Best of South India & Cruising on Ganges

On arrival at the airport meet your Tour Executive who will assist you to transfer to the hotel for two nights stay in Cochin.

• Breakfast
• Dinner

Visit Harbour terminus where the Chinese fishing nets present a wonderful sight; Mattancherry Dutch Palace; The Jewish Synagogue and St. Francis Church (built-in 1510 and where Vasco Da Gama was originally buried). Evening witness Kathakali Dance Show at the local theatre you will be collected for a Kathakali Dance Show.

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• Dinner

After breakfast travel to Thekkady, well known for the spice plantation and wildlife reserve. Stay two nights.

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• Dinner

Visit the spice plantation growing cardamom, pepper, coffee, and tea. Walk amidst the palette displaying variant shades of green, neatly arranged into terraced farms. On your way back we stop at the local market to purchase some fresh spices as souvenirs. Stay two nights at Thekkady.

• Breakfast
• Dinner

Travel to Munnar, famous for its scenic beauty, marvellous waterfalls and high mountains. The remainder of the day is free to explore this beautiful town. Stay two nights.

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Well known hill station and former resort for the British Raj elite, it’s surrounded by rolling hills dotted with tea plantations established in the late 19th century. Explore a town that is difficult to describe, and witness tea gardens spread like a green carpet over hundreds of kilometres.

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• Dinner

Travel to Madurai, day free to relax or explore the town, famous for its ancient culture and silk weaving. Evening enjoy a walk through the local bazaar. Stay two nights.

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• Dinner

Start your day with a visit to the largest flower market and later the magnificent Meenakshi Temple showcasing a unique Dravidian style of architecture. Conclude your day with a visit to the textile bazaar and get amazed by the Madurai Silk made famous for its unique style and pattern by the silk weavers, who settled around 400 years ago.

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Travel to Thanjavur, also known as the “Rice Bowl” of the south, famous for the ancient handicraft making of bronze icons. Visit intricately carved temples dating back to the 10th century and evening free to explore. Stay overnight.

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Drive to Pondicherry and enjoy a sightseeing tour of the city, a French colonial settlement in India until 1954 but its French legacy is preserved in its French Quarter, with tree-lined streets, mustard-coloured colonial villas and chic boutiques. Stay overnight.

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Travel to Chennai, Enroute visit Mahabalipuram, a town on a strip of land between the Bay of Bengal and the Great Salt Lake, known for its temples and monuments built by the Pallava dynasty in the 7th and 8th centuries. Stay two nights.

• Breakfast
• Dinner

Visit Kalakshetra; a school that teaches local art, music, weaving and design, St. Mary’s Church, Sri Parthasarathy Temple and San Thomas Cathedral Basilica, which was rebuilt in 1606. Evening free to explore the bazaar.

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• Dinner

After breakfast transfer to board flight to Kolkata. Evening free to explore this historical city and its culture. Stay overnight.

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After a leisurely breakfast, the morning is free until midday later checkout in time to be transferred to the railway station to board the express train to Farakka followed by transfer to the ship. Stay seven nights on board.

• Breakfast
• Dinner

This morning cruise along a straight canal section to Jangipur, here we enjoy a full-day tour of Gaur. This quiet, deserted place was once one of India’s great cities, first under the Hindus in the 12th century, then as the Muslim capital of Eastern India from the 14-16th century.

• Breakfast
• Lunch
• Dinner

This morning moor at the delightful sleepy village of Baranagar with three gorgeous miniature terracotta temples to which you walk through the fields. After lunch continues to Murshidabad where the Nawab’s great Hazarduari. Palace built-in 1837 dominates the waterfront and later great Katra Mosque and Nashipara Palace before driving out to see the Katgola Palace.

• Breakfast
• Lunch
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Sail downstream a short distance then walk to the silk weaving village and Khushbagh, a peaceful Mughul-style garden enclosing the tombs of Siraj- Ud-Daulah, the last independent Nawab of Bengal and his family. Continue downstream past the old British cantonment of Berhampur to the battlefield of Plassey. You can walk through the fields to the commemorative obelisk and narrow bustling bazaars.

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• Lunch
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Visit the brassworking village of Matiari where you can see the whole primitive process of beating out brass water pots and other vessels. Continue through the countryside to Mayapur to visit the vast new ISKCON temple which dominates the skyline.

• Breakfast
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Continue down to the country town of Kalna. Take rickshaws to explore the culture and see the unique Shiva temple with concentric rings made up of 108 shrinelets and later visit the imposing Imambara at Hooghly for an opportunity to step back in time and relive a slice of Islamic history in Bengal.

• Breakfast
• Lunch
• Dinner

Sail downstream – past fine waterfront buildings and the old Dutch settlement at Chinsura – to land at Chandernagore, a French possession until 1950. Visit the 18thcentury church and Dupleix’s House, the erstwhile Governor-General of French India, before continuing down to Barrackpore.

• Breakfast
• Lunch
• Dinner

Early this morning, cruise under the Howrah Bridge to central Kolkata and disembark after breakfast. Tour finish with direct transfer to the airport by afternoon.

• Breakfast