The Golden Triangle and the Ganges

South-west to Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan. Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II founded it in 1727 and laid it out on a grid of broad streets and bazaars, a planned city from the start; the old town is washed the pink that gives it its name.

In the afternoon, the City Palace, where part of the palace is still the home of Jaipur’s royal family and closed to visitors. Its courtyards and gateways mix the Rajput and Mughal ways of building. Next to it is the Jantar Mantar, Jai Singh’s observatory: giant instruments of brick, stone and plaster for tracking the sun, moon and stars, among them a sundial that tells the time to within a few seconds.

East towards Agra, with two stops. The first is the village of Abhaneri and the Chand Baori, one of the largest and deepest stepwells in India, dug more than a thousand years ago: thirteen storeys of steps folding down to the water. Stepwells were built across this dry country to reach water that sank far below ground in the hot months; they were cool places to rest, and bathing places before worship at the temple beside them.

Then Fatehpur Sikri, the red sandstone city Akbar built from about 1570 and left some fourteen years later — for want of water, it is said. It is the best preserved of the Mughal palace cities: the Diwan-i-Khas with its carved central pillar, the five-storeyed Panch Mahal, the Buland Darwaza, and in the mosque courtyard the white marble tomb of the Sufi saint Salim Chishti. Agra by evening.

An early start for the longest drive of the journey, north to Haridwar, where the Ganga leaves the Himalaya for the plains and one of the holiest cities of the Hindus grew up along its banks. After you check in, the temples on the hills above the town — Mansa Devi first, the goddess’s shrine on Bilwa hill, with the river spread out below.

At dusk, Har Ki Pauri, the ghat where Vishnu is said to have left his footprint in the stone. The aarti begins as the light goes: priests swing great brass lamps over the water, bells ring and the crowd sings, and people set little leaf boats of flowers and a flame on the current. It is an offering of light, and of thanks, to the river.

The day is yours in the yoga capital of the world. Join a morning class — many of the town’s schools and ashrams take students for a single session — or walk the ghats between the ashrams on the east bank of the Ganga, where sadhus sit on the steps and the evening aarti is sung at Parmarth Niketan.

Or walk on to the Beatles Ashram, where Maharishi Mahesh Yogi taught Transcendental Meditation and the Beatles came to stay in 1968, writing many of the songs of the White Album. The ashram was abandoned for years and is now open to visitors, its meditation domes and walls covered in murals.

After breakfast, the transfer to Delhi airport for your flight home.