Varanasi by air

Travel time - Delhi to Varanasi: approx 1 hour flight

On Day One of your 4 day tour to Varanasi, you’ll take a taxi, tuk tuk or rickshaw to the domestic airport in Delhi for your flight to the holy city. The flight only takes just over an hour. When you arrive in Varanasi, you’ll hop in a taxi to your hotel, which is situated directly on the banks of the River Ganges.

Along the banks of the Ganges you’ll see hundreds of ghats - broad stone staircases leading down into the river – stretching towards the horizon. Each ghat has its own special meaning. Your guesthouse stands close to the Assi Ghat, at the southern end of the town. Pilgrims bathe in this ghat during a religious festival called 'Panchatirthi Yatra', using a small metal pot to pour water over their heads. Across all of the ghats pilgrims can be seen sitting absolutely still in meditation for hours at a time. Others simply splash about in the water with friends or wash their clothes, and occasionally you’ll see entire families rinsing themselves in the holy waters.

Next on your 4 day tour to Varanasi, you’ll make a very early start to take a boat trip on the Ganges at dawn. This is an extremely special experience and you cannot help but soak up the intensely spiritual atmosphere. You’ll drift past pilgrims of all ages and classes as they perform their ritual bathing just before sunrise. After the boat trip, there's a guided walk through the old centre of Varanasi. Watch out for the holy cows in the narrow alleyways. The rest of the day is free for you to explore.

Life and death rubs shoulders here like nowhere else on earth, and the experience is very inspiring. Watching a cremation take place on the ‘burning ghats’ is something that you will remember forever. The body is carried, without a coffin, through the streets and down to the river, accompanied by spiritual singing. After this, ghee (clarified butter) is rubbed on to the body to help it burn. The sight of the bodies burning, amidst solemn chanting and thick smoke, is somehow serene and beautiful. Next to the cremation ghat, you’ll find kids playing cricket, cows nosing through rubbish, and women beating laundry on rocks.

Only the wealthier classes can afford to cremate their relatives on the banks of the Ganges. If you wish to attend a cremation in Varanasi, you must show respect: wear suitable clothing (cover shoulders and knees) and do not take photos of any kind.
 

On day three of your 4 day tour to Varanasi, you’ll take a trip to the small town of Sarnath, not far from Varanasi. Sarnath is another place of pilgrimage, this time for the Buddhists. After his enlightenment in Bodhgaya, Buddha came to Sarnath to preach about the Middle Way of reaching Nirvana, and he gave his very first lecture here. After this, the religious ruler Ashoka built an enormous stupa (temple) and several Buddhist monasteries to commemorate the teaching. After you’ve spent some time exploring Sarnath, you’ll be taken back to the city, where you’ll have all afternoon to wander through the city as you please on your 4 day tour to Varanasi.