Images of India

Fly overnight direct from your chosen airport to Mumbai, the base for Bollywood, the capital of commerce, and formerly a major port for the old East India Company.

On arrival, transfer to the 5-star Trident Nariman Point for an overnight stay, in a sea view room. Visit the Prince of Wales Museum, the stately building housing collections of ancient artworks and artefacts (and now lengthily named ‘Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya); enjoy a ‘heritage walk’ in the arty Kala Ghoda district, where Indie exhibitions and pavement art stalls are juxtaposed with prominent galleries. Later, meet up with your group for a ‘welcome’ drink.

Tour Marine Drive promenade, curving around the natural bay to the British-built Gateway of India at its southern tip; the UNESCO listed, Raj era, Victoria Terminus railway station; the Dhobi Ghat, billed as the biggest open-air laundry in the world, and handling half a million items a day; and the Dabbawalla, a 130-year-old hot-lunch delivery service. Fly to Udaipur for two nights at the Hotel Taj Fateh Prakash Palace.
(B)

With lotus pools, fountains and marble statuary in a series of serene gardens; and the scenic Aravalli hills rising around the city, there are Rajput-era monuments galore in Udaipur. Visit to the City Palace, then sail on the lake to Jagmandir Island where a golden sandstone palace rises from the water’s edge. In the evening, visit to the al-fresco Ambrai restaurant to enjoy a drink and dinner with a gorgeous view of the lake.
(B, D)

Travel (6 hrs) to the Rohet stopping enroute to visit the Ranakpur temples, famous for the beautiful carved idol of Parshvanatha with its 1008 snake heads. Continue on to the hotel Rohet Garh, a boutique heritage hotel, where you will stay for the next two nights. Enjoy the rest of the day relaxing and exploring at your leisure. Enjoy dinner at the hotel this evening.
(B,D)

Today visit the Blue City of Jodhpur. Visit the dominating, 15th-century Mehrangarh (‘Fort of the Sun’), one of the largest in India. Covering 1,200 acres of a rocky clifftop, 122m above the town, it is still owned by the Jodhpur royal family; and continue to the white marble Jaswant Thada monument, a regal 19th-century memorial. Return to your hotel for dinner and an evening at leisure.
(B,D)

Today you will travel (7hrs) to the Pink City of Jaipur, so called because in 1876 the Maharaja painted the city pink, the colour of hospitality. On arrival at your hotel, the 5 star Taj Amer you will enjoy dinner and a chance to relax and enjoy your surroundngs.
(B,D)

Take to the air on an optional balloon ride early this morning (£225 bookable locally, weather permitting). After breakfast, you will explore Jaipur and stop by the Hawa Mahal (Palace of Winds) with its wall of windows from which the women could observe the city unseen. Visit the city palace with its temples and pavilions spread between courtyards and gardens and the 18th century Jantar Mantar Observatory, a UNESCO listed site and noted as India's most significant site for the observation of astronomical positions. Take a Pink Tuk Tuk tour through the old town before returning to your hotel. This evening enjoy a cocktail and dinner at the famous Rambagh Palace.
(B,D)

After breakfast, drive to the Amber Fort known for its huge gated ramparts and Hindu design then travel (4 hrs) to Ranthambore National Park. This renowned reserve is a wilderness of jungle, meadows and forests where tigers and leopards, wild boar and sloth bears, birds and flying foxes live undisturbed. Check in to your 5 star Taj Sawai and this evening enjoy a drink as you listen to an informative 'Tiger Talk' by a local naturalist. (B,D)

Today you will embark on two games drive in a shared jeep. Rise early and join the safari travelling through the national park trying to catch a glimpse of the elusive Bengal Tiger and any of the inhabitants that live there. Return to the hotel to relax and enjoy lunch until you join your second game drive later in the afternoon where you will be once again travelling through the National Park in search of all the wildlife and birdlife there is to see.
(B,L,D)

Drive to Agra (6 hrs). Spend one night at the 5-star Trident Agra. This evening enjoy a visit to the Mehtab Bagh and the Agra Fort, a UNESCO listed and lavishly opulent palace, set beside the Yamuna River and encompassing the perfect and peaceful Pearl Mosque. Enjoy a rooftop drink, with sunset views of the Taj Mahal. Dinner is at your hotel.
(B,D)

Begin the day with a sunrise visit to the Taj Mahal. Return to you hotel for breakfast then visit the Baby Taj, otherwise known as the Tomb of I'timad-ud-Daulah. Drive (5hrs) to Delhi and spend two-nights at the 5-star Taj Mahal Hotel.
(B)

Visit the Raj Ghat memorial to Mahatma Gandhi, marking the place of his cremation; the 17th-century, Jama Masjid (‘Friday mosque’), the second-largest mosque on the Indian sub-continent, facing Mecca, and raised thirty steps above the street; the Qutab Minar;  the 16th-century mausoleum of Mughal Emperor Humayun, UNESCO listed as the first garden-tomb in India; and the monumental India Gate arch, straddling the Rajpath. See the Red Fort, parliament building and Viceroy’s House as you drive through the city.
(B)

Leave on the morning Shatabdi train to Amritsar (7hrs), its labyrinthine lanes, colonial avenues, and contemporary malls combining to create a showpiece of Punjab. Enjoy an evening event of local culture with a Palki ceremony at the Golden Temple. Two nights at 5-star Taj Swarna.
(B)

Visit the Golden Temple, gleaming with hundreds of kilos of gold leaf. The most sacred place of pilgrimage, in the holiest city of the Sikh religion, it stands as an island of serenity amid the melee of the medieval ‘old town’. Continue to visit the ‘world’s largest’ community kitchen, where thousands of volunteers feed tens of thousands of people every day; and the garden memorial to those killed in the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Drive to the Indo-Pakistan ‘Attari Border’ village and see the Changing of the Guard ceremony.
(B)

Travel by road (8hrs) into the Himalayan foothills, to the Queen of Hill Stations, Shimla. A happy mix of cool colonial charm and fabulously colourful Himachal character, the old British ‘summer capital’ covers a long ridge at the end of the line for the renowned, narrow-gauge, ‘Toy Train’ railway. Two nights at the 5-star Oberoi Cecil.
(B)

Visit the very grand Viceregal Lodge (now named Rashtrapati Niwas), its majestic façade matched by manicured gardens at the summit of Observatory Hill, its museum recording the British colonial era with texts and photographs. Continue to Shimla’s neo-gothic Christ Church, with fabulous views from its surrounds, and five stained-glass windows depicting the Virtues. Afternoon at leisure in Shimla, perhaps to enjoy its two very different shopping experiences, The Mall’s broad pedestrian avenue and the tumble of twisting lanes in the bazaar.
(B)

 Board the Toy Train for its spectacularly scenic journey (5hrs), crossing bridges and cutting through countless tunnels on its route to Kalka, where we switch to the Shatabdi train for Delhi (4hrs), with a light dinner aboard. Overnight at the 5-star Taj Palace Hotel.
(B, L, D)

Transfer to Delhi airport for your return flight.
(B)