Experience 03 / 12
Culture journeys across India
संस्कृति और परंपरा
Puppets, looms, ragas and streets that still make things
Culture in India is not staged for visitors, it is Tuesday. A block printer in Bagru, a Kathakali green room in Thrissur, a satra prayer hall on Majuli, a December morning at Hornbill in Nagaland. We take you to workshops, rehearsals and kitchens where the work is real and the makers have time to talk.
- 13 of 91 places
- 13 journeys
- Best Oct–Mar
The shape of it
What a culture journey looks like
यह यात्रा कैसी होती है
The best cultural days in India begin backstage. In Kerala, Kathakali actors arrive three hours before a performance to have chutti applied, rice paste and paper layered along the jaw until the face becomes a mask, and you are welcome to sit and watch it happen. In Bhuj and the Kutch villages, Rabari women stitch mirrors into black cloth while Ajrakh printers at Ajrakhpur run cotton through many rounds of resist, indigo and madder. Lucknow keeps chikankari alive in courtyards off Chowk. Jaipur's Bagru and Sanganer still print with wooden blocks. On Majuli, the Brahmaputra island in Assam, monks at Auniati and Kamalabari rehearse Sattriya dance while Samaguri satra builds bamboo and clay masks for bhaona. Bengal's Bishnupur weaves baluchari saris with whole Mahabharata scenes in the pallu, and Kolkata's Kumartuli lanes fill with unfired clay Durgas from August onward. Nagaland's Hornbill Festival at Kisama, held from the first to the tenth of December, gathers the state's tribes for log drums, wrestling and rice beer. We time these journeys to festivals and market days, keep groups small enough to fit inside a workshop, and pay artisans directly for their demonstrations.
Where to go
13 places for a culture journey
कहाँ जाएँ
Grouped by region, north to south. Each one earns its place for a different reason — open any of them for the season, the days it needs and how to get there.
North India
Himalayas, holy rivers and Mughal splendour
CityThemes:HeritageCultureFoodPhotographyRajasthan
Jaipur
Pink-walled planned city of astronomers, jewellers and Rajput kings
- Ideal stay
- 3 days
- Best time
- October to March
LakeThemes:RomanceHeritageCulturePhotographyRajasthan
Udaipur
Marble palaces mirrored in Lake Pichola beneath Aravalli hills
- Ideal stay
- 3 days
- Best time
- September to March; the monsoon months of July and August fill the lakes and turn the hills green
CityThemes:FoodHeritageCultureUttar Pradesh
Lucknow
Nawabi grace, slow-cooked kebabs and the city of tehzeeb
- Ideal stay
- 2 days
- Best time
- October to March; the Lucknow Mahotsav in November and the winter kebab season.
RiverThemes:SpiritualCultureFoodPhotographyUttar Pradesh
Varanasi
The oldest living city, waking on the Ganga
- Ideal stay
- 3 days
- Best time
- October to March; Dev Deepawali falls on Kartik Purnima in November.
West India
Deserts, forts, beaches and living heritage
HeritageThemes:CultureHeritageOffbeatPhotographyGujarat
Bhuj
Mirror palaces, earthquake memory and the crafts of Kutch
- Ideal stay
- 3 days
- Best time
- November to February
Central India
Tiger country, ancient caves and stone temples
VillageThemes:CultureOffbeatNaturePhotographyChhattisgarh
Bastar
Tribal heartland of the world's longest Dussehra, haats and dhokra
- Ideal stay
- 3 days
- Best time
- October to March; late September to October for Bastar Dussehra
East India
Sacred ghats, tea gardens and tribal heartlands
CityThemes:CultureFoodHeritagePhotographyWest Bengal
Kolkata
Colonial mansions, clay goddesses and the best street food in India
- Ideal stay
- 3 days
- Best time
- October to March; Durga Puja falls in late September or October
HeritageThemes:CultureHeritageOffbeatPhotographyWest Bengal
Shantiniketan
Tagore's open-air university among red earth and sal trees
- Ideal stay
- 2 days
- Best time
- October to March; Poush Mela in late December and Basanta Utsav at Holi
Northeast India
Living root bridges, monasteries and mist
IslandThemes:CultureSpiritualOffbeatPhotographyAssam
Majuli
The Brahmaputra's shrinking island of satras, masks and monsoon light
- Ideal stay
- 2 days
- Best time
- October to March; November for the Raas Mahotsav
CityThemes:CultureHeritageFoodOffbeatNagaland
Kohima
Naga hills, a war cemetery and December's Hornbill drums
- Ideal stay
- 3 days
- Best time
- October to April
South India
Temple towns, backwaters and spice coasts
TempleThemes:SpiritualCultureFoodHeritageTamil Nadu
Madurai
Temple city that has not slept for two millennia
- Ideal stay
- 2 days
- Best time
- October to March; April brings the Chithirai festival and Meenakshi's celestial wedding
CityThemes:CultureSpiritualHeritagePhotographyKerala
Thrissur
A hill of teak, a ring road and Kerala's loudest festival
- Ideal stay
- 2 days
- Best time
- October to March; the Pooram falls in April or May and Athirappilly is fullest after the rains
CityThemes:HeritageCultureFoodFamilyKarnataka
Mysuru
Wodeyar palaces, sandalwood bazaars and a hill of ten-day Dasara
- Ideal stay
- 2 days
- Best time
- October to February; the ten-day Dasara falls in September or October
13 journeys
Journeys built around culture
हमारी यात्राएँ
Take one as it is, or hand it back to us with your dates and we'll rebuild it around them.
10 days · 9 nightsThemes:HeritageCulturePhotography
Easy · Best Oct–Mar
Royal Rajasthan Grand Circuit
Ten days from Jaipur's bazaars to the dunes and back to Lake Pichola
Route: Jaipur → Pushkar → Jodhpur → Jaisalmer +3 more
- Group
- 2–10 (private)
- From
- ₹1,18,000 pp
9 days · 8 nightsThemes:CultureWildlifeHeritage
Easy · Best Nov–Mar
Rann of Kutch and the Gir Lions
Nine days from Ahmedabad's pols to the white desert, the lions and the sea
Route: Ahmedabad → Bhuj → Rann of Kutch → Gir National Park +2 more
- Group
- 2–12 (private)
- From
- ₹82,000 pp
10 days · 9 nightsThemes:SpiritualHeritageCulture
Easy · Best Nov–Mar
Tamil Nadu Temple Trail
Ten days of Pallava granite, Chola bronze and Nayak gopurams, Chennai to Kanyakumari
Route: Chennai → Mahabalipuram → Pondicherry → Thanjavur +3 more
- Group
- 2–12 (private)
- From
- ₹89,000 pp
8 days · 7 nightsThemes:NatureWildlifeCulture
Moderate · Best Nov–Apr
Assam and Meghalaya: Rhinos, Rain and Root Bridges
From the Brahmaputra and Kaziranga's grasslands to the wettest hills on earth
Route: Guwahati & Kamakhya → Kaziranga → Shillong → Cherrapunji (Sohra) +2 more
- Group
- 2–12 (private)
- From
- ₹74,000 pp
5 days · 4 nightsThemes:HeritageSpiritualCulture
Easy · Best Oct–Feb
Odisha Golden Triangle
Bhubaneswar's stone temples, Konark's sun chariot and dolphins on Chilika
Route: Bhubaneswar → Konark → Puri → Chilika Lake
- Group
- 2–12 (private)
- From
- ₹36,000 pp
6 days · 5 nightsThemes:HeritageCultureFood
Easy · Best Oct–Mar
Golden Triangle Classic
Delhi's tombs, Agra's marble and Jaipur's pink grid in six days
Route: Delhi → Agra → Fatehpur Sikri → Jaipur
- Group
- 2–12 (private)
- From
- ₹58,000 pp
Time it right
Festivals to travel for
त्योहार
If your dates are flexible, these are the weeks worth moving them for.
Jan14–17 January. Pongal follows the sun rather than the moon, so it lands on the same dates almost every year, when the sun enters Makara and the Tamil month of Thai begins.
Pongal
Tamil Nadu's four-day harvest festival, tied to the solar calendar rather than the lunar one. Milk and new rice boil over in fresh clay pots, rice-flour kolams cover every doorstep, cattle are painted and garlanded, and the jallikattu bulls run at Alanganallur near Madurai.
Tamil Nadu · Puducherry
JanFive days in the second half of January, with dates announced each autumn. Entry is free but requires online registration, and Jaipur's winter mornings are cold enough for a shawl.
Jaipur Literature Festival
Five January days when Nobel laureates, Bhojpuri poets, historians and several hundred thousand readers share the same lawns in Jaipur. Free to attend, ferociously crowded, and still the friendliest literary gathering anywhere, with five stages running at once and arguments continuing in the chai queue.
Rajasthan
MarLate February to mid-March, with Holika Dahan on the full moon of Phalguna and colours the next morning. Dates follow the lunar calendar, and Braj plays for more than a week beforehand.
Holi
India's spring riot of colour, and in Krishna's Braj country it runs for over a week. Barsana's women drive Nandgaon's men off with lathis, Vrindavan's Banke Bihari temple throws marigold petals and gulal by the sackful, and Rajasthan's cities burn Holika bonfires the night before.
Uttar Pradesh · Rajasthan
On the table
What you'll eat along the way
खानपान
Ordered where it is made, not where it is famous.
VegetarianRajasthan
Dal Baati Churma
Rajasthan on one thali: hard wheat baatis baked in embers until they crack, drowned in ghee, eaten with panchmel dal of five lentils and churma crushed with jaggery. You break the baati by hand, spoon dal over it, then finish sweet. Eat it at a Jaipur haveli lunch or a Jodhpur family kitchen.
Non-vegUttar Pradesh
Galouti Kebab
Minced mutton tenderised with raw papaya and bound with scores of ground spices, then griddled into patties soft enough to eat without teeth, which is exactly why Awadh created them. Fold one into a warm sheermal or ulta tawa paratha. Tunday Kababi in Lucknow has been serving them since 1905.
VegetarianGujarat
Khaman Dhokla
Gram-flour batter steamed into a soft yellow cake, cut into squares and finished with a tempering of mustard seed, sesame, curry leaf and slit green chilli, with grated coconut and coriander on top. It is a Gujarati breakfast and a teatime habit. Buy it warm at Ahmedabad farsan shops and eat it with green chutney.
Non-vegTamil Nadu
Chettinad Chicken
Chicken cooked in a Chettiar masala of black pepper, fennel, star anise and kalpasi, the dark stone flower lichen that gives it a smoky edge. It is peppery rather than chilli-hot. Eat it in the mansion towns of Karaikudi and Kanadukathan with dosai, idiyappam or plain rice and a spoon of ghee.
From the journal
Reading before a culture trip
पत्रिका
· Itinerary · 6 min
Northeast India in 10 Days: Assam and Meghalaya Itinerary
A tested ten-day route from Guwahati through Kaziranga's rhino grasslands to the satras of Majuli, then across the Khasi hills to root bridges, Nohkalikai Falls and the glass water of the Umngot, with costs, permits and honest driving times.
· Culture · 6 min
Varanasi Ghats Guide: From Sunrise Boat to Ganga Aarti
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
Festivals of India: A Month-by-Month Travel Calendar
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.