India
Rajasthan
Jaipur, Jodhpur & Udaipur
The desert cools down and the festival calendar opens
6–9 daysOctober to March
12 – 18 Oct 2026
from ₹31,500 per person
IndiaUttar PradeshOctober to March
Varanasi
Dev Deepawali lights every ghat with a million lamps
Open departure windows
3
days
3–4 days
from · per person
₹14,000
Best window
October to March
Why go now
Through the monsoon the Ganga rises over the lower ghats and boat rides stop entirely. By October the river has dropped back, the steps are clear again, and the mornings are cool enough for the dawn boat to be pleasant rather than sticky. Fifteen days after Diwali comes Dev Deepawali, when every ghat along the crescent is lit with earthen lamps at once — the most photographed night in the city and worth building a trip around.
Quick facts
- Currency
- Indian Rupee (INR)
- Language spoken
- Hindi, Bhojpuri, English
- Time difference
- No difference — IST
- Flight time
- 1h 20m from Delhi, 1h 40m from Mumbai
- Typical temperature
- 26–32 °C day, 16–20 °C night
Trip highlights
- Dev Deepawali — every ghat lit at once, fifteen days after Diwali
- A dawn boat from Assi to Manikarnika as the city wakes
- Ganga Aarti at Dashashwamedh, from the water rather than the crowd
- Sarnath, where the Buddha gave his first sermon
- A morning walk through the lanes of the old city with a local guide
Departures
Open departure windows
Every dated window we can currently service, newest first. Seat counts update as they fill.
19 – 23 Nov 2026
4 nights / 5 days
Dev Deepawali — reserved boat on the ghats
from
₹19,500
per person
What a typical package covers
- Return flights or train from your departure city
- Hotels or homestays on twin sharing, hand-picked rather than allocated
- Daily breakfast, and dinner where the location has no reasonable alternative
- A dedicated vehicle with driver for the whole itinerary
- All permits, entry formalities and inter-city transfers
- A named coordinator on WhatsApp for the length of the trip
Not included
- Lunches, and any meal not named in the itinerary
- Monument and activity tickets unless stated on your quote
- Anything personal — laundry, tips, phone, medical
Know before you go
- 1Dev Deepawali fills the city completely. Hotels near the ghats are booked months ahead and rates triple; we hold rooms for those windows well in advance.
- 2The old city lanes are not navigable by car. Expect a 10–15 minute walk with luggage to any ghat-side hotel.
- 3Photography at the cremation ghats is prohibited and enforced. Your guide will tell you where the line is; respect it.
Visa for Indian passports
No visa. Domestic travel.
Questions
Varanasi — Frequently asked
If yours is not here, call or WhatsApp us — the desk answers, not a bot.
It can be, and a guide for the first morning changes that entirely. The crowds, the lanes and the cremation ghats land very differently when someone is explaining what you are looking at. We include a local guide on day one of every Varanasi itinerary for exactly this reason.
Both are comfortable day trips or overnight extensions — Ayodhya is about four hours by road, Prayagraj about three. A five-night trip covering all three works well and is one of our more requested routes. Mention it on the call.
No — it is included in our Dev Deepawali windows, and it has to be booked weeks ahead because the river fills with boats that night. Walk-up boat hire on the day is either unavailable or five times the normal rate.
Similar destinations
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