Drive to Agra from New Delhi In A Day

How Much Should A Drive Cost?

I called our hotel, the ITC Maurya, before arriving in Delhi to inquire about pricing to Agra in a hotel car. A driver for the day would cost 18,020 INR (or about $270 USD) for two people. Considering that the drive itself was bound to take more than six hours round trip and that we would want to spend the bulk of the day site-seeing, the price-per-hour seemed quite reasonable. I then called my Rajasthan tour company, Heritage India Private Tours, and asked the owner, Magan, how much the same day trip would cost. His quoted rate of $135 proved easy to accept. Perhaps we would have gotten a slightly nicer car from our fancy hotel--but not twice as fancy. And we were perfectly comfortable with our car and driver.

The Drive from Delhi to Agra Flew By

Our driver, Sheshi, took us down a newly completed toll road for the first time in his many excursions to Agra. As Sheshi explained, the highway was build by a wealthy Indian man who had made his fortune in cement. Jaypee built this road and then handed it over to the government. It was the first time in India a private enterprise had built a public road. (Sheshi also pointed out the 4-5 year old Formula One track, built by the same wealthy man.)

Driving this route, the trip to Agra took 3 hours, and we experienced no issues. The reason the road was free and clear of traffic could have been due to the novelty of the highway but is much more likely due to the many tolls we had to pay along the way. This perfectly illustrates our hypothesis for India: throwing money at a problem here is a good way to fix it. So many other people are unwilling to pay a bit extra, so if you are able to loosen the purse strings a bit it can go a long way. As New Yorkers, the concept of toll roads felt like a given, and we were happy to pay extra to get to our destination quicker.

Driving Through Delhi During Rush Hour

The way back did take us longer, which we had anticipated. The toll road got us most of the way there, but driving through Delhi during rush hour is a harrowing experience. Cars, vans, trucks, tuk-tuks, and motorbikes swerve in and out of lanes that have no business being painted along the road. As each vehicle tries to save precious minutes, drivers play vehicular Tetris to see how best to fill any empty space on the road. Motorbikes fill in between cars, and cars cluster around trucks, each leaving no margin of error. At one point as we tried to turn left into gridlocked traffic, a swarm of motorcycles fought their way in between us and the cars already in that lane. I thought of a National Geographic scene of a hundred tiny animals laying siege on one massive predator -- and winning.

Personally, I was so worn out from the day that my head kept bobbing around in the semi-comatose state that washes over me while I'm being chauffeured on long trips. As I fluttered in and out of consciousness I noticed that my friend, however, was not as comfortable.

My friend sitting next to me fixed her eyes on the road ahead, like a victim in shock after a trauma. Every so often, she reached out subconsciously as if to steady herself on a bicycle or balance beam. By the end of the excursion, right as we were pulling up to dine at the famous Bukhara restaurant, she declined to eat. So shot were her nerves, she had to rest and recover from the trauma before stomaching any food.

A Day Trip Suffices

I'm glad we braved the six-hour schlep and nail-biting rush hour to complete Agra in one day. We spent plenty of time at the Taj Mahal, even getting a private guide through Heritage India Private Tours. After the tour, our guide took us to one of the many artisan shops carrying on the tradition of stone work that made the Taj Mahal. Then, for a brief moment, we stood outside the Red Fort in Agra to snap a few photos and hear a condensed version of the intro-statement to the tour. We decided to forgo the Agra Fort in consideration of rush hour and our dinner reservations at Bukhara. Though I would have liked to see it, I got my fill of forts in each old kingdom of Rajasthan later in the trip. In fact, if we had planned a bit better--maybe left 30 minutes earlier and shaved another 30 minutes from our tour of the monument--we could have squeezed it in. After those two iconic monuments, there isn't much else to do in Agra. With precious little time to waste while traveling, I'm glad we made this excursion a day trip.