Photo: Vyacheslav Argenberg · CC BY 4.0
Best: Oct–Mar
The Ganga turns north here, so the sun rises across the water and the city on the crescent bank gets the first light full in its face. That fact has organised Varanasi since before the Buddha walked through it on his way to Sarnath. Come down to Assi Ghat at half past five for Subah-e-Banaras, when the aarti, yoga and morning raga run together, then take a boat north past Harishchandra and Kedar ghats to Dashashwamedh, where priests are washing the steps, and on to Manikarnika, where cremations continue around the clock and no one minds you watching quietly from the water.
Behind the ghats the old city is a maze of lanes two metres wide, with cows, silk shops, the Kashi Vishwanath temple in its new corridor down to the river, and the akharas where wrestlers train in mud pits. Breakfast is kachori-sabzi with jalebi, lunch is at a thali house, and the afternoon is for Ramnagar Fort across the river or the Bharat Kala Bhavan museum at Banaras Hindu University. At dusk return to Dashashwamedh for the Ganga aarti, seven priests with tiered lamps and conch shells, best seen from a boat.
In November, on Kartik Purnima, Dev Deepawali lights every ghat with a million lamps. Varanasi keeps death in plain sight and is the busier with life for it; give it at least three days and a walker's patience.
Best Oct–Mar
October to March; Dev Deepawali falls on Kartik Purnima in November.
Give Varanasi 3 days and it repays the time; with fewer you are choosing between Dawn boat ride from Assi to Manikarnika Ghat and Ganga aarti at Dashashwamedh Ghat. We build the hours around the weather — early starts when it is hot, long afternoons when it is not.
On the ground
The days we would actually plan for you, in the order that suits the light.
At the table
Street foodUttar Pradesh
Tomatoes and boiled potato mashed on a hot iron pan with ginger, chilli and garam masala, then piled into a leaf bowl with crushed namkeen, coriander and a squeeze of lime. It is served scalding hot in Varanasi, most famously at the Godowlia and Dashashwamedh stalls after an evening at the ghats.
Getting there
Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport at Babatpur is 25 km from the ghats; Varanasi Junction and Banaras stations connect to Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai, and Prayagraj is 120 km by road.
Airport pickups, station transfers and the driver for the days here are all part of what we arrange — including the hour you should leave, which is usually earlier than you think.
Next door
Places that join Varanasi without a long drive — the way a real week is built.
HeritageUttar Pradesh
Where the Buddha first turned the wheel of dharma
RiverUttar Pradesh
Where three rivers meet and the Kumbh gathers
TempleUttar Pradesh
Ram's city on the Saryu, rebuilt and radiant
TempleBihar
The tree under which a prince became the Buddha
2 journeys
6 days · 5 nightsEasy · Best Oct–Mar
Six days from the ghats of Kashi to the Sangam and the Saryu
Route: Varanasi → Sarnath → Prayagraj → Ayodhya
7 days · 6 nightsEasy · Best Oct–Mar
Bodh Gaya to Sarnath, where the Buddha woke and first taught
Route: Bodh Gaya → Rajgir → Nalanda → Varanasi +1 more
From the journal
· Culture · 6 min
One full day on the ghats of Banaras, hour by hour: the pre-dawn boat, the walk from Assi to Manikarnika, the lanes behind Kashi Vishwanath, the kachori and malaiyo worth queueing for, and where to sit for the evening aarti.
· Culture · 5 min
A year of Indian festivals arranged by month, with where each one is at its most vivid, how far ahead to book, and what actually happens on the ground, from Thrissur Pooram's elephants to Hornbill in Nagaland and Dev Deepawali on the Ganga.
· Food · 6 min
A working eater's route through ten Indian cities, from Chandni Chowk at dawn to Indore's Sarafa Bazaar at midnight. One anchor dish per city, the lanes and stalls that make it, what it costs, and how to eat street food without losing a day.
Before you ask
Photograph of Varanasi: Vyacheslav Argenberg · CC BY 4.0
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