Agra and Orchha

Your driver meets you at the airport or your Delhi hotel in the morning, and you take the Yamuna Expressway to Agra, about three and a half to four hours, with a break for tea halfway.

• After checking in and lunch, your guide takes you to Agra Fort, the red sandstone fortress beside the river.
• Walk through the audience halls and marble pavilions and look across to the Taj from the terraces, which takes about two hours.
• Next is Itimad-ud-Daulah, the small inlaid tomb, for a gentler stop.
• For sunset, drive to Mehtab Bagh on the far bank for a distant view of the Taj as the light warms.
• The garden is open on Fridays, which is useful because the Taj is closed that day.
• Dinner is at the hotel, and you sleep early so the morning goes smoothly.

Your guide meets you at opening time for the Taj Mahal.

• Early visits mean cooler marble and thinner crowds, and you can spend about two hours on the platform and in the gardens.
• The Taj is closed on Fridays, so if this day is a Friday we plan the sequence differently.
• Return for breakfast, then leave Agra mid-morning for Orchha, a long drive of roughly five hours via Gwalior or Jhansi.
• Stop for lunch at a roadside restaurant, and break briefly in Gwalior to see the fort walls from the road if you wish.
• The countryside turns greener and quieter as you go.
• You arrive in Orchha in the late afternoon.
• Walk down to the river with your guide at sunset to see the royal cenotaphs lit gold against the sky.
• It is a calm, simple end to a long day.

Orchha is best explored on foot, and the morning is the time to start.

• Walk to the Raja Mahal and the Jahangir Mahal, two palaces with courtyards, balconies and carved brackets.
• Your guide explains the Bundela rulers who built them and points out the paintings that survive inside.
• Visit the Chaturbhuj temple, a tall, vaulted building whose steps give a wide view over the town, and the Ram Raja temple, still an active place of worship.
• Lunch is in a small restaurant near the square.
• In the afternoon, cross the old bridge over the Betwa river to the chhatris, the domed memorials set along the bank, which you can reach by a short walk.
• Wear sturdy shoes and carry water, because the steps are uneven.
• The evening is free for the riverside or a slow walk through the bazaar.

Leave Orchha after a leisurely breakfast.

• If you want one last look, the driver can stop at the river bridge for early light on the chhatris.
• The drive back to Agra is again roughly five hours.
• We stop for tea and lunch on the road, and you can rest in the car, since there are no fixed sights today.
• You arrive in Agra in the afternoon.
• If energy remains, it is a good time for the bazaar near the Taj or an unhurried evening at the hotel.
• Because the Taj has already been seen on day two, there is no pressure to fit in more.
• From here the driver can take you onward to Delhi the next morning, or to the Agra station or airport, depending on your plans.
• We will arrange whichever onward connection you need when we plan the trip.