Varanasi und Sarnath — 3 Tage am Ganges

India's oldest living city, on the bank of the Ganges. Your driver meets you at the airport, and the first evening is the great river ceremony.

• Arrival: Fly into Varanasi. Varanasi airport (Lal Bahadur Shastri, at Babatpur) is about 25 km from the city, 45–60 minutes by car. Flights from Delhi take about 1½ hours.
• Afternoon: Check in near the ghats if you can: staying by the river makes the dawn boat easy tomorrow.
• Sunset: The Ganga aarti at Dashashwamedh Ghat, about 45 minutes, starting around sunset (roughly 6–7 p.m. depending on the season). Young priests swing great brass fire lamps to bells, conch shells and chanting. We book you a boat so you watch it from the water, away from the crush on the steps.
• Eat: Dinner in the old city: try kachori-sabzi, tamatar chaat at Kashi Chat Bhandar, and a clay cup of lassi.
• Tip: The last stretch to the ghats is too narrow for cars; you walk 10–15 minutes with your guide or a cycle-rickshaw. Keep your phone and wallet in a front pocket in the crowd.
• Overnight: Varanasi

The reason people come to Varanasi: the river at first light, then the lanes of the old city and the place where the Buddha gave his first sermon.

• 5:30 a.m.: A rowing boat along the ghats at sunrise, about 1½ hours: pilgrims bathing, priests at prayer, washermen at work and the cremation fires of Manikarnika from a respectful distance. If you are up even earlier, the Subah-e-Banaras morning ceremony at Assi Ghat starts before dawn.
• 8:00 a.m.: A walk through the old city lanes with a local guide, past the Kashi Vishwanath temple area, the Golden Temple of Shiva, then breakfast.
• Afternoon: Sarnath, 10 km away: the Dhamek Stupa, the deer park where the Buddha first taught, the Mulagandha Kuti Vihara with its murals, and the archaeological museum with the Ashoka lion capital, India's national emblem. About 2½ hours.
• Evening: Free, or a second aarti from the steps instead of the boat.
• Tickets: The boat is about ₹1,000–1,500 an hour for a private rowing boat. Sarnath's site and museum have small tickets for foreign visitors; the museum is closed on Fridays.
• Eat: Breakfast of kachori and jalebi in the lanes; lunch near Sarnath. In winter (November to February) try malaiyo, a saffron milk foam sold only in the early morning.
• Tip: Do not photograph cremations or mourners. Phones and bags are not allowed inside Kashi Vishwanath temple; your guide shows you the lockers if you want to go in.
• Overnight: Varanasi

A last morning in Varanasi, then the airport.

• Morning: Ramnagar Fort across the river, home of the Maharaja of Benares, and a family of Banarasi silk weavers at their hand looms.
• Drop: Varanasi airport, 45–60 minutes from the city, for your onward flight.
• Extra option: Continue by road to Bodh Gaya, or to Lumbini and Nepal; ask us.
• Overnight: Your onward flight