Begin with a morning pick-up at 6am from your hotel in Jaipur, or the Jaipur Airport and drive 4hrs to the City of Taj Mahal, Agra. Once you arrive at Agra, meet your tour guide at a local hotel. He will brief you on your upcoming sightseeing tour, you can refresh in the lobby washrooms before embarking on your adventure.

Head to the white and gleaming World Heritage Site TAJ MAHAL. Introduce yourselves to what the Victorian Viceroy Lord Curzon called the “gem of man’s handiwork…the most perfect structure in the world. Built in the 1600s by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in the tribute to the memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal. Just immerse yourself in its amazing architecture, history, and beauty. The magical allure of the Taj Mahal shall definitely be the highlight of your tour. After visiting the Taj Mahal visit a marble inlay studio (after seeing the exquisite Taj inlays, you must want to know how this marble magic works).

After visiting the marble inlay studio enjoy your buffet lunch at a 5-star Hotel Courtyard by Marriott in a welcoming atmosphere.

You will drive across the Yamuna River to visit the BABY TAJ, also known as Itmad-ud-Daula Tomb. The exquisite tomb of Mizra Ghiyas Beg should not be missed. It doesn’t have the same awesome beauty as the Taj, but it’s arguably more delicate in appearance thanks to its particularly finely carved marble jalis (lattice screens). This was the first Mughal structure built completely from marble, the first to make extensive use of pietra dura and the first tomb to be built on the banks of the Yamuna, which until then had been a sequence of beautiful pleasure gardens.

Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal in memory of his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal, but do you know there’s another Taj Mahal in Agra, which was also built out of love. One such unexplored and well-kept secret of Agra is the RED TAJ, also known as John Hessing Tomb built entirely in red sandstone. But unlike Taj Mahal, the Red Taj was built by a wife in memory of her beloved ‘man’ and this man was called John Hessing a Dutch soldier who died fighting the British. The only things missing in this tomb of Col John William Hessing are the four minarets like the Taj Mahal. It is said that his wife ran out of money, and hence they had to be removed from the original plan.