Agra · Uttar Pradesh
Taj Mahal
The white marble mausoleum built by Shah Jahan, one of the world's most famous buildings — luminous at sunrise.
Explore places
Agra · Uttar Pradesh
The white marble mausoleum built by Shah Jahan, one of the world's most famous buildings — luminous at sunrise.
Ekta Nagar · Gujarat
The world's tallest statue (182 m), of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, facing the Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada.
Puri · Odisha
A coastal pilgrimage town around the Jagannath temple, with a busy beach and the giant chariots of Rath Yatra.
Amritsar · Punjab
Sikhism's holiest shrine, its gold-covered sanctum shimmering in the surrounding pool, with a free community kitchen open to all.
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar · Maharashtra
Ancient Buddhist caves cut into a horseshoe-shaped gorge, with some of India's finest surviving murals.
New Delhi · Delhi
A 73 m 12th-century victory tower of fluted red sandstone in the Mehrauli ruins of south Delhi.
Konark · Odisha
A 13th-century temple to the sun god built as a giant stone chariot with intricately carved wheels.
Guwahati · Assam
An ancient hilltop Shakti temple above Guwahati and the Brahmaputra, a major pilgrimage site.
Khajuraho · Madhya Pradesh
Tenth- and eleventh-century Chandela temples covered in intricate sculpture, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar · Maharashtra
Thirty-four rock-cut Buddhist, Hindu and Jain caves, including the Kailasa temple carved from a single rock.
Madurai · Tamil Nadu
A vast temple complex in Madurai whose gopuram towers are covered with thousands of painted figures.
New Delhi · Delhi
Delhi's war memorial arch at the end of Kartavya Path, lit up and lively in the evenings.
Rudraprayag · Uttarakhand
One of Hinduism's holiest Shiva temples, set at the head of a glacial valley and reached by a long uphill trek.
Mysuru · Karnataka
An ornate Indo-Saracenic palace, lit by nearly 100,000 bulbs on Sunday evenings and during Dasara.
Jaipur · Rajasthan
Jaipur's pink honeycomb facade of 953 small windows, built so royal women could watch street life unseen — best seen in soft morning light.
Mumbai · Maharashtra
Mumbai's waterfront arch at Apollo Bunder, facing the harbour beside the Taj Mahal Palace hotel.
New Delhi · Delhi
A lotus-shaped Bahá'í house of worship of white marble petals, open to people of all faiths.
Nalanda · Bihar
The brick ruins of one of the world's great ancient universities, near the hills of Rajgir.
Hyderabad · Telangana
Hyderabad's 16th-century four-minaret landmark at the heart of the old city's bangle and pearl bazaars.
Vijayanagara · Karnataka
The ruins of the Vijayanagara capital scattered across a surreal landscape of giant boulders and banana fields.
Rishikesh · Uttarakhand
A riverside town on the Ganga known for yoga, evening aarti, suspension bridges and white-water rafting.
Agra · Uttar Pradesh
A massive red sandstone Mughal fort on the Yamuna, with marble palaces that frame the Taj Mahal in the distance.
Anantnag · Jammu & Kashmir
A riverside town in the Lidder valley with pine forests and the Betaab, Aru and Baisaran meadows nearby.
Agra · Uttar Pradesh
Akbar's short-lived red sandstone capital, with the towering Buland Darwaza and finely carved palaces.
Hyderabad · Telangana
A vast hilltop fort famed for its acoustics, diamond-trading past and sunset views over Hyderabad.
Dharamshala · Himachal Pradesh
The hill town home of the Tibetan government-in-exile, with monasteries, prayer flags and the Triund ridge trek above it.
Rameswaram · Tamil Nadu
An island pilgrimage town linked to the mainland by the Pamban bridges, with the empty sands of Dhanushkodi at its tip.
Kolkata · West Bengal
Kolkata's steel cantilever bridge over the Hooghly, with the Mullick Ghat flower market buzzing beneath it.
Port Blair · Andaman & Nicobar
The colonial-era prison where Indian freedom fighters were held, now a national memorial with a light-and-sound show.
New Delhi · Delhi
The garden tomb of the Mughal emperor Humayun, a red-and-white masterpiece that inspired the Taj Mahal.
Nainital · Uttarakhand
A hill station wrapped around a pear-shaped lake, with boating, a busy Mall Road and Himalayan viewpoints.
Golaghat · Assam
Floodplain grasslands of the Brahmaputra holding most of the world's one-horned rhinos, plus elephants and tigers.
Kolkata · West Bengal
A white marble memorial and museum set in gardens in central Kolkata, beautiful reflected in its pools at dusk.
Kadapa · Andhra Pradesh
A deep red-rock gorge cut by the Pennar river, with the walls of a medieval fort along the cliff edge.
Munnar · Kerala
Rolling hills carpeted in tea gardens, often wrapped in morning mist, in Kerala's Western Ghats.
Kodagu · Karnataka
Misty coffee country in the Western Ghats with waterfalls, Kodava homestays and a Tibetan settlement at Bylakuppe.
Old Goa · Goa
A 16th-century baroque church in Old Goa holding the relics of St Francis Xavier, part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Satapada · Odisha
Asia's largest brackish-water lagoon, with Irrawaddy dolphins and huge flocks of winter migratory birds.
Sasan Gir · Gujarat
The last wild home of the Asiatic lion — dry teak forest where open-jeep safaris run from Sasan.
Jodhpur · Rajasthan
One of India's most imposing forts, rising sheer from a rock above Jodhpur's blue-painted old town.
Bodh Gaya · Bihar
Where the Buddha attained enlightenment — the Mahabodhi temple and Bodhi tree draw pilgrims from across Asia.
Baramulla · Jammu & Kashmir
A high meadow ringed by forest that becomes one of India's main ski areas in winter, with a gondola up Apharwat.
Lahaul · Himachal Pradesh
A crescent-shaped high-altitude lake in Lahaul ringed by peaks — one of the Himalaya's best spots for reflections and stars.
Uttara Kannada · Karnataka
A temple town with a string of quieter beaches — Kudle, Om, Half Moon and Paradise — linked by cliff trails.
Aizawl · Mizoram
Mizoram's capital, built along steep ridges with houses stacked down the slopes, striking at blue hour.
Niwari · Madhya Pradesh
A quiet medieval town of palaces, temples and royal cenotaphs on the Betwa river.
Varanasi · Uttar Pradesh
One of the world's oldest living cities, where life, prayer and cremation unfold along 80-plus ghats on the Ganga.
Mahabalipuram · Tamil Nadu
Seventh-century Pallava rock-cut monuments by the sea, from the Shore Temple to the giant Arjuna's Penance relief.
Thrissur · Kerala
A broad, roaring waterfall on the Chalakudy river, surrounded by rainforest — at full power in the monsoon.
Sri Sathya Sai · Andhra Pradesh
A 16th-century Vijayanagara temple with a 'hanging' pillar, painted ceilings and a giant monolithic Nandi.
Sonaulim · Goa
A tall four-tiered waterfall in the Western Ghats, famous for the railway bridge that crosses right in front of it.
Leh · Ladakh
A 134 km-long high-altitude lake that shifts between turquoise, blue and green through the day, framed by bare brown mountains.
Srinagar · Jammu & Kashmir
Srinagar's lake of houseboats, shikaras and floating markets, backed by Mughal gardens and mountains.
Jaisalmer · Rajasthan
Rolling sand dunes on the edge of the Thar Desert, an hour from Jaisalmer's living golden fort — camel rides, desert camps and huge night skies.
Amritsar · Punjab
The daily flag-lowering ceremony on the India–Pakistan border, full of high kicks and patriotic crowds.
Mulugu · Telangana
A UNESCO-listed 13th-century Kakatiya temple with finely carved basalt pillars and dancer brackets.
Ganderbal · Jammu & Kashmir
The 'meadow of gold' on the road to Ladakh, with the Thajiwas glacier and high alpine lakes for trekkers.
Majuli · Assam
A large river island in the Brahmaputra, home to Vaishnavite monasteries, mask-makers and Mising villages.
Kutch · Gujarat
A vast white salt desert that stretches to the horizon in winter; full-moon nights here are unforgettable.
Chamoli · Uttarakhand
A high Himalayan valley that bursts into hundreds of wildflower species in the monsoon, reached on foot from Ghangaria.
Alappuzha · Kerala
A maze of palm-lined canals, lagoons and paddy fields, best explored slowly on a houseboat or a small country boat.
Chandigarh · Chandigarh
A secret garden of sculptures, walls and waterfalls built from industrial and urban waste by Nek Chand.
Ooty · Tamil Nadu
A Nilgiri hill station reached by the UNESCO-listed blue toy train through tea estates, tunnels and bridges.
South 24 Parganas · West Bengal
The world's largest mangrove forest, crossed by tidal channels — home to Bengal tigers, crocodiles and fishing villages.
Cherrapunji · Meghalaya
One of India's tallest plunge waterfalls, falling into a turquoise pool in a deep green gorge near Sohra.
Alluri Sitharama Raju · Andhra Pradesh
A cool valley in the Eastern Ghats with coffee estates, tribal villages, the Borra Caves and a scenic train ride.
Varkala · Kerala
Red laterite cliffs drop straight onto a long beach, with a cliff-top path of cafés facing the Arabian Sea sunset.
Nongriat · Meghalaya
Bridges grown from the roots of rubber fig trees by Khasi villagers, including the famous double-decker at Nongriat.
Bishnupur · Manipur
A large freshwater lake dotted with floating rings of vegetation (phumdis), including the only floating national park.
Kisama · Nagaland
Nagaland's ten-day 'festival of festivals' in early December, bringing together the state's tribes at Kisama.
Tawang · Arunachal Pradesh
A high Himalayan pass on the road to Tawang with a lake that freezes in winter.
Chamoli · Uttarakhand
Wide open ski slopes and alpine meadows above Joshimath, with some of the closest views of Nanda Devi in Uttarakhand.
Lower Subansiri · Arunachal Pradesh
A pine-ringed valley of rice terraces and Apatani villages, home to the Ziro Festival of Music every September.
Tawang · Arunachal Pradesh
India's largest Buddhist monastery overlooking a high valley near the Bhutan and Tibet borders.
Bastar · Chhattisgarh
India's widest waterfall, a horseshoe of the Indravati river in Bastar, at its most powerful after the monsoon.
East Khasi Hills · Meghalaya
A tidy Khasi village of flowers and bamboo, often called Asia's cleanest, with a nearby living root bridge.
Udaipur · Rajasthan
A lake city of white palaces and ghats, where Lake Pichola reflects the City Palace and the floating Lake Palace at sunset.
Umaria · Madhya Pradesh
A compact tiger reserve of sal forest and grassland below an ancient hill fort, with good tiger sighting odds.
Kailashahar · Tripura
Giant rock-cut Shaivite reliefs, carved around the 8th–9th centuries, hidden among streams in the forest.
Auroville · Puducherry
An experimental township near Puducherry built around the golden Matrimandir sphere.
Manali · Himachal Pradesh
A high valley near Manali known for snow play and skiing in winter and paragliding and meadows in summer.
Jabalpur · Madhya Pradesh
Gleaming marble cliffs lining the Narmada gorge near Jabalpur, with the misty Dhuandhar falls upstream.
Chandigarh · Chandigarh
A calm reservoir at the foot of the Shivalik hills where Chandigarh comes to walk, row and watch the sunrise.
Darjeeling · West Bengal
A pre-dawn viewpoint above Darjeeling where the first light turns Kangchenjunga pink; the toy train runs nearby.
Spiti · Himachal Pradesh
A cold mountain desert of mud-brick villages and monasteries; Key Monastery's tiered white buildings on a conical hill are its icon.
Agartala · Tripura
A white royal palace with Mughal-style gardens in Agartala, now the state museum.
Kohima · Nagaland
A remote valley of rolling bamboo-covered hills on the Nagaland–Manipur border, reached only on foot.
Gangtok · Sikkim
A large, colourful Kagyu monastery on a hillside facing Gangtok, with prayer wheels and maroon-robed monks.
Kurukshetra · Haryana
A vast sacred tank in Kurukshetra, the setting of the Mahabharata, glowing with lamps during Gita Jayanti.
Agatti · Lakshadweep
A narrow coral island with a turquoise lagoon and the only airport in Lakshadweep.
Panaji · Goa
Panaji's old Latin quarter of narrow lanes and mustard, blue and green Portuguese-era houses.
Patan · Gujarat
An 11th-century stepwell carved with hundreds of sculptures, descending seven levels into the ground.
Ranchi · Jharkhand
A powerful waterfall where the Subarnarekha river drops nearly 100 m over rock terraces near Ranchi.
Leh · Ladakh
A white hilltop stupa above Leh with a sweeping view of the town, Leh Palace and the Stok range — Ladakh's classic sunset spot.
Canacona · Goa
A calm, crescent-shaped bay in south Goa with fishing boats, kayaks and palm-backed sand — quieter than the north.
Dawki · Meghalaya
The Umngot river near the Bangladesh border, so clear in winter that boats appear to float on air.
Jaipur · Rajasthan
A hilltop fort-palace of honey-coloured sandstone above Maota Lake, with mirror-work halls and long ramparts snaking over the Aravalli hills.
Melaghar · Tripura
A royal summer palace in the middle of Rudrasagar Lake, reached by boat.
Havelock · Andaman & Nicobar
A long white-sand beach backed by tall forest on Havelock (Swaraj Dweep), famous for its sunsets.
West Sikkim · Sikkim
A West Sikkim ridge town with close-up sunrise views of Kangchenjunga, ancient monasteries and a glass skywalk.
Ramgarh · Jharkhand
A hairpin-bend ghat road winding down to the Patratu reservoir, green and misty in the monsoon.
Puducherry · Puducherry
Puducherry's French Quarter of mustard-yellow villas, bougainvillea and a seaside promenade.
Bangaram · Lakshadweep
A tiny teardrop-shaped atoll of white sand and shallow lagoons, a boat ride from Agatti.
Hunder · Ladakh
A high desert valley over Khardung La, with sand dunes, double-humped Bactrian camels and the giant Diskit Buddha.
Serchhip · Mizoram
Mizoram's highest waterfall, dropping in two tiers through dense bamboo forest near Thenzawl.
Panchkula · Haryana
A 17th-century Mughal-style terraced garden with fountains and pavilions near Chandigarh.
Diu · Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu
A Portuguese sea fort on the tip of Diu island, with sea-facing bastions and quiet beaches nearby.
Imphal · Manipur
The historic seat of Manipur's kings in Imphal, with dragon statues, moats and sacred sites.
North Sikkim · Sikkim
A high valley in North Sikkim where rhododendrons bloom in spring, reached from the village of Lachung.
Shaheed Dweep · Andaman & Nicobar
A small, slow island of beaches, coral shallows and a natural rock bridge, an hour by ferry from Havelock.
Port Blair · Andaman & Nicobar
The ruins of Port Blair's former British headquarters, slowly being reclaimed by banyan roots and roamed by deer.
Leh · Ladakh
A 12-storey Tibetan Buddhist monastery stacked up a hill above the Indus valley, home to a two-storey Maitreya Buddha.
Satara · Maharashtra
A laterite plateau that turns into carpets of wildflowers for a few weeks after the monsoon.
East Sikkim · Sikkim
A glacial lake high on the road to Nathu La, frozen in winter and ringed by prayer flags and yaks.
Bastar · Chhattisgarh
A stepped waterfall in Kanger Valley National Park, near limestone caves and tribal Bastar villages.
Diu · Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu
A maze of eroded rock caves just outside Diu's town walls, where shafts of light fall through the roof.