Best Things To Do In Varanasi in 2026

The sacred city on the Ganges is older than legend. This guide takes you past the crowded ghats and into the winding lanes, forgotten kunds, weaving villages and quiet temples that make Varanasi the most layered destination in India.

I have been to Varanasi more than once, and each time the city refuses to be fully known. It does not reveal itself to those who arrive with a checklist. It opens slowly, grudgingly, to those willing to sit at the edge of a lesser ghat at five in the morning, or follow a narrow lane until it suddenly opens into a courtyard filled with silk looms and the rhythmic clack of shuttles.

Varanasi is three cities in one. There is Kashi, the cosmic city mentioned in the Rigveda, older than recorded history. There is Banaras, the mercantile and artistic powerhouse that gave the world Banarasi saris, Hindustani classical music, and Bhojpuri culture. And there is Varanasi, the modern administrative city that ties the two together with traffic jams, cycle rickshaws and the smell of fresh jalebis on Godowlia crossing.

This guide tries to do justice to all three. It does not ignore the Ganga Aarti or the sunrise boat ride because those experiences genuinely deserve their reputations. But it goes further, into the places that do not appear on most travel itineraries and that most travel articles never mention.

The Ganga Aarti at Dashashwamedh Ghat

Every evening after sunset, seven priests in matching silk robes take their places on the stone platform of Dashashwamedh Ghat and begin one of the most choreographed rituals in the Hindu world. Each priest holds a tiered brass lamp with burning wicks, and for forty five minutes they move in slow synchronized arcs while conch shells sound, temple bells ring, and smoke from camphor and sandalwood incense drifts across the river.

The crowd assembles early. By 6 pm the stone steps are packed, and the wooden boats anchored offshore fill with people who prefer a view from the water. If you want a boat position, negotiate with a boatman by 5 pm at the latest. If you arrive on foot, the raised platforms on either side of the main steps offer a clear sightline.

What most travel articles do not tell you is that the Aarti is performed every morning as well, at around 5.30 am, in a quieter, more intimate version. The crowd at dawn is a fraction of the evening gathering, and the atmosphere is more contemplative than festive.

A Sunrise Boat Ride on the Ganges

The most honest advice I can give any first time visitor to Varanasi is simple: set your alarm for 4.45 am. This is non-negotiable. The city at dawn is a fundamentally different experience from the city in daylight, and the boat ride that takes you from Assi Ghat to Manikarnika and back is best done in that transitional hour when the river is pewter-coloured and the sky begins to turn pink above the eastern bank.

From the water, the ghats look like a compressed history of Indian architecture. Each step belongs to a different era, a different royal family, a different religious tradition. The Darbhanga Ghat, built in the early 1900s by the royal family of Bihar, is fronted by a sandstone palace with Greek pillars that now serves as the Brajrama Palace Hotel. The Kedar Ghat, painted in distinctive red and white stripes, marks one of the twelve Jyotirlingas of Shiva. The Chet Singh Ghat carries the memory of a 1781 confrontation between the local raja and Warren Hastings. The Harishchandra Ghat burns quietly day and night, as it has for centuries.

A standard rowboat from Assi Ghat to Manikarnika and back takes about 90 minutes. Negotiate the price before boarding. In 2026, expect to pay between 400 and 600 rupees for a private rowboat. Motorboats are available and faster but remove the silence that makes the experience valuable.

Manikarnika Ghat: The Burning Ghat

Manikarnika is among the oldest cremation grounds in the world. It burns continuously, day and night, every single day of the year. The Dom community that tends the fires has held this responsibility for generations. Hindus believe that dying in Kashi guarantees liberation from the cycle of rebirth, and so the dying are carried here from across India to take their last breaths in this city.

There is no polite way to describe what you will see at Manikarnika. You will see bodies wrapped in orange or white cloth being carried down the lanes on bamboo stretchers by men chanting rhythmically. You will see pyres at various stages of burning. You will see men who have recently lost family members sitting quietly nearby, their heads shaved in mourning. And you will feel, very clearly, that this is a place that belongs to the dead and to those who are grieving, not to observers.

Visiting Manikarnika is permissible if approached with complete silence and without photographs. No camera or mobile phone should be raised here. Any local who offers to take you to a rooftop for a better view and then asks for money for firewood or donations is running a well known scam. Decline politely and walk away.

Harishchandra Ghat, further south, is the city's other cremation ghat and significantly quieter. It offers a more contemplative experience for those who want to understand this aspect of Varanasi without the commercial pressure that surrounds Manikarnika.

Kashi Vishwanath Temple and the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor

The Kashi Vishwanath Temple is one of the twelve Jyotirlingas, making it among the most sacred Shiva temples on earth. The current structure was rebuilt in 1780 by Maratha queen Ahilyabai Holkar after it was demolished during the Mughal period. In 2021, the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor was completed, opening a direct promenade between the temple and the Ganges that had not existed for centuries.

The corridor changes the entire experience of visiting the temple. You can now walk from Lalita Ghat directly to the sanctum through a wide, colonnaded passage lined in Chunar sandstone and Rajasthani marble, viewing the river from multiple vantage points along the way. The temple complex is far larger than most visitors expect, incorporating dozens of smaller shrines and a heritage gallery that explains the history of the site through artifacts and inscriptions.

The 84 Ghats: Walking the Waterfront You Have Not Seen

Most visitors see four or five ghats and believe they have seen Varanasi. The truth is that the 84 ghats stretch for approximately 6.5 kilometres from Assi Ghat in the south to Rajghat in the north, and each one carries a distinct story, a distinct mood, and a distinct cast of daily characters.

Assi Ghat

The southernmost of the major ghats takes its name from the Assi river, a small stream that once met the Ganges here. Assi is Varanasi's most bohemian ghat, lined with coffee shops, yoga studios, and small art galleries catering to long-term foreign visitors and BHU students. The morning aarti here is led by a single priest at the Shivalinga under the peepal tree and has a warmth and intimacy that the larger ceremony at Dashashwamedh cannot replicate.

Kedar Ghat

Painted in bold red and white horizontal stripes, Kedar Ghat is associated with the Kedarnath Shiva tradition and has a particularly strong following among pilgrims from Bengal and South India. The Kedareshwar Temple at the top of the steps is one of the most beautifully maintained temples on the waterfront.

Darbhanga Ghat

This ghat is fronted by a palace built entirely of sandstone for the royal family of Darbhanga in Bihar in the early twentieth century. Greek pillars stand beside Mughal arches in a architectural conversation that feels both incongruous and completely of its time. The Taj Group took over the palace as the Brajrama Palace Hotel in 1994, and the terrace is one of the finest places in Varanasi to watch the sun move across the opposite bank.

Rajghat

At the northern tip of the waterfront, where the railway bridge crosses the river, Rajghat is where archaeologists have found evidence of continuous habitation stretching back to 800 BCE. Almost no tourists come here. The ghat is quiet, the view is expansive, and the sense of being on the edge of the known Varanasi is palpable. A small excavation site nearby has yielded pottery, figurines and coins that have helped establish the city's antiquity. It is worth the auto ride to reach it.

Lolark Kund: The Trembling Sun

This is one of the least visited and most historically remarkable sites in all of Varanasi. Lolark Kund is a rectangular stepped tank sunk 23 metres into the earth, its turquoise water perfectly still and surrounded on all sides by ancient stone steps that descend steeply from street level. The word Lolark means trembling sun, and the name comes from the wavering image of Surya, the sun god, reflected in the water below.

The kund is mentioned in the Mahabharata and is listed as one of the twelve solar deities of Kashi. Historians trace its patronage to the Gahadavala kings of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Yet on most days, you will find it almost empty, perhaps a handful of devotees descending the steps to take a ritual bath.

Each year in September, during the festival of Lolark Shashti, thousands of women make a pilgrimage to the kund to pray to the sun god for the blessing of a child. It is one of the most significant yet least photographed festivals in the city. If your visit falls in late August or early September, plan your timing around it.

The Kathwala Temple at Lalita Ghat

If you walk north from Dashashwamedh Ghat along the waterfront and reach Lalita Ghat, you will find a small wooden temple that looks as if it belongs somewhere in the hills of Nepal. This is because it does, in a sense. The Kathwala Temple was built by the King of Nepal in the Nepali architectural style, constructed entirely of carved wood rather than the stone that characterises almost every other structure on the waterfront.

The intricate woodwork covers every surface: doorframes, pillars, eaves and cornices carry figures, foliage and geometric patterns that bear no resemblance to the stone carving traditions of Varanasi. The temple is dedicated to Pashupati Nath, the same deity worshipped at the great Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu. Inside, the atmosphere is entirely different from the bustle outside. Very few visitors enter.

The Kathwala Temple is sometimes described as the Mini Khajuraho of Varanasi, a comparison that overstates its erotic iconography but accurately captures its architectural distinctiveness. It deserves far more attention than it receives.

Sarnath: Where the Buddha Spoke for the First Time

Approximately ten kilometres north-east of Varanasi, the small town of Sarnath carries a weight of significance entirely disproportionate to its size. This is where Gautama Buddha, having attained enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, arrived to give his first sermon to five ascetic companions. That first sermon, delivered in approximately 528 BCE in the deer park at Sarnath, set in motion the entire Buddhist tradition. The site is considered one of the four holiest places in Buddhism.

The Dhamek Stupa, a solid cylindrical tower 43.6 metres tall, marks the precise spot of the sermon. It was built during the Gupta period between the fourth and sixth centuries CE, over an earlier Ashokan structure, and its carved stone base carries some of the finest geometric and floral relief work from the Gupta era. The Archaeological Museum at Sarnath houses the original Lion Capital of Ashoka, the national symbol of India, along with a collection of Buddhist sculpture that ranks among the finest in the country.

What surprises most visitors is the sheer international presence of Buddhism at Sarnath today. Surrounding the ancient ruins are monasteries and temples built by Buddhist communities from Tibet, Thailand, Japan, China, Sri Lanka and Korea, each one a distinct architectural statement from its home tradition. The Tibetan monastery, with its brightly painted facade and spinning prayer wheels, feels particularly transportive.

Ramnagar Fort: The Living Palace Across the River

Most visitors to Varanasi never cross to the eastern bank of the Ganges. This is where Ramnagar Fort stands, and it is one of the most underrated experiences the city offers.

Built in 1750 by Maharaja Balwant Singh from Chunar sandstone, the fort is not merely a historical monument. It is a living royal residence. The Kashi Naresh, the hereditary king of Banaras, still lives here. His title was abolished by the Indian government in 1971 along with all privy purses, but his family's cultural and religious authority in Varanasi remains immense. He is still addressed as Maharaja and presides over the great Ramlila festival held in the grounds each year during Dussehra, a dramatic month-long performance of the Ramcharitmanas that Mark Twain famously called the world's largest theatrical event.

The Saraswati Bhawan Museum inside the fort holds a remarkable collection: vintage cars from the early twentieth century, silver and gold palanquins, medieval costumes and weaponry, and a rare astronomical clock that simultaneously displays the time, day, month, year and multiple astronomical data points. The carved riverfront balconies, built to catch the monsoon breeze and provide a royal view of the ghats opposite, are among the finest examples of Mughal-Rajput fusion architecture in the region.

Chunar Fort: A Day Trip Through 2000 Years of History

Forty kilometres south-west of Varanasi, perched 280 feet above the Ganges on a detached rock of the Vindhya range, Chunar Fort is among the most historically dense sites in North India. Its documented history runs from 56 BCE through the Mughal period under Sher Shah Suri, Humayun and Akbar, through Maratha control in the late eighteenth century, and finally through British occupation until 1947.

Inside the fort you will find the samadhi of the poet-saint Bhartihari, who according to legend renounced his kingdom here. You will find the bungalow that Warren Hastings, Governor-General of British India, used during his tenure. You will find the Sonwa Mandap, a pavilion associated with a legendary princess. You will find the Well of Love, with dungeons carved into the rock beneath it. And you will find a stone umbrella commemorating a local king's military victory, still standing after centuries of monsoons.

Chunar sandstone, the distinctive creamy-coloured stone that gives Ramnagar Fort and dozens of other historical buildings their characteristic appearance, has been quarried here for centuries. The stone used to build the ghats of Varanasi itself came from Chunar.

Very few day-trippers come this far. Those who do find a fort that rewards slow exploration and careful attention.

Peeli Kothi and the Banarasi Silk Weaving Districts

The Banarasi sari is a GI-tagged textile, meaning it is legally protected as a geographical indication of Varanasi. It is woven with gold and silver zari brocade on a fine silk ground and can take anywhere from fifteen days to six months to complete, depending on the complexity of the design. A genuine handwoven Banarasi sari represents one of the most technically demanding textile traditions in the world.

The weaving community is concentrated in several districts of the old city, particularly in Madanpura, Lallapura and Peeli Kothi. The majority of weavers belong to the Muslim Ansari community, whose families have practised this craft for generations, and who have maintained the Kinkhab and Tanchoi brocade traditions that give Banarasi textiles their distinctive character.

Peeli Kothi, a neighbourhood named for a yellow colonial-era building, is the most accessible of the weaving areas for visitors. The textile cooperatives and heritage organisations here sometimes arrange workshop visits where you can sit beside a working handloom and understand why each sari takes so long to produce. The rhythmic sound of the loom inside a narrow room hung with threads of silk and gold is one of the most evocative craft experiences in India.

The village of Sarai Mohana, a short drive from the city, is where the finest zari work is still done entirely by hand. A visit there feels like stepping into a parallel economy that operates entirely outside the tourist circuit.

Sankat Mochan Hanuman Temple

Tucked into gardens away from the waterfront frenzy, the Sankat Mochan Hanuman Temple is one of Varanasi's most beloved religious sites, though it rarely appears on tourist itineraries. Founded by the poet-saint Tulsidas in the sixteenth century, it carries the particular warmth of a temple that belongs to its neighbourhood rather than to any pilgrimage industry.

On Tuesdays and Saturdays, the days sacred to Hanuman in the Hindu calendar, the temple fills with devotees bringing offerings of sweets and garlands. The daily Hanuman Chalisa recitation here draws a congregation that has gathered for this purpose every day without interruption for centuries. The temple is also famous for its community music tradition: Sankat Mochan hosts the Sankat Mochan Sangeet Samaroh, a classical music festival held each April that brings together the country's finest performers.

Benares Hindu University and Its Forgotten Art Gallery

Founded in 1916 by Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, Banaras Hindu University is one of Asia's largest residential universities, spread across a campus so vast that it has its own internal transport system. The Vishwanath Temple on campus, modelled on the original Kashi Vishwanath and open to all faiths, is worth visiting for its architecture alone.

What very few visitors discover is the Bharat Kala Bhavan museum on campus. This is one of the finest museum collections in India outside of the national museums in Delhi and Mumbai. The collection includes miniature paintings from the Mughal and Rajput courts, sculpture from the Gupta period, ancient manuscripts, coins, textiles, and a significant collection of Varanasi-specific artifacts including documentation of the city's vanished havelis and ghats. The museum is open to the public and the entry fee is nominal.

Lamhi: The Village of Premchand

About ten kilometres from the city centre, the village of Lamhi is where Munshi Premchand, one of the most important writers in the Hindi and Urdu literary traditions, was born in 1880. His house has been preserved as a small museum. Premchand wrote about poverty, caste discrimination, the condition of rural women and the impact of colonialism with a clarity that was unusual for his era, and his stories remain in school curricula across India.

The village itself, quiet and agricultural, offers a window into the Varanasi that exists behind the tourist circuit. Few travellers make the trip and those who do find a memorial that is genuinely moving in its simplicity.

The Street Food of Varanasi

Varanasi has one of the most specific and deeply rooted street food cultures in India. The most important thing to understand is that the food here is not merely snacks. It is an entire philosophy of what should be eaten, when, and in what combinations, refined over generations.

Kachori Sabzi

The Banarasi morning begins with kachori sabzi: a deep-fried, spiced lentil-stuffed bread served with a thin, tangy potato and tomato curry. This is not a snack. It is breakfast, and it is eaten sitting on the steps of small shops across the city, often alongside a clay cup of tea. The preparation at the best shops begins before 6 am.

Banarasi Thandai

Thandai is a milk-based drink blended with almonds, melon seeds, rose petals, fennel, cardamom, pepper and saffron. The Banarasi version is distinctively rich and cold, served in clay cups. During Holi, the drink is made in a version infused with bhang, a preparation of cannabis that is legal and traditional in this context.

Malaiyo

This is perhaps the most unusual and least known Varanasi specialty. Malaiyo is a winter delicacy, available only from November to February, made from churned milk foam left to set overnight in the cold air and then flavoured with saffron and cardamom. The result is a confection so light it barely exists, dissolving almost before it reaches the palate. It is served in small clay cups near Godowlia in the early morning hours and disappears as soon as the air warms up.

Banarasi Paan

No departure from Varanasi is complete without a Banarasi paan from Godowlia. The Banarasi meetha paan is a whole betel leaf filled with areca nut, gulkand rose preserve, dried coconut, candied fennel and various other ingredients, folded into a triangular package and placed whole into the mouth. The city's most celebrated paan shops have been at the same address for multiple generations.

Varanasi During Dev Diwali

If the Ganga Aarti is spectacular on a normal evening, Dev Diwali transforms the entire waterfront into something that resists description. Celebrated fifteen days after Diwali, on the full moon of the Hindu month of Kartik, Dev Diwali is the night when the gods are said to come down to bathe in the Ganges.

Every single ghat is lined with thousands of diyas, small oil lamps arranged in rows on every step. The reflection of the lights on the river doubles the visual field. Fireworks erupt from multiple points along the waterfront simultaneously. The crowd is immense but the mood is celebratory rather than chaotic. Boats cover the entire surface of the visible river.

Dev Diwali is not well known outside of India but it is, in my experience, one of the most extraordinary festival experiences on the subcontinent. Book accommodation months in advance if you plan to be in Varanasi for it.

How Many Days Do You Need in Varanasi

Two days is the minimum and it will give you the sunrise boat ride, the evening Aarti, Kashi Vishwanath Temple and Sarnath. Three days is better, adding a walk through the old city lanes, a visit to Ramnagar Fort and time to explore the weaving district. Four days allows you to include Chunar Fort, Lolark Kund, the BHU campus and enough unhurried time at the ghats to sit and observe rather than simply pass through.

Do not try to compress Varanasi. The city rewards patience more than any other destination I have visited in India. The moments that stay with you are rarely the ones on the itinerary.