When to travel

Best places to visit in January

January in India is winter at its most photogenic — snow in Auli, fog over Kashmir, beach weather in Goa, and the brilliant Bikaner Camel Festival.

Busy

Gujarat

Mehsana

Mehsana is a busy city in northern Gujarat, known for the Dudhsagar dairy — one of India's largest cooperative dairies — and for its oil and gas fields.

Crisp, cool winter climate with clear bright blue skies.

Peak crowds

Rajasthan

Jaipur

Jaipur repays getting up early more than almost anywhere in Rajasthan, because by ten the coaches have arrived and Amber Fort stops being a fort and becomes a…

Crisp chilly days with beautiful sunny afternoons.

Busy

Rajasthan

Bikaner

Bikaner gets a fraction of Jaisalmer's and Jodhpur's visitors and is a better city for it. Nothing here is queued.

Crisp cool daytimes with excellent clear desert horizons.

Busy

Goa

North Goa (Baga & Calangute)

Baga and Calangute are the commercial heart of North Goa, a continuous stretch of golden sand on the Arabian Sea and the busiest coast in the state.

Delightful crisp coastal conditions with mild afternoon heat.

Busy

Goa

South Goa (Palolem)

Palolem is a crescent bay in the Canacona region of South Goa — calm water, rocky headlands at either end, and a dense fringe of coconut palms leaning out…

Mild pleasant daytimes with cool evening offshore winds.

Busy

Kerala

Munnar

Munnar is a hill station at about 1,600 metres in the Western Ghats of Idukki district, set where three mountain streams meet — the Mudrapuzha, the…

Crisp mountain conditions with clear afternoon visibility lines.

Busy

Kerala

Alleppey (Backwaters)

The mistake in Alleppey is the day boat. A houseboat only becomes worth it once the day-trippers have gone home and the water goes quiet.

Mild pleasant daytimes with comfortable coastal evening conditions.

Busy

Kerala

Varkala Beach

Varkala, in the Thiruvananthapuram district of southern Kerala, does not look like anywhere else on the Indian coast.

Delightful crisp coastal conditions with stable waves.

Busy

Gujarat

Sasan Gir (Talala)

Gir, near Talala, is the last place in the wild where the Asiatic lion survives.

Perfect crisp weather, good for tracking all-day wildlife movements.

Busy

Odisha

Puri (Jagannath Temple & Beach)

Puri is an ancient holy city on the Bay of Bengal coast in Odisha, and one of the four Char Dham pilgrimage towns.

Crisp beach weather with bright sunny afternoons.

Busy

Gujarat

Bhuj

Bhuj is the historic capital of the Kutch district. Highly resilient following major earthquake eras, it is a maze of royal palaces, historic stepwells, and…

Chilly, crisp climate, great for textile village tours.

Peak crowds

Goa

Goa, India's smallest state on the western Konkan coast, pairs golden Arabian Sea beaches with a relaxed Indo-Portuguese culture.

Perfect beach weather, peak season

Busy

Jammu & Kashmir

Gulmarg

Gulmarg is a bowl of meadow at 2,650 metres in the Pir Panjal, and it does two completely different jobs depending on the month.

Freezing conditions with massive accumulations of powder snow.

Busy

Rajasthan

Jodhpur

Mehrangarh is the best fort in India, and if you only climb one in Rajasthan it should be this one.

Pleasant breezy conditions with clear blue sky perimeters.

Busy

Rajasthan

Chittorgarh Fort

Chittorgarh is the largest fort complex in the Indian subcontinent, spread across a fish-shaped plateau of nearly 700 acres that rises 180 metres straight out…

Pleasant breezy conditions with clear blue sky perimeters.

Busy

Andaman & Nicobar Islands

Havelock Island (Swaraj Dweep)

Havelock Island, officially Swaraj Dweep, is the most popular island in the Andamans.

Calm seas, perfect diving visibility.

Busy

Tamil Nadu

Marina Beach (Chennai)

One of the world's longest urban beaches, Chennai's Marina is a vast city shoreline of promenades, statues, sunrise crowds and street food along the Bay of…

Pleasant coastal weather and clear water.

Busy

Maharashtra

Mumbai

Mumbai runs on its trains, and the fastest way to stop being a tourist here is to work out which line you need and get on it.

Delightfully breezy coastal days with comfortable noon temperatures.

Moderate crowds

Maharashtra

Tarkarli (Malvan)

Tarkarli is in the Malvan region of Sindhudurg district near the Goa border, roughly 500 km south of Mumbai.

Pleasant warm daytimes with refreshing evening ocean breezes.

Busy

Maharashtra

Ajanta Caves

The Ajanta Caves are 30 rock-cut Buddhist monuments set into a horseshoe-shaped gorge in Aurangabad district.

Crisp winter daytimes with mild sunshine hours.

Busy

Gujarat

Kevadia (Ekta Nagar)

Kevadia, now officially Ekta Nagar, is home to the Statue of Unity — at 182 metres, the tallest statue in the world — on the banks of the Narmada River.

Chilly, refreshing evenings and sunny daytime conditions.

Busy

Maharashtra

Ellora Caves

The Ellora Caves are a group of 34 rock-cut shrines carved into the basalt cliffs of the Charanandri Hills near Aurangabad.

Cool refreshing afternoon hours with perfect photo lighting lines.

Busy

Tamil Nadu

Madurai (Meenakshi Amman Temple)

The Meenakshi Amman Temple stands at the heart of Madurai, an ancient city on the banks of the Vaigai River, and it is the great Dravidian temple complex of…

Crisp refreshing afternoon hours with mild sunshine.