A post by Hariom Sharma

Every forum tells first-timers to skip Delhi, Agra and Jaipur because it is touristy. That advice has it backwards.

The route is famous because it genuinely holds three of the densest hours of history on the planet, inside a drivable triangle. What ruins it is the schedule people attach to it — five days, three cities, two long drives and a dawn start at the Taj wedged in the middle.

The same three cities over nine days is a different holiday. You get Old Delhi on foot in the morning when it is a working market and not a photograph. You get Agra Fort, which most people skip entirely and which tells you more about the Taj than the Taj does. You get two nights in Jaipur rather than one, which is the difference between seeing Amber and queueing at Amber.

The triangle is not the problem. Four nights is the problem.

If somebody has sold you five days for all three, ask them what you are seeing on each of those days, hour by hour. The answer is usually a car.