Note: The currency used in this post is Indian Rupees, which was around 83 INR for 1 US Dollar as that time.

I and my friend Badri visited the Taj Mahal this month. Taj Mahal is one of the main tourist destinations in India and does not need an introduction, I guess. It is in Agra, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, 188 km from Delhi by train. So, I am writing a post documenting useful information for people who are planning to visit Taj Mahal. Feel free to ask me questions about visiting the Taj Mahal.

Our retiring room at the Old Delhi Railway Station.

We had booked a train from Delhi to Agra. The name of the train was Taj Express, and its scheduled departure time from Hazrat Nizamuddin station in Delhi is 07:08 hours in the morning, and its arrival time at Agra Cantt station is 09:45. So, we booked a retiring room at the Old Delhi railway station for the previous night. This retiring room was hard to find. We woke up at 05:00 in the morning and took the metro to Hazrat Nizamuddin station. We barely reached the station in time, but anyway, the train was not yet at the station; it was late.

We reached Agra at 10:30 and checked into our retiring room, took rest and went out for Taj Mahal at 13:00 in the afternoon. Taj Mahal’s outer gate is 5 km away from the Agra Cantt station. As we were going out of the railway station, we were chased by an autorickshaw driver who offered to go to Taj Mahal for 150 INR for both of us. I asked him to bring it down to 60 INR, and after some back and forth, he agreed to drop us off at Taj Mahal for 80 INR. But I said we won’t pay anything above 60 INR. He agreed with that amount but said that he would need to fill up with more passengers. When we saw that he wasn’t making any effort in bringing more passengers, we walked away.

As soon as we got out of the railway station complex, an autorickshaw driver came to us and offered to drop us off at Taj Mahal for 20 INR if we are sharing with other passengers and 100 INR if we reserve the auto for us. We agreed to go with 20 INR per person, but he started the autorickshaw as soon as we hopped in. I thought that the third person in the auto was another passenger sharing a ride with us, but later we got to know he was with the driver. Upon reaching the outer gate of Taj Mahal, I gave him 40 INR (for both of us), and he asked to instead give 100 INR as he said we reserved the auto, even though I clearly stated before taking the auto that we wanted to share the auto, not reserve it. I think this was a scam. We walked away, and he didn’t insist further.

Taj Mahal entrance was like 500 m from the outer gate. We went there and bought offline tickets just outside the West gate. For Indians, the ticket for going inside the Taj Mahal complex is 50 INR, and a visit to the mausoleum costs 200 INR extra.

Security outside the Taj Mahal complex.

This red colored building is entrance to where you can see the Taj Mahal.

Taj Mahal.

Shoe covers for going inside the mausoleum.

Taj Mahal from side angle.

We came out of the Taj Mahal complex at 18:00 and stopped for some tea and snacks. I also bought a fridge magnet for 30 INR. Then we walked back towards Agra Cantt station, as we had a train for Jaipur at midnight. We were hoping to find a restaurant along the way, but we didn’t find any that we found interesting, so we just ate at the railway station. During the return trip, we noticed there was a bus stand near the station, which we didn’t know about. It turns out you can catch a bus to Taj Mahal from there. You can click here to check out the location of that bus stand on OpenStreetMap.

Expenses

These were our expenses per person

Retiring room at Delhi Railway Station for 12 hours ₹131

Train ticket from Delhi to Agra (Taj Express) ₹110

Retiring room at Agra Cantt station for 12 hours ₹450

Auto-rickshaw to Taj Mahal ₹20

Taj Mahal ticket (including going inside the mausoleum): ₹250

Food ₹350

Important information for visitors

  • Taj Mahal is closed on Friday.

  • There are plenty of free-of-cost drinking water taps inside the Taj Mahal complex.

  • Ticket price for Indians is ₹50, for foreigners and NRIs it is ₹1100, and for people from SAARC/BIMSTEC is ₹540. ₹200 extra for the mausoleum for everyone.

  • A visit inside the mausoleum requires covering your shoes or removing them. Shoe covers costs ₹10 per person inside the complex, but are probably involved free of charge in foreigner tickets. We could not find a place to keep our shoes, but some people managed to enter barefoot, indicating there must be some place to keep your shoes.

  • Mobile phones and cameras are allowed inside the Taj Mahal, but not eatables.

  • We went there on March 10th, and the weather was pleasant. So, we recommend going around that time.

  • Regarding the timings, I found this written near the ticket counter: “Taj Mahal opens 30 minutes before sunrise and closes 30 minutes before sunset during normal operating days,” so the timings are vague. But we came out of the complex at 18:00 hours. I would interpret that to mean the Taj Mahal is open from 07:00 to 18:00, and the ticket counter closes at around 17:00. During the winter, the timings might differ.

  • The cheapest way to reach Taj Mahal is by bus, and the bus stop is here

Bye for now. See you in the next post :)