By road
~450-460 km from Delhi
North India · Punjab
Amritsar, Punjab
The Golden Temple at dusk · ~450-460 km from Delhi
Getting there
By rail
Amritsar Junction (ASR)
By air
Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport, ~11-16 km
Best time to visit
October to March — langar steam in cold air is the memory
Don't miss
Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple)
Jallianwala Bagh
Durgiana Temple
Gobindgarh Fort
Things to do
Langar seva
Wagah border ceremony
Heritage street walk
Partition Museum
Where to eat
Sources: open-meteo, wikimedia, Photo: Traveltoindia23 · CC BY-SA 4.0
What to pack
Head covering (provided too), modest wear, appetite for kulchas
A quieter corner
The temple at 4am for Palki Sahib, gold on black water
Before you go
Sikhism's holiest shrine, open around the clock, serving one of the world's largest free kitchens; heads covered, shoes and socks off, no alcohol or tobacco on the premises. Gurpurabs and Baisakhi (April) are the peaks.
Questions travellers ask
When should I visit Amritsar?
October to March. The langar steam in cold air is the thing people remember.
What should I know before entering the Golden Temple?
Heads covered — coverings are provided — shoes and socks off, and no alcohol or tobacco on the premises. It is open around the clock.
When is the quietest time at the temple?
Four in the morning, for Palki Sahib. Gold on black water.
What else should I see?
Jallianwala Bagh, the Partition Museum, Gobindgarh Fort, and the Wagah border ceremony in the evening.
Where should I eat?
Kesar da Dhaba and Bharawan da Dhaba are the institutions. Go to Kulcha Land for Amritsari kulcha and Giani for lassi.
About Amritsar
- Inland
Where it is
Amritsar is a city in the Majha region of Punjab, in north-western India, on the fertile plain between the Beas and Ravi rivers, close to the Attari-Wagah border with Pakistan.
History
Amritsar grew around the sacred pool dug under the fourth Sikh Guru, Guru Ram Das, in the 16th century, and his successor Guru Arjan built the Harmandir Sahib at its centre. Maharaja Ranjit Singh covered the shrine's upper storeys in gilded copper in the early 19th century, and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919 made the city a landmark of India's freedom struggle.
People
Amritsar's people speak Punjabi, and the city is the spiritual centre of the Sikh faith, whose tradition of seva, voluntary service, runs the Golden Temple's kitchen. Punjabi food and festivals such as Baisakhi and the Gurpurabs mark the city's year.
Known for
- The Golden Temple (Harmandir Sahib)
- The langar, the temple's community kitchen
- Jallianwala Bagh
- The Attari-Wagah border ceremony
- Amritsari kulcha and lassi
Did you know?
The langar at the Golden Temple serves more than 100,000 free meals every day to people of every faith, cooked and served largely by volunteers.
Shrines and sites
- Sri Harmandir Sahib
- Akal Takht
- Jallianwala Bagh
- Durgiana Temple
Traditions
- Sikh
- Hindu
We haven't written a guide for this place yet — you can still plan a trip here.