Delhi to Varanasi
by Car

820 km by road, and 12-14 hours behind the wheel. The route divides into 4 stages, the longest being Agra to Kanpur at 280 km. The longest stage is not the slowest one: Prayagraj to Varanasi covers 120 km in 2.5 hrs, which is where the hours actually go.

Agra to Kanpur — 280 km graded good, and 4 hrs of the day. NH-19, Agra-Lucknow Expressway option. By contrast Delhi to Agra is graded excellent, so the route is not uniform and planning it as one average speed is how people end up arriving after dark. The road quality on this corridor runs across excellent and good.

Prayagraj to Varanasi — 120 km in 2.5 hrs, which is the slowest average on the route. Final stretch, spiritual UP, Sarnath near Varanasi. Agra to Kanpur is the longest stage at 280 km and takes 4 hrs, so distance and time are not in proportion on this corridor. Knowing which stage is slow is what lets a departure time be chosen properly rather than guessed at.

Yamuna Expressway, Mathura, NH-19, Agra-Lucknow Expressway option and Triveni Sangam city, among others. These are on the route rather than detours from it, which is the practical distinction — a stop that costs you ten minutes is a different proposition from one that costs an hour each way. Tell the driver in advance which of them you want to stop at and the day gets planned around it instead of around the clock.

This is a long drive — start at 4 AM or split into 2 days with a stop at Prayagraj or Lucknow. Then: varanasi old city is not car-friendly at all — park at Dashashwamedh parking and walk to ghats. Then: evening Ganga Aarti at Dashashwamedh Ghat starts at 6:30 PM — plan your arrival accordingly. Then: the Purvanchal Expressway shortens the route — check if open for your vehicle type. None of that is generic road-trip advice — it is what the drivers who run this corridor pass on, and the position-specific items are the ones worth reading twice.

It can be done on this route — it is highway for most of its length — and an overnight departure does avoid the day's traffic. If the journey has to run into the night, it runs with the night allowance for the driver and a start time chosen so the worst-lit stretch is behind you before dark. A driver asked to do 820 km on no sleep is the single worst risk on any booking, and we do not take it.

A flight is faster and we will not pretend otherwise over 820 km. What it does not give you is the car at the other end, the luggage you did not have to weigh, or any of Yamuna Expressway, Mathura and NH-19. For a group, the arithmetic usually favours driving once you add four or five fares and the transfers at both ends. Where the schedule is tight, people often fly one way and drive the other.

Mathura at 160 km, Agra at 230 km and Kanpur at 510 km. Those figures are measured from Delhi, not from Varanasi — the same stops on the return journey sit at different numbers, and a list copied from the other direction puts every one of them in the wrong place. The useful halfway mark on this route is around 410 km.