Delhi, Agra and Jaipur in six days, all by road. It is India''s most travelled circuit for good reason, and it is also the one where the difference between a good trip and a frustrating one comes down to a handful of scheduling decisions. Here are the ones that matter.

The Taj is closed on Fridays

Start with the trap that ruins itineraries. The Taj Mahal is closed to visitors every Friday, opening only for Jumma prayers for local worshippers. If your dates put Agra on a Friday, we move the Taj to Saturday morning and put Agra Fort, which is open all week, in its place. Any itinerary that ignores this is not being planned, it is being copied.

Two more things about the Taj that save money and time. Nepal is a SAARC country, so a Nepali passport holder pays the SAARC rate of about 540 rupees, not the 1,300 rupee foreigner rate. Carry the passport; a citizenship certificate is not reliably accepted at the counter. The mausoleum interior is a separate 200 rupee ticket on top, and the base ticket only covers the gardens and platform.

The ticket allows three hours inside with a penalty at exit if you overstay. The south gate is exit only and does not open before eight, so sunrise visits use the east or west gate. Food, tobacco, tripods, drones, chargers and headphones are all prohibited; water is allowed. And night viewing is real but awkward: five nights a month around the full moon, tickets sold only in person and only 24 hours ahead, so we do not put it in a fixed itinerary.

Air quality, and why our season is not October to March

Most Golden Triangle pages recommend October to March on weather alone. On weather they are right. On air they are recommending the worst weeks of the year on the planet.

Delhi runs from poor to hazardous through the winter. November averages around 220 micrograms per cubic metre of PM2.5, against a World Health Organization guideline of 5. On 18 November 2024 the twenty four hour reading hit 491. Stubble burning runs from mid October to late November and peaks in the first half of the month, and Diwali falls on 8 November in 2026, right inside that peak. 2025 recorded no days at all rated good.

Agra shares the same air; winter smog routinely hides the Taj at sunrise, which is exactly when people plan to photograph it. Jaipur is milder but not clean.

So we recommend late September to mid October, and mid February through March, and we steer away from roughly 25 October to 10 December. If you have asthma, if you are travelling with young children or elderly parents, treat that as a firm rule rather than a preference.

Drive times, told straight

The published figures on most listings are optimistic. Ours are not.

Delhi to Agra is about 230 kilometres on the Yamuna Expressway, three and a half to four and a half hours. Three and a half only happens if you leave at five or six in the morning, because the expressway starts at Greater Noida and you have to cross Delhi to reach it.

Agra to Jaipur is about 240 kilometres and four to five hours of driving. But with the Fatehpur Sikri stop, which we include, the real door to door figure is six and a half to eight hours. Fatehpur Sikri sits directly on the road so it is not a detour, but parking is a kilometre out with a shuttle each way, and you want two hours there. Anyone quoting four to five hours with the stop included has not done the arithmetic.

Jaipur to Delhi is about 270 kilometres and five to six hours realistically, and Gurugram alone can add an hour in the evening.

What you cannot do at the famous places

Better to know now than to be disappointed at the gate.

Qutub Minar cannot be climbed. The internal staircase has been sealed since a stampede in 1981 killed 45 people. You walk the complex, which is worth it, but the tower is closed.

Jal Mahal cannot be entered. It stands in the middle of Man Sagar lake and is closed to the public. It is a photograph from the road, and a good one, but nothing more.

The Lotus Temple is closed on Mondays. If your Delhi day lands on a Monday we reorder it.

At Jaipur City Palace, the ordinary ticket does not include Chandra Mahal, the private royal apartments, which is a separate and expensive add on. We tell you rather than letting you discover it at the door.

Amber Fort: take the jeep

You will be offered an elephant ride up to the gate, and we recommend against it, for a reason that is about you as much as the animals.

Inspections at Amber have found elephants testing positive for tuberculosis, which is transmissible to humans, along with visually impaired animals and loads above the legal limit for hilly terrain. A tourist''s leg was broken in an incident in 2024. There is a petition before the Rajasthan High Court and no ban has been issued, so the rides continue.

The official alternative is a government jeep, around 500 rupees for a six seater round trip, agreed before you board. Or walk up; it takes about twenty minutes.

Documents, money and the scams

Nepali citizens need no visa for India. You need an original document: a Nepalese passport, citizenship certificate or Election Commission voter ID. Photocopies are refused at airline check in. Bring the passport anyway, because it is what gets you the SAARC rate at the Taj.

On rupees: notes of 100 and below without limit, notes above 100 up to 25,000 per person either way. Refuse a 2000 rupee note in change; shops will not take it and ordinary banks no longer exchange it.

The scams on this circuit are consistent and easy to sidestep. Fake government tourist offices cluster around New Delhi railway station and Connaught Place; the genuine one is India Tourism at 88 Janpath. The driver who tells you your hotel has closed or burnt down is lying, so call the hotel on the number from your own booking, never his. In Jaipur, the gem shop that offers to let you buy stones and resell them at a profit abroad is a long running fraud; never buy for resale. At the Taj, a licensed guide carries a Ministry of Tourism photo licence with a number, so ask to see it and watch whether they deflect.

One thing we simply do not do: forced shopping stops. Commission driven detours to emporiums are the single most common complaint on this circuit, and they are not part of our itinerary.

Water and health

Tap water is not drinkable anywhere on this route. Sealed bottles only, no ice at roadside stalls, no cut fruit, no unpasteurised dairy. Travellers'' stomach upset is genuinely common here, so carry oral rehydration salts from Kathmandu. Hepatitis A and typhoid vaccination are sensible, though neither is required for entry.

Who this trip suits

First time visitors to India who want the headline monuments without a long trip. It is road heavy, with three driving days out of six, and it is hot from April onwards. If you would rather not sit in a car that much, we can put the Delhi to Agra leg on the train instead and shorten the day.