Ayodhya to Delhi Road Distance: 630 km · 9-10 hours · Cab from ₹6,930

Delhi to Ayodhya is a long day but very little of it is hard driving. The Yamuna Expressway carries you from Greater Noida past Mathura to Agra in one straight line, and at the Agra end you swing directly onto the Agra-Lucknow Expressway without entering the city. That second expressway is three hundred kilometres with almost nothing on it, so we fill up and eat before leaving Agra and again only at Lucknow. Beyond Lucknow the road becomes NH-27, four lanes but ordinary, through Barabanki to Faizabad, where cane tractors and pilgrim buses bring you down to town speeds. The temple approach in Ayodhya is regulated, so the car drops you at the pilgrim parking. Most families book an evening departure from Delhi so as to arrive for the early morning aarti, and that works well from October to November and again from February. In December and January the fog on both expressways is severe from midnight until mid-morning, and in those weeks we prefer a dawn start and a daylight run.