I'm going on the Spirit of India holiday departing 9th October 2025, including the Amritsar add-on. The out journey from Delhi to Amritsar is by train and a flight to return. I wonder if anybody who reads this question has done the train journey from Delhi to Amritsar and can tell me what it is like please? And my other question, how was your experience when visiting the Golden Temple?

I visited the Golden Temple with another group and it was amazing.

We first visited the kitchens where SIkhs prepare free meals for 100,000 people daily, it's truly mindblowing to experience the scale of it all.

The Temple is stunning, we met so many lovely people who wanted to chat to us - and  to have their photographs taken with us, which happens regularly in India.  Talking to one man I learned so much about the Sikh religion and their way of life, it was a wonderful experience.

We were unable to go inside the Temple building itself as the queue was very long and we were told it would take around 2 hours to get in, but we walked arond the lake surrounding it and just seeing the Temple from the outside was stunning. 

We made several train journeys on our tour, including Delhi to Amritzar, and all of them were so much better than I'd imagined (feared!) we had reserved seats, water, tea and biscuits, newspapers and lovely food as part of the ticket price. Trains ran on time and were clean and comfortable. My main concern had been the toilets but there were both Western and Indian toilets between carriages and the ones I used (Western) had hot water, soap and towels.

I hope this helps, I'm sure you will have an amazing time.

Rose

I did this trip with Just You in October 2023.

The group that goes onto Amritsar is a smaller group then the group that you shall start the tour with. We had to leave our main suitcase in the hotel in Delhi and had to take a small bag with all the essentials for 2 nights stay in Amritsar. 

The train journey was very memorable.  Like Rose has mentioned- reserved sears, snacks, breakfast and lunch provided on board. The journey went very quick. You shouls be flying back to Delhi rather then going on the train to save time. 

The hotel in Amritsar was comfortable,  however,  they catered more for the local food during breakfast as not much choice,  however,  I believe just you has since then changed their agent in India so you may be staying at another hotel.

For me, varanasi and Amritsar were the highlights of the trip!  We went to the temple at night and also the next day. I managed to visit the temple. Be prepared standing in a back to back que to get inside the temple as its one of the most busiest places in India. It was definitely worth it. 

You shall have to cover your head and they provide you with a scarf.

We also visited the Wagah (India/ Pakistan) border and that was an great experience! However,  the last I heard the border is now closed due to what happened on Kashmir a couple of months ago. 

On the whole, I highly recommend this trip. It was one of my best trips with JY.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to ask.

Have a great time in india !

Also, for the visit to the Golden Temple, is there a specific time of day you’d recommend going for the best experience, especially in terms of lighting or crowd size?

Thanks again for all the insight!

Hello,

Regarding the scenery on the train journey this was a mixture.  There was a lovely local extended family on our coach and they kept us entertained as they were singing , dancing and also got us involved so didn't really get a chance to look outside that much. The journey felt very short . But I definitely enjoyed the experience with the locals entertaining us on the train. It was about enjoying the culture. 

In terms of visiting the temple, you shall be on a schedule with JY. This is a full on trip so they put as much as possible on the itenary to give you the best experience.  We were taken in the evening after dinner and that's when I visited all the temples I wanted to. The next day they took us back after breakfast and that's when we had the chance to visit the food Hall and the kitchen. It was amazing to see how they cook for thousands of people on daily basis. In Sikhism this is called ' Langar'. Please see the attached link if you want to get more information: 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langar_(Sikhism) .

I would have loved to spend more time in Amritsar as its a very special place for me.

Have a wonderful time in incredible India !

Many thanks for sharing your India holiday experience and collating information from it to reply to my question. I have looked at and read the information about The Golden Temple on the pages you provided a link to, many thanks for that. I know more about The Golden Temple, its history, customs and culture now after reading those pages. Apart from the customary iconic images of the Golden Temple, I knew virtually nothing about its setting and plan. When I go on holiday to somewhere that's new to me, I learn as much as I want before I go but I leave out other things to gain knowledge or insight into them when I'm actually there.

The train journey from Delhi to Amritsar sounds like an adventure in itself. I can't wait for the Spirit of India holiday to begin.

Thank you so much for sharing the Amritsar part of your Spirit of India holiday. Supplying food for a 100,000 people a day, every day in one building truely is mindboggling. I'm trying to prepare myself mentally to be in places with so many people about as I surely will in India. I hope I will get the chance to go inside the Golden Temple itself, but even if I don't, there are so many other amazing attractions at the complex such as the langar, the museum, the watch towers, the pool and more.

Your train journey to Amritsar sounded exciting and colourful. I wonder if the Indian family who danced and sang to you were a deliberate set up, a part of the package if you like, or spontaneous? Either way, I'm sure you hadn't expected to see something like that on a train. They say, don't they, that India is a sensory experience to westerners. Imagine in areas like Darjeeling, you get a tea scented breeze. Wow! And then there's all the aroma from food. I get jitters of excitement as the holiday draws nearer.

My apology, I mixed up different commentators' experiences on the trains in India in my previous response to you. The dancers were cited by someone else. You cited how clean and comfortable the trains were, which is fantastic to hear. Just You look after their guests well. I've been on three JY holidays - to the Lake District, Edinburgh and the Pyrenees - and the Tour Directors have been amongst the most diligent leaders I've ever met where nothing was too big or too small for them to deal with, and they were also lovely people.