Three days on the oldest riverfront in India
This is the tour most people mean when they say they want to see Varanasi. Three days is the honest minimum for the city: one evening on the water for the aarti, one dawn on the river when the ghats fill with bathers, one morning inside the Kashi Vishwanath corridor, and half a day at Sarnath where the Buddha gave his first sermon.
We keep the hotel within walking distance of Assi or Dashashwamedh on purpose. Varanasi traffic turns a two-kilometre hop into a forty-minute problem, and the best hours in this city - just after five in the morning and just before seven in the evening - are the exact hours you do not want to spend in a car.
Pickup at Babatpur airport or Varanasi Junction and a transfer to your hotel near the ghats. After a rest, we walk down to the river at about five and board a private boat, so you watch the Dashashwamedh Ganga aarti facing the priests instead of standing behind four hundred people. Dinner is on the terrace afterwards.
A 5.30 a.m. boat from Assi Ghat while the light is still grey, past all eighty-four ghats to Manikarnika and back. Breakfast in the old city, then darshan at Kashi Vishwanath through the new corridor, followed by Kaal Bhairav and Annapurna. The afternoon is deliberately free - the city rewards wandering more than it rewards a schedule.
A morning drive to Sarnath for the Dhamek Stupa, the Mulagandha Kuti Vihar and the archaeological museum with its Ashokan lion capital. Back for a late checkout, then a drop to your onward train or flight.
This is how the tour usually runs, not a contract. Every itinerary is rewritten around your dates, your pace and your group — tell us what you want to change and we will rebuild it.
Already in the quoted price
Paid separately, or on the day
A workshop in Madanpura, watching a hand-loom saree take shape thread by thread.
₹900 per personTwo hours through the lanes at dawn with a guide who grew up in them.
₹1,200 per personThe dawn aarti at Assi Ghat, with classical music and yoga on the steps.
ComplimentaryBreakfast the way Banaras eats it, ending with thandai at a 1930s shop.
₹700 per person
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Message UsAround 6.45 p.m. in summer and 6 p.m. in winter, every evening at Dashashwamedh Ghat. We board your boat about thirty minutes early and hold a position facing the platforms, so the view is unbroken even on a festival evening.
It is the single thing our travellers rate highest. The river at 5.30 a.m. is quiet, the ghats are full of bathers rather than tourists, and the light on the western bank is the reason photographers come to this city.
The steps are steep and the lanes are uneven, so we plan shorter loops, bring the vehicle as close as the barricades allow and can arrange assistance at the corridor. Tell us at booking and we will rework the walking, not the sightseeing.
No. Phones, cameras and leather items are deposited at the gate, where there are free lockers. Our representative walks you through it so nothing is left behind.
Seasonal 3N/4D Fifteen days after Diwali every ghat is lined with clay lamps. This is the only night of the year Varanasi looks like this.
Popular 4N/5D The full Kashi experience, then a morning road transfer north for Ram Janmabhoomi darshan and the Saryu aarti.
2N/3D A boat to the Triveni Sangam, Bade Hanuman lying down rather than standing, and the house where the freedom movement was argued out.
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