India 5 Day Itinerary

Five cities in five days across a country the size of a continent means this route only works one way: Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, then a flight for the Udaipur and Mumbai legs, not trains. A train from Jaipur to Udaipur alone eats seven to nine hours, which would gut an already tight schedule, so budget the roughly 45 minute flight instead and spend the time you save actually seeing something.

Day 1: Delhi

Red Fort, built by Shah Jahan in the 1600s as the seat of Mughal power, deserves the morning slot before the heat and crowds build. India Gate honors soldiers of World War I and the Third Anglo-Afghan War, worth a walk-by rather than extended time. The Lotus Temple’s lotus-petal architecture is striking from outside, but the queue to sit inside the meditation hall moves slowly and isn’t worth a long wait if your schedule is tight.

Chandni Chowk in Old Delhi rewards a rickshaw ride through impossibly narrow lanes packed with spice traders, textile stalls and some of the best street food in North India, try parathe wali gali for stuffed flatbreads that have been made the same way for generations. Watch your bag here, pickpocketing in dense crowds is a genuine risk, not paranoia, keep valuables zipped and front-facing.

Traffic in Delhi runs on its own logic, budget more transit time than Google Maps suggests, especially during morning and evening rush windows.

Day 2: Agra

Take an early train or car to Agra, roughly three to four hours depending on traffic and route. Book Taj Mahal tickets online in advance through the official ASI portal, sunrise slots between 6 and 8am sell out weeks ahead in peak season and the ticket is worthless without the exact passport used at booking, since foreign tourists must carry ID matching the reservation. Foreign visitor entry runs about 1,100 rupees for the main complex plus an optional 200 rupees for mausoleum access, and the monument closes entirely every Friday, plan around that if your dates are fixed.

The early light on white marble is the reason to actually get up for sunrise rather than sleeping in and hitting it at noon in full sun and full crowds. Agra Fort in the afternoon gives you the Mughal perspective from the other side, this red sandstone fortress is where Shah Jahan was later imprisoned by his own son with a view of the Taj he built for his wife, a detail that adds real weight to the visit. Finish with Mughlai cuisine, rich, slow-cooked curries that reflect the same Persian-influenced court cooking that shaped this region for centuries.

Day 3: Jaipur

Drive or train to Jaipur, about four and a half hours by road. Amer Fort remains the headline stop, but skip the elephant ride up to the gate. It’s not officially banned as of 2026, but animal welfare investigations have repeatedly documented serious injuries and distress among the Amer elephants, and a 2026 incident involving an elephant named Chanchal reignited public pressure for a ban. Walk up instead, or take a jeep, both options exist and neither funds an animal welfare problem you don’t need to be part of.

City Palace mixes Rajasthani and Mughal styles in a still partly-occupied royal residence, Jantar Mantar is a working astronomical observatory built in 1728 with instruments that still calculate time and planetary positions with real accuracy, and Hawa Mahal’s honeycomb facade of 953 small windows was designed so royal women could observe street life unseen, worth five minutes from outside rather than a long visit, the interior is relatively bare.

Shop the old city bazaars for block-printed textiles, gemstones and Rajasthani puppets, and take a cycle rickshaw rather than a car through the pink-washed old city streets, narrower lanes reward slower transport.

My opinion: Jaipur is the city on this route most worth an extra half day if your schedule ever loosens up. The old city’s architecture and craft traditions run deeper than a single afternoon can cover.

Day 4: Udaipur

Fly rather than drive or train, the journey time difference is the whole reason this itinerary works at all. City Palace here overlooks Lake Pichola and blends Rajasthani and Mughal elements into what’s arguably the most photogenic royal complex in Rajasthan. Take a boat out on the lake itself, passing Jag Mandir, the 17th century island palace that reportedly sheltered a young Shah Jahan during a rebellion against his own father, a lesser known footnote that connects Udaipur back to the Agra story from two days earlier.

Saheliyon Ki Bari, the garden of the maidens, is a smaller stop but a pleasant break from palace architecture, with fountains that still run on the original gravity-fed water system centuries after construction. Wander Udaipur’s Old City streets in the late afternoon, this is the most walkable and least chaotic of the Rajasthan cities on this route, and a pottery or miniature painting workshop here gives you a genuine craft experience rather than a tourist trap demonstration.

Day 5: Mumbai

Fly to Mumbai for the final day, a deliberate shift in tone from royal Rajasthan to India’s commercial and film capital. Gateway of India, built to commemorate King George V’s 1911 visit, remains the city’s most photographed monument and its harbor-front energy of vendors and photographers is worth soaking in rather than rushing past.

The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, still commonly called by its old name the Prince of Wales Museum, holds strong collections spanning Indian, European and Egyptian art and artifacts. If time allows, take the short ferry to Elephanta Island for the sixth to eighth century rock-cut cave temples dedicated to Shiva, a UNESCO site that gets far fewer visitors than its historical importance deserves given how close it sits to the mainland.

Dharavi, one of the largest informal settlements in Asia, is on many itineraries now, and if you visit, do it through a locally run, ethically minded tour operator that channels proceeds back into the community rather than treating it as spectacle. Some visitors skip it entirely on principle, and that’s a defensible call too.

End the day and the trip on Marine Drive at sunset, the curve of lights along the bay gives Mumbai its Queen’s Necklace nickname, then grab vada pav or bhelpuri from a street stall, still some of the best cheap food in the country, before a last wander through Colaba Causeway’s market stalls.

Visa requirements

Most nationalities need an e-Tourist visa, applied for online at least four days before arrival, though the process moves faster if you apply well ahead rather than at the deadline. The standard 30-day e-Tourist visa costs around 25 US dollars for most nationalities, though UK, US and Canadian citizens pay different government fee tiers, plus a roughly 2.5 percent bank transaction charge. Your passport needs at least six months validity and two blank pages, and the e-visa only clears entry through a specific list of major airports and seaports, not every port of entry, so check your arrival airport is on that list before booking flights.

Transportation

Trains connect Delhi, Agra and Jaipur affordably and are worth the experience on at least one leg, but the Udaipur and Mumbai connections genuinely need flights on a five day timeline, the train alternative for Jaipur to Udaipur alone runs seven to nine hours and would consume most of a travel day. Hire a car with driver for shorter regional hops if you’d rather skip navigating Indian rail booking systems yourself.