North India Tours & Holiday Packages from Australia

North India is where most people's idea of India comes from — the Taj Mahal at dawn, Rajasthan's painted forts, the ghats of Varanasi, the Himalaya rising behind it all. It is also where the biggest planning mistakes get made, because the distances look smaller on a map than they feel in a car.

We've been building private North India itineraries for Australian travellers since 2012. Everything below is what we'd tell you on the phone before you started planning: when to go, how long to allow, and which parts genuinely belong in the same trip.

October and November are the best weeks of the year. The monsoon has cleared, the light is sharp, the days are warm and the evenings are cool. If you can travel then, do.

December and January are comfortable in Rajasthan by day and genuinely cold at night — Delhi can drop near freezing. The real consideration is fog: dense winter fog regularly delays flights and trains across the northern plains, and a tight itinerary in January is a fragile one. We build in more slack at this time of year, and we'd rather you knew that than discovered it.

February and March are excellent, warming steadily. Holi falls in March and is worth planning around if the colour and chaos appeal to you.

April to June is very hot on the plains — 45°C is normal in Rajasthan by May, and sightseeing becomes something you do before nine in the morning. But this is exactly when the Himalaya opens. Kashmir is at its best in spring, and the high passes into Ladakh clear from around late May.

July to September is monsoon season across the plains. Ladakh stays accessible and is beautiful, but the classic North India circuit is not at its best.

In short: the plains and the mountains want opposite halves of the year. Trying to do both in one trip usually means doing one of them badly.

Six to seven days covers the Golden Triangle — Delhi, Agra and Jaipur — properly. It is the right first trip to India and the one we send most first-timers on.

Ten to twelve days adds Rajasthan: Udaipur's lakes, Jodhpur's blue city, the desert at Jaisalmer. This is where North India really opens up, and where most travellers who have the time end up.

Two weeks lets you reach Varanasi for the Ganges at sunrise, or push north into the Himalaya — but not both.

Three weeks is what Ladakh or a proper Kashmir journey deserves, given the altitude and the acclimatisation days a responsible itinerary builds in.

The Golden Triangle is the classic introduction. Delhi's Mughal monuments, the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort, and Jaipur's palaces and bazaars — three cities within comfortable driving distance of each other. Our Golden Triangle tour covers it in seven days.

Rajasthan is forts, palaces, desert and craft. Udaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Bikaner and the painted havelis of Shekhawati, usually added to the Golden Triangle rather than visited alone. Our fifteen-day Rajasthan journey takes the unhurried version.

The sacred north — Varanasi, Rishikesh, Haridwar — is the India people find hardest to describe afterwards. A dawn boat on the Ganges is one of those experiences that justifies the whole trip. It pairs naturally with a cultural route through the north.

The Himalaya is a different trip in a different season. Kashmir for the Mughal gardens, Dal Lake and alpine meadows; Ladakh for high passes, Buddhist monasteries and Pangong Lake. Both need the warmer months and both need time to acclimatise.

Our North India itineraries run from around AUD $820 per person for a seven-day Golden Triangle to around AUD $2,600 for a sixteen-day grand tour, excluding international flights.

Included as standard: accommodation, daily breakfast, private air-conditioned transport with a driver, English-speaking local guides, and all transfers.

Worth budgeting separately: monument entrance fees, which in India are charged at a higher rate for international visitors and add up across a full itinerary; plus visas, travel insurance, and meals not listed in your itinerary. We give you a realistic figure for these up front rather than letting them surprise you.

Australians need a visa for India. The e-Visa covers most tourism, is applied for online before you travel, and needs a little lead time — we'd suggest starting it at least three weeks out. Entry decisions always rest with Indian immigration, not with us, but we'll walk you through what's required and when.