Ganesh Chaturthi — group & family transport — Book Ganesh cabs
Dev Deepawali, the Diwali of the gods, falls on Kartik Purnima, which in 2026 is Tuesday 24 November, sixteen days after Diwali. On that evening every ghat along the Varanasi riverfront, from Assi in the south to Rajghat in the north, is lit with lamps at dusk, and the best seat in the city is a boat on the river, which is why the boats are booked weeks ahead. Varanasi is 820 km and twelve to fourteen hours from Delhi on the Agra–Lucknow Expressway, 300 km from Lucknow and 120 km from Prayagraj. The ghat-side roads close from the afternoon of the 24th, so the cab drops you at Godowlia, Lanka or Rajghat and you walk. A sedan from Delhi is ₹9,020 one-way at ₹11/km.
Updated · Fares from the published rate card, Sedan ₹11/km to Tempo ₹23/km
Diwali in Varanasi is a family festival behind closed doors. Dev Deepawali is the public one: the night the city lights its riverfront for the gods, and the one night of the year when every one of the ghats is lit at the same time. It is one of the city’s biggest nights, and the practical facts, the boat, the closures and the hotels, matter more than they do for any other night in Varanasi.
The date is verified against the 2026 Kartik Purnima calendar. Fares are from the published rate card, ₹11/km for a sedan, ₹15 for an Ertiga or SUV, ₹18 for an Innova Crysta and ₹23 for a 12-seater Tempo Traveller, tolls extra, no festival surge.
24 November 2026
The lamps are lit at dusk and burn for two to three hours. Everything before five is positioning; everything after nine is getting out.
4.30–8 pmThe boat leaves from Assi or Dashashwamedh before the closures and stays on the water through the lighting and the aarti. It is the only seat that sees the whole frontage at once. Book it by early November; on the day there are none.
6 pmThe nightly Ganga aarti runs on a larger scale, with more priests and the ghat steps packed from mid-afternoon. It is the most crowded place in the city on the night; go for the aarti only if you are already in the front rows by four.
From 5.30 pmQuieter and wider than Dashashwamedh, with the lamps laid in patterns on the steps and families lighting their own. The Lanka drop is fifteen minutes’ walk. This is the ghat to stand on if the boat has gone.
From 5.30 pmPanchganga Ghat’s lamp tower and the ghats towards Rajghat are lit as fully as the centre and see a fraction of the crowd. Reached from the Maidagin or Rajghat side; the Vishwanath corridor is on the way.
The road
Yamuna Expressway to Agra, Agra–Lucknow Expressway to Lucknow, then either NH-30 via Raebareli and Pratapgarh or the Purvanchal Expressway. A two-day drive with a halt at Lucknow is the civilised version; the one-day version needs a four o’clock start.
Leave in the dark. From Noida the Yamuna Expressway is twenty minutes; from west Delhi and Gurgaon allow an hour to Pari Chowk or use the KMP.
The inner ring joins the two expressways without entering Agra. Breakfast at the plaza after the junction.
Halt: Breakfast
The Agra–Lucknow Expressway ends at the outer ring. If you are breaking the journey, this is the night: Lucknow is halfway and has the rooms. Otherwise, fuel and lunch and on.
Halt: Fuel, or night halt
From Lucknow the driver takes either NH-30 through Raebareli and Pratapgarh, or the Purvanchal Expressway to Ghazipur and NH-31 back west into Varanasi. Similar times; the expressway is smoother, NH-30 shorter.
On the NH-30 route the road passes Prayagraj; the Sangam is a forty-minute detour if you have the time. The last 120 km to Varanasi are four-lane and busy.
ArriveInto the city from the west on NH-19 or from the north on NH-31. On the 24th, stop short of the ghat zone: Lanka for Assi, Godowlia for Dashashwamedh, Maidagin or Rajghat for the north. From there, on foot.
Rate-card sedan fares at ₹11/km on a 300 km minimum, one-way. Tolls at actual. Lal Bahadur Shastri airport at Babatpur is 25 km north of the ghats.
| From | Distance | Drive time | Road | Sedan, one-way |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delhi | 820 km | 12–14 hrs | Yamuna + Agra–Lucknow expressways, NH-30 or Purvanchal | ₹9,020 |
| Agra | 620 km | 9–10 hrs | Agra–Lucknow Expressway, NH-30 | ₹6,820 |
| Lucknow | 300 km | 5 hrs | NH-30 via Raebareli, or Purvanchal Expressway | ₹3,300 |
| Ayodhya | 200 km | 4 hrs | NH-31 via Sultanpur, Jaunpur | ₹3,300 |
| Prayagraj | 120 km | 2.5 hrs | NH-19 | ₹3,300 |
| Gorakhpur | 200 km | 4 hrs | NH-29 via Ghazipur | ₹3,300 |
| Varanasi airport (Babatpur) | 25 km | 50 min | NH-31 | ₹2,200 local |
Ertiga ₹15/km, Innova Crysta ₹18/km, 12-seater Tempo Traveller ₹23/km. A five-day Delhi–Varanasi–Delhi round trip for a sedan is ₹18,040 (the actual distance exceeds five days of the minimum).
The boat
Yes, and it is not a matter of taste. From the steps you see the ghat you are standing on and the two beside it; from the water you see the whole four-kilometre crescent lit at once, which is the point of the night. The boats, from a rowing boat for six to the large motor boats and bajras that take forty, are booked through the boatmen at Assi and Dashashwamedh and through the hotels, and the good ones are gone by the first week of November. Prices on the night are several times the normal aarti-boat rate; that is the market, and there is no way around it other than booking early.
Ask the driver on the way in: he may know a boatman, and a seat on a shared boat sometimes turns up that way when the hotels say there are none. Boats leave the ghats before four, before the crowd closes the steps, and stay out until the lamps have burned down.
On the waterClosures
From early afternoon on the 24th the police close the roads into the ghat zone: the Godowlia crossing for Dashashwamedh, the Lanka–Assi road, and the Maidagin side for the northern ghats. Cabs cannot enter the old-city lanes at any time of year; on Dev Deepawali they cannot get within a kilometre of the river either. The practical drops are Lanka for Assi and the southern ghats, Godowlia or the Girjaghar crossing for Dashashwamedh, and Maidagin or Rajghat for the north; from each it is ten to twenty minutes on foot.
The driver parks where the police direct and waits. Fix a meeting point and a time before you get out, because the phone network on the riverfront collapses under the crowd around seven.
When to come
Arrive on the 22nd or 23rd. The city is full for a week around the date, the roads slow from the 23rd, and the day before gives you the Vishwanath corridor and a normal evening aarti before the big one. Leave on the 25th or 26th; the morning after Dev Deepawali the ghats are quiet and the lamps are still on the steps, and it is the best hour of the whole visit.
From Delhi, the honest plan is five days: two on the road, three in the city. The one-day drive each way is possible with a four o’clock start; a halt at Lucknow makes it a comfortable two-day drive with the Imambara on the way.
Assi · the morning afterChhath first
Chhath Puja falls on 13–16 November in 2026, eight days before Dev Deepawali, on the same ghats; it is a different festival with a different crowd, a dawn one rather than a dusk one, and the Chhath ghat guide covers it. Some families stay for the whole fortnight. Ayodhya’s Deepotsav was two weeks earlier, on 7 November; Ayodhya is 200 km from Varanasi and the two are usually done as separate trips, though a Lucknow–Ayodhya–Varanasi loop over a week is a real option in a Tempo Traveller.
Where to stay
On or near the ghats if you can: the riverfront hotels between Assi and Dashashwamedh have terraces that look at the lamps, and their rooms go months early, so book well ahead. The next ring is the cantonment and the Lanka side, from which the ghats are a walk or a short drive to the drop points. Ramnagar, across the river, has a few hotels with the best view of all, of the whole lit frontage from the far bank, but the bridge closes with the roads. Book whatever is available now; ask us for the driver’s hotel list if you are stuck.
Fare box
Rate-card fares for the 820 km drive. The five-day figure is the round trip with a night at Lucknow each way and two nights in Varanasi; longer stays add 300 km a day at the vehicle rate.
| Vehicle | Seats | Rate | One-way fare | Five-day round trip |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sedan (Swift Dzire, Etios) | 4 | ₹11/km | ₹9,020 | ₹18,040 |
| Ertiga / SUV | 6 | ₹15/km | ₹12,300 | ₹24,600 |
| Innova Crysta | 6–7 | ₹18/km | ₹14,760 | ₹29,520 |
| Tempo Traveller (12-seater) | 12 | ₹23/km | ₹18,860 | ₹37,720 |
Tolls on the Yamuna, Agra–Lucknow and Purvanchal expressways at actual. No festival surcharge. Driver allowance and fuel are included; boats and hotels are yours to book.
In pictures
24 NovThe centre of the night, and the crowd.
The boatThe whole crescent at once.
SouthWider, quieter, walkable from Lanka.
23 NovThe day before, not the day of.
AfterTen kilometres out; the afternoon of the 25th.
The cab can be booked a week out; the boat cannot. If you have not fixed a boat by early November, ask us and the driver can try any boatmen he knows.
Phones fail on the riverfront after seven. Agree the exact spot at Lanka or Godowlia and the time, and stick to it.
The 25th at dawn, with the lamps still on the empty steps, is the best hour of the trip. Do not leave on the night.
Questions people ask
Our team is here to help. Contact us for personalized assistance.
Where to go next
Delhi to Varanasi cab820 km · 12–14 hrs
Delhi to Varanasi by carThe road in segmentsLucknow to Varanasi cab300 km · 5 hrsVaranasi Ganga aarti tourEvening on the ghats
Varanasi airport taxiBabatpur, 25 kmChhath Puja Varanasi cab13–16 November
Delhi to Varanasi by Tempo TravellerGroups of 12–17Varanasi trip cost from DelhiEvery cost, itemised