Highlights of Northern India

 Fly overnight from your chosen airport to Delhi.

Arrive Delhi and transfer to the 4-star Suryaa Hotel for an overnight stay. A tour of Old Delhi includes the 17^th-century, Jama Masjid (‘Friday Mosque’), the second-largest mosque on the sub-continent, facing Mecca, and raised thirty steps above the street; the Raj Ghat memorial to Mahatma Gandhi, marking the place of his cremation; and a view of the Red Fort.
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Visit Qutab Minar, the 73m-tall ‘Tower of Victory’, built in the 12^th century, and now a UNESCO World Heritage site; the Ghandi Smriti, a museum dedicated to Mahatma Ghandi, who spent the last few months of his life here; and the stately India Gate arch; driving past the parliament building and Viceroy’s House. Travel (5hrs) to Agra for two nights at the 3-star Hotel Clarks Shiraz.
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Begin the day with an early morning visit to the Taj Mahal. With acres of print and galleries of pictures of this romantic icon, it needs no introduction, yet a first sight of it still thrills. Continue to the 16^th-century Agra Red Fort, a lavish UNESCO listed palace, set by the Yamuna River and encompassing the perfect and peaceful Pearl Mosque. An optional tour includes a visit to the ‘Baby Taj’, Itmad-ud-Daulah, a forerunner of its more famous monument, and to the Mughal gardens (£25, bookable locally).
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A morning tour explores the magnificent Mughal city of Fatehpur Sikri. A fortified enclave of temples and monuments, built entirely of red sandstone, the UNESCO listed city was founded in 1571, and completely abandoned in 1610. Travel (7hrs) to Ranthambore National Park, for two nights at the 3-star Pugmark Resort.
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Explore Ranthambore with an included morning game drive in an open-sided ‘canter’ bus, and an optional afternoon game drive by canter (£40, pre-bookable only). The renowned reserve is a wilderness of jungle, meadows, and forests, where tigers roam alongside leopards, wild boar, sloth bears, and flying foxes, while soft-shelled turtles share lake waters with snub-nosed marsh crocodiles.
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 Travel (5hrs) to Bundi and visit the lakeside Sukh Mahal summer palace, now a museum, where Rudyard Kipling was a guest, the beautiful structure of the Rani Ji ki Baoli ‘queen’s stepwell’, and the 17^th-century ‘84 Pillared Cenotaph’. Continue (4hrs) to Kota, for visits to the ornately frescoed City Palace and Rao Madho Singh Museum. Overnight at the 4-star Country Inn & Suites by Radisson hotel.
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 Drive (4hrs) to visit the UNESCO listed Chittorgarh Fort, the Rajput bastion spread across 700 hilltop acres. After lunch at the heritage hotel Pratap Palace, continue (3hrs) to Udaipur for two nights at the 4-star Trident Hotel.
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 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 the City Palace, gracing the shoreline with its gloriously grand façade; and see the city from the water with an optional sailing on Lake Pichola (£16, bookable locally).
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Travel (3hrs) to visit the spectacular temple complex of Ranakpur, a masterpiece of pale marble splendour, with 1,400 intricately carved pillars; and continue (4hrs) to the ‘Blue City’ of Jodhpur, its old-town buildings painted, top to toe, in indigo hues, creating the illusion of a sea amid the sands, lapping at the 16^th-century city walls. Overnight at the heritage hotel Devi Bhawan.
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Visit the dominating, 15^th-century Mehrangarh Fort (‘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 who, legend has it, descended from the sun god; and continue to the white marble Jaswant Thada monument, a regal 19^th-century memorial. Travel (7hrs) to Jaipur, Rajasthan’s capital, for two nights at the 4-star Trident Jaipur.
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Visit the pink-walled City Palace, home to the former royal family, its temples and pavilions spread between courtyards and gardens; and the 18^th-century Jantar Mantar Observatory, UNESCO listed as India’s most significant site for astronomical observation; and view the Hawa Mahal (Palace of Winds) with its wall of windows, from which the women could observe unseen. Optional Sound & Light experience at the Amber Fort this evening (£25, bookable locally).
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Take to the air to see the Pink City and its surrounds on an optional balloon ride this morning (£225, bookable locally, dependent on weather). Drive to nearby Amer to visit the Amber Fort, known for its huge ramparts and Hindu design, and crowning a small hill overlooking Maota Lake; and travel (6hrs) to Gurgaon city, just southwest of New Delhi, for overnight at the Taj City Centre.
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Transfer to Delhi airport for the return flight.
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