9 days
Varanasi & Rishikesh & Kedarnath · Moderate
Kashi to Kedar
Varanasi, Rishikesh and the Kedarnath yatra
Varanasi → Sarnath → Rishikesh → Guptkashi → Kedarnath → Rishikesh
From₹54,000
Uttar Pradesh, India · 25.32° N, 83.01° E
Varanasi
Eighty-four ghats, three thousand years of ritual and a river that is at once a highway, a temple and a crematorium.
- Best time
- October to March
- Ideal length
- 3–4 days
- Region
- North India
- Journeys from
- ₹54,000
Varanasi is overwhelming in the best sense. You don't see it so much as surrender to it — the bells, the smoke, the boatmen calling, the chai stalls wedged between temples.
We keep groups tiny here and always use the same two local guides, both born within a few streets of the river. They know when to talk and when to let the city speak.
The essentials are simple: the river at sunrise by rowing boat, the aarti at Dashashwamedh from a boat rather than the steps, and at least one morning lost in the lanes with no plan at all.
(02)When to go
October to March
Dev Deepawali, fifteen days after Diwali, lights every ghat with oil lamps — book months ahead. April to June is very hot.
- January: recommended
- February: recommended
- March: recommended
- April: not recommended
- May: not recommended
- June: not recommended
- July: not recommended
- August: not recommended
- September: not recommended
- October: recommended
- November: recommended
- December: recommended
(03)Don't miss
The moments worth the journey.
- 01
Sunrise on the Ganga
A hand-rowed boat from Assi to Manikarnika as the city washes, prays and wakes up.
- 02
Ganga Aarti
Seen from the water, where you can take in the choreography without the crush on the steps.
- 03
The lanes
Silk weavers, lassi shops, hidden shrines and the best kachori sabzi before eight.
- 04
Sarnath
Where the Buddha gave his first sermon, twenty minutes and a world away from the ghats.
(04)From the road
Varanasi in pictures
Priests holding tiered brass lamps during the evening aarti, crowds behind Young priests lifting fire lamps in unison on a Varanasi ghat at night Rowing boats pulled up at the water's edge as lights come on along the ghats Tall old buildings rising straight out of the river at Varanasi
(05)Journeys
Ways to travel Varanasi
Starting points our planners reshape around your dates, your people and your pace.
Next destination · Uttarakhand, India
Rishikesh & Kedarnath