15 days/ 14 nights
Day 1: Arrival Delhi
After clearing immigration, you will be met and transferred to your hotel.
Day 2: Delhi
After breakfast and a brief orientation meeting, tour Old Delhi, including the Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in India, Raj Ghat, the tranquil memorial to Mahatma Gandhi, and Chandni Chowk, the chaotic old market area. After lunch, visit the National Museum, then drive through stately New Delhi to Humayan's Tomb, the prototype for theTaj Mahal.
Day 3: Delhi / Varanasi
Following breakfast, fly to Varanasi, the holiest of holies for Hindus. After checking into your hotel, visit Sarnath, the place where the Lord Buddha preached his first sermon after Enlightenment. The Museum at Sarnath is among the most important in India containing carvings from 3rd century B.C. to the 12th century A.D.
Day 4: Varanasi
Take a dawn boat ride past the ghats lining the shore of the Mother Ganges River - a soul-stirring experience. Watch the devout bathe, do their laundry and perform religious rituals against the backdrop of the rising sun. Step back in time as you walk the narrow streets of the Old City. After brunch, tour the modern city. The day ends with a sunset cruise past the fiery cremation ghats to see the candlelight Aarti ceremony.
Day 5: Varanasi/Delhi/ Agra
The morning is free to continue exploring this fascinating city, the oldest living city on earth. This afternoon, you will first fly to Delhi, then proceed by private vehicle to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal, where you will stay for two nights.
Day 6: Agra
Rise early to marvel at the Taj Mahal at sunrise. No matter how many pictures you've seen, no matter how high your expectations are, this spectacular monument to love never fails to enchant. After breakfast, visit the Agra Fort, built by the teenaged Mughal Emperor Akbar. Behind its massive red sandstone walls are a maze of palaces, courtyards and mosques that echo the history of the Mughal Empire in stone.
Day 7: Agra/Jaipur
After breakfast, drive to Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan. En route tour Fatehpur Sikri, a massive ghost town mysteriously abandoned just 14 years after it was built by Akbar. Divided into religious and secular sections, it contains amazingly well-preserved buildings and courtyards where Akbar is said to have played board games using concubines as pawns as well as an exquisite white marble mosque. Continue driving to Jaipur where you will stay for three nights.
Day 8: Jaipur
This morning visit the Amber Fort, a dramatic Rajput fortress-palace set on a hilltop atop the dry, wrinkled Aravali Hills. Ride up and through its ancient gate on a caparisoned and painted elephant. Inside this architectural masterpiece are mirror- studded alcoves, dazzling mosaics and a zenana (royal harem) complete with a secret passage created so the Maharaja could visit the woman of his choice unobserved. The afternoon is free to explore Jaipur’s many colourful bazaars which overflow with enamelled blue pottery, exquisite gem-studded jewelry, engraved brass work, brightly patterned dhurrie rugs and traditional block-print fabrics. If you wish, end the afternoon with drinks at the Rambaugh Palace.
Day 9: Jaipur
After breakfast, tour the Jantar Mantar, the gigantic Solar Observatory built in the early 1700s that still gives accurate astronomical readings, and the City Palace Museum with its fine collection of Rajasthani costumes and rare Mughal miniature paintings. This afternoon continue exploring the Old City's fascinating rastaas (streets) and galis (lanes). Or go inside Jaipur’s signature landmark, the Hawa Mahal. Also called the Palace of the Winds, this five-storey structure honeycombed with 593 carved windows was built so the royal women could watch the passing scene below.
Day 10: Jaipur/ Kochi
Fly today through Mumbai, to Kochi (formerly Cochin) where you will check into your hotel. Tonight see the famed Kathakali dancers, an all male ensemble. Based on Indian epic poems, Kathakali is noted for its elaborate makeup, which can take up to an hour to apply, and for its splendid costumes and headdresses.
Day 11: Kochi/ Periyar
After breakfast, tour the 16th Century Mattancherry Palace known for its elaborate, sometimes erotic, murals. Then drive to Periyar, climbing nearly 4,000 feet, past rubber plantations, villages filled with Christian churches and roadside shrines, and tea and coffee plantations that cover the sides of the Cardamom Hills like verdant quilts. Check into your hotel before dinner.
Day 12: Periyar
This morning enjoy a guided walk to learn about the flora and fauna in this magnificently scenic region. Visit a spice plantation and a coffee plantation. The afternoon is free. Explore the town, which has great shopping. Take a boat ride in Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary. Or treat yourself to an Ayurvedic massage at the hotel’s spa. Before dinner you can take a cooking class at the hotel.
Day 13: Periyar/ Houseboat
After breakfast, drive down to Allepey, where you board a private houseboat equipped with staterooms and western toilets for an overnight cruise among the canals and channels of the backwaters of Kerala. You will glide past snake boat
docks and friendly, cheering villagers, fishing nets and paddy fields, toddy shops where local spirits are brewed and coir (jute) making communities, seeing life up close and personal in this beautiful, tranquil area.
Day 14: Kumarakom/ Kochi
Disembark, after breakfast, at Kumarakom and drive back to Kochi. After checking into your hotel, tour historic Kochi. Blessed with a magnificent natural harbour, it's been a key port on the Malabar Coast’s spice trade route since the days of the Phoenicians. Reflecting its past, the city is a fascinating melange of Christian, Islamic, Hindu and Jewish traditions. See St. Francis Church, the cantilevered Chinese fishing nets, and the Pardesi Synagogue, India’s oldest built in 1568 in an area known as Jew Town, home to numerous spice firms that fill the air with the aroma of ginger, cardamom, cumin, turmeric and cloves.
Day 15: Kochi/ Mumbai or Delhi
After a leisurely breakfast, fly to Mumbai or Delhi for your flight home.
