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spiritual capital of India

Splendours of Northern India

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Destination
India: Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Udaipur
Duration
13 Days
Door-to-door
Price
Starting from
$18,650

Mughal Monuments and Majesty

India is a land of rapturous liveliness, of art and devotion and flowering creativity, a land that values intense quietude amidst its endlessly swirling colour.

And, of course, it’s a land of sublime natural and perhaps matchless human-made majesty. Based from some of the world’s most expertly luxurious and serene hotels, this brilliantly choreographed two-week journey brings us into intimate contact with many of India’s most compelling splendours: Delhi’s many monuments to Mughal and British imperial pride; Jaipur’s whimsical pink buildings and vast royal residences; beautiful Udaipur’s lakeside and island straddling palaces; and perhaps especially with the Taj Mahal, an edifice so bewitching that Micato’s friend Theo Cruz “had to shut my eyes to escape the feeling of being in a dream.”

Splendours of Northern India

There are some parts of the world that, once visited, get into your heart and won’t go. For me, India is such a place. When I first visited…it was as if all my life I had been seeing the world in black and white and, when brought face-to-face with India, experienced everything re-rendered in brilliant technicolor.Keith Bellows

Highlights

  • India’s zestiest cities and grandest monuments: the incomparable Taj Mahal; bustling Delhi; the ornate and vast palaces of Jaipur; and beautiful, lakeside Udaipur.
  • Around-the-clock services of a Micato Travel Director and our unique, always-on-call Concierge Service.
  • Some of the world’s most revered hotels: Agra’s entrancing Amarvilas, the majestic Rambagh Palace in Jaipur, and the scintillating Udaivilas in Udaipur.
  • Encounters with some of India’s most fascinating movers, thinkers, and shakers.
  • Access to normally off-limits palace quarters.

Itinerary

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Day 1 En route to the multicolorous subcontinent
Days 2 to 4 To and fro in India’s capital city

Our days in India’s capital will be eye-openingly active. Largely a creation of the British Raj, New Delhi is magnificently planned, with spacious, tree-lined avenues and fanciful Indo-Saracenic architecture. We’ll visit Rajpath, one of the world’s most impressive civic boulevards, and—with our Travel Director’s well-practiced help—we’ll navigate Old Delhi’s twisting maze of narrow, bustling, intriguing, shop-thronged byways.

We’ll pay our respects at Humayun’s magnificent Tomb, resting place of the second of India’s 19 Mughal emperors. And we’ll get acquainted with India’s ethnic mosaic at the country’s largest mosque, the imposing Jama Masjid, and at bustling Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, a centre of worship and community for India’s 21 million Sikhs. Our Delhi hotel, the sparkling and strategically located Taj Mahal, is a lovely introduction to the country’s talent for mixing modernity with timeless grace and charm.

Days 5 & 6 Agra and the pinnacle of human art, the Taj Mahal

A morning drive on a modern toll road takes us to Agra and the inimitable Taj Mahal, a structure that blurs the line between nature and art, stone and spirit, wakefulness and a wondrous dreamworld. Luckily, our Agra domicile, the fabled Oberoi Amarvilas, enjoys a dramatically apt location: its every beautifully designed window looks out at the Taj—only a couple of thousand feet away.

We’ll visit the Taj in early morning and at sunset, and drive to the gardens of Mehtab Bagh for a view across the Yamuna River. It has long been a cliché that the Taj is one of the few world-iconic sights that lives up to its star billing; many of us agree with traveller Thomas Bacon, who wrote way back in 1835 that “had fifty times as much been said in its praise…all these rhapsodies [would fall] short of its real magnificence.”

Agra is home to much more than the Taj, of course—it was said in the official Mughal history, the Padshahnama, that “who sees Agra has seen the world;” the Mughals left a liberal sprinkling of fascinating tombs, mausoleums, and the vast UNESCO World Heritage Site of Agra Fort, more an endlessly fascinating walled city than a fortress.

Days 7 to 9 Jaipur’s history and tasteful grandiosity

We drive west to the Pink City of Jaipur, steeped in history and endlessly vibrant with life and colour. Our headquarters for three Jaipurian nights is the magnificent Rambagh Palace, once home to Maharajah Sawai Man Singh II, the last of Jaipur’s famously stylish and extravagant reigning maharajahs. The Rambagh is a good example of one of Jaipur’s joys: the tangibility of its past, which comes alive at the Rambagh, at the fabulously ornate City Palace, at the almost whimsical yet stunningly accurate observatory of Jantar Mantar, and at Amber Fort, a massive, sandstone-walled marvel with lavish interior murals, frescoes and carvings. (At the Fort’s Sheesh Mahal, or Mirror Palace, strategically placed lamps reflected in thousands of multicoloured mirrors create a sparkling, magical mist of light.)

A heartwarming early morning hot air balloon ride takes us over Jaipur’s marble quarry hills and suburban homes and gardens: dogs bark, teakettles whistle, bicyclists head for work, and kids race off for school; we wave and smile, and becharmed Jaipuris smile and wave back and take out their handy cell phones to take our picture.

We’ll delve into Jaipur’s famous jewelry, carpets, fabrics, and you-name-it emporia, visit the lapidary Samode Palace and gardens outside the city, and one enchanting evening we’ll enjoy time with some well-cared for elephants and take to the Rajasthani countryside for a regally catered al fresco dinner.

Days 10 & 11 Serene Udaipur and the lakeside Oberoi Udaivilas

We fly southwest from Jaipur to Udaipur, beloved throughout India for its calm lakes and reposeful airs. On the shores of the main lake, Pichola, is our hotel, the scintillatingly reposeful, superbly imaginative, and downright gorgeous Oberoi Udaivilas (if you think we’re rather free with our adjectives, note that the Udaivilas was recently named planet Earth’s number one best hotel in the annual Travel + Leisure rankings). Udaipur’s City Palace is a huge but delicate wonder. Its museum and the living quarters of the fiercely independent Maharanas of Mewar will impress us even after we’ve experienced eight or nine days of Indian splendour. Activities abound: We may boat on the lake (in parts reminiscent of the Bosphorus’ meeting of water and stately architecture) or wander and shop on the lively street below the palace. And just north of Udaipur is the thousand-year old temple complex of Eklingji—108 intricately carved Hindu temples—and nearby Nagda, the site of two fourth century temples with walls lavishly embellished with wonderfully carved stories from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, co-starring goddesses and gods and lovers in inventive embrace.

Day 12 Back to Delhi and depart for home

After an optional yoga session and lunch at the Udaivilas, we fly to Delhi and the Oberoi Gurgaon, where we’ll have rooms available until our late night international flights.

Day 13 Arrive home

Taj Mahal

Delhi, India
A Taj Group property—hence a notch above first-rate—the Taj Mahal is a beautifully designed and operated hostelry in the heart of New Delhi.
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Oberoi Amarvilas

Agra, India
One of the gems of the Oberoi Group’s glittering diadem, the Oberoi Amarvilas is less than 2,000 feet from the Taj Mahal, the most beautiful building ever built, and every one of Amarvilas’ windows looks straight out at the breathtaking structure.
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Rambagh Palace

Jaipur, India
The former palace home of Jaipur’s fabulously wealthy maharajahs greets guests with regal hospitality.
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Oberoi Udaivilas

Udaipur, India
Our rather starstruck opinion is that if the most talented and imaginative of the Mughal Empire’s designers and architects were zapped into the first decades of the 21st century, lavished with nearly unlimited resources, backed up by the imperially adept Oberoi Group, and set lose on a prime piece of lakeside property…well, they’d come up […]
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Oberoi Gurgaon

Delhi, India
Handily located near Delhi’s international and domestic airports, Oberoi Gurgaon upholds the Oberoi chain’s stratospheric standards.
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What's Included

  • Luxury accommodations and all meals.
  • A highly-credentialed Micato Travel Director during your journey.
  • 24/7 Concierge Team poised to meet last minute, unexpected, and unusual requests.
  • Every last gratuity, even substantial ones to Travel Directors, drivers, concierges, waiters, porters… and everyone else, from beginning to end of your journey.
  • Local wine and beer at mealtimes, vehicles stocked with refreshments.
  • Complimentary laundry service. You can pack less and even return home with a bag of clean clothes… now that’s luxury!
  • Upgrades: We fly business class in India whenever possible. If, as sometimes is the case, there is no business class, we purchase an extra 12 pounds of baggage allowance per sector, per guest.

Dates & Rates

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2024 Dates

To and from Home | Every date is a guaranteed departure

Jan. 05 – Jan. 17 Mar. 15 – Mar. 27 Nov. 01 – Nov. 13
Jan. 12 – Jan. 24 Mar. 22 – Apr. 03 Nov. 08 – Nov. 20
Jan. 19 – Jan. 31 Mar. 29 – Apr. 10 Nov. 15 – Nov. 27
Jan. 26 – Feb. 07 Apr. 5 – Apr. 17 Nov. 22 – Dec. 04
Feb. 02 – Feb. 14 Sep. 20 – Oct. 2 Nov. 29 – Dec. 11
Feb. 09 – Feb. 21 Sep 27. – Oct. 9 Dec. 06 – Dec. 18
Feb. 16 – Feb. 28 Oct. 04 – Oct. 16 Dec. 13 – Dec. 25
Feb. 23 – Mar. 06 Oct. 11 – Oct. 23 Dec. 20 – Jan. 01
Mar. 01 – Mar. 13 Oct. 18 – Oct. 30 Dec. 27 – Jan. 08
Mar. 08 – Mar. 20 Oct. 25 – Nov. 06

2025 Dates

To and from Home | Every date is a guaranteed departure

Jan. 3 – Jan. 15 Mar. 14 – Mar. 26 Oct. 31 – Nov. 12
Jan. 10 – Jan. 22 Mar. 21 – Apr. 2 Nov. 7 – Nov. 19
Jan. 17 – Jan. 29 Mar. 28 – Apr. 9 Nov. 14 – Nov. 26
Jan. 24 – Feb. 5 Apr. 4 – Apr. 16 Nov. 21 – Dec. 3
Jan. 31 – Feb. 12 Sep. 19 – Oct. 1 Nov. 28 – Dec. 10
Feb. 7 – Feb. 19 Sep. 26 – Oct. 8 Dec. 5 – Dec. 17
Feb. 14 – Feb. 26 Oct. 3 – Oct. 15 Dec. 12 – Dec. 24
Feb. 21 – Mar. 5 Oct. 10 – Oct. 22 Dec. 19 – Dec. 31
Feb. 28 – Mar. 12 Oct. 17 – Oct. 29 Dec. 26 – Jan. 7
Mar. 7 – Mar. 19 Oct. 24 – Nov. 5


Price Per Person

Departs Friday, Returns Wednesday.
Land Arrangements, Per Person for 2024

Balance of the Year Dec 15 – Dec 31
Double Occupancy $18,950 $20,950
Single Supplement $4,550 $6,150
Internal Flights $700 $700

Flights: Jaipur / Udaipur* / Delhi*
*Denotes business class when available

Options and Extensions

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