Day trip to Taj Mahal from Delhi

No India trip is complete without a visit to the Taj Mahal. If you are thinking about how to get there, here are some points you might want to consider:

• How long are you staying in India? Do you have enough time to spend a night in Agra?
• What exactly do you want to do/see in Agra?
• How much do you want to see the Taj Mahal at sunrise?
• Delhi to Agra by road will take around 4 hours each way, by express trains it can be about 2 hours each way.
• How much luggage will you be carrying? (Are you able to have a day trip to Agra and then move on to the next place on the same day?)

As our itinerary did not quite have room for an Agra over night stay and we did not want to get up at 3AM, pay £100 and get stuck in traffic for altogether 8+ hours with door to door tours, or carry around our luggage whilst visiting Taj Mahal and Agra Fort, we decided to have a day trip to Agra from Delhi using express trains.

We took the 6AM Bhopal Shatabdi express train from New Delhi to Agra CANTT. There are a few other Delhi-Agra morning trains, but we chose this one as our hotel was only a few minutes walk away from New Delhi station.

The ticket cost ₹550 p.p including breakfast (normal chair car). The food is really not great, but things just kept coming (water, juice, tea…) during the journey and this was quite a new experience for us. The train itself was incredibly old and filthy, even the local person sat on a news paper rather than directly on the seat.

Towards the end of the journey, a server pushed a tray with money in front of our faces asking for tips (in silence). We put ₹100 as it was the smallest note that we had (always carry smaller changes!) Later we asked a local family who was on the same train about tipping on a train. The dad said that it’s okay not to, but for a short journey like this one, maybe ₹10-50…, so, there you go. The server also will put a sneaky ₹200 or ₹500 notes on a tray hoping that tourists may follow those examples, so don’t be fooled! By the way, the returning train was much newer, cleaner, nicer and the tip tray didn’t come around.

We arrived at Agra CANTT at around 8AM without any delays. Outside the station was a line of taxi drivers and the police blocking them from approaching passengers.

A Pre paid taxi booth is just outside the station and the prices looked like this:

We went for a full day 8 hours Agra local (₹1000, small cab, non AC) which is okay if you only want to go to Taj Mahal and Agra Fort. This did not include the journey to Mehtab Bagh which I realised later. I still think a full day option is a good idea specially if you need to go back to the station later to catch a train. My advice is to know where exactly you’d like to go in Agra before going to the taxi booth so you get the ‘right package’. The price includes waiting charges, but not parking fees which is around ₹30 (per car park?)

There are more than one entrance (gate) to Taj Mahal. The driver said he will take us to the gate that’s closer to the ticket office. I think it was either South or West gate. He said that the car park was a bit far and he will pick us up at the gate, which was nice. The downside of it was that we needed to be back at the gate at 11:45 as that gate closed at 12 (WHY?) It was around 9AM and we thought 2 and half hours should be enough. If I could turn back time though, I would ask the driver to meet us at the car park (or any parking spot) so I could stay at Taj for as long as I wanted. You might want to look at roughly 1hour from the gate to the Taj and back to the gate, buying a ticket, going through security etc in between. We were lucky there was no queue at the ticket counter. Yes, we did have enough time to see everything we wanted to see, but I could easily spend another hour, even two, just to sit and enjoy the view and the beauty of the Taj Mahal.

The entry fee to Taj Mahal is ₹1000 for foreigners. This include a bottle of water and shoe covers, make sure you get them at (or around) the ticket counter. The foreigner ticket holders can also use the toilet for free (yay!), but make sure you bring in some toilet tissue with you.

After the Taj Mahal, the driver took us to an inlaid marble mosaic workshop which is a nice touch as we have just seen the detailed craftsmanship that has been poured into the majestic white marble of the Taj Mahal. Apparently the family running this workshop has long been involved in the mosaic work of the Taj Mahal. We were shown and explained how it’s done and even allowed to have a little go! Afterwords was of course the shop time. They had lots of beautiful things but these were a little above our very tight budget.

We then went to Agra Fort. The car park was just outside the fort so we could just take our time this time. The foreigner entry fee is ₹500.

After the fort, the driver took us to the restaurant of his ‘recommendation’, which was dark, unattractive and smelly with really depressed looking 2-3 lone customers sitting and eating miserably. I guess they were also taken here by their guides or drivers. We said no to that restaurant and asked the driver to take us to a restaurant near the Taj Mahal which I read good reviews about. The driver said the cars are not able to go in that area or somewhere along that line. So the driver took us around to more shops until it was time for us to head back to the train station. It was very hot and we were not very hungry anyway.

We quite enjoyed our last stop, the spice shop. The owner explained about and let us smell all different spices that he had (and he had A LOT!), some we could actually taste. He had his own chai mix and made delicious chai for us. We bought a bag of this.

Then the driver took us back to Agra station with nice comfortable time to spare. We paid him the parking charges+small tip (we didn’t always tip our drivers, but we felt we’re looked after well and he has been very polite.) Do keep your receipt and give the driver the green receipt so he can get paid later.

The driver told us about the food court in the station. I wish we had known about it before so we would have asked the driver to take us to the station even earlier (so we could eat more). Anyway, we had just a perfect amount of time to order and enjoy small snacks at the food court on platform 1. The food was good, really affordable and there were enough tables and seating.

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We took the 17:50 Gatimaan Express to Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station located approximately 7km to the South of New Delhi station. The ticket cost ₹770 p.p including dinner, water, tea etc (normal chair car). The food quality was very much the same as the breakfast, but had veg and non-veg options. We got to talk to a local family traveling in the same car and were given lots of good food and drink recommendations. We also talked about different stuff, life, work, traveling etc and just didn’t stop talking until we finally reached Delhi which was lovely.

The train arrived back in Delhi at around 19:30 without delay. Hazrat Nizamuddin station has a pre paid taxi/auto rickshaw booth. It is a small one just across the station. We took the auto rickshaw to our hotel (near New Delhi station), cost ₹150.

Afterthoughts:

I guess with a full day taxi, it is possible to arrive in Agra with your luggage and have a day of sightseeing then move on to the next city from Agra, leaving your luggage in the taxi during the day. Although, I’m not sure if I want to do that, but it’s a possibility. I have also noticed a pre paid auto rickshaw booth in my photo which would’ve been cheaper than a taxi. And I would love to see the Taj at sunrise, and just sit and admire its beauty without worrying about the appointment with my taxi driver.

Maybe next time. 🙂