Kolkata to Amritsar

Our tour of Northern India starts in Kolkata. Once the capital of British India, Kolkata has had a turbulent past. It was central to the struggle for Indian independence and thousands of Bengali refugees came here at the start of the 1900s. It's a city of striking con...

This morning we'll start exploring Kolkata with a visit to the colourful flower market and the clay modeller's village. The potters here spend all year creating a wealth of images and idols for the annual festivals and, as the time approaches for the models to be prep...

This morning is free to explore the city more at your own pace. You might wish to travel to the Dakshieswar Kali Temple and the Ramakrishna Mission or perhaps visit the Mother Theresa Home and Orphanage. This remarkable woman, born in Serbia in 1910, has become synony...

This morning we'll join the constant flow of the faithful to visit some of the most important sites in the Buddhist world. Whilst the original Bodhi tree, under which Prince Siddhartha Gautama achieved enlightenment over 2600 years ago, no longer remains, its ancestra...

This morning, we'll make a short journey north to the sacred site of Sarnath, the cradle of Buddhism, where the Buddha preached his first sermon following his attainment of enlightenment. We'll visit the main shrine, the Dharmarajka Stupa and the Dhamekh Stupa, the sp...

This morning, we'll have the option of a dawn boat ride along the Ganges, to witness the city bathed in the early morning light and the pilgrims practising the puja ceremony to the newly awaking sun. The rest of the day is free to explore the sacred city at your own p...

Today, we'll discover Agra. Once the capital of the mighty Mughal Empire, the city is littered with opulent and iconic buildings, and the sandstone majesty of its imposing fort is no exception. Built by Emperor Akbar and then embellished by his grandson, Shah Jahan, t...

This morning, we'll have an early start to see the sun rise over the marble dome of the Taj Mahal. Built by the emperor Shah Jahan to honour the memory of his beloved wife Mumtaz, the building took 22 years to complete and was once described by Rudyard Kipling as 'the...

The Indian capital has long been a phoenix rising out of its own ruins. Essentially, a city divided into two, there is New Delhi and Old Delhi to explore. New Delhi was the creation of the British Raj in the 1930s and this morning we'll begin to explore its colonial...

Departing the Indian capital this morning, we'll take a train to Kalka, just north of Chandigarh. From here we'll transfer to a narrow-gauge track and continue to Shimla on the remarkable 'Toy Train'. Climbing from the plains below, the train negotiates a meandering j...

Today, we'll have the full day to explore Shimla. We'll start with an orientation tour of the town, taking in some of its colonial ambience. The opening of the Kalka-Shimla railway at the turn of the 20th century allowed the well-to-do families of the Raj to escape th...

Today is free to explore more of Shimla at your own pace. There will be an optional two kilometre walk up to the Jakhu or 'monkey' Temple, which rewards us with panoramic views. Dedicated to the monkey god Hanuman the site is inundated with monkeys, many who find no t...

Departing Shimla, this morning we'll follow the train track as it winds its way down towards the town of Ambala, to connect with an afternoon train to Amritsar in the Northern Punjab. The holiest city of the Sikhs', Amritsar was founded in 1577 and, despite extremis...

Today we'll visit the incredible Golden Temple. On entering, we'll need to remove our shoes, cover our heads, and wash our feet. The temple itself is a surprisingly small building surrounded almost entirely by tanks of holy water in which the Sikh pilgrims bathe (the ...