Golden Triangle 7-Day Tour Vincit Travel will arrange some particularly great tours for India. You will not only get value for money but also a memorable experience with Vincit Travel. This is a classical tour for North India where the best of the Indian History is visible within a short span of a week. We cover the national capital New Delhi, along with a few hints of Gurgaon. We cover Agra & the Taj Mahal and the wonderful secrets and beauty of Jaipur in Rajasthan. Breakfast, lunch and dinner is included in the tours and the entire journey is by road. DAY 01: On reaching India, it will take around 60-90 minutes from the landing time to complete your immigration formalities and collect your bags, before clearing customs and coming out of the airport. On coming out, your airport representative will meet you at Meeting Point as given in your voucher, from whereon you will be escorted to your vehicle. The drive to your hotel should take 60 to 120 minutes, depending on traffic. If this is your first trip to India or Delhi, you will see the airport which has been rated as the world’s number 1 airport for 5 years in a row. The ease with which you exit through the airport is amazing despite the airport handling in excess of 40 million passengers in a year. The duty free is a good place to pick up tit bits if you want. The meeting point is very evident as you exit, within the confines of the airport itself. You do not have to exit the airport. Your representative will be holding a placard with your name or group name and will escort you to the parking lot for your vehicle. Your hotel has been carefully selected considering your movement around and comfort. Relax at the hotel, as tomorrow is a long day with a lot of walking. Overnight stay in Delhi. DAY 02: Have an early buffet breakfast at the hotel. The routing for the day will depend solely on the tour guide who will meet you at the hotel in the morning. He will take the best route possible to avoid heavy traffic conditions and thus the itinerary could be altered. Delhi has some beautiful and historic points which will be covered. We ideally start our day with a visit to the Qutab Minar, the tallest free standing minaret and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Minar (Pillar) is 73 meters tall and around 14 meters at the base, with 5 storeys. There are stairs leading to the top, which unfortunately have been closed down owing to the security and safety of people and the Minar. The Minar was started around 1192 by Qutb Ud Din Aibak, the founder of the Delhi kingdom and then finished by his son-in-law. It took almost 30 years to build. The complex around this Minar is beautifully landscaped and has many other historic structures including a Mosque. There is an Iron Pillar which is a mark in itself as it has not rusted away in over a century. Many kings and emperors built and rebuilt this minaret and the history is fascinating. The written history and inscriptions show that this was built by destroying 27 Hindu and Jain temples and the pillars from these temples were reused for this complex. The original patterns and inscriptions were plastered over, which are now falling away, revealing the original scribes below them. We then see the President House or the Rashtrapati Bhawan. It is the official house of the President of the world’s largest democracy and leads on to the road known as Rajpath. This is probably the most visited and beautiful road in the country. The sides are lined with red sand and India Gate stands in the middle. With over 130 hectares in area, this is the largest Presidential Palace in the world with the construction using very little steel but over a billion bricks and Created by and copyright to Vincit Global Travels Private Limited 85,000 sq. meter of stone. The complex houses 340 rooms and a large Presidential Gardens, also known as the Mughal Gardens, famous for their variety of roses nurtured there. Separate wings attached to the presidential palace now house the defence forces and the intelligence wings. This is a British Era construction and maintained beautifully since then; It is an amazing sight during the national days of Republic Day (26th January) and Independence Day (15th August). We then see the Parliament house, which is the governing house for the largest democracy in the world. It is a beautiful circular structure made during the British rule of India. It was completed in the year 1927. India Gate is visible in full pride from the Rashtrapati Bhawan. The white structure is in reality a war memorial built in the memory of the soldiers of the British Indian Army who died between 1914 and 1921. The names of 70,000 soldiers is inscribed on the entire structure. The highlight is the Amar Jawan Jyoti or the everlit eternal Soldier’s Flame, which is always burning. A war memorial has recently been constructed close to the India Gate. The structure is compared to the Arc De Triomphe of Paris and stands at over 42 meters. The Red Fort is the pride of the country and is named so for the colour of the stone used in its construction. The river of Delhi, Yamuna, once used to run adjacent to the fort and over years has shifted its path. Red Fort is the host to the nation’s independence day celebrations with the flag hoisting and the Prime Minister’s speech. It was constructed in 1639 and has many wonders like the mechanical fountains operated using gravity, the mirror room with mirros at angels where just a lit match can light up the room. The Red Fort is considered to be the best of what Mughal Architecture had to offer and has been a source of inspiration to many other buildings and forts. The museum holds many historic and valuable items. The total area of the Red Fort is around 103 hectares and is surrounded by a 2.4 kilometre defensive wall with all the marks of a fort wall like turrets. The octagonal Fort design is highlighted by double domes and marble & floral designs. The Jama Masjid is the largest mosque in Asia, and built by the emperor Shah Jahan of the Taj Mahal fame around the year 1650. It is estimated to have cost of ₹1 Million to build at that time. The mosque can house 25,000 worshippers, has 3 great gates and has 2 minarets which stand at 40 meters, finished with Red Sandstone strips and marble. There are 3 domes which add to the majestic design. It is estimated to have taken over 5,000 workers to complete this mosque. It stands opposite the Red Fort, also built by Shah Jahan. We end the day with a walk through Chandni Chowk and a local rickshaw ride and then head back to the hotel, while stopping for dinner enroute. Overnight in Delhi. DAY 03: We have an early buffet breakfast at the hotel. Today we drive to Agra to see Taj Mahal, a wonder of the world. The drive is around 3-4 hours and we will see the Taj Mahal, the Red Fort in Agra and the Sikandra Fort. While the Taj Mahal is called a Mahal or Palace, it is in reality a mausoleum built in ivory white marble. Located on the south bank of the Yamuna river, the Taj Mahal was constructed in 1632 by the then emperor Shah Jahan, to have a home for the tomb of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The total area of the complex is 17 hectares and there is a mosque, a guest house and beautifully landscaped gardens, with the Taj sitting in the center. It is estimated to have taken 20,000 workers over 10 years to complete the project. In today’s world, the project would have cost around ~$1Bn. This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and a masterpiece which draws people from all over the world. The perfectly symmetric structure of the Taj is in itself a wonder. It gets close to 10 Mn visitors in a year. We also visit the Red Fort in Agra, which has the distinction of being the official residence of the kings and royal family before the headquarters was shifted to Delhi. This is a massive fort with all the designs of a large and well-guarded palace and is spread over 380,000 square meters. The walls are 70 feet high with a double rampart. There are 4 gates on the four sides of the fort. It is indeed a construction marvel as it housed most of the early rulers of the country. The tomb of the great emperor, Akbar, is housed at the Sikandra Fort. It is a beautiful fort with intricate inscriptions and carvings, made out of red Sand Stone. While Mughal in design, the fort represents the various experiments that Created by and copyright to Vincit Global Travels Private Limited the design incorporated and thus is a blend of many styles, unlike the other historic monuments that we see. Large landscaped gardens form the surrounds of the tomb and have a high wall enclosing them. DAY 04: After an early breakfast at your hotel, we head to Jaipur, while stopping enroute at the Fatehpur Sikri. Fatehpur Sikri is an abandoned township which houses the world’s first recorded water harvesting system.