Wagah Border to Amritsar 30 km by Road · 30-45 minutes · Cab from ₹2,200

This is the old Grand Trunk Road running dead straight west out of Amritsar, and it is over almost before you have settled in: Chheharta, then Khasa with its cantonment, then the last village of Attari and the border gate itself, thirty kilometres in well under an hour. There is no halt worth making on the way; eat at the Golden Temple langar before you leave, because the ceremony car park is a fair walk from the stands and you will be on your feet for a while. The flag lowering is late afternoon, but the exact hour moves with the season, earlier in the short winter days and later through summer, so ask the driver for that week's timing and plan to be at the gate a good two hours before it. In December and January the return is the thing to respect: the road home after dusk fills with fog and the whole crowd leaves at once, so let the first rush clear before you pull out of Attari.