India travel guide: when to go, what to see and how to plan it

The country's introductory circuit: Delhi, Agra and Jaipur form a triangle of about 720 kilometres that loops in 5 to 7 days. Delhi sets the Mughal city (Jama Masjid, Red Fort, closed Mondays) against the colonial avenues of New Delhi. Agra fits into a morning at the Taj Mahal, best entered at opening time and never on a Friday when it is closed. Jaipur, the pink city, deserves three nights for Amber Fort, the City Palace and its textile bazaars. The fast train links Delhi to Agra in under two hours.

Beyond Jaipur, Rajasthan lines up fortress towns: Jodhpur with Mehrangarh Fort above the blue old town, Udaipur and its palaces on Lake Pichola, Jaisalmer deep in the Thar Desert. Allow ten days to see three or four without rushing, road transfers running 4 to 6 hours between stops. The best window is November to February; from April afternoons pass 40 degrees. Domestic flights from Udaipur or Jodhpur save a long drive back to Delhi.

Varanasi, on the banks of the Ganges, is the spiritual heart of Hinduism: pilgrims bathe at dawn and cremation fires burn continuously on the ghats. A boat at sunrise then the evening aarti ceremony at Dashashwamedh Ghat sum up the city in two set pieces. An hour away, Sarnath marks where the Buddha gave his first sermon. Two nights are enough. The city is reached by air from Delhi, Agra or Khajuraho, another regional must-see for its carved temples.

In the far south-west, Kerala shows a calmer face of India: lagoons fringed with coconut palms, tea plantations at Munnar around 1,600 metres, Arabian Sea beaches at Varkala. A night aboard a houseboat on the Alleppey canals is the signature experience, to book with mosquito nets. Allow a week to combine Kochi, the backwaters and the hills. The climate reverses the northern logic: the monsoon hits hard from June to August, and the good season runs December to March. The mood is close to neighbouring Sri Lanka.

A former Portuguese colony, Goa keeps listed baroque churches at Old Goa and Creole architecture in Panjim. The north (Anjuna, Arambol) lives at night, the south (Palolem, Agonda) stays quiet. The dry season runs November to March; during the monsoon most beach shacks close. Further north, the Karnataka coast around Gokarna offers less crowded coves. For a purely beach holiday, Thailand is easier to reach, but Goa pairs well with a cultural circuit.

The mountainous north is visited in summer, when the plains swelter. Ladakh, a high-altitude desert around Leh at 3,500 metres, is reachable by road only from June to September and needs two days of acclimatisation. Himachal Pradesh (Manali, Dharamsala, seat of the Tibetan government in exile) and Sikkim, watched over by Kangchenjunga, round out the options. Sikkim and several border zones require a permit, applied for online or on arrival. Trekking here recalls Nepal, with slightly heavier logistics.

Tamil Nadu unfolds living temple-cities: Madurai and its Minakshi temple with multicoloured gopurams, Thanjavur, Mahabalipuram and its seaside bas-reliefs. The pace is slower than the north, the food vegetarian and spiced, chai replaced by filter coffee. Allow ten to twelve days for a Chennai, Pondicherry, Kaveri delta and Madurai circuit. The pleasant window runs November to February, avoiding the north-east monsoon from October to December on the east coast.