The Taj Mahal, the colourful chaos of its cities, the Ganges and an overwhelming cultural diversity: India is a journey through the senses.
India is not so much visited as survived and loved. It is a country that hits every sense at once: impossible colours, intense smells, endless horns, cows in the middle of the road, thousand-year-old temples and an overflowing humanity. It is one of the most challenging and at the same time most transformative destinations on the planet: at moments exhausting, at moments dazzling, but it rarely leaves anyone indifferent. Go with a very open mind and no hurry.
Geographically it is enormous and hugely varied. The most classic circuit to start with is the Golden Triangle — Delhi, Agra for the Taj Mahal, and Jaipur for Rajasthan and its forts — in the north. From there whole worlds open up: the sacred Ganges at Varanasi, the palaces and deserts of Rajasthan, the beaches and easy atmosphere of Goa, the green backwaters and spices of Kerala in the south, or the Indian Himalaya and the Buddhism of Ladakh and Rishikesh.
What surprises most is the extreme contrast: poverty and opulence, chaos and spirituality, all living side by side. It is extremely cheap and at the same time demands patience with the pace, the persistence of the sellers and the culture shock. Those who give themselves over to the trip tend to come back saying India changed them.
The local currency is the Indian rupee (INR, symbol ₹). Carry some cash for the small things — tips, rickshaws, markets, temples and village shops — since cards are not always accepted. At the same time India is heavily digitalised: locals pay for almost everything with UPI, the QR code apps, though that generally requires an Indian bank account, so as a visitor you will mostly use cash and card. There are ATMs in cities and larger towns; tell your bank before travelling, use cards with no foreign transaction fee, check the day's rate and withdraw from the ATMs of well-known banks.
Full converter for INR →Most international flights arrive in New Delhi (Indira Gandhi airport, DEL) or Mumbai (Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, BOM), the two great gateways, with direct routes from London, Frankfurt, Paris, New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Toronto, or connections through the Gulf hubs of Doha, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Once in the country, the most classic and economical way to travel is the Indian Railways trains, with their immense network and several classes: from Sleeper (SL, no air conditioning) up through 3AC, 2AC and the most comfortable 1AC first class; book well ahead. To cover the big distances quickly, low-cost airlines such as IndiGo, along with Air India and others, connect dozens of cities at good prices. Day to day, rickshaws — the motorised tuk-tuks — cars with drivers and the ride-hailing apps handle short journeys within each city.
The best time for most of the country is the dry winter, October to March, when the weather is cool and pleasant in the north and the plains (Delhi, Rajasthan, the Golden Triangle). That is peak season for good reason: you can travel without the suffocating heat. December and January can bring cold nights and fog in the north, but overall it is the ideal window for the classic circuit.
From April to June extreme heat arrives on the plains, with temperatures above 40 degrees; better avoided unless you are heading to the mountains, since that is precisely the season for the Himalaya and Ladakh. Between June and September the monsoon comes down: heavy rain that cools everything and turns it green but complicates travel, and Kerala and the south follow their own monsoon logic. If you can, aim for the November-March window for the north, and avoid the big mass festivals if you do not want crowds — although Holi in March and Diwali in October or November are unique spectacles worth chasing.
Indian food is a world of its own and one of the great reasons to go. In the north the creamy curries rule, along with chicken tikka masala, naan bread and the tandoori dishes; in the south, dosas (rice crêpes), idli and coconut-based dishes. The thali — a tray with several curries, rice, bread and dessert — is the best way to try a bit of everything and eat your fill. It is a paradise for vegetarians: much of the country does not eat meat. Watch the chilli, which can be fierce.
Eating is extremely cheap: a full thali at a popular local place costs USD 4 to 8 (150-350 rupees), and street food far less, from under a dollar, verified July 2026. The great piece of advice is hygiene: eat where there is a high turnover of people and everything comes out piping hot, avoid raw salads and ice, and give your stomach a few days to adjust. The famous 'Delhi belly' is prevented with common sense. Tipping is not customary outside tourist restaurants.
India is generally safe as regards violent crime against tourists, but it demands street sense: scams are very common, along with inflated prices, taxi drivers and 'guides' who take you to shops that pay them commission, and persistent sellers. None of that is dangerous, but it is tiring; agree prices in advance, use the ride-hailing apps and be sceptical of offers that are too good. Women travellers should take extra precautions, especially at night and in less touristed areas, dress with a degree of modesty and avoid isolated situations.
On health, India needs more care than other destinations: tap water is not drinkable, so always drink bottled or filtered water and skip the ice, and see a doctor or a travel vaccination clinic before you go; hepatitis A and B, typhoid and tetanus are usually recommended, and depending on the area and season, malaria prophylaxis or care over dengue. Carry a kit with anti-diarrhoeals and rehydration salts. Good travel insurance is essential. The single emergency number is 112, verified July 2026.
India is among the cheapest destinations in the world to travel. A backpacker day — hostel dorm, local food, trains and city transport — is comfortably done on USD 18 to 30; a mid-range trip, with decent hotels and the odd train in a higher class, runs USD 40 to 70 a day, verified July 2026.
Concrete references, July 2026: a hostel dorm bed costs USD 3 to 8 (250-600 rupees); a full thali USD 4 to 8; a rickshaw or short app ride just USD 1 to 3; and long-distance trains anywhere from a few dollars in basic class to USD 15 to 30 in air-conditioned class for long legs. The major monuments charge a higher foreigner rate: the Taj Mahal is around USD 13 to 15 (1,100 rupees). Even so, you can travel for weeks spending very little.
English is an official language alongside Hindi and is widely spoken in tourism, in the cities and among educated people, which makes communication far easier than in most of Asia. India is deeply religious and conservative in many areas: cover shoulders and legs entering temples, take your shoes off, do not point with your foot or touch anyone's head, and use your right hand to eat and to greet. Haggling is part of market culture.
The plug is type C, D and M, all round pins, and the voltage is 230 V, so European devices work directly while North American ones may need a converter; a universal adapter is worth carrying. For internet, a local SIM (Airtel or Jio) is cheap with good coverage, though the process involves some paperwork; an eSIM is the convenient alternative. Two pieces of advice from having been there: download a ride-hailing app, as Uber and Ola work in the cities, to avoid fare arguments with rickshaw drivers; and take everything with patience and humour, because in India 'yes' does not always mean yes and plans change on their own.
India isn't a country in the usual sense: it's an entire subcontinent, a five-thousand-year-old civilisation that fits inside a single border. Four of the world's great religions were born here — Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. The mathematical concept of zero was invented here, the planet's first planned cities rose on the banks of the Indus, and the Vedas were written here, among the oldest sacred texts still in use. Today more than a thousand languages, the world's largest democracy by number of voters and almost 1.400 million people share its territory: roughly one in every six people on Earth.
Telling the history of India means telling the story of empires that overlapped without erasing one another: the Vedic kingdoms, Ashoka's Maurya Empire, the Gupta golden age, the Muslim sultanates, the Mughal splendour of the Taj Mahal, and two and a half centuries of European rule that ended in the British Raj. Finally came independence, won through Gandhi's non-violent resistance and sealed in 1947 by the bloody Partition that separated India from Pakistan. This is that long history, told with real dates, names and figures, without turning legend into fact or fact into legend.
Read the full history of India →Pick a region and open each destination to see what to do, prices and how to get there.
These are the sources we cite most across this country's guides, with how many times each appears. Hard data —tickets, opening hours, requirements, transport— comes from the official source and carries the date we checked it. Restaurant and hotel picks come from guides and reviews, and we say so on each page.
