Places for this
AmritsarThe Golden Temple, the great Sikh shrine with a free kitchen open day and night, plus the Partition Museum and the old city.BengaluruLeafy parks, old breakfast houses and India's easiest nightlife, in a mild, modern city with its own relaxed pace.DelhiMughal forts and tombs, Sufi and Sikh sites, a lot of food, and late nights next door in Gurugram.HyderabadCharminar, Golconda Fort and the Qutb Shahi Tombs: the Deccan's great Muslim dynasties, all in one city.KolkataColonial buildings, bookstalls, street food and festivals in a big, old, argumentative city on the Hooghly river.LucknowGrand imambaras, halls built for Shia gatherings, and Awadhi food, in a city few foreigners reach.MumbaiBig and loud: colonial stone, street food, late nights, and a boat to Hindu carvings at Elephanta.AhmedabadA walled old city of mosques, Jain carving and Gandhi's ashram, in dry Gujarat, with very good vegetarian food.ChennaiTamil temples, a very long city beach and some of India's best breakfasts, in a big, warm, unshowy city.JaipurHill forts, bazaars and rooftop evenings in Rajasthan's pink-walled royal capital.JodhpurThe Blue City: a huge hill fort above a maze of lanes, and your way into the Thar desert.KochiAn old trading port you can walk, with Dutch, Portuguese and Jewish history, good food and harbour ferries.MaduraiTowering temple gateways and night food, in a busy temple city in the heart of Tamil Nadu.North GoaSurf schools, sunset parties and clubs, with a calmer stretch of sand at the northern end.VaranasiBoats at dawn, fire on the river at dusk, and life and death in plain sight on the same stone steps.AgraThe Taj Mahal plus two more Mughal sites, Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri. One or two days is plenty.Alibaug-KonkanPalm trees, quiet beaches and old sea forts, one ferry ride from Mumbai.AlleppeyPalm-lined backwater canals, and the best way through them is slowly, on a houseboat.DarjeelingTea gardens, a small heritage railway and long Himalayan views when the cloud clears, at about 2,045 m.Dharamshala-McLeod GanjThe home of the Tibetan exile community in India, in pine hills below the snow-capped Dhauladhar range.Gangtok and SikkimSikkim's tidy hill capital: monasteries, prayer flags and high lakes, but only with an online permit sorted first.GuwahatiA busy Brahmaputra river city with one famous hill temple, and your main way into Northeast India.Kohima and HornbillNagaland's hill capital and the Hornbill Festival, ten days of Naga tribal culture each December. Permit required.KutchA white salt desert, craft villages and an ancient city site, in a remote district that's best from November to February.Leh, Nubra, PangongA high-altitude desert of Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, sand dunes and huge blue lakes in Ladakh.MysuruA royal city with a grand palace, a busy old market and a hill above the town, easy to do in two days.Patna SahibThe birthplace of Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru, in Bihar's capital on the Ganges.PondicherryA former French town on the Tamil coast: colour-washed streets, cafes, a long seafront and Auroville nearby.PuneMaratha history, a hill fort, good cafes and bars, in a calm city that works as a stop on the way to Ajanta.Puri, Konark, BhubaneswarA pilgrimage beach town, Konark's stone chariot temple and the old temples of Bhubaneswar, close together in Odisha.ShillongA cool hill capital you'll use as a comfortable base for the waterfalls and rivers of Meghalaya.South GoaCurved bays, early nights and turtles, for doing very little in the slower half of Goa.UdaipurPalaces on still lakes, a sunset boat, rooftop dinners, and a long day out to a hill fort and a Jain temple.