Delhi to Vrindavan by car:the Yamuna Expressway and the last 15 km

The Yamuna Expressway, without much argument. Leave Delhi through Noida, pick up the expressway at Zero Point beyond Greater Noida, and stay on it to the Mathura exit: our distance page puts the whole run at 185 km and three to three and a half hours, and the expressway is the reason it is that short. It is a straight, flat road built for speed, with no towns on it and no level crossings, and the only things that slow it are the speed cameras, which the drivers respect, and the winter fog, which nobody can.

What the expressway does not do is take you to Vrindavan. It takes you to the Mathura exit, and from the bottom of the ramp the second road begins: fifteen kilometres of ordinary two-lane road through Mathura’s outskirts to the temple town. That stretch is the one that decides whether the drive is three hours or nearly four, and it is why the times on the distance page are a range rather than a number. There is no way round it; every road into Vrindavan is a town road at the end.

The one halt worth making is the food plaza on the expressway itself, where the toilets are clean and the tea is hot. There is nothing to stop for between Greater Noida and the exit otherwise, and once you are off the expressway the sensible thing is to keep moving until the car is parked. Fill the tank in Delhi; the driver will not want to stop for fuel in Mathura’s traffic.

Delhi to Vrindavan distance and route page

One plaza, at Jewar: ₹155 for a car, FASTag, as the Delhi to Mathura toll page lists it. The Mathura exit comes before the expressway’s second plaza, so that is the whole toll for the drive, ₹310 for a round trip in a sedan and more in an SUV. Our drivers settle it on the car’s tag and it appears on the bill at actual. There is no separate entry charge for cars at Mathura or Vrindavan; parking at the temple quarter is paid on the day.

On timing, six in the morning is the answer for most of the year. The city roads through Noida are empty, the expressway is quiet, and you are at the Mathura exit by half past eight and parked in Vrindavan around nine, which is early enough for the morning darshan and the lanes before the heat. For a day trip that also leaves the afternoon for Mathura, Krishna Janmabhoomi and Vishram Ghat, and the drive home in daylight.

The exception is winter. From December to the end of January there is fog on the expressway most mornings, thick enough near Jewar that we start later or drive slowly with the hazards on. In those weeks a seven or eight o’clock start is the sensible one; the fog is usually thinning by then, and an hour lost at the start is better than an hour spent at walking pace on a road built for speed.

Delhi to Mathura toll cost, plaza by plaza

Vrindavan is 185 km, and outstation cabs bill a 300 km per day minimum, so the one-way fare is the minimum at the vehicle’s rate: a sedan at ₹11/km, an Ertiga or similar SUV at ₹15, an Innova Crysta at ₹18 and a 12-seater Tempo Traveller at ₹23. Fuel and the driver are inside those figures; the ₹155 toll at Jewar each way for a car and the parking at Vrindavan are paid at actual. The fare box below does the arithmetic for each vehicle.

A two-day round trip with the same car and driver is the greater of twice the one-way fare or two days at the 300 km minimum, and on this route they come to the same thing. That is the pattern that suits Vrindavan best: up in the morning, the temples and Prem Mandir lit in the evening, then Mathura and Govardhan on the second morning before the drive home. A same-day return, there and back in one long day with both towns, is priced on its own page, and the same-day Mathura and Vrindavan trip is the one to book if you are not staying the night.

On the choice of car, a sedan is the right vehicle for this drive; the road is an expressway and a town road, and there is nothing on it that needs an SUV. A Tempo Traveller earns its rate only for a group of ten or more, and even then the driver will want to know in advance that the drop is at the edge of the temple quarter, because the lanes are no place for a 12-seater. One-way is the right booking if you are carrying on to Agra with another car; the round trip is right for everything else.

Delhi to Vrindavan round trip