Half day or full day · Agra
Taj Mahal Tour with a licensed guide
The Taj Mahal with a licensed guide, a car and a driver on one price. Most people take this as a half day starting before sunrise, which is both the best light and the only hour the complex is quiet; a full day adds Agra Fort, the Baby Taj and Mehtab Bagh. The guide earns their fee at the ticket counter before the commentary has started — three entry tiers, a separate ₹200 mausoleum ticket, and three gates that are not interchangeable.
Duration
Half day or full day
Full day, with car
₹4,000
Monuments
4
Licence region
Northern Region
The plan
What the half day or full day looks like
Half day — the sunrise version
Half day — the sunrise version
- 05:15
Hotel pickup
Tajganj hotels are five minutes from the East Gate, Fatehabad Road about ten.
- 05:45
Taj Mahal, first entry
In with the first batch, thirty minutes before sunrise. Two hours: the gateway and its calligraphy, the mausoleum, the mosque and the Mihman Khana.
- 08:15
Agra Fort
Opens at six, so there is no queue. The Diwan-i-Khas, the Sheesh Mahal, and the Musamman Burj where Shah Jahan spent his last eight years.
- 10:00
Drop
Hotel, Agra Cantt station, or onward to Delhi.
Full day — adding the quieter three
Full day — adding the quieter three
- 05:15
Hotel pickup and sunrise Taj
As above — the first two and a half hours are unchanged, because there is no better way to do them.
- 08:30
Breakfast
Back at the hotel or a cafe near the complex. Paid separately.
- 10:00
Agra Fort
Two hours, with the dynasty read off the building: Akbar's sandstone, Shah Jahan's marble, Aurangzeb's prison.
- 12:30
Lunch on Fatehabad Road
Mughlai if you want the local thing. Paid separately.
- 14:00
Itimad-ud-Daulah's Tomb
The Baby Taj — where the pietra dura inlay was worked out twenty years before the Taj, and almost empty.
- 15:30
Mehtab Bagh
The Mughal garden across the river, which frames the back of the Taj at golden hour.
- 17:30
Drop at hotel or station
The 8 hr / 80 km package covers the day as laid out.
Closed days, and how we plan round them
The Taj Mahal is closed every Friday and tickets are not sold at all. If Friday is your only day in Agra, this tour becomes the Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri day — tell us when you book rather than finding out at the gate.
What you will see
The monuments on this tour
Entry fees and opening hours are each monument’s own, taken from this site’s published guide to it.
On this tour · 1 of 4
Taj Mahal
- Entry — Indian
- ₹50, plus ₹200 to enter the mausoleum
- Entry — foreign
- ₹1,100, plus ₹200 to enter the mausoleum
- Hours
- 30 minutes before sunrise – 30 minutes before sunset
- Closed
- Friday
- Time needed
- 2–3 hours
| Monument | Entry — Indian | Entry — foreign | Hours | Closed | Time needed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taj MahalUNESCO | ₹50, plus ₹200 to enter the mausoleum | ₹1,100, plus ₹200 to enter the mausoleum | 30 minutes before sunrise – 30 minutes before sunset | Friday | 2–3 hours |
| Agra FortUNESCO | ₹40 | ₹550 | 6:00 AM – 6:00 PM | Open all days | 2 hours |
| Itimad-ud-Daulah's Tomb (the Baby Taj) | Not published | Not published | Sunrise – Sunset | Open all days | 45 minutes |
| Mehtab Bagh | Not published | Not published | Sunrise – Sunset | Open all days | 45 minutes |
What it costs
The price, and what makes it up
The guide fee plus the published local rental package. Two published figures, 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.
English-speaking guide shown. Monument entry tickets are paid at the gate and are listed in the table above.
The fare, stated plainly
What is in the price and what is not
What the fare covers
- A Ministry-of-Tourism licensed guide for the half day or full day, in the language you book
- The guide’s licence card photographed and sent before anything is paid
- An AC vehicle with driver on the published rental package
- Driver waiting at every stop — no re-booking between monuments
- Fuel, tolls and parking within the package distance, and the driver’s allowance
- Ticket-counter help: which tier to buy, which gate to use, which queue is short
What it does not
- Monument entry tickets, paid at the gate and listed on this page
- Meals, and anything you choose to buy during the day
- Distance beyond the package’s included kilometres, at the published per-km rate
- Camera and video charges where a monument levies them
- Gratuity. Customary in India, and the rate is complete without it
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 guide
Who comes with you, and how to check them
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.
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.
On this tour
What it looks like
Questions people ask
Taj Mahal Tour with a Guide
Our team is here to help. Contact us for personalized assistance.
Other guided tours
Where to go next
Other tours with a guide
Book the taj mahal tour with a guide
Send your dates, the language you want and how many of you there are. You get a licensed guide, a photograph of their licence card and the total in writing — from ₹4,000.
We send the guide’s licence card before you pay anything. Nothing is charged to confirm.