Mussoorie
Only 3km northwest of town, this scenic outlying region of Mussoorie is famous as the site where the Dalai Lama and fellow exiles arrived in 1959, after…
Must-see attractions in India
Northeast States
Massive relief sculptures of Hindu deities (some dating back to the 7th century) adorn rock faces at the site, including a 10m-tall face of Shiva sculpted…
Don Bosco Museum of Indigenous Cultures
Shillong
This well-displayed museum is a fabulous repository of tribal artefacts interspersed with exhibits on Christian missionary work. The self-guided visit…
Gokarna
Deeply atmospheric temple complex, encircled by lanes but peaceful inside. Here there's a (rare) stone statue of an upright, standing Ganesh, said to be…
Bhubaneswar
This small but beautiful 10th-century structure is one of the most ornate temples in Bhubaneswar; you'll see reproductions of it on posters across Odisha…
Golden Temple Interpretation Centre
Amritsar
Hidden beneath the marble square outside the clock-tower entrance to the Golden Temple, this fascinating multimedia museum tells the story of Sikhism and…
Pune
An oddball of a museum that’s one of Pune’s true delights, housing only a fraction of the 20,000-odd objects of Indian daily life painstakingly collected…
Odisha
Ratnagiri is the most interesting and extensive among the three Pusphagiri sites. Two large monasteries flourished here from the 5th to 13th centuries…
Telangana & Andhra Pradesh
This stunning four-storey cave temple was probably originally carved out of the hillside for Buddhist monks in the 2nd century AD, then converted to Hindu…
Gokarna
This is a profoundly spiritual temple, built of granite by Mayurasharma of the Kadamba dynasty and said to date to the 4th century. It's dedicated to Lord…
Telangana & Andhra Pradesh
The stunning Ramappa Temple, about 70km north-east of Warangal, was built in the early 13th century, and is the outstanding gem of Kakatiya architecture…
Karnataka
Set within lovely manicured grounds 1km east of the fort, Tipu’s summer palace is Srirangapatna’s star attraction. Built from teak and rosewood, it has…
Eastern Rajasthan
This national park contains 1334 sq km of wild jungle scrub hemmed in by rocky ridges, and is the best place to spot wild tigers in Rajasthan. At its…
Hampi
At the southern end of Sule Bazaar is the beautiful Achyutaraya Temple, dating from 1534, one of the last great monuments constructed before the fall of…
Amritsar
Housed in the beautifully restored 19th-century Town Hall, this unique museum (the only one in the world dedicated to Partition) offers a poignant and…
Odisha
Udayagiri's two monastery complexes were active between the 10th and 12th centuries AD. At the first one, there’s a large pyramidal brick stupa with a…
South Goa
Artist and restorer Victor Hugo Gomes first noticed the slow extinction of traditional objects – from farming tools to kitchen utensils to altarpieces –…
Orchha
Funerary monuments to Orchha royalty, the huge and serene chhatris rise beside the Betwa River at the south end of town. They’re best seen at dusk, when…
Mathura
This museum, renovated in 2016, houses a superb collection of religious sculptures by the Mathura school, which flourished from the 3rd century BC to the…
Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh
The Royal Enclave is the largest group of monuments, with several beautiful buildings from the 15th- and 16th-century Ghuri and Khilji dynasties set near…
Ahmedabad (Amdavad)
One of Ahmedabad’s most stunning buildings, this mosque is famed for its exquisite jali windows, spiderweb fine, two of them depicting the intricate…
Visakhapatnam
A fantastic attraction located towards the north end of Ramakrishna Beach, the 91m-long, Soviet-built, Indian navy submarine Kursura is now a fascinating…
Hyderabad
This is perhaps the most famous dargah (Sufi shrine) in Hyderabad, the resting place of two Sufi saints. Qawwali singers and musicians gather here every…
Odisha
The weekly Chatikona market takes place at Bissamcuttack (about 40km north) and is mostly attended by the Dongria Kondh and Desia Kondh villagers from the…
Ladakh
The original murals and statues within these four outwardly modest 11th-century temples are considered the crowning glory of Ladakh’s Indo-Tibetan art…
Uttarakhand
This famous reserve was established in 1936 as India’s first national park. Originally called Hailey National Park, then Ramganga National Park, it was…
Odisha
Onkadelli is a particularly popular tribal produce market, with Bonda, Mali, Kondh and Paraja people attending to buy and sell fruit, vegetables, dried…
Hyderabad
This noncommercial 'inclusive cultural space' is an open centre that hosts plays, films, musical events, exhibitions, organic markets and lectures; some…
Kothari’s Patwa-ki-Haveli Museum
Jaisalmer
The first of the five sections of Patwa-ki-Haveli is opened as the privately owned Kothari’s Patwa Haveli Museum, which richly evokes 19th-century life.
Andaman Islands
Little Andaman’s best beach: a spectacular, powder-soft golden-white sweep of sand, famed for having some of India's best surfing waves.
Varanasi
Harishchandra Ghat is a cremation ghat – smaller and secondary in importance to Manikarnika, but one of the oldest ghats in Varanasi.
Chittorgarh (Chittor)
A zigzag ascent of more than 1km starts at Padal Pol and leads through six gateways to the main gate on the western side, the Ram Pol (the former back…
Thanjavur (Tanjore)
Thanjavur’s royal palace is a mixed bag of ruin and renovation, superb art and random royal paraphernalia. The mazelike complex was constructed partly by…
Lucknow
This colossal imambara (Shiite tomb complex) is worth seeing in its own right, but the highly unusual labyrinth of corridors inside its upper floors make…
Udaipur
The main part of the City Palace is open as the City Palace Museum, with rooms extravagantly decorated with mirrors, tiles and paintings, and housing a…
Gujarat & Diu
This ancient fort is believed to have been built in 319 BC by the Mauryan emperor Chandragupta, though it has been extended many times. In places the…
Chennai (Madras)
Housed across from the striking British-built Pantheon Complex, this excellent museum is Chennai’s best. The big highlight is building 3, the Bronze…
Prayagraj (Allahabad)
This is the particularly auspicious point (sangam means 'river confluence') where two of India’s holiest rivers, the Ganges and the Yamuna, meet one of…
Shimla
A cross between Harry Potter's Hogwarts and a Scottish baronial castle, this 1888 pile was the official summer residence of the British viceroys until…
Lucknow
The large collection of gardens and ruins that makes up the Residency offers a fascinating historical glimpse of the beginning of the end for the British…
