Nuts and Bolts: Travel Tips for Visiting Varanasi

Walking down the ghats to the river in Varanasi

Nuts and Bolts posts give you the practical information you need, but without stripping away the humor, mishaps, and little victories that make real travel what it is. These aren’t just guides. They’re how we actually did it—mistakes, triumphs, and all.

This page has some travel tips for visiting Varanasi, to aid in planning your own trip. Remember, we are a family of five, and we travel mostly to eat. We were in Varanasi in May, 2016. If your trip to Varanasi is significantly longer/shorter/with a different focus, you may have a very different experience.

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Back to India

A month in Nepal had been bliss. Sure Nepal is crowded and chaotic. But Nepal is easy. More than 6% of Nepal’s GDP comes from the tourism industry. 15% of the labor force works in tourism. Tourism is important to Nepal, and so the tourist infrastructure is highly developed.

Nepal is easy.

India . . . not so much. We love India. India is amazing. But India makes you work for the amazing, while Nepal just serves amazing up.

But our one month visa for Nepal was up, so it was time to leave.

And after leaving the tourist comfort of Nepal, where did we go?

One of India's most overwhelming (and magical) cities: Varanasi.

Make Your Own Varanasi at Home

The best way to really understand one of India’s most challenging and photogenic cities is to understand how it was made. I searched the Great Cosmic Library, and I found the recipe. Here is how to create a Varanasi of your own:

Recipe for Varanasi(serves 3 million, plus a few hundred million souls in transit)

Ingredients:

• 1 sacred river, preferably ancient and full of ash and absolution (and giardia)

• 5,000 years of history, sun-dried and lightly fermented

• 14 metric tons of incense smoke

• 3 chaotic scoops each of cow dung, traffic, and temple bells

• A generous handful of cremation fires (don’t skimp)

• 400 rickshaws honking in different keys

• A pinch of philosophy, preferably recited before dawn

• 1 bucket of neon-orange marigolds

• Several barefoot priests and a couple very confused tourists

• Many splashes of paint, the brighter the colors the better

• Giardia

• Optional: boat ride, existential crisis, paneer

Instructions:

1. Begin before sunrise with ritual chants, incense, and river mist.

2. Stir constantly—Varanasi does not simmer.

3. Toss in equal parts devotion and disorientation.

4. Let it ferment in 110°F heat until reality begins to wobble.

5. Serve with open eyes, a strong stomach, and absolutely no expectations.

Now you have some idea of what Varanasi is.

The colorful jumble of Varanasi along the Ganges River

Travel Tips for Visiting Varanasi: Weather

We were in Varanasi in May, which—if you enjoy heatstroke as a travel aesthetic—is the perfect time to go. Temperatures hovered in the 100–110°F range (40–43°C), with humidity levels that made the Ganges look like a tempting swim, even with the ash, silt, and mystery bubbles. And giardia.

The air doesn’t really move in May. It just sits—thick, heavy, sunbaked—like a damp towel you forgot on the roof. Or your face. The stone ghats radiate heat like stovetops. Rickshaws offer no breeze. Shade is meaningless.

That said … there’s something wild and beautiful about being in Varanasi at its most extreme. The crowds thin out a bit. The light is golden and harsh, like an overexposed photograph of your own endurance. You drink your body weight in water, sweat through your clothes before breakfast, and still come back for the evening aarti with wonder in your eyes.

Just know: May is not for the faint of heart. But if you can handle it, it might just peel back the city’s layers in a way cooler months can’t.

And really, Varanasi is best very early in the morning. Get out there and see the city as it comes alive. Once the heat becomes a serious health risk, retreat to your hotel, pray there are no scheduled blackouts, and ponder your mortality.

Getting to Varanasi

By Air:

The easiest (and most breathable) option is to fly into Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS), about 25 km outside the city. Flights connect regularly with Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and other major hubs. From the airport, you can hire a prepaid taxi or roll the dice with a rideshare app. Expect the drive into town to take about an hour, depending on how many holy cows decide to take their morning stroll along your route.

By Train:

Ah, the Indian railway—equal parts majestic and mildly traumatic. Varanasi Junction (also called Varanasi Cantt) is a major stop, with trains arriving from across the country. Be prepared: the station is massive, crowded, and a little chaotic, but utterly functional. If you’re coming from Delhi, Lucknow, or Kolkata, overnight trains are a good option (assuming you are able to buy your tickets)—just book early and brace yourself for a lively onboarding experience.

We had taken a bus from Kathmandu to the border and then Gorakhpur. From Gorakhpur, it was an easy five hour train ride to Varanasi.

By Road:

You can get to Varanasi by bus or private car from nearby cities like Allahabad, Bodh Gaya, or Khajuraho. Just know that roads in Uttar Pradesh aren’t known for their serenity. Expect honking, potholes, and creative traffic interpretation. If your driver seems to be communicating entirely through horn language—he is.

Um . . . I wouldn't eat anything caught in the Ganges at Varanasi

Sleeping in Varanasi for the Cheapskate Family

We followed our usual approach when we arrived in Varanasi. The wife and daughter took the bags and settled into a small restaurant while I went out looking at places to stay. We knew we wanted to stay inside the old city, in fairly close walking distance to the ghats and river. There was no shortage of hotels in the area . . . and I think I visited most of them.

It was hot and dirty in Varanasi, so I checked each room before even thinking about booking it. I checked to make sure the bathrooms look reasonable clear, and I actually pealed the sheets off the bed and look for signs of bedbugs.

Eventually I found a place that looked good. I inquired about the price. Asked for a discount. Got shot down. Shrugged and walked back out into the street. Let the manager catch me and offer me a better price. And booked.

Easy.

You are pretty much always better off doing the same as opposed to just staying in a place some random blogger recommends.

A final tip: if you think you may want to open your window for any reason . . . even just for a tiny little bit of time . . . make sure there are bars on the windows. The monkeys of Varanasi are smart, fast, and organized. And they are waiting in ambush for any unprotected window to be opened even for just a split second, so they can rush in, trash the place, and steal whatever catches their fancy. Seriously, it doesn't matter if you don't see them. They are there. They are waiting. And they are fast.

Getting Around

For the most part, just walk. The streets of the old city are winding and narrow, and cars are not allowed in (motorbikes are, and they are all out to run you down. Beware).

Really, the only transportation you need in Varanasi other than your own feet, is a boat. But that is better put under the “What To Do” section.

What To Do

Standing on the ghats by the river

 Early Morning Boat Ride on the Ganges

You haven’t really seen Varanasi until you’ve floated through it.

Before the sun rises, before the ghats wake up fully, before the shouting and the selfie sticks and the sadhus on Bluetooth… there’s stillness. That’s when you go.

Devotion by the riverside

Climb into one of the weathered wooden boats bobbing just off Dashashwamedh Ghat, wave off the guys trying to sell you candles and plastic flowers, and push off into the Ganges. The oar cuts softly through the water. The sky turns from slate to gold. And the city slowly reveals itself—less like it’s waking up and more like it’s been watching you the whole time.

To your left and right, the ghats stretch on: temples, palaces, stairs that lead both into the river and into history. You’ll see morning bathers stepping into the sacred water, steam rising from early tea pots, and the gentle chaos of rituals beginning. Cremation fires from the night before may still be smoldering.

And yet… it’s peaceful. Unbelievably peaceful.

A boat on the Ganges

You’re floating in a place where time collapses—where kings, mystics, and travelers have watched this same sun rise from this same river for thousands of years. And in that moment, before the city fully roars to life, you can almost feel the pulse of something older than memory.

Bring a camera. Don’t forget your awe.

And try—just for a moment—not to think about what’s actually in the water.

You can hire a boat to take you out by going directly to the ghats (Dashashwamedh Ghat or Assi Ghat are good bets) and waiting for a someone with a boat to approach you. If that seems overwhelming, your hotel can arrange a ride for you.

If you are in a large group you may need to hire a motorboat, but the smaller row boats are generally a better way to bask in the atmosphere of dawn on the sacred river.

Prayers at the riverside

Wander

Like many of my favorite places, Varanasi is not about a set of sights. It is about wandering through the city. The city itself is the attraction.

Lighting the charcoal to brew morning tea

Wander the little alleyways of the old streets, dodging kids playing cricket, cows, and the inevitable piles of dung that trail behind those cows.

Funeral processions may pass you by. I am not above taking pictures of anything that happens out in the open, but I try to be respectful. Don’t jam your camera in the face of mourners. Don’t interrupt them. Be an unobtrusive recorder of life . . . and death.

Visit the Ghats

Ghats are the concrete steps that descend from the street to the river. Walk the ghats. Sit down and let the world go by. Varanasi is the undisputed people-watching champion of the world. Nowhere else even comes close in my reckoning.  And the ghats are some of the best places for just taking in the mass of humanity around you.

Ceremony at the ghat

In the evening, you can attend an aarti, the Hindu ceremony of light, offered to a deity using flames, incense, chanting, and music. In Varanasi, the most famous aarti takes place each evening at Dashashwamedh Ghat, where priests perform a choreographed ritual on raised platforms, waving flaming lamps in arcs over the Ganges while conch shells sound and bells ring. It’s part prayer, part performance—and unmistakably Varanasi. Honestly, they got a bit long for us, but you can just stay for part if you also lack the devotion and attention span of a regular adult.

Note that some ghats are used for cremations, especially Manikarnika Ghat. Varanasi is deeply linked to funereal rites, and being cremated in Varanasi is especially auspicious for the next life. Don’t head down to the ghats if you don’t want to be confronted with death. And if you do find yourself there, once again, be respectful with your behavior and your photography.

Worshiping in the water

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There are other things to do in Varanasi. There are temples aplenty. Sarnath, where the Buddha gave his first sermon is nearby. You can go shopping for silk. You can catch a live sitar performance.

Those are all great things to do. But a morning float, and a wander that takes in the ghats and the alleyways are the only “musts” and, especially if you do photography, you could spend a lifetime doing just that in in Varanasi. Because travel to the world’s oldest city means you can just take in the archetype of chaotic beauty: Varanasi