Uttar Pradesh

Varanasi Tour Packages

Varanasi is not an easy city and it is not meant to be. The ghats at dawn — pilgrims bathing, boats moving through the mist, cremations continuing as they have for centuries — are the reason people come, and the reason some find it overwhelming. Two nights is the minimum that works: one dawn boat ride, one Ganga Aarti at Dashashwamedh in the evening, and a morning in the lanes of the old city, which are too narrow for cars and easy to get lost in. Sarnath, where the Buddha gave his first sermon, is a half day and a complete change of pace. Go with a guide who knows the etiquette around the cremation ghats — photography there is deeply resented and correctly so.