Your chauffeur meets you at Delhi (DEL) and transfers you to your hotel to settle in and shake off the flight.

As the heat softens, you head into Old Delhi for a cycle-rickshaw ride through the spice-scented lanes of Chandni Chowk, past the great Jama Masjid and the ramparts of the Red Fort, a gentle, sensory first taste of India.

A full day traces Delhi's layered history: Humayun's Tomb, the garden-tomb that rehearsed the Taj Mahal's design; the towering 12th-century Qutub Minar; and the ceremonial sweep of India Gate and New Delhi's colonial avenues.

In the evening you attend a live Indian classical music recital, sitar, tabla and raga, an intimate cultural counterpoint to the day's monuments.

You board a superfast train from Delhi to Agra, gliding across the plains in around ninety minutes with breakfast served at your seat.

With your guide you tour the Taj Mahal, unpacking Shah Jahan's grief-struck love story and its flawless Mughal symmetry, then the red-sandstone Agra Fort, where the emperor spent his final years gazing at the Taj across the Yamuna.

You overnight in Agra, with an optional floodlit-Taj dinner view.

You drive to Jaipur, breaking the journey at Abhaneri to see Chand Baori, one of India's deepest and most geometrically dazzling stepwells, 3,500 steps plunging thirteen storeys into the earth.

Reaching the Pink City by late afternoon, you dive into the bazaars, block-print textiles, blue pottery, lac bangles and gemstones around Johari and Bapu Bazaar.

The morning belongs to the honey-coloured Amber Fort above Maota Lake, with its Sheesh Mahal mirror hall and sweeping ramparts (jeep ascent included), plus the City Palace and the Hawa Mahal facade in the old city.

As the sun sets you dine beside the Jal Mahal, the 'Water Palace' seemingly floating on Man Sagar Lake, a romantic close to the Pink City.

A short morning flight carries you south to Udaipur, Rajasthan's lake city cradled by the Aravalli hills.

As the light turns gold you take a private boat across Lake Pichola, gliding past the City Palace waterfront, Jag Mandir island and the shimmering Lake Palace, the definitive Udaipur sunset.

You tour the vast City Palace complex, a warren of courtyards, mirror-work rooms, coloured-glass windows and terraces with commanding lake views, still part-home to Udaipur's royal family.

By afternoon a private launch delivers you to the Taj Lake Palace (Jag Niwas), the 18th-century marble palace that appears to float on the water, for a night of pure old-world romance.

The morning takes in the ornate 17th-century Jagdish Temple and Saheliyon-ki-Bari, the 'garden of the maidens' with its fountains, lotus pool and marble elephants.

In the afternoon you join a Rajput family in their home for a hands-on cooking class, learning to make dal-baati-churma and regional curries before sitting down to eat what you've cooked, the trip's most personal experience.

Your final morning is unhurried, a lakeside breakfast, a last stroll along the ghats, or a spa hour before checkout.

In the afternoon your chauffeur transfers you to Udaipur airport for the flight to Delhi and your onward international connection.