This sparkling trip takes us to Rajasthan’s Nagaur Sufi Music Festival, quickly becoming the world’s greatest celebration of Sufi music, a lodestone for the greatest Sufi performers from India, Turkey, Iran, Egypt, and Jordan. If you find the Festival on the internet, and watch and listen to its clips, you will almost certainly want to join us. The music is that intoxicatingly gorgeous and vitalizing. And you’ll be even more tempted when you learn that we’ll be hobnobbing during our visit with renowned writer on all things Indian, William Dalrymple, who Brian Schofield of London's Sunday Times calls “ridiculously erudite...remarkably warm and open-hearted. A towering talent."

We begin with a thorough exploration of Delhi, old and new, visiting the Red Fort, roaming the city’s teeming bazaar, marveling at the Jama Masjid, one of India’s largest mosques, and paying our respects at Gandhi Smriti, the private residence where Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated in 1948, now home to a serene garden and museum. Then we fly southeast to India’s spiritual capital, Varanasi, quite probably the most revered and spiritually electric city in the world. And we’ll make the short drive out to Sarnath, the Deer Park, where a recently enlightened prince named Siddhartha delivered his first sermon and began his fruitful career as Buddha.

From Varanasi, we fly west to the magnificent temples of Khajuraho, famed for their erotic carvings, or mithuna, and continue to a couple of idyllic nights at Panna National Park. Before heading to the Taj Mahal we’ll pay a delightful visit to the small town of Orchha, home to the beautiful Lakshmi Temple and an imposingly large Jehangir Mahal fortress and palace which overlooks a typically intense sea of greenery. And now for the Taj (and Agra’s many only slightly lesser sights). “The gem of man’s handiworks,” Lord Curzon called this monument to love, “the most perfect structure in the world.” After communing with the Taj, we continue to Rajasthan’s capital, the Pink City of Jaipur. After a day touring its Amber Fort, City Palace and Palace of Winds, as well as an open-air dinner and elephant safari at a private nature reserve, we’re off the next day for our three-day immersion in Sufi music and culture at Nagaur.

We regretfully wrap-up this invigorating journey with a good look at the Blue City of Jodhpur, and its massive Mehrangarh Fort and Umaid Bhawan Palace, where we’ll have a festive farewell dinner.

Day 1: arrive Delhi • Day 2: exploring Delhi • Day 3: fly to Varanasi, explore the old city • Day 4: morning cruise on the Ganges, afternoon visit to Sarnath • Day 5: fly to Khajuraho, visit its temples, drive to Panna National Park • Day 6: exploring Panna • Day 7: drive to Orchha and continue by train to Agra and the Taj • Day 8: tour Agra Fort and the city and, of course, the inimitable Taj • Day 9: sunrise visit to the Taj, drive to Jaipur • Day 10: around and about in Jaipur • Day 11: drive to Nagaur Sufi Festival, connect with William Dalrymple • Days 12 & 13: at the Festival, including dining and chats with William • Day 14: drive to Jodhpur, tour, wander in the old city, farewell dinner at Umaid Bhawan Palace • Day 15: fly to Delhi and onward.

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