Golden Temple (Harmandir Sahib)
- Entry
- Free
- Hours
- 24 hours
- Needs
- 3–4 hours
Turn for the guide’s part →
Licensed tour guides · Amritsar, Punjab
Hire a tour guide in Amritsar
A licensed guide in Amritsar is ₹1,500 for a full day of eight hours and ₹900 for a half day of four, in English — 10 languages are available, from ₹1,200 to ₹3,000 a day. This page carries all 4 of the city's main monuments with their entry fees and opening hours, a half-day and a full-day itinerary, and the licence basis you can check before you pay.
Full day · 8 hours
₹1,500
Half day · 4 hours
₹900
Languages
10 available
Monuments covered
4
Guiding in Amritsar
What a guide is actually for in Amritsar
Amritsar is three things within eight hundred metres of each other: the central shrine of the Sikh faith, the garden where a British general had unarmed people shot in 1919, and the museum of the 1947 Partition that cut the province in half. A guide here is doing history that is still within living memory, in a city where many families have a direct stake in it. The tone matters as much as the facts, which is not true of a Mughal tomb.
Orientation. The Golden Temple, Jallianwala Bagh and the Partition Museum are all inside the walled old city, within a few minutes’ walk of one another. The Wagah border is twenty-eight kilometres west, and the retreat ceremony there is a late-afternoon event that dictates the shape of any day that includes it.
What it costs
Guide rates in Amritsar
The fee below is for an English-speaking guide. The guide fee is set by language rather than by city, so the ten-language table underneath applies in Amritsar exactly as it does in Delhi. The vehicle half of a bundled day is the site's published 4 hr / 40 km and 8 hr / 80 km rental package — every total here is two published rates added together.
Half day
4 hours, 40 km included
₹900guide only
With a vehicle and driver
- Sedan (Swift Dzire / Honda Amaze) — 4 seats
- ₹2,400
- SUV (Ertiga / Innova) — 6–7 seats
- ₹3,100
- Innova Crysta — 7 seats
- ₹3,700
Guide ₹900 plus the published 4 hr / 40 km rental package. Monument entry tickets are paid at the gate and are not included.
Full day
8 hours, 80 km included
₹1,500guide only
With a vehicle and driver
- Sedan (Swift Dzire / Honda Amaze) — 4 seats
- ₹4,000
- SUV (Ertiga / Innova) — 6–7 seats
- ₹5,000
- Innova Crysta — 7 seats
- ₹6,000
Guide ₹1,500 plus the published 8 hr / 80 km rental package. Monument entry tickets are paid at the gate and are not included.
The half-day guide fee is 60% of the day rate, rounded up to the nearest ₹50. Monument entry is extra and listed by monument below.
All ten languages, in Amritsar
| Language | Half day | Full day | Who it serves | Page |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hindi हिन्दी | ₹750 | ₹1,200 | Domestic travellers from across India, and NRI families returning with relatives | Hindi in Amritsar |
| English English | ₹900 | ₹1,500 | United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Singapore, South Africa | English in Amritsar |
| Russian Русский | ₹1,500 | ₹2,500 | Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Armenia | Russian in Amritsar |
| French Français | ₹1,700 | ₹2,800 | France, Belgium, Switzerland, Québec, Morocco, Tunisia | French in Amritsar |
| German Deutsch | ₹1,700 | ₹2,800 | Germany, Austria, German-speaking Switzerland, South Tyrol | German in Amritsar |
| Italian Italiano | ₹1,700 | ₹2,800 | Italy, Italian-speaking Switzerland, San Marino | Italian in Amritsar |
| Portuguese Português | ₹1,700 | ₹2,800 | Brazil, Portugal, Angola, Mozambique | Portuguese in Amritsar |
| Spanish Español | ₹1,700 | ₹2,800 | Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Peru, United States (Hispanic travellers) | Spanish in Amritsar |
| Japanese 日本語 | ₹1,800 | ₹3,000 | Japan — independent travellers and organised group tours | Japanese in Amritsar |
| Mandarin 中文 | ₹1,800 | ₹3,000 | Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia | Mandarin in Amritsar |
What you will see
Amritsar's monuments, and what they cost at the gate
Every figure is taken from this site's own published guide to that monument, linked from each card and row. Plan around the closures: Partition Museum on Monday.
Amritsar monuments · 1 of 4
Golden Temple (Harmandir Sahib)
- Entry — Indian
- Free
- Entry — foreign
- Free
- Hours
- 24 hours
- Time needed
- 3–4 hours
Turn a card for the guide’s part
Golden Temple (Harmandir Sahib)
Heads must be covered and shoes left at the free deposit. The langar serves free meals around the clock. Photography is permitted on the parikrama but not inside the sanctum.
Timings, fees and full guideJallianwala Bagh
- Entry
- Free
- Hours
- 6:30 AM – 7:30 PM
- Needs
- 45 minutes
Turn for the guide’s part →
Jallianwala Bagh
A two-minute walk from the temple’s main entrance. The bullet marks and the well are preserved.
Partition Museum
- Hours
- 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
- Closed
- Monday
- Needs
- 1.5–2 hours
Turn for the guide’s part →
Partition Museum
In the old Town Hall. Oral histories, objects carried across the border, and the newspaper record of 1947.
Wagah border retreat ceremony
- Entry
- Free
- Hours
- Gates about 4:00 PM – Ceremony at sunset
- Needs
- 3.5–4 hours including the drive
Turn for the guide’s part →
Wagah border retreat ceremony
28 km west. Arrive early for a seat; no bags are allowed and the car parks well back from the gate.
| Monument | Entry — Indian | Entry — foreign | Hours | Closed | Time needed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Golden Temple (Harmandir Sahib) | Free | Free | 24 hours | Open all days | 3–4 hours |
| Jallianwala Bagh | Free | Free | 6:30 AM – 7:30 PM | Open all days | 45 minutes |
| Partition Museum | Not published | Not published | 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM | Monday | 1.5–2 hours |
| Wagah border retreat ceremony | Free | Free | Gates about 4:00 PM – Ceremony at sunset | Open all days | 3.5–4 hours including the drive |
3 of 4 carry a published entry fee. Where one is not shown it is because this site holds no verified figure for it, and a gap is better than an unchecked number.
Do you need a guide at each one? An honest answer per monument
The shape of the day
A half day and a full day in Amritsar
Both plans are written against this city's own monument opening hours, which is why the start times are what they are.
Half day · ₹900 guide
The Golden Temple and Jallianwala Bagh
Best taken at dawn, when the Guru Granth Sahib is carried into the sanctum and the parikrama is nearly empty.
- 05:30
Hotel pickup
The old-city hotels are minutes away. Your guide briefs you on head covering, shoes and the sanctum rules before you go in, not after.
- 06:00
Golden Temple at dawn
Two hours. The palki procession, the parikrama, the Akal Takht, the causeway to the sanctum, and the langar — which you are welcome to eat in, and should.
- 08:15
Jallianwala Bagh
Two minutes’ walk. The narrow entrance lane, the bullet marks, the well. Forty-five minutes, and a guide who gets the tone right is the difference between a memorial and a photo stop.
- 09:15
Drop
The 4 hr / 40 km package covers the morning.
Full day · ₹1,500 guide
Golden Temple, Partition Museum and the Wagah retreat
The Wagah ceremony is at sunset and fills up long before, so the day is built backwards from it.
- 05:30
Hotel pickup
Dawn at the temple is the best hour of the day and the reason for the early start.
- 06:00
Golden Temple
Two and a half hours, including the langar and the Central Sikh Museum on the upper floor of the clock-tower entrance.
- 08:45
Jallianwala Bagh
Forty-five minutes on foot from the temple.
- 09:45
Breakfast in the old city
Kulcha on Lawrence Road, or a dhaba near the temple. Paid separately.
- 11:00
Partition Museum
Two hours. The oral-history recordings are the part people remember; closed on Monday, so a Monday day swaps in the Gobindgarh Fort instead.
- 13:30
Lunch and a break at the hotel
The afternoon is dead time here and the Wagah drive is better taken rested.
- 15:30
Drive to Wagah
Twenty-eight kilometres, about forty-five minutes. No bags past the checkpoint; the car parks well back and the last stretch is on foot.
- 16:30
Retreat ceremony
Early arrival is the whole of getting a seat. The ceremony itself runs to sunset.
- 19:00
Back to Amritsar
The 8 hr / 80 km package covers the city; the Wagah run adds distance beyond the 80 km, charged at the published per-km rate.
The fare, stated plainly
What is in the price and what is not
What the fare covers
- A Ministry-of-Tourism licensed Regional Level Guide for the Northern Region
- The guide’s licence card photographed and sent on WhatsApp at confirmation, before anything is paid
- An AC vehicle with a driver on the published rental package, if you take the bundled rate
- Driver waiting at every stop for the full package duration — no re-booking between sights
- Fuel, tolls within the package distance, parking at the monuments, and the driver’s allowance
- Ticket-counter help: which tier to buy, which gate to use, and which queue is the short one
What it does not
- Monument entry tickets, paid at the gate — the Amritsar figures are in the table on this page
- Meals, shopping and any optional activity during the day
- Distance beyond the package’s included kilometres, at the published per-km rate
- Guide and driver gratuity, customary but never compulsory
- Monument camera or video charges where the monument levies them
Ministry of Tourism, Government of India
Regional Level Guide (RLG)
- Language examined in
- Ten languages
- Licensing region
- Northern Region
- Full day · 8 hours
- ₹1,500
- Half day · 4 hours
- ₹900
Every licence card carries a photograph, a licence number, the issuing region and the languages the holder is examined in. We send a photograph of the card on WhatsApp when a booking is confirmed, before you pay anything, so you can check the number, the region and the language against the guide who meets you.
The credential
What a government guide licence is, and how to check one
A Regional Level Guide licence is issued by the Ministry of Tourism after a written examination, an interview and a training course run through the Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management. It is issued for a tourism region, not for the whole country, and it names the foreign languages the holder is examined in.
Archaeological Survey of India monuments admit licensed guides and turn away unlicensed ones at the ticket gate. An unlicensed "guide" who approaches you outside the Taj Mahal or Amber Fort cannot accompany you inside, which is why the pitch is always made in the car park.
In Amritsar: Northern Region — Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh
Questions people ask
Guides in Amritsar
FAQs
Heads must be covered — scarves are handed out free at the entrance if you do not have one — and shoes and socks are left at the free deposit before you walk through the water channel. Photography is fine on the parikrama around the sarovar and not permitted inside the sanctum. There is no dress code beyond modesty and no entry fee at any hour. Your guide covers all of this before you reach the gate, which is the point of having one.
Still have questions?
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Book a licensed guide in Amritsar
Send your dates, the language you want and whether you need half a day or a full one. We come back with a licensed guide, a photograph of their licence card, and the total in writing before anything is paid — from ₹900 for a half day in English.
We send the guide’s licence card before you pay anything. Nothing is charged to confirm.