Amritsar and the Golden Temple
Down out of the hills into Punjab. The Golden Temple first thing in the morning, Jallianwala Bagh, and the border ceremony at Wagah. Most people tack this onto either end of a Himachal trip.
- Golden Temple
- Jallianwala Bagh
- Wagah
Good for — Adding to the start or end of a Himachal trip, especially if you fly via Amritsar
Read the full descriptionClose the description
Amritsar is not in Himachal, but it is four hours from Dharamshala and it has the airport a lot of our guests fly into, so it ends up bolted onto the start or the end of most long trips.
The Golden Temple is worth arranging your day around. Go at five in the morning when the mist is still on the water and there are perhaps two hundred people there instead of twenty thousand.
What to expect at the temple
It is open around the clock and it is free, and there is no ticket, no queue for entry and nobody selling you anything. That surprises people who have done the rest of India’s headline sights.
Heads must be covered — yours, everyone’s, men and women alike. Scarves are handed out at the entrance if you have not brought one, and a cap does not count. Shoes and socks come off and go into a free deposit counter, and you walk through a shallow water channel on the way in, so bare feet on cold marble in January is part of the experience. Dress modestly; shoulders and knees covered.
Photography is fine around the perimeter of the tank and not inside the inner sanctum. Nobody will be rude to you about it, which is rather the point of the place, but that is a reason to get it right rather than a reason not to bother.
The langar
Around a hundred thousand people are fed here every day, free, and it does not matter who you are or whether you are Sikh. You sit on the floor in long rows, food comes to you, you eat as much as you want, and you take your plate to the wash-up on the way out.
Go and do it. It takes twenty minutes and it is, more than the gold, the thing that explains the place. If you want to understand it further, the kitchens behind — vast pans, volunteers rolling roti by hand — are open to walk through.
Jallianwala Bagh, next door
A three-minute walk from the temple entrance, and the site of the 1919 massacre in which British troops fired on a penned-in crowd. The bullet marks are still in the walls and the well people jumped into is still there.
It is small and it does not take long, but do not treat it as a bolt-on. Most people find it lands harder than they expected, and it is worth doing before the temple rather than after — the order matters more than you would think.
Wagah, and whether to bother
The border ceremony at Wagah is forty-five minutes out of the city and it is a genuine spectacle: stamping, high kicks, crowds on both sides. It is also a long afternoon of sitting in the heat waiting for it to start, and it divides people sharply.
Our honest position: if you have three days, do it. If you have two, spend the time at the temple instead — go back a second time, at a different hour. It is a different building at dawn and at ten at night.
Day by day
How the 3 days run
- Day 14–5 hrs
Down to Amritsar
Out of the hills and onto the plain, which is flat and hot and completely unlike where you have just come from. Into the city by the afternoon. The Golden Temple in the evening once it is lit is the right way to see it first.
- Day 2
The temple at dawn, and the city
Back at first light, which is when it is quietest and best. Eat in the langar — they serve something like fifty thousand people a day and have done for centuries. Then Jallianwala Bagh next door, and the Partition Museum, which is difficult and worth it. Wagah in the late afternoon for the border ceremony; we leave early because the seating fills long before it starts.
Show all 3 daysShow fewer days
- Day 34–5 hrs to Dharamshala
Back up, or onward
Back into the hills, or to the airport if you are flying out. Amritsar has international flights, which is why this works so well at the end of a trip.
The price
What is in it, and what is not
Included
- Private car and driver, fuel, tolls and parking
- Hotel in Amritsar with breakfast
- Wagah transfers and the wait
- Pickup and drop in Dharamshala or at the airport
Not included
- Flights
- Lunches and dinners, though the langar costs nothing
- The Partition Museum ticket
We do not publish a rate card. The number depends on the season, how many of you there are and the sort of hotels you want, so we price each trip on its own — and whatever we quote is what you pay.
Questions
What people ask about this one
What do I need to know before entering the Golden Temple?
Cover your head — scarves are handed out free at the entrance — take your shoes off at the counter, and wash your feet in the shallow channel on the way in. No alcohol or tobacco anywhere inside. Photography is fine around the pool but not in the inner sanctum. Nobody minds you being there and nobody will ask you for anything.
Is the Wagah ceremony worth going to?
It is loud, extremely nationalistic on both sides, and unlike anything else you will see. Some people love it and some find it uncomfortable. Go once. There is a separate and much shorter queue for foreign passport holders — bring your passport.
Can this be done as a day trip?
From Dharamshala it is four to five hours each way, so no, not sensibly. Two nights is the minimum that lets you see the temple at dawn, which is the whole point.
Keep reading