Varanasi Transportation

It is sometime difficult to find an honnest, trustful, and reliable rickshaw driver in India. I found one, very nice guy and decided to help him. I build this webpage (http://monu.lignes-cardinales.fr) to support him.
If you are in Varanasi, let him help you to avoid tourist traps.

The best way to see Varanasi ghats is a boatride starting from Ghat 1 to Ghat 100. One has to bargain for the price however. The best time is early morning (if you wish to see the ghats) or duskfall (if you wish to see the diyas lit along the ghats, a wonderful view)

It is easy to reach Varanasi by train and the best. You can take a train to Varanasi itself or to the junction Mughal Sarai. Mughal Sarai is India's largest train junction and is worth a see in itself. So if you fail to get a confirmed ticket in a train to Varanasi, just check out a train to Mughal Sarai. All trains passing through this station halt here, for 15 to 30 minutes. There are hundreds of trains from all part of India to Mughal Sarai every day. From Mughal Sarai station, just take an autorickshaw (a threewheeler mini carriage motorvan) to Varanasi. It will take just 30 minutes and you will also enjoy the ride. However, such a carriage is not for those travellers carrying huge luggage.

I took an auto rickshaw to Sarnath, located about 10km north of Varanasi where Buddha preached his message of the middle way to nirvana. I agreed a price of Rs150 with my driver before we set off which included the trip there, waiting time and the trip back. Considering I spent about 2 hours visiting and the journey there and back was another 45 minutes or so, this wasn't a bad price.

This is the main train station (Varanasi Junction) in Varanasi. I came here from Allahabad on train No.2562 which left Allahabad at 06:05 and arrived in Varanasi at 08:45. I reserved my onward train to Gaya (in Bihar) in order to visit Bodhgaya from a Foreign Tourist Bureau which is located near the front entrance on the left.

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I booked a boat trip at sunrise on the Ganges from my hotel for Rs150 which included transportation to/from the hotel (Surya), the boat trip itself and a guide who took us to a couple of temples such as the New Vishwanath Temple. We were first taken from our hotel through the maze of small streets that were deadly quiet at 6am to the ghats along the Ganges. Our driver told us that many people get up at 4.30am in order to bathe at daybreak and then go back home to do other things before having breakfast at 9am. We met up with our guide who took us down to out boat at the Kedar Ghat where our rower/guide met us. There were loads of other tourist around in similar boats taking pictures of men bathing. We made our way along the river as the sun was coming up and it was one of the most memorable and unique experiences on my India trip. We passed by different ghat with temples and palaces built on them. We finished at the burning Manikarnika Ghat which is where they cremate the dead in full public view. Our rower rowed us back to the Kedra Ghat and along the way back we saw Dhobi Wallahs (washermen) washing clothes in the river. The whole boat tour lasted about an hour or so and is a most do thing when you're here.

SpiceJet is one of the airlines serving Varanasi from Delhi. And SpiceJet is also on of the only indian low cost carriers that you can book only and pay with a non-indian credit card. We flew from Varanasi to Delhi for just Rs 0.99! Including Fees it was 1225.99.

Airport: Very small and very bad organized. You have to scan all your luggage before checking in, but the scanners are just somewhere in the middle of the room. Everything in that airport is very confusing....

It was a good and exciting idea to go to Varanasi from Delhi on road (train and taxi) stopping at Agra, Gwalior, Khajuraho and all at all the places of our interest but I was not willing to make the return trip to Delhi on road (or rail) as well. The conditions in the state of Uttar Pradesh can be very depressing after a time.
The good news is that you don't have to. Low-budget airlines (e.g.: Spicejet or Kingfisher) have flights from Varanasi to Delhi. If you make your reservation early and stick to the low-budget airlines (not Jet Airways or Indian Airlines) they are a real bargain. I paid less than 5.000.- Rs (for 2 persons incl. taxes!) for the one-way flight from Varanasi to Delhi. The more than 850km journey on road lasts only 90 or 100 minutes by air.
You're encouraged to make half of your trip (onward or outward) by flying, the other half on road (so you can stop at places of interest on the way).