40 Best Places to Visit in India: The Ultimate Travel Guide 2026

India is not a destination. It is an entire world compressed into a single subcontinent. In one country you will find the world's highest motorable roads and the planet's most serene backwater canals. You will stand before marble monuments that took 22 years to build and inside cave temples that were carved 1,500 years before that. You will taste dishes that vary so dramatically from one state to the next that it feels like crossing international borders — which, in the deepest cultural sense, it is.

With 28 states and 8 union territories, each with its own language, cuisine, architecture, festivals, and landscape, choosing where to go in India is genuinely overwhelming. This guide cuts through the noise. We have selected the 40 best places to visit in India across all four regions — North, South, East, and West — covering everything from UNESCO World Heritage sites and national parks to hidden hill stations, coastal paradises, and spiritual heartlands.

Whether you are planning your first trip to India or your tenth, this list will help you build an itinerary that captures the country's incredible diversity. Each destination below links to a full dedicated travel guide with complete details on how to reach, when to visit, what to do, and where to stay.

Quick Overview: All 40 Places at a Glance

Why India Belongs on Every Traveller's Bucket List

There is a reason India consistently ranks among the world's most visited countries despite being one of the most challenging to navigate. It rewards curiosity. Every extra hour spent exploring a city, every conversation with a local, every wrong turn down a narrow lane — all of it yields something unexpected and memorable. No other country in the world offers this density of experience.

India holds 42 UNESCO World Heritage Sites — the sixth highest in the world — spanning ancient cave temples, medieval forts, royal palaces, wildlife sanctuaries, mountain railways, and sacred riverscapes. It is home to the world's largest religious gathering (the Kumbh Mela), the world's highest motorable roads (in Ladakh), and one of the world's most biodiverse ecosystems (the Western Ghats).

The 40 destinations in this guide have been selected to give you the broadest, most representative experience of India's diversity. They range from India's most iconic landmarks — places you simply cannot leave without seeing — to hidden gems in the country's northeast and tribal heartlands that most international itineraries never reach.

North India is the India most people picture when they close their eyes and think of the country — the Taj Mahal glowing at sunrise, the ghats of Varanasi at dusk, saffron-robed sadhus, snow-capped Himalayan peaks, and the golden sandstone forts of Rajasthan. It is also the most geographically diverse region in the country, stretching from the Thar Desert in the west to the high-altitude deserts of Ladakh in the north, and from the spiritual heartland of the Ganga plains to the verdant hill stations of Himachal Pradesh.

1. Taj Mahal, Agra

The Taj Mahal needs no introduction — it is one of the seven wonders of the modern world and arguably the most recognised building on earth. Built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan between 1631 and 1653 as a mausoleum for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, the white marble complex took 22 years and over 20,000 artisans to complete. The monument looks different at every hour of the day — soft pink at dawn, blinding white at noon, and warmly golden at sunset. Entry timings, ticket prices, and photography tips are all covered in our full guide. Read our Taj Mahal Agra travel guide for complete details.

2. Varanasi (Kashi)

Varanasi is considered the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world and the holiest city in Hinduism. Situated on the western bank of the Ganges, its 88 ghats come alive at dawn with bathers performing ritual ablutions and at dusk with the spectacular Ganga Aarti ceremony, where priests swing large flaming lamps in choreographed unison to the sound of conch shells and bells. A boat ride at sunrise on the Ganges is one of those experiences that changes how you think about life and death. The city is also a centre of classical music, silk weaving, and Hindu philosophy. Read our Varanasi ghats and Ganga Aarti guide for complete details.

3. Rishikesh

Rishikesh sits where the Ganga exits the Himalayan foothills and enters the plains, making it a place of extraordinary natural beauty and spiritual energy. It is simultaneously India's yoga capital — with over 200 ashrams and yoga centres — and one of the country's best adventure sports destinations, offering white water river rafting on Grade 3 and 4 rapids, bungee jumping from India's highest bungee platform, and paragliding over the river valley. The Ganga Aarti at Triveni Ghat every evening is one of the most moving ceremonies in North India. Read our Rishikesh yoga and adventure travel guide for complete details.

4. Amritsar & the Golden Temple

The Golden Temple (Harmandir Sahib) in Amritsar is the holiest shrine in Sikhism and one of the most breathtaking places of worship in the world. The temple's lower half is made of white marble and the upper half is covered in 750 kg of pure gold. It sits in the centre of a sacred pool called the Amrit Sarovar, and pilgrims and visitors circle it on a marble walkway day and night — the temple never closes. The free langar (community kitchen) here feeds over 100,000 people daily, regardless of religion or background — an extraordinary act of service on a scale that has few parallels anywhere. Read our Golden Temple Amritsar darshan guide for complete details.

5. Jaipur — The Pink City

Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, earned its nickname when the entire old city was painted terracotta pink in 1876 to welcome the Prince of Wales. The city's three main monuments — the hilltop Amber Fort, the intricate lattice-windowed Hawa Mahal (Palace of Winds), and the astronomical observatory Jantar Mantar — together form one of India's richest concentrations of Mughal-Rajput architecture. Jaipur is also the anchor of India's famous Golden Triangle itinerary (Delhi–Agra–Jaipur), making it most travellers' first encounter with Rajasthan's royal grandeur. Read our Jaipur Pink City travel guide for complete details.

6. Delhi — Capital of India

Delhi is not one city but many, stacked on top of each other across 3,000 years of continuous habitation. The labyrinthine lanes of Old Delhi, with their centuries-old mosques, Mughal-era havelis, and chaotic yet irresistible street food markets, sit in startling contrast with the wide imperial boulevards of New Delhi, designed by Edwin Lutyens for the British Raj. The city holds some of India's greatest monuments — the Red Fort, Qutub Minar, Humayun's Tomb, India Gate — and a food scene that is arguably the most diverse in the subcontinent. Read our Delhi monuments and street food guide for complete details.

7. Manali

Manali is the gateway to Ladakh by road and one of India's most beloved mountain destinations. Set in the Kullu Valley at an altitude of 2,050 metres, it is the starting point for the legendary Manali–Leh highway — one of the world's great road trips — and a hub for adventure sports including skiing at Solang Valley, paragliding, river rafting on the Beas, and trekking into the Pin-Parvati and Hampta Pass valleys. Rohtang Pass, accessible from Manali, offers year-round snow and extraordinary Himalayan views. Read our Manali snow and adventure travel guide for complete details.

8. Shimla — Queen of Hills

Shimla was the summer capital of British India, and its colonial-era architecture — Christ Church, the Viceregal Lodge, the half-timbered buildings along Mall Road — still gives it a distinctly unhurried, European feel. The Kalka–Shimla toy train, now a UNESCO World Heritage Railway, is one of the most scenic rail journeys in India, winding through 102 tunnels and across 900 bridges to reach the town at 2,205 metres. In winter, Shimla is one of the most accessible snowfall destinations from Delhi, making it perennially popular. Read our Shimla hill station complete travel guide for complete details.

9. Leh Ladakh

Ladakh is India's most dramatic landscape — a high-altitude cold desert wedged between the Himalayas and the Karakoram ranges, home to turquoise lakes, ancient Buddhist monasteries, the world's highest motorable roads, and one of the densest populations of snow leopards on earth. Pangong Tso, Nubra Valley's sand dunes, Khardung La pass, and the monasteries of Hemis, Thiksey, and Lamayuru are all bucket-list experiences. Ladakh requires an Inner Line Permit for many areas and careful acclimatisation — but those who make the journey call it the most unforgettable place they have ever been. Read our Leh Ladakh complete travel guide for complete details.

10. Jim Corbett National Park

Jim Corbett National Park is India's oldest national park and one of the best places in the world to spot the Bengal tiger in the wild. Established in 1936, the park covers 1,318 sq km of dense sal forest, grassland, and riverine terrain in the Himalayan foothills of Uttarakhand. The park is divided into five safari zones — Dhikala, Bijrani, Jhirna, Durgadevi, and Dhela — with Dhikala offering the highest probability of tiger sightings. Elephant safaris at dawn and jeep safaris at dusk are both exceptional experiences. Read our Jim Corbett tiger safari booking guide for complete details.

South India is the part of the country that consistently surprises first-time visitors the most. It is slower, greener, and more contemplative than the north. The food is lighter and more intensely flavoured. The architecture of its Dravidian temple towers (gopurams) is unlike anything in the rest of the country — explosively ornate, covered in thousands of brightly painted deities, rising above rice paddies and coconut groves. The coastlines of Kerala, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu offer some of Asia's finest beaches, and the Western Ghats running along the region's western edge are one of the world's eight hotspots of biodiversity.

11. Kerala Backwaters, Alleppey

The Kerala backwaters are a 900-kilometre network of interconnected canals, rivers, lakes, and inlets that run parallel to the Arabian Sea coast. Exploring this watery landscape on a traditional kettuvallam (rice barge) converted into a houseboat — sleeping on board as the boat drifts silently between coconut-fringed banks, villages, and paddy fields — is one of the most distinctive travel experiences in all of Asia. Alleppey (Alappuzha) is the backwaters' main hub, and houseboats here can be booked for one to three nights at a wide range of price points. Read our Kerala backwaters houseboat experience guide for complete details.

12. Munnar

Munnar sits at 1,600 metres in the Western Ghats of Kerala, surrounded by 80,000 hectares of tea plantations whose perfectly manicured rows cover every hillside in every direction. It is one of the most visually arresting hill stations in India — a landscape so geometrically beautiful it looks almost artificial. The Eravikulam National Park near Munnar is home to the endangered Nilgiri Tahr and produces the extraordinary Neelakurinji flower bloom — a mass flowering event that turns entire mountainsides bright blue and occurs only once every 12 years. Read our Munnar tea gardens and hill station guide for complete details.

13. Mysore

Mysore is one of India's most elegant cities — clean, spacious, and filled with palaces, gardens, and the lingering grace of the Wodeyar royal dynasty. The Mysore Palace is the country's most visited monument after the Taj Mahal, a spectacular Indo-Saracenic structure that is illuminated by 100,000 light bulbs every Sunday evening and during the Dasara festival. The ten-day Dasara celebrations in Mysore — featuring a royal procession of decorated elephants and the lighting of the palace — is one of India's most spectacular cultural events. Read our Mysore Palace and Dasara festival guide for complete details.

14. Hampi

Hampi is one of the most surreal landscapes in India — a UNESCO World Heritage Site where the ruins of the Vijayanagara Empire, once one of the richest cities in the medieval world, lie scattered among an extraordinary boulder landscape of massive granite rocks piled as if by giants. The Vittala Temple, with its famous stone chariot and musical pillars, the Virupaksha Temple still active after 600 years, and the vast bazaar ruins of Hampi Bazaar are all extraordinary. Coracle rides on the Tungabhadra River and sunrise views from Matanga Hill complete an experience unlike anywhere else on earth. Read our Hampi UNESCO ruins travel guide for complete details.

15. Coorg

Coorg (Kodagu) is a highland district in Karnataka's Western Ghats, covered in coffee and spice plantations, with rivers, waterfalls, and misty peaks creating a landscape of exceptional beauty. Unlike most Indian destinations, Coorg's distinctive experience is staying on a working coffee estate — waking to the smell of coffee blossoms, walking through plantation rows, and eating Coorgi cuisine (pork-based, intensely flavoured, completely different from mainstream Karnataka food). The Dubare Elephant Camp on the Cauvery River, where you can bathe elephants, is one of India's most memorable wildlife interactions. Read our Coorg coffee estate and waterfall guide for complete details.

16. Ooty

Ooty (Udhagamandalam) is the queen of South India's hill stations, set in the Nilgiri Hills at 2,240 metres above sea level. The journey to Ooty on the Nilgiri Mountain Railway — a UNESCO World Heritage rack-and-pinion train that climbs from Mettupalayam through dense forest and tea estates — is one of India's most scenic rail experiences. Ooty itself offers Botanical Gardens established in 1848, a tranquil lake, and a thriving tea industry. The entire Nilgiris region, shared with Kerala and Karnataka, is one of the world's most biodiverse areas. Read our Ooty Nilgiris hill station travel guide for complete details.

17. Pondicherry

Pondicherry is the result of 300 years of French colonial rule — a Union Territory on the southeastern coast of India where French street names, yellow-painted colonial buildings, boulangeries, and a relaxed cafe culture sit in immediate juxtaposition with Tamil temples, Indian street food, and Hindu festivals. The French Quarter (White Town) is one of the most charming heritage districts in India for an evening stroll. Just outside the city, Auroville — an international intentional community and spiritual experiment founded in 1968 — is one of the most unusual human settlements on the planet. Read our Pondicherry French Quarter and Auroville guide for complete details.

18. Madurai

Madurai is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and the cultural capital of Tamil Nadu. Its centrepiece is the Meenakshi Amman Temple — a sprawling 17-hectare complex with 14 towering gopurams (gateway towers) covered in thousands of brightly painted stucco figures, enclosing 33 separate shrines and employing over 50 priests. The evening ceremony in which the idol of Shiva is carried to Meenakshi's bedchamber is a ritual that has been performed every night for hundreds of years. Madurai's night market and Chettinad cuisine make it one of India's most rewarding food destinations. Read our Madurai Meenakshi Temple travel guide for complete details.

19. Andaman Islands

The Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal are India's finest beach destination — white coral-sand beaches, water so clear you can see the seabed 10 metres below, world-class scuba diving and snorkelling on reefs that rival the Maldives, and a jungle interior that is home to some of the world's last uncontacted indigenous tribes. Havelock Island's Radhanagar Beach is consistently rated among Asia's best beaches. The cellular jail in Port Blair — where the British imprisoned Indian independence fighters — is a sobering and important historical site. Read our Andaman Islands beach and diving travel guide for complete details.

20. Gokarna

Gokarna is what Goa was 30 years ago — a small temple town on the Karnataka coast with a series of stunning beaches accessible only on foot, by boat, or via a coastal cliff trek. Om Beach, named for its natural Om shape when seen from above, and the quieter Kudle Beach and Paradise Beach attract travellers seeking a slower, less commercialised coastal experience than Goa now provides. The Mahabaleshwar Temple in the town centre, one of the most important Shiva temples in South India, gives Gokarna a spiritual dimension that sets it apart from purely recreational beach destinations. Read our Gokarna beaches and temple travel guide for complete details.

East India is the country's most overlooked region by mainstream tourism — and its most rewarding for the traveller willing to look beyond the obvious. The eastern Himalayas (Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya) are younger, greener, and more dramatically forested than their western counterparts. Assam's Brahmaputra Valley is one of the world's great biodiversity hotspots. The northeast's eight sister states each have distinct indigenous cultures, festivals, and cuisines that have virtually no parallel anywhere in the rest of India. The region also contains the wettest place on earth, the world's largest river island, and India's largest monastery.

21. Darjeeling

Darjeeling is the tea capital of the world and one of India's most beloved hill stations, with views of Kanchenjunga — the world's third highest peak — visible on clear days above the rolling green carpet of tea estates. Tiger Hill, a 30-minute drive from the town, offers the most famous sunrise view in India: the first light of dawn catches the Kanchenjunga massif before the rest of the sky brightens, turning the snow-capped peaks a spectacular range of pinks and golds. The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway — another UNESCO World Heritage toy train — remains one of the most charming rail journeys in Asia. Read our Darjeeling tea gardens and sunrise guide for complete details.

22. Gangtok, Sikkim

Gangtok is the capital of Sikkim — India's smallest state and one of its most scenically extraordinary. Set at 1,650 metres in the eastern Himalayas, the city is clean, well-organised, and surrounded by mountains, Buddhist monasteries, and rhododendron forests. The drive to Nathula Pass (4,310m) on the Indo-China border, and the visit to Tsomgo Lake (a glacial lake at 3,753m that reflects the surrounding peaks perfectly) are among the most memorable excursions in the Himalayan region. Sikkim requires a permit that can be obtained on arrival. Read our Gangtok Sikkim monastery and permit guide for complete details.

23. Kaziranga National Park

Kaziranga National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Assam that holds two-thirds of the world's entire population of Indian one-horned rhinoceroses. The park's open, grassy floodplains along the Brahmaputra River make it an unusually photogenic wildlife destination — unlike the dense forests of most Indian parks, Kaziranga's landscape allows clear long-distance sightings of rhinos, elephants, wild water buffaloes, and tigers. Elephant back safaris at dawn offer an experience that brings you silently alongside rhinos at remarkably close range. Read our Kaziranga one-horned rhino safari guide for complete details.

24. Puri & Jagannath Temple

Puri is one of the four sacred dhams (holy sites) in Hinduism and home to the Jagannath Temple — a towering 65-metre shikhara (spire) that has dominated the town's skyline since the 12th century. The temple's Rath Yatra (Chariot Festival) is the world's largest chariot procession, drawing four million pilgrims annually as three colossal wooden chariots are pulled through the streets by thousands of devotees. The golden beach at Puri and the nearby 13th-century Konark Sun Temple — a masterpiece of Kalinga architecture — make this one of the most culturally and spiritually rich destinations in East India. Read our Puri Jagannath Temple and Rath Yatra guide for complete details.

25. Kolkata

Kolkata — the City of Joy — is India's intellectual and cultural capital, a city of Nobel laureates, revolutionary filmmakers, revolutionary politics, and the most intense street food culture in the country. Victoria Memorial, a stunning white marble palace built to honour Queen Victoria, sits in a garden in the heart of the city. The Howrah Bridge — a 705-metre cantilever span across the Hooghly — carries an estimated 100,000 vehicles and 150,000 pedestrians daily. Kolkata's Durga Puja festival in October, when the entire city transforms into an open-air art installation with millions of elaborately decorated pandals, is arguably the largest arts festival on earth. Read our Kolkata City of Joy travel guide for complete details.

26. Ziro Valley

Ziro Valley in Arunachal Pradesh is a UNESCO World Heritage Site nomination and one of India's most beautiful and least-visited destinations. The valley's landscape of rice paddy fields, pine-forested hills, and traditional bamboo Apatani villages has been virtually unchanged for centuries. The Apatani tribe — known for their sustainable wet rice cultivation, their distinctive nose plugs (traditionally worn by women), and their complex oral traditions — have inhabited this valley for thousands of years. The Ziro Music Festival in September, held in a natural amphitheatre surrounded by rice fields, has become one of India's most beloved alternative music events. Read our Ziro Valley Arunachal Pradesh travel guide for complete details.

27. Majuli Island

Majuli, in the middle of the Brahmaputra River in Assam, is the world's largest river island — a flat, fertile, and deeply spiritual place that serves as the cultural heartland of the Vaishnava tradition in Assam. The island's satras (Vaishnavite monasteries) are living centres of classical Assamese culture, preserving centuries-old traditions of dance, theatre, mask-making, and manuscript illumination. The island is gradually being eroded by the Brahmaputra — it has lost over 50% of its area since 1950 — making a visit feel poignant as well as beautiful. Read our Majuli Island river island travel guide for complete details.

28. Shillong

Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya, is known as the 'Scotland of the East' — a hill station of rolling green hills, pine forests, and waterfalls, with a temperate climate that feels worlds away from India's plains. The city has an unusually strong rock music culture and a lively cafe scene. Elephant Falls, just outside the city, is one of the most photogenic waterfalls in Northeast India. Shillong is also the base for day trips to the extraordinary living root bridges of the Khasi hills — bridges made from the aerial roots of rubber trees, trained over generations into load-bearing natural structures. Read our Shillong Meghalaya travel guide for complete details.

29. Cherrapunji & Mawsynram

Cherrapunji (Sohra) and nearby Mawsynram compete for the title of the wettest place on earth — both receiving over 11,000mm of rainfall annually. In monsoon season (June to September), the landscape transforms into a scene of almost impossible lushness: waterfalls drop from every cliff edge, the valley floors fill with cloud, and the famous living root bridges of the Khasi hills are surrounded by dripping emerald jungle. Nohkalikai Falls, at 340 metres, is India's tallest plunge waterfall, and the views into the Bangladesh plains from the plateau edge are breathtaking. Read our Cherrapunji waterfalls and living root bridges guide for complete details.

30. Tawang

Tawang in western Arunachal Pradesh is home to India's largest and the world's second-largest Buddhist monastery — Tawang Monastery, a 17th-century Tibetan Buddhist gompa that houses 450 monks and commands a spectacular view over the Tawang Valley from its hilltop position. The drive to Tawang crosses the Sela Pass at 4,170 metres, past frozen lakes and dramatic mountain scenery. Bumla Pass, on the Indo-China border, is accessible from Tawang with a special permit. The entire region was the site of the 1962 Sino-Indian war, and its history adds a layer of depth to what is already one of India's most extraordinary destinations. Read our Tawang monastery and Sela Pass travel guide for complete details.

West India is where India's most dramatic contrasts converge. The white salt desert of the Rann of Kutch and the golden sand dunes of Jaisalmer sit within the same region as Goa's tropical beaches and Coorg's coffee-scented highlands. Rajasthan's royal heritage — its fort cities, painted havelis, and living traditions of music, dance, and craft — represents some of the most concentrated cultural wealth in the world. Mumbai, the country's financial and entertainment capital, is an entire world unto itself. Maharashtra's cave temples at Ajanta and Ellora are among humanity's greatest artistic achievements.

31. Goa

Goa is India's smallest state and its most visited by domestic and international tourists alike. Its 105-kilometre coastline offers beaches for every type of traveller — the bustling, market-lined shores of Calangute and Baga in the north, the quieter, more sophisticated Palolem and Agonda in the south. The state's Portuguese colonial heritage is visible in its whitewashed churches (including the UNESCO-listed Basilica of Bom Jesus), its architecture, and its cuisine. Goa's seafood — tiger prawns, kingfish, crab xacuti — is some of the finest in India, best eaten at a beach shack with your feet in the sand. Read our Goa beaches complete travel guide for complete details.

32. Mumbai

Mumbai is the city that never stops — a vertical, relentless, magnificent 24-hour metropolis that is simultaneously India's richest and most unequal city, its film industry capital, its financial nerve centre, and its most culturally complex human experiment. The Gateway of India, built in 1924 to commemorate King George V's visit, stands at the harbour with the domed Taj Mahal Palace Hotel behind it. Marine Drive — the crescent-shaped seafront promenade — is one of the world's great urban walks at night, when the city lights reflect on the Arabian Sea. Dharavi, one of Asia's largest informal settlements, offers a perspective on Mumbai that no monument can provide. Read our Mumbai City of Dreams travel guide for complete details.

33. Udaipur — City of Lakes

Udaipur is consistently voted India's most romantic city — a city of lakes, white marble palaces, and narrow havelis-lined streets built around the shimmering waters of Lake Pichola. The City Palace, a sprawling complex built over 400 years by successive maharanas, is the largest palace complex in Rajasthan. The Jag Mandir and Lake Palace (now a luxury hotel) floating in the middle of Lake Pichola are among the most photographed architectural compositions in India. The sunsets over the Aravalli Hills from Sajjangarh (Monsoon Palace) turn the lake and the city golden — an unforgettable sight. Read our Udaipur City of Lakes travel guide for complete details.

34. Jaisalmer — The Golden City

Jaisalmer rises from the Thar Desert like a mirage — a golden sandstone citadel (Sonar Quila, or Golden Fort) that glows amber at sunset, still inhabited by 3,000 people inside its medieval walls. This is a living fort city, the only one of its kind in the world. Outside the fort, the havelis of Patwon, Nathmal, and Salim Singh are extraordinary examples of Rajput stone lattice carving. The Sam Sand Dunes, 40 km from the city, offer the definitive Thar Desert experience: a camel safari at sunset, followed by a night under the stars in a desert camp to the sound of Rajasthani folk music. Read our Jaisalmer Golden Fort and desert safari guide for complete details.

35. Ajanta & Ellora Caves

The Ajanta and Ellora cave complexes near Aurangabad in Maharashtra represent two of the greatest concentrations of ancient religious art and architecture on earth — both UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The 29 Ajanta Caves (2nd century BCE to 6th century CE) contain the finest surviving Buddhist mural paintings in the world, their colours still vivid after 1,500 years. The 34 Ellora Caves blend Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain traditions, with the Kailasa Temple — a monolithic structure carved top-down from a single basalt cliff face — being the most extraordinary feat of ancient engineering in India. Read our Ajanta Ellora UNESCO caves travel guide for complete details.

36. Rann of Kutch

The Great Rann of Kutch is a 7,500 sq km seasonal salt marsh in Gujarat that transforms into a blindingly white salt desert in winter (October to March). Walking on the salt flats under the full moon — an experience offered during the Rann Utsav festival — is one of the most otherworldly things you can do in India. The region is also home to the Indian Wild Ass Sanctuary, flamingo breeding grounds, and the Kutchi handicraft tradition — embroidery, tie-dye, and mirror-work that is among the finest folk art in Asia. Read our Rann of Kutch white desert and Utsav festival guide for complete details.

37. Dwarka

Dwarka is one of the four sacred Hindu dhams (pilgrimage sites) and believed by tradition to be the ancient kingdom of Lord Krishna, now partially submerged beneath the sea. The Dwarkadhish Temple — a 72-metre spire rising above the Gomti River near its confluence with the Arabian Sea — is one of the most important Vaishnava shrines in India. Bet Dwarka island, accessible by boat, is believed to be where Krishna lived, and the Nageshwar Jyotirlinga temple is one of the 12 most sacred Shiva temples in the country. Somnath, another dham, is 230 km away and easily combined. Read our Dwarka Krishna pilgrimage guide for complete details.

38. Mahabaleshwar

Mahabaleshwar is Maharashtra's premier hill station, set at 1,372 metres in the Sahyadri range and famous for its strawberry farms, multiple viewpoints, and the headwaters of five rivers emerging from a single spring. Arthur's Seat — known as the Queen of Points — offers a vertigo-inducing view of the Konkan coast far below. The Mapro Garden strawberry farm allows visitors to pick strawberries directly from the plants. Wilson Point offers the only sunrise view from Mahabaleshwar where both sunrise and sunset are visible, making it the highest point in the Sahyadri range open to visitors. Read our Mahabaleshwar strawberry farms and viewpoint guide for complete details.

39. Lonavala & Khandala

Lonavala and Khandala are twin hill stations in the Western Ghats, two hours from both Mumbai and Pune, making them the most accessible mountain getaways from either city. The region transforms dramatically in monsoon season (June to September), when waterfalls appear on every cliff face, Bhushi Dam overflows spectacularly, and the valleys below fill with rolling clouds. The 2,000-year-old Karla and Bhaja Buddhist cave complexes — some of the finest Hinayana Buddhist rock-cut architecture in India — are located just outside Lonavala and are far less visited than they deserve to be. Read our Lonavala weekend getaway travel guide for complete details.

40. Mount Abu

Mount Abu is the only hill station in Rajasthan — a forested plateau in the Aravalli Range rising to 1,220 metres above the surrounding desert landscape. Its most extraordinary attraction is the Dilwara Temple complex, five Jain temples built between the 11th and 13th centuries whose marble interiors are so intricately carved — every ceiling, pillar, and wall surface covered in filigree lacework in white marble — that they are considered the finest examples of marble craftsmanship in the world. Nakki Lake, Guru Shikhar (the highest peak in the Aravallis), and the pleasant climate make Mount Abu Rajasthan's most complete hill retreat. Read our Mount Abu Rajasthan hill station travel guide for complete details.

How to Plan Your India Trip: Practical Tips

Start with a Region, Not a List

India is too large to do justice to in a single trip. The country is roughly the size of Western Europe — trying to see North India and South India and East India in one itinerary almost always results in exhaustion rather than enjoyment. Choose one region per trip and explore it properly. You will leave wanting to return for the next one, which is exactly the right feeling.

Visa and Entry

Most international visitors to India require a visa. Citizens of 166 countries are eligible for the e-Visa, which can be applied for online through the Indian government's official portal (indianvisaonline.gov.in). The Tourist e-Visa is available for 30-day single entry, or 1-year or 5-year multiple entry. Some areas (Ladakh, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, and certain Andaman islands) require additional Inner Line Permits even for Indian citizens — these are covered in detail in each destination's individual guide.

Best Time to Visit India by Region

Getting Around India

India's rail network is the fourth largest in the world and the most efficient way to travel between major cities. Book train tickets well in advance (at least 2–4 weeks) on IRCTC's official website. For shorter distances, domestic flights are affordable and time-saving — IndiGo, Air India, and SpiceJet are the major carriers. For hill stations and remote areas not served by rail, private cabs and state-run buses are the primary options.

Budget Guidance

Budget traveller: ₹1,500–₹2,500 per day (hostel/guesthouse, local transport, dhabas)

Mid-range traveller: ₹4,000–₹8,000 per day (3-star hotels, AC trains, restaurant meals)

Luxury traveller: ₹15,000–₹50,000+ per day (heritage hotels, private drivers, fine dining)