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A crowd covered in coloured powder in a Barsana temple courtyard during Lathmar Holi

Festival · Spiritual · Photography

Holi & Hola Mohalla

Lathmar Holi in Braj and the Sikh warrior festival at Anandpur Sahib

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See the day-by-day
Duration
14 days · 13 nights
Halts
8
Delhi to Delhi
Departure
12 – 25 March 2027
Price
On request
quoted to your dates

The journey

Fourteen days around two of India’s great festivals: Lathmar Holi and the flower Holi of Braj, then Hola Mohalla with the Nihang warriors at Anandpur Sahib.

Holi is played all over India, but in Braj — Krishna’s country, between Delhi and Agra — it begins a week early, and it is played with sticks. At Barsana, Radha’s village, the women meet the men of Nandgaon with lathis; the next day the visit is returned; and at the Banke Bihari temple in Vrindavan the priests throw flowers instead of powder. This journey puts you in the courtyards for all three.

The day after Holi, the Sikhs of Punjab gather at Anandpur Sahib for Hola Mohalla, the festival of martial skill begun by Guru Gobind Singh: Nihang warriors in blue and saffron riding bareback, gatka, archery, poetry, kirtan, and the langar that feeds everyone who comes. Around the two festivals: Jaipur, the Taj Mahal at sunrise, the Golden Temple at dawn, the Wagah border and Le Corbusier’s Chandigarh.

Festival calendar
Lathmar Holi · Holi · Hola Mohalla

Barsana 16 Mar · Nandgaon 17 Mar · Banke Bihari 18 Mar · Holi 22 Mar · Hola Mohalla 23 Mar 2027

The festival days follow the lunar calendar and move every year; the journey is rebuilt around them.

Highlights

What you will remember

  • Lathmar Holi at Barsana and Nandgaon, in the temple courtyards

  • Phoolon wali Holi — Holi of flowers — at the Banke Bihari temple, Vrindavan

  • Hola Mohalla at Anandpur Sahib: Nihang horsemen, gatka and the langar

  • Jaipur: Amber Fort, the City Palace, Jantar Mantar and the Hawa Mahal

  • The Chand Baori stepwell at Abhaneri, Fatehpur Sikri and the Taj Mahal at sunrise

  • The Golden Temple at dawn and the Beating Retreat at the Wagah border

The route

9 halts, in order

  1. Delhi
  2. Jaipur2 nights
  3. Agra1 night
  4. Vrindavan3 nights
  5. Delhi1 night
  6. Amritsar2 nights
  7. Anandpur Sahib2 nights
  8. Chandigarh1 night
  9. Delhi

Experiences

The moments it is built around

Everything else on this page is logistics. These are the reasons to come.

  • Clouds of colour over a Holi crowd

    Lathmar Holi at Barsana

    The men of Nandgaon arrive soaked and singing, shields up; the women of Barsana meet them with lathis.

  • A man laughing through a haze of orange colour at a Vrindavan temple

    Holi of flowers

    At the Banke Bihari temple the Goswami priests shower the hall with colour, and on Ekadashi with petals.

  • A Nihang Sikh on horseback

    The Nihang ride

    Horsemen in blue and saffron, gatka and archery, the day after Holi at Anandpur Sahib.

  • The Golden Temple lit up and reflected in its pool at night

    The Golden Temple before dawn

    The Palki Sahib procession, the kirtan that never stops, and the langar that feeds everyone.

A Nihang elder with a long white beard in a tall blue dumalla turban hung with silver emblems

Festival · Spiritual · Photography

Lathmar Holi in Braj and the Sikh warrior festival at Anandpur Sahib

14 days, 13 nights

The route, day by day

Every halt, every overnight and every drive, published in full.

  1. Delhi
  2. Jaipur
  3. Agra
  4. Vrindavan
  5. Delhi
  6. Amritsar
  7. Anandpur Sahib
  8. Chandigarh
  9. Delhi
  1. The Red Fort, Delhi

    01

    12 March 2027

    Overnight Delhi

    Arrival, and Old Delhi

    Met at the airport and driven to your hotel. Your room is booked from the night before, so it is ready whenever your flight lands.

    After a rest, Old Delhi: the Red Fort, Shah Jahan’s red sandstone citadel and home to the Mughal emperors for nearly two hundred years; the Jama Masjid, one of the largest mosques in India; the lanes of Chandni Chowk for spices, textiles, jewellery and street food; and Raj Ghat, the memorial where Mahatma Gandhi was cremated in 1948. Old Delhi is crowded and gloriously loud — dress modestly for the mosque, and keep your guide close.

  2. A Rajasthani musician in a red turban with his bowed ravanhatha

    02

    13 March 2027

    Overnight Jaipur

    270 km · 5½–6 hrs

    To Jaipur, the Pink City

    After breakfast, south-west to Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, as the city gives way to villages, mustard fields and the odd camel cart.

    Check in by early afternoon and rest, then the bazaars. Jaipur is famous for block-printed textiles, blue pottery, leather jootis and jewellery, and the old city is made for wandering.

  3. The pink sandstone façade of the Hawa Mahal, Jaipur

    03

    14 March 2027

    Overnight Jaipur

    Amber, the City Palace and the Hawa Mahal

    The morning at Amber Fort, on its ridge above the town — up by jeep, or on an elephant if you would like — for the courtyards, the halls and the mirror-work of the Rajput kings. On the way back, a stop at Jal Mahal, the water palace, for photographs.

    Then the City Palace, still home to Jaipur’s royal family; the Jantar Mantar, an eighteenth-century observatory whose instruments still work; and the Hawa Mahal, the pink sandstone Palace of Winds with its hundreds of latticed windows. The evening is yours.

  4. The steps of the Chand Baori stepwell at Abhaneri

    04

    15 March 2027

    Overnight Agra

    250 km · about 6 hrs

    Abhaneri and Fatehpur Sikri, on the way to Agra

    East to Agra, with two stops. At Abhaneri, the Chand Baori, one of India’s oldest and deepest stepwells: flights of steps folding down, storey after storey, to the water.

    Then Fatehpur Sikri, the red sandstone city Akbar built in the sixteenth century and left soon after, still whole: the towering Buland Darwaza, the five-storeyed Panch Mahal and the white marble tomb of the Sufi saint Salim Chishti. Agra by evening.

  5. Faces covered in colour at Lathmar Holi, Barsana
    Lathmar Holi · Barsana

    05

    16 March 2027

    Overnight Vrindavan

    70 km to Vrindavan · 40 km on to Barsana

    The Taj at sunrise, then Lathmar Holi at Barsana

    Up early for the Taj Mahal at sunrise (it is closed on Fridays), the white marble changing colour with the light — Shah Jahan’s tomb for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal.

    Back for breakfast, then to Barsana, Radha’s village near Mathura, for Lathmar Holi, which opens Holi week in Braj and draws people from all over India. In the legend, Krishna and his friends came from Nandgaon to tease Radha and the gopis with coloured water, and were chased off with sticks. Today the men of Nandgaon arrive soaked and singing, shields up; the women of Barsana answer with lathis.

    In the evening, to your hotel in Vrindavan.

  6. The courtyard at Nandgaon under clouds of gulal
    Lathmar Holi · Nandgaon

    06

    17 March 2027

    Overnight Vrindavan

    Lathmar Holi at Nandgaon

    The visit is returned. Nandgaon is where Krishna grew up, and in the legend Radha and her friends came here to take their revenge in colour. Women do not traditionally make the journey, so men and transgender people from Barsana come dressed as the gopis, and are welcomed with water and gulal.

    The heart of it is the courtyard of the Nandgaon temple, where the two villages sit facing each other, singing, dancing and teasing under a sky of colour. Back to Vrindavan for the night.

  7. Colour falling through a crowded temple hall at Holi
    Phoolon wali Holi · Vrindavan

    07

    18 March 2027

    Overnight Vrindavan

    The flower Holi at Banke Bihari

    A day in Vrindavan, around the Banke Bihari temple, which keeps Holi for a week. Bihariji, as Krishna is known in Braj, is dressed in white for the season, and the Goswami priests sprinkle colour over everyone in the hall.

    On Ekadashi, the eleventh day of the lunar fortnight before Holi, the temple gates open at about four in the afternoon for Phoolon wali Holi — Holi of flowers, played with fragrant petals instead of powder. Back to the hotel for the night.

  8. A horse-drawn tonga in an Old Delhi street

    08

    19 March 2027

    Overnight Delhi

    180 km · about 4 hrs

    Back to Delhi

    After breakfast, the drive back to Delhi and your hotel. The rest of the day is free: rest, wash out the colour, or see a little more of the city.

  9. A train platform in the morning haze

    09

    20 March 2027

    Overnight Amritsar

    Train Delhi – Amritsar

    By train to Amritsar

    An early transfer to New Delhi station for the train north to Amritsar, with Haryana and Punjab going by the window. Met at Amritsar station and taken to your hotel to settle in.

  10. The Golden Temple, Amritsar

    10

    21 March 2027

    Overnight Amritsar

    The Golden Temple at dawn, and the Wagah border

    Early to the Golden Temple for the morning procession, when the Palki Sahib carries the Guru Granth Sahib from the Akal Takht to the Harmandir Sahib. The hymns of the Gurbani kirtan are sung from the opening of the doors to their closing. Stay for the seva, the voluntary service that keeps the temple running, then the Ardas prayer and the Karah Prasad shared with everyone.

    The rest of the morning is for the temple itself: the four doors, open to people of every faith, and the gilded sanctum mirrored in the sacred pool, ringed by marble walkways.

    In the afternoon, 28 km to the Wagah border for the Beating Retreat: the flag-lowering and the drilled, high-kicking ceremony of the Indian and Pakistani border forces, watched by thousands from the stands.

  11. Flower petals thrown over a gurudwara gathering

    11

    22 March 2027

    Overnight Anandpur Sahib

    195 km · about 4 hrs

    To Anandpur Sahib

    After breakfast, the drive to Anandpur Sahib on the Sutlej, where Guru Gobind Singh founded the Khalsa in 1699. It is Holi across the rest of India today; here the town is filling for tomorrow. Check in at your hotel.

  12. A Nihang horseman with a raised spear at Hola Mohalla
    Hola Mohalla

    12

    23 March 2027

    Overnight Anandpur Sahib

    Hola Mohalla

    Hola Mohalla, held the day after Holi, is the Sikh festival of valour: gatka sword-play, archery, wrestling and mock battles, but also music, poetry, kirtan and prayer. More than a hundred thousand people come.

    The Nihangs are the heart of it — the order of Sikh warriors in blue and saffron, with great embellished turbans and curling moustaches, who ride bareback and stand astride two galloping horses. And everyone, of any faith or caste, eats together at the langar, the community kitchen. It is one of the most photogenic days in the Indian year.

  13. Pedal boats moored on Sukhna Lake, Chandigarh

    13

    24 March 2027

    Overnight Chandigarh

    95 km · about 2 hrs

    To Chandigarh

    After breakfast, the short drive to Chandigarh and your hotel. The evening is free in the city Le Corbusier planned — Sukhna Lake is the place to walk at sunset.

  14. A modernist concrete building in Chandigarh behind a bed of marigolds

    14

    25 March 2027

    Departure

    250 km · 5–6 hrs

    Chandigarh, then Delhi airport

    A guided morning in Chandigarh, Le Corbusier’s modernist city: the Capitol Complex, the Rock Garden and Sukhna Lake. Then the drive to Delhi airport for your flight home.

Like the route? We will write it for your dates.

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The price

What the price covers

The commonest reason travellers abandon an enquiry is not knowing what is covered. Every Rang Travels quotation itemises it — this is the usual shape for this journey.

Included

  • 13 nights with breakfast; your first room is booked from the night before you land
  • 4-star hotels where the town has them — Anandpur Sahib has only simple hotels (see Before you book)
  • A private air-conditioned car with driver throughout, and the train from Delhi to Amritsar
  • Local guides for the sightseeing, and a guide and tour escort at the Holi celebrations and at Hola Mohalla
  • Airport and station transfers, tolls, parking and driver allowances

Not included

  • International flights
  • Monument entrance fees
  • Lunches and dinners
  • Visa, travel insurance and tips
  • Old clothes for Holi — bring some

Price on request

Quoted to your dates,
your hotels and your pace

Ask for a written quotationAsk on WhatsApp

Before you book

Holi, crowds and the festival hotels

Holi is one of the most joyful things you can see in India, and one of the most chaotic. Please read these before you confirm.

At the celebrations

  • Holi is played in crowded public places by everyone who is there. There is no reserved seating or enclosure for groups, and each traveller is responsible for their own safety and belongings.
  • Expect dry colour, coloured water and water balloons, thrown without asking. Keep your phone, camera, wallet and passport sealed and close.
  • Crowds around the temples and the main squares are very large, and moving through them can be slow. Rang Travels cannot be responsible for the loss, theft or damage of belongings, devices or valuables.
  • Stay with your guide and tour escort, keep to the agreed meeting points and never go into the crowd alone. If you are separated, stay calm and call your guide on the emergency number you are given.
  • Taking part is your choice. If you would rather watch than be coloured, tell your guide beforehand and we will arrange it where we can.

Your health

  • If you have asthma or any breathing or respiratory condition, or are sensitive to dust or colour, we advise you not to join the Holi celebrations: the crowds, powder and dust can cause real discomfort or make it worse.
  • If you have allergies or sensitive skin, take precautions, carry any medication you may need, and where necessary watch rather than take part.

What to wear

  • Old, comfortable clothes you do not mind staining, and closed shoes.
  • Protect your eyes, face and hair, and anything electronic, from colour and water.

The festival hotels

  • Anandpur Sahib has no 4-star hotels; accommodation there is limited and mostly simple, and twin rooms are not available — rooms are double or large-bed.
  • Hotels in Vrindavan and Anandpur Sahib fill very early for the festivals. We recommend confirming and paying for them as soon as you book; waiting can mean the hotels we propose are gone, or cost much more.
  • All hotels are subject to availability when you confirm, and may change.

Questions

Before you go

The questions travellers ask about this journey, answered from the itinerary itself. Anything else — ask, and a curator replies.

When are the festivals in 2027?

Lathmar Holi at Barsana is on 16 March and at Nandgaon on 17 March; the flower Holi at the Banke Bihari temple on 18 March; Holi on 22 March; Hola Mohalla on 23 March. The journey runs from 12 to 25 March 2027. The dates follow the lunar calendar and move every year.

What should I wear for Holi?

Old clothes you are happy to lose, closed shoes, and glasses or goggles against the powder. Seal your phone and camera in a bag: the colour is dry powder and coloured water, and it gets everywhere.

Can I watch without being coloured?

Up to a point — in Braj nobody is entirely safe. Tell your guide beforehand: they know where to stand and when to step back, and will arrange what they can.

How crowded is Hola Mohalla?

Very: more than a hundred thousand people come to Anandpur Sahib. Your guide knows where to stand for the horsemen and the gatka, and when to go to the langar.

Why book the hotels so early?

Vrindavan and Anandpur Sahib have few good hotels, and they fill months ahead of the festivals. Confirming early is the only way to be sure of the rooms we propose.

Can I add days?

The commonest additions are two nights in Varanasi or in Dharamshala at the end. Ask, and we will write them in.

The gallery

On the road

  • Yellow gulal
  • The crowd under a Barsana temple, red with colour
  • A girl with colour-stained hands at Holi
  • The latticed windows of the Hawa Mahal
  • The Taj Mahal from the gardens
  • A pilgrim at the Golden Temple
  • Nihang Sikhs in blue
  • A gatka display
  • The crowd at Hola Mohalla
  • A Nihang elder in a dumalla turban
  • Two Nihang Sikhs playing Holi at Hola Mohalla
  • A Nihang at the Golden Temple

Reviews

In their own words

Word for word, several in Italian, because Italy found us early. 5.0 from 146 reviews on Google, and 5.0 from 200 on TripAdvisor.

“I had an incredible adventure with Rang Travels in Northern India earlier this year! The tour was jam packed. I loved the beautiful forts and buildings we visited, the markets, as well as the stunning World Heritage hotels. This tour gave me a real taste for India, and I felt very comfortable for my first time visiting! …”

Read the whole review on Google

Jess Foster

Northern India · May 2025

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