Most of my clients arrive either in the morning or afternoon – the flights from Lal Bahadur Shastri Airport take around 40 minutes to reach the center of the old city, with longer traffic jams on the Ring Road during peak hours. I wouldn’t suggest going sightseeing during your first day, as most of my clients find themselves exhausted by the local noises and bustles after their night flight. We take a break at the hotel (after checking in) for a couple of hours and head out to Dashashwmedh Ghat for the evening Aarti. The performance usually starts after sunset, so around 6:45 pm during the winter season, and a little later in the summer. Few first-timers actually realize that they can get an amazing view of the whole show from a boat, so, paying a little extra, you get a great view of all the priests and avoid the chaos of the steps. The steps at Dashashwmedh Ghat get absolutely crowded during the peak season, and I rather honestly tell my clients that this is the real hustle that they might not feel prepared for. However, I would recommend a night view of the Ganga from the boat as a special surprise for your first evening in Varanasi, followed by an overnight stay at a heritage hotel near the ghat.

We head out at around 5:15 am for a boat ride while the city is still silent and sleepy. I prefer doing this activity on the second day, as the first day’s night is usually harsh for Korean tourists. We enjoy the sunrise from the boat on the Ganges river while slowly drifting northward, passing by hundreds of other boats moored along the banks, as well as temples, ghats, and even the occasional floating restaurant. After our river exploration, we have breakfast at the hotel followed by a few hours of rest. Then we go to Kashi Vishwanath Temple for darshan. I must note that there is a security check before entering the temple, where you have to give up your phone at the counter near gate 4, so it’s better to know about it in advance. Kashi Vishwanath’s main sanctum is relatively small, and the long queues for darshan usually appear in the morning. Evenings seem to be less crowded, so if you’re not a morning person, you might want to pick the afternoon. We spend the evening hours exploring nearby alleys and traditional confectionery shops, whose family-owned businesses have been around for generations. Same hotel for tonight.

A drive to Sarnath, the site of the Buddha’s first sermon, takes 30-45 minutes, with a possibility of longer traffic jams on the roads through the cantonment area. We leave the city around 8 am to avoid the traffic, as the place gets crowded with tour groups who arrive mostly by bus. A must-see in Sarnath is the Dhamek Stupa, an imposing brick tower, around which pilgrims walk counterclockwise while keeping their heads bowed. It would take us 45 minutes to explore the Sarnath Archaeological Museum, which stores the original Ashoka lion capital, however, it is closed on Fridays, so, in case of that, we can exchange Day 2 and Day 3. We finish our visit to Sarnath with a stop at Deer Park in the late afternoon. We return to Varanasi in the evening.

We spend around 20 minutes on a ferry to the other side of the river, where we find ourselves near the Ramnagar Fort, a much less popular attraction than one might expect. If you’re curious to explore this place, however, we can spend an hour there, as most parts of the fort are dilapidated and require a certain imagination to be able to understand the beauty of ancient Indian architecture. On the contrary, if you are not interested in visiting the fort, we can skip it. We have around 2-3 hours before the airport transfer to keep in mind when heading back to the hotel through the old city, where peak-hour traffic jams can appear at any time. And, this is how most of my clients experience the Varanasi tour package with Korean speaking guide, which lasts 4 day.