Everything You Need to Know About Visiting the Taj Mahal

We all know that the Taj Mahal is the ultimate highlight of any trip to India. But it’s also everybody else’s highlight, being that it’s a Wonder of the World.

Visiting can be a bit confusing, but if you know what you actually need to do to get in, you can avoid the chaos, scammers, and hordes of tourists.

How to See:

The best thing we did to see the Taj Mahal was to WAKE UP EARLY.

We left our hotel by 5:30 and arrived at the gate around 6 am. When you get there, you have to first take either a tram (golf cart) or walk to the entrance, where you then buy a ticket at the ticket counter. The ticket counter and the online official website are the only ways to purchase tickets, and the prices range from about $13-$17

Purchase online here: https://www.tajmahal.gov.in/ticketing.aspx

Then you will have to go through security. This took us around 45 minutes to get through.

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Getting up early also had us completely avoid long security lines, which can typically span up to a few hours.

Important things to remember:

The Taj Mahal is an active mosque which means its closed on Fridays!

Make sure you wear comfortable shoes that you are ok with taking off or are okay with covering up. You get shoe covers along with your ticket. You also have the option take them off and leave them in cubbies but I wouldn’t risk that.

Men and women wait in lines separately, so if you’re traveling as a couple, you’ll be waiting in line alone.

You will need an ID to get in and get a ticket as a tourist.

Hiring a guide for the morning is an incredible way to learn all of the history.

You can hire photographers inside the monument, we hired one for 15 dollars.

They look a little silly but I still love them.

Once inside, I recommend staying for around 3 hours to walk through all of the gardens, see all of the surrounding buildings.

After seeing the Taj Mahal, we rested at our hotel and then headed to the Baby Taj and then the Mehtab Bagh gardens to watch the sun set. The view from there was insane, and the gardens were full of benches under trees and different spots to sit and relax.