Join a hand-block printing workshop with a Local Specialist to see how natural dyes and carved wooden blocks create Rajasthan’s signature patterns. Try your hand at aligning motifs and layering colors.

This living craft has dressed palaces and bazaars for centuries. As you print your own fabric, hear how artisan guilds and trade routes shaped Jaipur’s textile heritage.

Browse a bustling bazaar where embroidered textiles and blue pottery share stalls with spices and bangles. Meet shopkeepers, compare patterns, and enjoy time to photograph color-splashed displays while you soak in the city atmosphere.

Your Travel Director points out quality clues and regional styles, helping you appreciate Jaipur’s reputation for craftsmanship and design.

Share a warm Be My Guest dinner with hosts Jaideo and Devika at their Jaipur home. Hear family stories of the Rajput community and savor dishes like daal, bati, laal maans, and sweet phenni.

Home-cooked flavors, heirloom recipes, and generous Rajput hospitality create a convivial evening that connects cuisine with living tradition.

Explore Amber Fort, reflected in Maota Lake and crowned by ramparts that command the Aravalli Hills. Wander painted gateways, pillared halls, and chambers famed for mirror-inlaid detail.

Once a stronghold of Kachwaha rulers, the fort blends Rajput defense with Mughal elegance. Your guide interprets royal life, court ceremony, and the strategic setting above Jaipur.

Pause to photograph the Palace of Winds, Jaipur’s honeycomb facade of rose-pink sandstone. Its tiered screens and latticed jharokha windows once allowed royal women to observe street life unseen.

This iconic frontage captures Jaipur’s playful geometry and love of ornament, glowing beautifully in morning or late-afternoon light.

Visit the City Palace, a harmonious blend of Rajput and Mughal styles set around stately courtyards. Explore museum rooms showcasing royal costumes, miniature paintings, and finely worked arms.

Architectural gems such as the Peacock Gate and marble pavilions reveal centuries of patronage, ceremony, and artistic refinement in the heart of the Pink City.

Stand among colossal astronomical instruments at Jantar Mantar, including the world’s largest stone sundial. Your guide decodes how these 18th-century devices tracked celestial bodies with remarkable precision.

Commissioned by Maharaja Jai Singh II, the observatory reflects an age when science, architecture, and kingship aligned to chart the heavens over Jaipur.

Cruise the Ganges at dusk as priests perform the Aarti ceremony on the ghats. Watch flickering lit diyas and marigolds drift downstream while conch shells and mantras rise into the night air.

From your boat, the stepped riverbanks of Varanasi glow with devotion, offering a moving window into faith and the rhythm of sacred ritual.

Follow a heritage walk through Varanasi’s labyrinth of alleys, stopping by shrines and markets perfumed with sandalwood and sweets. With your Local Specialist, approach the revered Kashi Vishwanath Temple precinct to appreciate its sanctity and stories.

Here, devotion and daily life interlace—pilgrims queue with brass pots, bells chime, and saffron flags flutter above gilded domes and sacred courtyards.

Visit Sarnath, where the Buddha is said to have delivered his first sermon. Walk the serene park around the massive Dhamek Stupa and explore monastic ruins that trace early Buddhist history.

At the museum, view masterpieces including the celebrated Ashokan Lion Capital and finely carved reliefs that illuminate ancient art, doctrine, and empire.

Meet artisans in a traditional Weavers’ Village to watch looms produce lustrous Banarasi silk. Learn about motifs, zari work, and family skills passed through generations with a Local Specialist.

This MAKE TRAVEL MATTER Experience supports Gender Equality (SDG 5) by elevating women’s roles in the craft economy and ensuring heritage livelihoods continue to flourish.

Experience a dramatic sound-and-light show at historic Agra Fort, where narration, music, and illumination bring emperors and palaces to life against red sandstone ramparts.

This is an optional experience at additional cost, bookable on tour, ideal for those who enjoy immersive storytelling and atmospheric evening settings.

Settle in for an intimate Indian classical dance performance, often featuring Kathak—a storytelling tradition of rhythmic footwork, expressive gesture, and live tabla and harmonium.

This is an optional experience at additional cost, bookable on tour, perfect for travelers who wish to explore the city’s artistic heritage after sunset.

Discover Old Delhi’s living theatre on a guided rickshaw ride, weaving past spice stalls and silver merchants toward the grand courtyard of Jama Masjid. Glide through the bustle of Chandni Chowk as vendors call out their wares and aromas of cardamom and ghee fill the air, with photo pauses to admire the mighty Red Fort from the outside.

Hear stories of Mughal emperors and Sufi saints while observing daily rhythms in these centuries-old lanes. Intricate stonework, call to prayer, and clattering cycle bells create an atmosphere that captures Delhi’s historic soul.

Visit Raj Ghat, a serene riverside garden where a simple black marble platform honors Mahatma Gandhi. Walk the shaded paths and pause for reflection as eternal flame and floral tributes mark the leader’s cremation site.

Context from your Local Specialist brings to life Gandhi’s nonviolent movement and India’s journey to independence, making this quiet stop a place of contemplation amid the capital’s energy.

Explore the atmospheric depths of Agrasen Ki Baoli, Delhi’s ancient stepwell hidden among modern boulevards. Descend its 103 stone steps and admire arched niches where light and shadow create dramatic geometry.

This centuries-old ancient stepwell once stored precious water for traders and travelers. Today it offers a rare pocket of silence in the city, ideal for photographs and a moment of calm.

Join the Salaam Baalak Trust City Walk, guided by a young adult who once lived on Delhi’s streets. Navigate lanes around Paharganj and the railway district as your host shares real-life perspectives on resilience, community, and education.

This MAKE TRAVEL MATTER Experience supports Quality Education (SDG 4), channeling tourism into mentorship and learning programs. Insightful, respectful storytelling turns the cityscape into a classroom with purpose.

Visit Humayun’s Tomb, a UNESCO World Heritage site whose Persian-inspired charbagh gardens and red sandstone inlay foreshadow the Taj Mahal. Stroll the symmetrical pathways and admire the refined proportions of this imperial mausoleum.

Built in the 16th century, it became the template for Mughal funerary architecture. Your guide reveals how art, astronomy, and faith shaped this elegant forerunner to the Taj.

• 7 Dinner (D)
• 10 Breakfast (B)
• 3 Lunch (L)

• Selected hotel dinners plus a locally hosted meal
• 4-star stays
• Deluxe coach and train travel, and select flights

• Delhi: Take a rickshaw ride through Old Delhi.
• Jama Masjid: Admire the red sandstone and marble details of Jama Masjid during your visit to one of the largest mosques in the country. 
• Delhi: Visit Agrasen Ki Baoli and take in the arched niches of this citybound step well. 
• Delhi: See Old Delhi’s Red Fort. 
• New Delhi: During your orientation of New Delhi, visit Humayun’s Tomb, and see India Gate and the Qutub Minar complex. 
• Taj Mahal: Admire the Taj Mahal, one of the most iconic treasures of world heritage.
• Agra: Inside Agra’s red sandstone fortress, witness the fairytale palaces, audiences halls and mosques of the Mughal rulers. 
• Agra: See the imposing gate to the Jama Masjid and gain insight into life in Fatehpur Sikri, now a deserted ”ghost town.”
• Ranthambore National Park: Tour Ranthambore National Park for a chance to glimpse the resident animals and birdlife. 
• Jaipur: Visit a local market in Jaipur.
• Jaipur: Discover the vibrant craft of block-printing in Jaipur with a Local Specialist. You’ll get a live demonstration before learning about this centuries-old art form, then roll up your sleeves and create your own masterpiece using the carved wooden blocks. 
• Jaipur: During an orientation of Jaipur, visit the Amber Fort, City Palace and Jantar Mantar Observatory. 
• Varanasi: Cruise down the Ganges and delve into local tradition as you witness the ritual of Aarti. 
• Varanasi: As the sun rises over Varanasi, view the banks of the River Ganges come to life during a morning boat ride.
• Varanasi: Explore Varanasi on foot through its old lanes and temple precincts, where daily life and devotion sit side by side. Along the way, you’ll have the chance to visit Kashi Vishwanath Temple, one of Hinduism’s most important sacred sites, known for its gold-plated spire and domes.

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