Places here
AgraThe Taj Mahal plus two more Mughal sites, Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri. One or two days is plenty.AmritsarThe Golden Temple, the great Sikh shrine with a free kitchen open day and night, plus the Partition Museum and the old city.Anandpur SahibWhere the Khalsa, the Sikh order, began in 1699, with a Moshe Safdie museum that tells you the whole story.Bodh GayaThe village where the Buddha is said to have become enlightened, with the Mahabodhi Temple and monasteries from Buddhist countries.DelhiMughal forts and tombs, Sufi and Sikh sites, a lot of food, and late nights next door in Gurugram.KhajurahoHindu and Jain temples covered in carved stone figures, in a small town you can see in two days.LucknowGrand imambaras, halls built for Shia gatherings, and Awadhi food, in a city few foreigners reach.OrchhaPalaces, working temples and memorial domes on the Betwa river, with fewer crowds than Agra or Khajuraho.Patna SahibThe birthplace of Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru, in Bihar's capital on the Ganges.VaranasiBoats at dawn, fire on the river at dusk, and life and death in plain sight on the same stone steps.