Golden Triangle Yoga Tour with Rishikesh – 10 Days

On arrival at Indira Gandhi International Airport, a representative of Payless Tours India greets you in the arrivals hall and your driver takes you to your hotel in New Delhi. Long-haul flights leave most people stiff and tired, so today is intentionally light. After check-in, take a few hours to sleep, shower and drink plenty of water. If you arrive in the morning, the hotel can usually arrange early check-in for an extra charge, which is worth considering after an overnight flight. Your driver will share his mobile number and explain the plan for the next morning's departure to the hills.

In the late afternoon, if you feel up to it, your driver can take you to Lodhi Garden, a ninety-acre park in south-central Delhi that local people use for walking, jogging and outdoor yoga. Scattered among the lawns and palm trees are the tombs of the Sayyid and Lodi sultans, who ruled Delhi in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, more than a hundred years before the Mughals arrived. The domed tomb of Muhammad Shah and the Bara Gumbad gateway are the largest, and both are free to walk around. A slow loop of the park takes about an hour and gently loosens up legs that have been folded into an aircraft seat.

Lodhi Garden is also a good place to watch how ordinary Delhi residents look after their health. In the evening you will see groups doing laughter yoga, retired men practising breathing exercises on benches, and families walking dogs along the paths. Close by is Khan Market, with a few cafés and bookshops where you can pick up a yoga book or a cotton shawl for the cooler mornings in Rishikesh. Return to the hotel for a light dinner, ideally something simple such as dal, rice and vegetables, as the retreat diet begins tomorrow and your stomach will thank you for an easy start. Overnight stay in Delhi.

After an early breakfast you leave Delhi for Rishikesh, a drive of six to seven hours on the highway through Meerut, Muzaffarnagar and Roorkee. Leaving before eight avoids the worst of the morning traffic around the city. The road runs through the flat, fertile land of western Uttar Pradesh, with sugar cane, wheat and mango orchards on both sides, and your driver will stop at a clean highway restaurant for tea and a stretch. As you pass Haridwar, the first wooded ridges of the Shivalik hills appear, and soon after you reach Rishikesh, where the Ganges leaves the mountains in a wide, clear green stream.

You check in at the ashram or yoga retreat on the riverbank, where rooms are simple, clean and quiet, usually with a private bathroom and a small balcony or garden. The staff will give you a short orientation covering the timetable, meal times and house rules. Like most traditional ashrams, the retreat asks guests to dress modestly, keep noise low after nine in the evening and avoid alcohol and tobacco on the premises. You will also meet your main yoga teacher, who will ask about any injuries, back problems or health conditions so that your sessions can be adjusted.

In the late afternoon you have your first Ayurvedic consultation with the retreat's vaidya, or Ayurvedic doctor. The doctor checks your pulse, looks at your tongue and asks about your sleep, digestion and energy to work out your dominant dosha: vata, pitta or kapha. Based on this, the kitchen will suggest which dishes to favour and which to limit during your stay. In the evening there is a short welcome ceremony with a fire ritual, or havan, in the ashram courtyard, followed by kirtan, the call-and-response chanting of mantras with harmonium and drums. Dinner is a light sattvic meal, and lights go out early. Overnight stay at the retreat in Rishikesh.

The ashram wakes before sunrise. At around six, the morning class begins with a few minutes of chanting and then about two hours of hatha yoga, combining standing postures, forward bends, twists and inversions, followed by pranayama breathing such as nadi shodhana, the alternate nostril technique. Your teacher works slowly, holding each pose for several breaths and offering blocks, belts and bolsters where needed. The session closes with yoga nidra, a guided relaxation lying on your back. Groups are small, and beginners are fully welcome; the teachers here train students from every part of the world and are used to stiff joints and first-timers.

Breakfast is served after class, usually fresh fruit, porridge made from millet or oats, sprouted moong salad and herbal tea with ginger and tulsi. Ayurvedic cooking avoids onion, garlic and heavy spice, and relies on fresh vegetables, ghee, lentils and grains to keep digestion calm. Mid-morning there is a talk on yoga philosophy, covering texts such as Patanjali's Yoga Sutras and the eight limbs of yoga, from ethical conduct to meditation. Lunch is the main meal of the day, with dal, seasonal vegetables, rice, chapati and a cooling raita. The afternoon is kept free, and many guests sleep, read in the garden or sit by the river.

At around four there is a guided meditation session of forty-five minutes, starting with breath awareness and moving on to a simple mantra practice. The evening class is gentler than the morning one, usually yin yoga, where postures are held for three to five minutes to release the deep connective tissue around the hips and spine. After class you can walk to the ghats near the ashram to watch the Ganga aarti, where priests offer lamps to the river as the light fades, before a light dinner of kitchari, the simple rice and lentil dish that is the base of Ayurvedic cleansing diets. Overnight stay at the retreat in Rishikesh.

The day again starts with the morning hatha class, and by now your body will have begun to open up, with less stiffness and better balance than on the first morning. Your teacher may introduce a few new elements, such as sun salutations at a slower count, or kriyas, the cleansing techniques of traditional yoga. One of these is jala neti, rinsing the nasal passages with warm salt water from a small pot, which is said to help with breathing practice and sinus problems. It is optional, and the teacher will show you exactly how to do it safely. Breakfast follows, with fresh papaya and a glass of warm water with lemon.

After breakfast you have your included Abhyanga treatment at the retreat's Ayurvedic centre. This is a full-body massage of about sixty minutes using warm herbal oil chosen to suit your dosha, applied with long, rhythmic strokes by a trained therapist. It is followed by a short herbal steam to help the oil soak into the skin. Abhyanga is a central part of Ayurvedic daily routine and is meant to calm the nervous system, ease muscles and improve sleep. Most guests feel deeply relaxed afterwards, so the late morning is best spent quietly before lunch, and you should avoid washing the oil off for an hour or two.

In the afternoon your driver takes you about twenty-five kilometres upstream along the Badrinath road to Vasishtha Gufa, a cave on the bank of the Ganges where the sage Vasishtha is believed to have meditated. The cave is dark, cool and silent, and visitors are welcome to sit inside for as long as they wish. Most people manage ten or fifteen minutes before stepping back into the light. Below the cave, a wide white sand beach slopes down to the river, which is a lovely place to sit and listen to the water. You return to the ashram in time for evening meditation, yin yoga and dinner. Overnight stay at the retreat in Rishikesh.

Today you skip the usual morning class in favour of a sunrise outing. Leaving the ashram around half past four with a packed tea flask, you drive about twenty-five kilometres up a winding mountain road to the foot of Kunjapuri Devi temple, at around 1,650 metres. From there it is a climb of about three hundred steps to the hilltop shrine. On clear days, especially from October to March, the snow peaks of the Garhwal Himalayas, including Bandarpunch and Chaukhamba, turn pink as the sun rises, while the valleys below are still full of mist. Your teacher may lead a short breathing practice on the temple terrace.

Back at the ashram, breakfast is served late, followed by free time. In the afternoon, a short drive and a walk of about twenty minutes along a forest trail lead to Neer Garh waterfall, a series of small cascades and pools a few kilometres from Laxman Jhula. The path is shaded and easy, and in the autumn and winter months the water is cold and very clear. You can paddle, sit on the rocks or simply rest your eyes on the green of the forest. On the way back, if you would like a souvenir, the shops near the ashram sell good-quality cotton yoga clothes, mats, brass singing bowls and Ayurvedic oils.

The final evening at the retreat is marked with a gentle restorative class and a satsang, a gathering in which the senior teacher talks about how to continue your practice at home. You will receive a written sequence of postures and breathing exercises suited to your level, along with simple diet advice from the Ayurvedic doctor based on your dosha. Many guests find this the most useful part of the stay, as it turns a holiday into a routine they can actually keep up. After dinner there is a last round of kirtan, and you may want to pack before bed, as departure is after breakfast. Overnight stay at the retreat in Rishikesh.

You join one last morning class at the ashram, which many guests find the best of the stay, as the body has now settled into the routine and the postures flow more easily. After breakfast and a fond farewell to your teachers and the kitchen staff, you check out and meet your driver for the return to Delhi. The drive takes six to seven hours, retracing the route through Haridwar, Roorkee and Muzaffarnagar. Your driver can stop for lunch at Cheetal Grand, a well-known highway stop near Khatauli that serves good vegetarian North Indian food, so you can continue eating lightly on the way down.

The return to the noise and traffic of the capital can feel abrupt after four quiet days on the river, so the rest of the day is kept free. You reach Delhi by mid to late afternoon and check in at your hotel. If you would like to stretch your legs, your driver can drop you at the Sunder Nursery, a restored sixteenth-century Mughal garden next to Humayun's Tomb, with lotus ponds, flower beds and pavilions. It was reopened in 2018 after a long restoration by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and is one of the calmest green spaces in the city.

This is also a good evening to plan how to carry your new routine into the second half of the tour. Hotel rooms in Agra and Jaipur are large enough for a short practice on a towel, and most of the hotels Payless Tours India books have gardens or rooftop terraces suitable for early morning yoga. Your driver is happy to arrange the daily schedule around a twenty-minute session before breakfast. If you prefer, you can request a local yoga teacher for a private class in Jaipur, which can be booked at extra cost. Have a light dinner and an early night before tomorrow's sightseeing. Overnight stay in Delhi.

After breakfast you meet your Delhi guide, and the morning is themed around Mahatma Gandhi, whose ideas about simplicity and self-discipline sit naturally beside the yoga you have just practised. The first stop is Raj Ghat, a simple black marble platform on the bank of the Yamuna that marks the spot where Gandhi was cremated in 1948. An eternal flame burns at one end, and visitors remove their shoes before walking along the lawn to lay flowers. Your guide will explain Gandhi's long struggle for independence and his belief in non-violence, or ahimsa, the same principle listed first among the ethical rules of the Yoga Sutras.

You then drive to Gandhi Smriti, the house on Tees January Marg where Gandhi spent the last 144 days of his life and where he was shot on 30 January 1948. His small room has been kept as it was, with his spectacles, walking stick and spinning wheel, and concrete footprints trace his final steps across the garden to the place of his death. Inside, a museum uses photographs and models to tell his story. Next is Qutub Minar in south Delhi, a 73-metre tower of red and buff sandstone begun in 1193, carved with bands of Quranic verses and decorative balconies on each of its five storeys.

After lunch near the Qutub, you leave Delhi for Agra on the Yamuna Expressway, a smooth six-lane road that takes three and a half to four hours. The land is flat and green, with wheat, mustard and potato fields, and brick kilns standing in the distance. Your driver will stop for tea about halfway. You reach Agra in the early evening and check in at your hotel, ideally one with a view of the Taj Mahal from the rooftop. After dinner, it is worth an early night, because tomorrow begins before dawn with the most famous building in India. Overnight stay in Agra.

The early rising of the ashram serves you well today. Your guide meets you around half past five and walks you to the gate of the Taj Mahal before sunrise, while the air is still cool and the garden almost empty. As the sky lightens, the white marble moves through shades of grey, rose and cream. Your guide will tell the story of Shah Jahan, who began the tomb in 1632 after the death of his wife Mumtaz Mahal, and explain how the whole complex, from the gateway to the mosque and guest house, is built on perfect symmetry. The Taj Mahal is closed every Friday, so your dates will be planned with this in mind.

Many guests like to find a quiet bench in the gardens and sit for a few minutes of simple breath awareness before the crowds arrive, a way of seeing the building with full attention rather than through a phone screen. Your guide will then lead you up to the marble platform to look closely at the inlay, where tiny pieces of carnelian, jasper and malachite are cut to form flowers and leaves. After returning to the hotel for breakfast and check-out, you visit Agra Fort, the red sandstone citadel begun by Akbar in 1565, with its halls of audience, marble mosque and the tower where Shah Jahan spent his last years.

Around midday you begin the drive to Jaipur, which takes four and a half to five hours through the plains of Uttar Pradesh and into Rajasthan. Your driver can stop for a simple vegetarian lunch along the way. The scenery gradually changes from fields to dry scrub, with the low Aravalli hills appearing as you near Jaipur, and women in bright red and yellow saris walking along the roadside with water pots. You arrive in the Pink City in the late afternoon and check in at your hotel. The evening is free, and a gentle stretching session in your room is a good way to undo the hours in the car. Overnight stay in Jaipur.

Start with a short practice in the hotel garden, then meet your Jaipur guide after breakfast for the drive to Amber Fort, eleven kilometres north of the city. The fort climbs a hill above Maota Lake, its yellow sandstone walls following the ridgeline for several kilometres. Inside, you walk through the Diwan-i-Am, the painted Ganesh Pol gateway, the Sukh Niwas with its cooling water channel, and the Sheesh Mahal, where thousands of small mirrors are set into the walls and ceiling. Your guide will explain how the Kachhwaha rulers held Amber for six centuries before moving their capital to Jaipur in 1727.

Just behind the fort lies Panna Meena ka Kund, a sixteenth-century stepwell with criss-crossing flights of steps arranged in a geometric pattern on all four sides. Stepwells were built to store monsoon rain for the dry months, and the cool lower steps also served as a meeting place for village women. It takes only a few minutes to visit but makes some of the best photographs in Jaipur. Before leaving Amber, you visit the Anokhi Museum of Hand Printing in a restored haveli in the old town, where craftsmen demonstrate block printing on cotton, then return to the city for Hawa Mahal and the City Palace.

In the late afternoon your driver takes you up the winding road to Nahargarh Fort, built in 1734 on the ridge above Jaipur as a retreat and a line of defence. The walls give a view across the entire Pink City, with the grid of streets, the domes of temples and the flat roofs of houses spreading towards the horizon. As the sun sets behind the hills, the city lights come on one by one. It is a good spot to sit quietly and look back over the ten days, from the riverbank in Rishikesh to the marble of the Taj. Return to your hotel for a farewell dinner at your own choice. Overnight stay in Jaipur.

After breakfast you check out and your driver takes you back to Delhi, a drive of five to six hours along National Highway 48. You will be dropped at Delhi airport for your onward flight, or at a hotel of your choice if you are staying longer in India. Please share your flight time when booking so we can plan a comfortable departure from Jaipur.