Mangala Aarti to a Banarasi breakfast: the tourism department packages three guided Kashi heritage walks

Anyone who has arrived in Kashi with one free day knows the problem: the city is too layered to improvise. The Uttar Pradesh tourism department has now packaged that day into three guided heritage walks, each running about five hours, each with a fixed route, a guide and a meal built in. Divya Kashi is the pre-dawn one, at Rs 2,200 a person. It starts in the dark for the Mangala Aarti, takes in the Annapurna, Vishalakshi and Pashupatinath temples and Manikarnika Ghat, and finishes over a Banarasi breakfast. Assi Kashi, at Rs 2,499, also begins with the Mangala Aarti but then moves down to Assi Ghat by boat and e-bus for the sunrise aarti, Tulsi Ghat and Lolark Kund. The third, Purani Kashi, is for people who cannot face a 3 am alarm. It is an evening walk through the old lanes and temples, timed for the Ganga Aarti at Lalita Ghat, with Vishwanath darshan and a round of Banarasi street food before it ends. It is also priced at Rs 2,499. Bookings are through darshan.kashi.gov.in, and QR codes for the walks are being displayed at railway stations, the airport and the ghats — so a visitor can decide on arrival rather than months ahead.

Compiled by HelloBanaras from public sources: Amar Ujala — Varanasi