1199 and his successors finished the upper levels. Around the base are the ruins of the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque, the first mosque built in Delhi, and the iron pillar that has stood here without rusting for about 1,600 years. Your guide explains how the Delhi Sultanate began and how the site has changed over eight centuries of rule.

From here you join the Yamuna Expressway for the drive to Agra, which takes about three and a half to four hours. The road is wide and well maintained, passing through fields of wheat, sugarcane and mustard depending on the season, and there are clean food courts along the way if you would like to stop for lunch or a coffee. As you approach Agra, the landscape becomes more crowded, with small workshops making shoes and leather goods, which has long been one of the city's main trades. On arrival you check in at your hotel and take a short break before your Agra guide meets you for the afternoon visit.

In the afternoon you visit Agra Fort, the great crescent-shaped citadel of red sandstone on the bank of the Yamuna River. Emperor Akbar began the fort in 1565, and his grandson Shah Jahan later added the white marble palaces and mosques you see inside. Your guide leads you through the Amar Singh Gate, the Jahangiri Mahal with its carved brackets, the hall of public audience and the Khas Mahal. The visit ends at the Musamman Burj, an octagonal tower where Shah Jahan spent his final years under guard, with a clear view of the Taj Mahal downstream. In the evening you can walk to a nearby restaurant or rest before tomorrow's early start. Overnight stay in Agra.

Your guide meets you at the hotel about forty-five minutes before sunrise, and you walk or ride a battery cart to the east gate of the Taj Mahal. Being in the first group through security means the main garden is still quiet when you reach the red sandstone gateway and see the tomb for the first time. Your guide explains how Shah Jahan built it for his wife Mumtaz Mahal after she died in 1631, how the four minarets lean very slightly outward to protect the tomb in an earthquake, and how the inlaid flowers were made from stones brought from across Asia. The Taj Mahal is closed on Fridays, and your travel dates are planned with this in mind.

You return to the hotel for breakfast and check-out, and then set off west towards Ranthambore, a drive of about five to six hours through the farmland of Uttar Pradesh and into eastern Rajasthan. The road passes close to Bharatpur, known for its bird sanctuary, and then through the small towns and dry hills around Dausa and Lalsot. Your driver will stop for lunch at a roadside restaurant and for tea breaks whenever you need them. As you come nearer to Sawai Madhopur, the town closest to the park, the hills of the Aravalli and Vindhya ranges rise on both sides, and the vegetation turns to the thorny scrub and dhok trees typical of the reserve.

You should reach your lodge or resort on Ranthambore Road by late afternoon. Most hotels here are set in large gardens on the edge of the forest, and it is common to hear peacocks calling and langurs moving in the trees around the rooms. After check-in, the hotel naturalist or our local representative will brief you on the next day's safaris, confirm your gypsy or canter booking and pass on the park rules, such as no plastic bags, no loud talking and staying seated in the vehicle at all times. Many lodges show a short wildlife film in the evening, and dinner is often served around an open fire in winter. Overnight stay in Ranthambore.

Your first safari starts at dawn. The vehicle collects you from the hotel around sunrise, which varies from about 6:00 to 7:00 depending on the month, so early tea and biscuits are usually served before you leave. The park is divided into ten zones, and the zone for your safari is allotted by the Forest Department when the permit is booked, so it cannot be chosen in advance. Zones one to six cover the core area around the three lakes and have the strongest record of tiger sightings, while zones six to ten lie in the outer areas. Mornings in winter can be very cold in an open gypsy, so bring a warm jacket, a hat and gloves.

The safari lasts about three to three and a half hours. Your naturalist and driver read the forest for clues: fresh pugmarks on the track, the sharp alarm call of a sambar or spotted deer, or langurs barking from the treetops when a big cat moves below. Ranthambore is famous for tigers that walk openly along tracks and lakeshores, among them the daughters and grandchildren of Machli, the tigress whose fame drew visitors from around the world before she died in 2016. Even on a day without a tiger, you are likely to see sloth bears, marsh crocodiles, nilgai, owls, kingfishers and serpent eagles. After the drive, you return to the hotel for breakfast and a rest.

The afternoon safari usually starts between 2:00 and 3:00 pm and ends around sunset, and it may take place in a different zone from the morning drive. Your lodge staff will tell you the exact time of pick-up the night before. The gypsy holds six guests and is more flexible on the tracks, while the canter carries around twenty people and sits higher above the ground, which some photographers prefer. On many routes you pass ruined chhatris, old hunting lodges and the lakes of Padam Talao and Rajbagh Talao, where tigers sometimes cool off in the hot months. In the evening you can share stories and photographs with other guests at the lodge. Overnight stay in Ranthambore.

After a relaxed breakfast, you visit Ranthambore Fort, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that stands on a high rock inside the national park. The fort is reached by the same road the safari vehicles use, and you climb a long flight of steps through a series of gates to the top. Built in the tenth century by the Chauhan rulers, it was besieged many times, most famously in 1301 by Alauddin Khilji of Delhi. From the walls you look down over the forest, the lakes and the old palace ruins. Inside the fort is the Trinetra Ganesh temple, one of the oldest Ganesh shrines in Rajasthan, where devotees post letters and wedding invitations to the god.

On the way back towards the town, you can stop at Dastkar Ranthambhore, a craft cooperative started in 1989 to give work to women from the villages around the park. Here they make hand-printed textiles, patchwork quilts, bags and cushion covers, and the sales support families who once depended on cutting wood in the forest. Another option is the Ranthambore School of Art, where local painters produce detailed wildlife paintings. After a light lunch, you check out of the hotel and leave Sawai Madhopur for Jaipur. If you would like a third safari this morning in place of the fort, we can book one on request at extra cost, subject to availability.

The drive to Jaipur takes about three and a half hours on a good road through the dry hills of Tonk district, with mustard fields and goat herds along the way. You enter the Pink City in the late afternoon and check in at your hotel. Later, your driver can take you to Birla Mandir, a white marble temple dedicated to Lakshmi and Narayan, which is lit up beautifully after dark. Alternatively, you might head for Chokhi Dhani, a recreated Rajasthani village on the edge of the city that serves a set vegetarian dinner with folk music and puppet shows. Overnight stay in Jaipur.

After breakfast, your Jaipur guide accompanies you to Amber Fort, which overlooks Maota Lake from a ridge about eleven kilometres north of the city. Construction began in 1592 under Raja Man Singh I, a general in Akbar's army, and the fort grew in stages over the next century and a half. Your guide takes you through the Jaleb Chowk courtyard, the elaborately painted Ganesh Pol gate and the Sheesh Mahal, a hall lined with tiny pieces of mirror. You can ride a jeep up the hill or walk the ramp from the base. On the way back, you stop at Man Sagar Lake to photograph Jal Mahal, the palace that stands in the middle of the water.

In the old city, you visit the City Palace, where the royal family of Jaipur still lives in one wing. The museum galleries display royal robes, weapons, carpets and miniature paintings, and in the Diwan-i-Khas stand two enormous silver jars, each made from about 14,000 melted silver coins. Next door is Jantar Mantar, the open-air observatory built by Sawai Jai Singh II between 1728 and 1734, whose giant stone instruments track the sun, stars and planets. Your guide shows you the Samrat Yantra, a sundial 27 metres tall that measures local time to within two seconds. These sights lie within a few minutes' walk of each other.

Your last stop is Hawa Mahal, the Palace of Winds, built in 1799 so that the royal women could watch life in the street without being seen. Its five-storey facade of pink sandstone carries 953 small windows and is best photographed from the cafés across the road. The rest of the afternoon is free for shopping in the old bazaars: Johari Bazaar for jewellery and gemstones, Bapu Bazaar for block-printed textiles and leather slippers, and Tripolia Bazaar for brass and lac bangles. Your driver can drop you and wait nearby while you shop. In the evening, enjoy a final dinner in Jaipur at a restaurant of your choice. Overnight stay in Jaipur.

After breakfast and check-out, you drive back to Delhi, a journey of around five to six hours with a stop for tea on the way. Your driver will drop you at your Delhi hotel or at Indira Gandhi International Airport in time for your flight home. Please share your flight timing when booking, so your departure from Jaipur can be planned accordingly.