Victoria Memorial → Dakshineshwar Temple → Mother House → New Market → Tram ride → Bengali cooking class dinner

Morning at Victoria Memorial, Dakshineshwar Temple and Mother House - Kolkata's three great landmarks in three completely different registers.
Shopping at New Market then a ride on Kolkata's historic trams - the last city in India that still runs them.
Evening: a Bengali cooking class with a local family, followed by the meal you helped prepare. Overnight Kolkata.

TTI Insider: In the Bengali cooking class, watch how mustard oil is used - heated past smoking point first, then cooled slightly before adding ingredients. This process removes the oil's raw sharpness and creates a flavour found in no other Indian cuisine. Most visitors have eaten Bengali food at restaurants. Cooking it in a family kitchen, with someone explaining why every step is done exactly this way, is a completely different understanding.

Chandannagar French colony → Serampore → Kolkata street food evening

Drive to Chandannagar - a 300-year-old former French colony just outside Kolkata, still carrying its European street plan and heritage buildings. Then Serampore, where the Serampore College and Ramakrishna Mission sit on the river.

Return to Kolkata for the street food evening - Puchka, Kathi Roll, Ghugni Chaat, fish fry and Mishti Doi. Overnight Kolkata.

TTI Insider: Chandannagar's Strand Road along the Hooghly River has a quality of faded grandeur that is unlike anything else in Bengal - French lamp-posts, colonial facades, Indo-French architecture. The town moves slowly and few tourists come. It is one of the most quietly extraordinary 90-minute detours in the entire 17-day tour. Do not rush through it.

Morning flight Kolkata →Patna → Drive to Bodhgaya → Check in → Evening at leisure

Morning flight to Patna, then drive to Bodhgaya - the place where Siddhartha Gautama attained enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree. The town is small, quiet and carries an atmosphere of contemplative calm that is felt the moment you arrive.

Check in and rest. Tomorrow is a full day here. Overnight Bodhgaya.

TTI Insider: Bodhgaya in the evening has a quality few visitors prepare for - monks from Thailand, Japan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Tibet all walking the same small circuit of streets, each in their own coloured robes, each observing their own practice. The town is a living map of Asian Buddhism. Walk around it slowly before dinner. You will not find this concentration of Buddhist nations anywhere else on earth.

Mahabodhi Temple → Bodhi Tree → Diamond Throne → Bihari culinary exploration

Morning at Mahabodhi Temple - the UNESCO-listed complex built around the exact spot where the Buddha attained enlightenment. The Bodhi Tree here is a direct descendant of the original. The diamond throne beneath it marks the spot.

Afternoon - explore Bodhgaya's local food: Litti Chokha baked in coals, Thilkut sesame candy, Enarsa and authentic Bihari street food. Overnight Bodhgaya.

TTI Insider: Litti Chokha is Bihar's greatest contribution to Indian street food - hard wheat balls baked directly in coal, then cracked open and eaten with roasted brinjal and tomato chutney. The key word is coal-baked, not oven-baked. The smoky char on the outside of a properly made Litti is the entire point. Find a street vendor with an actual coal fire, not a gas burner. The difference in taste is significant and immediately obvious.

Train to Varanasi → Check in → Dashashwamedh Ghat at dusk → Sattvic thali dinner

Board the train for Varanasi. Arrive and check in.

By evening, Dashashwamedh Ghat for the Ganga Aarti - bells, conch shells, seven flames raised to the river. Dinner at a local restaurant - unlimited vegetarian thali, no onion, no garlic, authentic sattvic preparation.
After Bodhgaya's contemplative quiet, Varanasi receives you at full volume. Overnight Varanasi.

TTI Insider: The sattvic thali dinner tonight - no onion, no garlic - is not a restriction. It is a different cuisine tradition entirely. In Varanasi, sattvic cooking has been refined over centuries for the pilgrims who come here observing dietary vows. The depth of flavour achieved without alliums is a revelation to most first-time diners. Ask the restaurant which dishes are the kitchen's own speciality - most will have one or two they are particularly proud of.

Dawn Ganga boat ride → Kachori Gali → Kashi Chaat → Blue Lassi → Banarasi paan · Sarnath

Dawn boat ride past the ghats as Varanasi wakes.

Then the food walk - Kachori Gali for piping-hot kachoris, Kashi Chaat Bhandar for papdi chaat, Blue Lassi Shop for rabri malai lassi, Keshav Tambul Bhandar for Banarasi paan.
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Afternoon at Sarnath where the Buddha first taught. The contrast between Varanasi's full-volume food culture and Sarnath's quiet ruins is one of the most interesting hours of the entire tour. Overnight Varanasi.

TTI Insider: At the Blue Lassi Shop — no English sign, just a blue facade and a queue. Order the rabri malai version. If you are visiting between November and February, ask your TTI guide about Malaiyo — a seasonal Varanasi sweet made from whipped cold cream that exists only in cool weather and disappears when the temperature rises. If it is available on your visit day, it is the most ephemeral thing you will taste on this entire 17-day tour.

Morning train → Lucknow arrival → Idris Biryani →Tunday kebabs → Rahim's Pasanda · Nihari → Kulfi

Morning train to Lucknow - the city that refined Indian cuisine to its most sophisticated form. Arrive and begin the culinary walk through legendary Awadhi eateries — Idris Biryani, Rahim's Pasanda Kebab, Nihari Gosht, and Tunday kebabs made with 160 spices since the Nawab's era. Kulfi to finish.

Not available Muslim holidays or Holi. Overnight Lucknow.

TTI Insider: The Tunday kebab - do not chew it. Place it on your tongue and let it dissolve. The 160 spices include raw papaya as tenderiser, which breaks down the meat fibres completely before cooking begins. The name Tunday - meaning one-armed in Urdu - comes from Haji Murad Ali, who invented it with one hand for the toothless Nawab Wajid Ali Shah. A kebab that dissolves was not laziness. It was royal hospitality.

Day at leisure → Explore independently → Evening flight to Delhi

A free day in Lucknow - use it to explore the city at your own pace. The Imambara, Hazratganj, Aminabad market, or simply more Awadhi food at your own choosing. Evening flight to Delhi. Arrive and transfer to hotel. Overnight Delhi.

TTI Insider: Lucknow's Hazratganj is one of the most elegant shopping streets in North India — Nawabi-era architecture still intact, bookshops, old sweet shops, chai stalls. If you walk nothing else today, walk Hazratganj in the morning before the heat builds. It tells you more about Lucknow's self-image than any guided tour would.

Metro to Old Delhi → Khari Baoli spice market → Chandni Chowk food lanes  → Street food

Metro to Chandni Chowk at 9 am. Begin at Khari Baoli - the largest spice market in Asia - where chili dust announces you before you see a single stall.

Walk the food lanes, the paratha galis, the jalebi shops. By evening return to your hotel, carrying the smell of six hundred years of spice trade. Overnight Delhi.

TTI Insider: At Khari Baoli, stand at the entrance for thirty seconds before entering. The smell builds in layers - cumin first, then coriander, then something hotter and deeper underneath. Your guide will name every layer. This is the foundational vocabulary of North Indian cooking, all in one market, all in one breath. Pay full attention here - every dish you cook or eat for the rest of the tour connects back to this market.

Drive to Agra → Taj Mahal (closed Fridays) → Agra Fort → Deviram Sweets → Sadar Bazaar

Drive from Delhi to Agra. Taj Mahal - arrive early, before the tour groups arrive, and let the scale of it register at your own pace.

Then Agra Fort. Evening at Deviram Sweets for bedai with potato curry and saffron lassi in a clay kulhad - the breakfast Agra wakes up to every morning. Then Sadar Bazaar for momos, golgappas and kulfi. Overnight Agra.

TTI Insider: At Deviram Sweets, order the saffron lassi in a clay kulhad specifically - the earthen cup adds a faint mineral note that changes the lassi entirely. The bedai is deep-fried and stuffed with spiced lentils. Eat it immediately from the oil. At room temperature it is a different experience - not worse, just different. Hot from the pan is the Agra way.

Fatehpur Sikri UNESCO →  Abhaneri Stepwell →Arrive Jaipur → Evening street food tour

Drive to Jaipur with two stops - Abhaneri's 9th-century geometric stepwell of 3,500 steps, and Fatehpur Sikri, Akbar's abandoned Mughal capital.

Arrive Jaipur for an evening street food tour - Chole Bhatura, Aloo Tikki, Pyaz ki Kachori, Jalebi, Gulab Jamun. The Pink City's street food is as colourful as its walls. Overnight Jaipur.

TTI Insider: At Abhaneri, walk down to the lowest level of the stepwell — not just the top edge where everyone photographs from. At the bottom, looking up at 3,500 geometrically arranged steps rising on three sides, the scale becomes extraordinary. The temperature also drops 6–8 degrees at the bottom. The stepwell was engineered as a cool retreat as much as a water reservoir. Both still work perfectly.

Dawn aarti Govind Devji → Flower market → Amber Fort → Sheesh Mahal → Hawa Mahal → Royal cooking class dinner

Dawn aarti at Govind Devji Temple - Jaipur's royal Krishna temple, 18th century, one of the most attended Krishna aartis in Rajasthan. Flower market then Amber Fort and Sheesh Mahal. Hawa Mahal, City Palace.

Evening: the cooking class begins with a mauli bracelet on your wrist. You cook Laal Maas, Gatte ki Khichdi, fresh chapatis. Dinner is what you made. Overnight Jaipur.

TTI Insider: Before the cooking class - go to Rawat Mishthan Bhandar for their kachoris. Every person born in Jaipur will give you this name. The kachori here is thinner-shelled and drier-filled than what you ate last night on the street food tour. Two kachoris in two days from two different vendors  the comparison teaches you more about Jaipur's food identity than any single dish alone.

Morning free → Jaipur bazaars → Afternoon train → Arrive Udaipur ~10:30pm

A relaxed morning in Jaipur - bazaars, blue pottery workshops, block-printing studios, or simply a second visit to a favourite food stall.

Afternoon train to Udaipur, arriving around 10:30pm. Check in.

Udaipur begins tomorrow — one of the most beautiful cities in Rajasthan and the setting for the tour's final cooking class. Overnight Udaipur.

TTI Insider: The train from Jaipur to Udaipur passes through the Aravalli Hills as evening falls - red rock formations, sparse trees, the light changing from orange to purple. It is one of the more beautiful train journeys in Rajasthan. Sit on the side with the setting sun if you can. The landscape tells you exactly how arid this part of India is - and explains why Rajasthani cuisine uses so many dried ingredients and so much ghee.

City Palace → Sahelion-ki-Bari → Jagdish Temple → Evening cultural dance show

Udaipur: City Palace beside Lake Pichola, Sahelion-ki-Bari gardens, Jagdish Temple. For lunch - Dal Baati Churma, Rajasthan's defining dish: wheat balls baked in a clay oven, cracked open, soaked in ghee, eaten with spiced dal and sweet churma. Ask if the baati was made in a clay oven - that single question separates a memorable meal from an ordinary one. Evening enjoy culutral folk dance show. Overnight Udaipur.

TTI Insider: For Dal Baati Churma, go at lunch - most Udaipur kitchens prepare their best batches for the midday service and the baati is freshest between noon and 1:30pm. The churma in Udaipur is coarser and less sweet than what you find in Jaipur or Jodhpur — this is the Mewari style, heavier on ghee, slightly more savoury. If you have eaten Dal Baati Churma elsewhere in Rajasthan, this version will taste noticeably different. Both are correct - they are just different conversations.

Morning flight → Gateway of India → CST → Marine Drive +→ Mani Bhavan → Mumbai street food walk

Morning flight to Mumbai. Transfer to hotel.

Afternoon - Gateway of India, the grand Prince of Wales Museum, CST railway station, Marine Drive, Hanging Gardens, Mani Bhavan. Evening Mumbai street food walk: Pav Bhaji, Bhel Puri, Pani Puri, Seekh Kebab.

After 16 days of India, Mumbai's particular brand of loud, fast, democratic street food feels like the right final note. Overnight Mumbai.

TTI Insider: At CST - Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus - look up at the stone animals on the exterior before going inside. Nobody looks up. Victorian Gothic mixed with Indian motifs, every animal carved differently: peacocks, monkeys, gargoyles, lions. The architect Frederick William Stevens spent 10 years on this building. The animals are the part that reveals how much he enjoyed the work. Also - the Jamsetji Tata story: refused entry to a European hotel in Bombay, he built the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel opposite the Gateway of India specifically in response. The entrance faces the harbour, not the city - another pointed gesture.

Final morning → Transfer to airport → Onward journey

A final morning in Mumbai before departure. If time allows - Vada Pav from a street stall near any railway station. The humble potato-filled bread roll that feeds millions of Mumbaikars every morning is a fitting last meal: simple, cheap, made and eaten in thirty seconds, and absolutely delicious.

Transfer to Mumbai airport for your international or domestic onward flight. The 17-day journey across India is complete.

TTI Insider: The best Vada Pav in Mumbai is not at a famous restaurant — it is from the stall closest to whichever local railway station your driver passes on the way to the airport. Mumbaikars have a neighbourhood loyalty to their Vada Pav vendor the way Kolkata has to its Puchka wallah. Ask your TTI driver which stall he considers the best on your route. His answer will tell you which part of Mumbai he is from.

Kolkata to Mumbai - The Tastes of India

17 Days across ten cities, ten food cultures and one country that has never cooked the same way twice

17 Days / 16 Nights Private Car + Trains + Flights Bengali Cooking Class Varanasi Food Walk Lucknow Tunday Kebabs Jaipur Royal Cooking Class Udaipur Cooking Class Mumbai Street Food

You began in Kolkata where mustard oil tells you where you are before a single word is spoken. You ended in Mumbai where a Vada Pav feeds ten million people every single morning without ceremony.

Seventeen days. Ten cities. One country that has never once cooked the same way twice.

TTI Tours 
Every tour is private. Every group is yours alone. We know which Kolkata family gives the best cooking class, which Varanasi food stall opens first, when the Dal Baati is freshest in Udaipur, and where Mumbai's best Vada Pav comes from. That knowledge is what you are booking.

📱 WhatsApp: +91 93100 54485
✉️ Email: info@tti.tours
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