Varanasi
Varanasi, or Kashi, is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world.
The city also has a syncretic tradition of Islamic artisanship that underpins its religious tourism. Located in the middle-Ganges valley in the southeastern part of the state of Uttar Pradesh, Varanasi lies on the left bank of the river. It is 692 kilometres (430 mi) to the southeast of India's capital New Delhi and 320 kilometres (200 mi) to the southeast of the state capital, Lucknow. It lies 121 kilometres (75 mi) downstream of Prayagraj, where the confluence with the Yamuna river is another major Hindu pilgrimage site.
Getting to Varanasi
Varanasi is well connected by plane, train, and bus. Varanasi is mostly on the west bank of the Ganges. The
- 01Malviya Bridge on the north
- 02Lal Bahadur Shastri Airport
- 03Banaras
Worth seeing
Varanasi is not a city with distinct tourist destinations; the experience is in watching the spectacle of life and death on the river and meandering through the alleys of the old city.
Things to do
Bathe in the Ganges - Over 60,000 people come to the ghats every day to take a dip in the sacred waters of the Ganga, most notably at sunrise. This is a fantastic sight to see. However, with sunken corpses and cremation, there is a risk of infection from numerous diseases such as hepatitis and bacteria such as e-coli. Therefore it is recommended you bathe further upstream such as around Rishikesh.
Where to eat
Banarasi Khana, or local delicacies, are known for their flavours. Many dishes here are flavoured with asafoetida, ginger, bay leaves, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, and/or dried fenugreek leaves. Benares Dum Aloo is different from the dum aloo cooked elsewhere in India because the potatoes are stuffed with and cooked in gravy that includes jaggery, fennel, and chilli paste.
Getting around Varanasi the local way
- Get inA taxi to/from the airport takes an hour and costs ₹750, while a tuk-tuk/auto-rickshaw can take twice as long and costs ₹500.
- Get inFrom the Sunauli bus station, take a rickshaw (₹200) to the border crossing, get your passport stamped on the Nepali side then walk through the border.
- Get aroundMany streets are too narrow to be reached by cycle-rickshaw, auto-rickshaw, and car and therefore, you may have to walk a bit to reach your destination.
- Get aroundTherefore, it will often be convenient to travel by cycle rickshaw, E-rickshaw or auto-rickshaw.
- Get aroundFurther journeys, such as to Sarnath (10 km), cost ₹500 there and back (with a one- to two-hour waiting period) or ₹300 one way by auto-rickshaw.
- Get aroundThere is a pre-paid auto-rickshaw stand at .
From Wikivoyage: Varanasi, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us. Last edited 2026-09.
Text adapted from Wikipedia and Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph: Kuber Patel, Rosehub (CC BY-SA 4.0), Wikimedia Commons.
