North India,
marigold to monsoon-blue.

Arrival in the capital.

Traditional welcome at Delhi airport with fresh marigold flowers. Air-conditioned private transfer to our hotel.

At 6 PM, an informal meet-and-greet in the hotel lobby — drinks and dinner at our own pace.

Empires, alleys, marigolds.

Narjee leads us through Rashtrapati Bhawan, the Parliament buildings, and India Gate — the Arc-de-Triumph for 70,000 Indian soldiers of the Great War. South to Qutub Minar, the tallest brick minaret in the world (1200 CE), then the Sikh Gurudwara Bangla Sahib and Shah Jahan's Jama Masjid.

Lunch at Khan Market. Then the lanes of Old Delhi — Meena Bazaar, the Jain Digambhara temple with its bird hospital, and Chandni Chowk. We hop on cycle rickshaws through the spice market, paper market and jewellers' alley, then ride the metro back to our hotel.

Gandhi's last walk & the Mughal capital.

Morning at Gandhi Smriti — the home where Mahatma Gandhi spent the last 144 days of his life. Then south on the new expressway to Agra.

After lunch and downtime, Agra Fort — Akbar's red sandstone capital from 1558. At sunset, Mehtaab Bagh on the far bank of the Yamuna for a slower, second view of the Taj.

The Taj at dawn. The Pink City by dusk.

A guided dawn-view of the Taj Mahal — twenty-two years and twenty thousand labourers in the service of one love story. Back to the hotel for breakfast, then west to Jaipur.

Enroute we descend into Chand Baori — a 9th-century stepwell, 3,500 stairs cascading thirteen stories into the earth. Evening with a Jaipur family: a cooking demonstration and home-cooked dinner.

Forts, astronomers, and gemstones.

Up early for Amer Fort by 4×4 open jeep — red sandstone and white marble overlooking Maotha Lake. Then the Anokhi Museum of textile with a hand-block-print workshop, and lunch.

An astrologer accompanies us to Jantar Mantar — Jai Singh's astronomical instruments from 1727, the largest such observatory in the world. Late afternoon: a renowned jeweller's shop, where the world's designers come to source.

Markets, women's gem factory, holy lake.

Morning prayers at Govind Dev Ji Temple, then a walk through Muhana Mandi's flower, vegetable and milk markets. A masala chai stop. Mid-morning, a women-only gemstone factory — rubies, emeralds, tourmalines, sapphires.

South to Pushkar. At sunset, the ghats of Pushkar Lake and the 14th-century Brahma Temple — the only existing temple to Lord Brahma.

Village school, farm lunch, the Blue City.

Through the countryside to Jodhpur. We stop at a local village school to spend time with children and teachers, and at a working farm for lunch with wine and beer in a countryside resort.

Evening: the Clock Tower walk and Sadar Market in the old city. Dinner overlooks the floodlit Mehrangarh Fort.

Mehrangarh, blue alleys, a cursed palace.

Mehrangarh Fort, founded in 1459 — one of the largest forts in India. From its ramparts, a heritage walk into the indigo lanes of the Old City, with a local food-tasting stop.

Late afternoon: Umaid Bhawan Palace Museum, and the curious story of a curse, a famine, and the lavish palace built to give farmers work in the 1920s.

Jungle lodge & village high tea.

Through shepherds' villages to Aloof Jungle Lodge at the edge of Kumbhalgarh National Park. Afternoon jeep safari for leopards, sloth bears, four-horn deer and Indian wolves.

High tea in a hill-tribe village — milking a goat, helping in the fields, a humble "Namaste". Dinner in the jungle with local folk music and dance.

Jain temples in the Aravalli glen.

A stop at Sadri village to visit the Jain community, then on to the Ranakpur Jain temples — one of the five holy palaces of the sect, set in a quiet glen of the Aravalli hills.

Lunch in Ranakpur. Late afternoon, into Udaipur — the City of Lakes — for an orientation walk and dinner.

City Palace, miniatures, lake at sunset.

The City Palace — Maharana Udai Singh's commission, expanded by every successor without breaking the harmony of the design. Then a miniature-painting workshop. Lunch at Lily Court in modern-contemporary surroundings.

An exclusive boat ride on Lake Pichola at sunset, the Lake Palace floating on white marble. Dinner in town.

South to Bollywood.

Direct afternoon flight to Mumbai. Met on arrival, transferred to our hotel. Evening through the Colaba markets, past the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, with a stop at the famous Leopold Café.

Bombay by Dawn — and home.

Pre-dawn drive into the working-class Mumbai that wakes the rest. Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, the newspaper and milk-distribution chaos, fresh pav at a bakery, and Sassoon Dock with the fisher-folk.

The Dabbawala route, Dhobi Ghat — the open-air laundry — and Victoria Terminus, the UNESCO-listed Italianate-Gothic-Mughal-Hindu hybrid railway station. Late evening transfer for flights home, with sweet memories of Incredible India.