12 Tourist Places to Visit in Varanasi (+Top Things to Do) (2026)

Mark Twain wrote that Benares looked older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend — and while the line is overused, the underlying claim holds up: this is among the oldest continuously inhabited cities on earth, lived in without a break for something like three thousand years. Around eighty ghats step down to the Ganga along six or seven kilometres of riverfront, two of them burning bodies around the clock. The best places to visit in Varanasi run from those ghats to a Jyotirlinga temple behind a security cordon, a Buddhist stupa where the first sermon was preached, and a university campus full of temples.

12 Best Places to Visit in Varanasi

Attraction	Type	Area	Entry Fee	Duration
Dashashwamedh Ghat	Ghat	Dashashwamedh & the Central Ghats	Free	1.5 hours
Kashi Vishwanath Temple & Corridor	Temple (Jyotirlinga)	Kashi Vishwanath & Godowlia	Free; ID and screening required	2 hours
Sarnath	Buddhist Site	Sarnath	₹25 (IN) / ₹300 (~$3.60) (FN)	Half day
Assi Ghat	Ghat	Assi & the Southern Ghats	Free	1.5 hours
Manikarnika Ghat	Cremation Ghat	Manikarnika & the Northern Ghats	Free; no photography	45 minutes
BHU & New Vishwanath Temple	University / Temple	BHU & Southern Varanasi	Free	2 hours
Ramnagar Fort	Fort / Museum	Outside Varanasi (Day Trip)	₹20–₹200 (~$2.40)	2 hours
Sankat Mochan Hanuman Temple	Temple	BHU & Southern Varanasi	Free	45 minutes
Durga Kund Temple	Temple	BHU & Southern Varanasi	Free	45 minutes
Tulsi Manas Mandir	Temple	BHU & Southern Varanasi	Free	45 minutes
Bharat Kala Bhavan Museum	Museum	BHU & Southern Varanasi	₹20–₹250 (~$3)	1.5 hours
Man Mandir Ghat & Jantar Mantar	Ghat / Observatory	Dashashwamedh & the Central Ghats	Nominal	45 minutes

Dashashwamedh Ghat

Ten horses were sacrificed here, according to the legend that gives the ghat its name — Brahma is said to have performed the dashashwamedh yagna at this spot to welcome Shiva back to the city. It is the busiest and most central of Varanasi’s ghats, a broad flight of steps where pilgrims bathe from before dawn, priests sit under bamboo parasols performing rituals for a fee, flower sellers work the crowd, and the boats for hire cluster thickest. The evening aarti happens here.

It is intense at every hour and relentless in the evening, so come at sunrise too if you want the same steps at a manageable volume. Boatmen quote per person and per boat interchangeably, so settle which one you are agreeing to before stepping in.

• Area: Dashashwamedh & the Central Ghats
• Entry Fee: Free
• Opening Timings: Open all day; aarti at dusk
• How to Get There: Below Godowlia crossing; vehicles stop there, then walk
• Duration: 1.5 hours

Kashi Vishwanath Temple & Corridor

Maharaja Ranjit Singh donated the gold that plates the spire, which is why the temple is often called the Golden Temple of Varanasi, and the shrine beneath it is one of the twelve Jyotirlingas — the holiest class of Shiva temple in India. The present building dates to 1780, raised by Ahilyabai Holkar after the earlier temple was destroyed. In 2021 a broad paved corridor was opened linking the temple to the river at Lalita Ghat, a project that cleared a substantial area of old-city buildings and remains locally debated.

Access rules are strict and reports of how they apply to foreign visitors vary, so carry your passport or photo ID and check on the day rather than relying on any guide written in advance. Phones, cameras, and bags are not permitted and must go in the lockers; booking a darshan slot online can save queuing for two hours or more.

• Area: Kashi Vishwanath & Godowlia
• Entry Fee: Free; photo ID and security screening required
• Opening Timings: Roughly 3 am–11 pm with breaks for aarti
• How to Get There: Old city lanes off Vishwanath Gali — walk from Godowlia
• Duration: 2 hours including queuing

Sarnath

Having reached enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, the Buddha walked roughly 250 kilometres to this deer park to find his five former companions, and the sermon he preached to them set the whole religion in motion — which makes Sarnath one of Buddhism’s four holiest places. The Dhamek Stupa still stands 43 metres high, its carved stonework dating from the fifth century, alongside the ruins of monasteries, the Ashokan pillar stump, and modern Thai, Japanese, and Tibetan temples built by pilgrim communities.

Do not skip the site museum, which holds the Ashokan lion capital that India adopted as its national emblem. Of all the places to visit in Varanasi this is the calmest and greenest by a distance, and a half day here is the best antidote to the ghats.

• Area: Sarnath
• Entry Fee: ₹25 (IN) / ₹300 (~$3.60) for foreigners; museum ticketed separately
• Opening Timings: Site roughly 6 am–6 pm; museum 9 am–5 pm, closed Fridays
• How to Get There: Around 10 km north of the city — auto or taxi
• Duration: Half day

Assi Ghat

Where the Assi stream once met the Ganga stands the southernmost of the main ghats, and it operates at an entirely different tempo from the centre — wider, cleaner, with a pipal tree and a lingam under it, and a row of cafés and bookshops behind. Students from the nearby university, long-stay travellers, and researchers make up much of the crowd. Each morning the Subah-e-Banaras programme runs here with Vedic chanting, yoga, and live classical music from around 5 am.

This is the easiest place in the city to sit for an hour without being sold anything, which after a day in the lanes counts for a great deal. It is a twenty-minute walk or a short auto ride south of Dashashwamedh.

• Area: Assi & the Southern Ghats
• Entry Fee: Free
• Opening Timings: Open all day; Subah-e-Banaras from around 5 am
• How to Get There: Southern end of the riverfront, near BHU — auto or walk along the ghats
• Duration: 1.5 hours

Manikarnika Ghat

Fires have burned at this ghat without going out for centuries, and Hindus bring their dead here in the belief that cremation at Manikarnika grants moksha, release from the cycle of rebirth. Between one and two hundred bodies are burned daily, wrapped in cloth and carried down through the lanes on bamboo biers, and stacks of timber line the terraces above. The Dom community holds the hereditary right to the sacred flame from which every pyre is lit.

Photography is strictly prohibited and taking pictures of grieving families is indefensible. Be aware too that a persistent scam operates here: men present themselves as guides or hospice workers, lead visitors to a rooftop, then demand a large donation for firewood for the poor. Decline guidance, do not follow anyone upstairs, keep your distance, and do not linger.

• Area: Manikarnika & the Northern Ghats
• Entry Fee: Free; no photography, and no payment is required to be present
• Opening Timings: Continuous
• How to Get There: Between Dashashwamedh and Panchganga — walk the ghats or the lanes
• Duration: 45 minutes

BHU & New Vishwanath Temple

Thirteen hundred acres of tree-lined avenues make Banaras Hindu University one of the largest residential campuses in Asia, founded in 1916 by Madan Mohan Malaviya and laid out on a semicircular plan that comes as a genuine relief after the old city. At its centre stands the New Vishwanath Temple, funded by the Birla family and completed in 1966, a tall white marble shrine modelled loosely on the original Kashi Vishwanath — with the significant difference that it is open to everyone regardless of faith.

For visitors who cannot enter the Kashi Vishwanath complex, this is the meaningful alternative rather than a consolation prize. The campus also holds the Bharat Kala Bhavan museum and several other temples, so treat the whole southern cluster as one circuit.

• Area: BHU & Southern Varanasi
• Entry Fee: Free
• Opening Timings: Campus daytime; temple roughly 4 am–12 pm and 1 pm–9 pm
• How to Get There: Lanka gate, around 7 km south of Godowlia — auto or taxi
• Duration: 2 hours

Ramnagar Fort

Across the river and frankly crumbling, this eighteenth-century sandstone fort has been the seat of the Maharajas of Banaras since 1750 and part of it remains the family residence. The museum inside is eccentric in the best way: vintage American cars, ivory work, palanquins, an armoury, and an astronomical clock built in the 1850s that tracks the year, month, week, day, and the positions of sun, moon, and constellations. Little of it is well conserved, which is part of the atmosphere.

Go in the late afternoon and cross by boat rather than road, since arriving at the fort from the water is much the better approach. The pontoon bridge that carries the road only exists in the dry season.

• Area: Outside Varanasi (Day Trip)
• Entry Fee: ₹20–₹200 (~$2.40) depending on ticket and camera
• Opening Timings: Roughly 10 am–5 pm
• How to Get There: Across the Ganga, around 14 km by road or a short boat crossing
• Duration: 2 hours

Sankat Mochan Hanuman Temple

Monkeys have the run of this temple, which is fitting enough given the deity, and they are bold about it — keep food and loose belongings secured. Tradition holds that the poet Tulsidas founded the shrine at the spot where he had a vision of Hanuman, and the name means reliever of troubles, which draws heavy queues on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Wrestlers from the nearby akharas come to offer prayers, and the temple is closely tied to the city’s music scene through its annual Sankat Mochan Sangeet Samaroh.

Phones and cameras are not permitted inside, a rule tightened after a bomb attack here in 2006, and bags go into lockers at the gate. Come early on a weekday if you would rather not queue.

• Area: BHU & Southern Varanasi
• Entry Fee: Free
• Opening Timings: Roughly 5 am–10 pm
• How to Get There: Durgakund Road, near BHU — auto
• Duration: 45 minutes

Durga Kund Temple

Red ochre covers this eighteenth-century temple from base to spire, which makes it the most immediately recognisable building in southern Varanasi. It was built by a Bengali maharani in the Nagara style, with a multi-tiered shikhara meant to represent the five elements converging, and it stands beside a rectangular stepped tank — the kund — that was once connected to the river. Navratri fills it to capacity twice a year.

Non-Hindus can enter the courtyard but not the inner sanctum, which is worth knowing in advance. It sits within a few minutes of both Sankat Mochan and Tulsi Manas Mandir, so the three work as one stop.

• Area: BHU & Southern Varanasi
• Entry Fee: Free
• Opening Timings: Roughly 5 am–10 pm
• How to Get There: Durgakund, near BHU — auto
• Duration: 45 minutes

Tulsi Manas Mandir

The Ramcharitmanas — Tulsidas’s sixteenth-century retelling of the Ramayana in Awadhi rather than Sanskrit, which put the epic into the hands of ordinary people — was composed on this site, and the temple built here in 1964 makes that its whole subject. Verses from the poem are carved into the white marble walls throughout, with painted panels illustrating episodes, and an upper floor holds moving dioramas of scenes from the epic that run on a small ticket.

The dioramas are unashamedly kitsch and children tend to love them. It stands next door to Durga Kund, so seeing both takes little more than an hour.

• Area: BHU & Southern Varanasi
• Entry Fee: Free; dioramas charged separately
• Opening Timings: Roughly 5:30 am–12 pm and 3:30 pm–9 pm
• How to Get There: Durgakund, beside the Durga temple — walk
• Duration: 45 minutes

Bharat Kala Bhavan Museum

Miniature painting is the strength of this university museum, and the collection is serious — Mughal, Rajput, and Pahari works numbering in the thousands, alongside Hindu and Buddhist sculpture, Banarasi textiles, archaeological material from local excavations, and a gallery devoted to the artist Nicholas Roerich. Founded in 1920 on the BHU campus with Rabindranath Tagore as its first chairman, it is among the oldest and best university art collections in India.

The labelling is thin and the lighting is dim, but the quality of what is on the walls more than survives that. Allow ninety minutes, and note that it closes on Sundays and university holidays.

• Area: BHU & Southern Varanasi
• Entry Fee: ₹20–₹250 (~$3); camera fee extra
• Opening Timings: Roughly 11 am–4:30 pm; closed Sundays
• How to Get There: Inside the BHU campus — auto to Lanka gate, then rickshaw
• Duration: 1.5 hours

Man Mandir Ghat & Jantar Mantar

Jai Singh II built five masonry observatories across northern India in the 1730s, and the smallest of them sits on the roof of a palace here on the riverfront. Man Singh of Amber raised the palace itself in 1600, and the observatory added in 1737 holds a set of the huge stone instruments — a sundial, a wall quadrant, and dials for tracking the sun and stars — built at architectural scale because larger instruments gave more precise readings. The stone latticework on the palace facade is the finest on the river.

Among all the places to visit in Varanasi this is the most consistently walked past, which is a shame, because the rooftop view along the ghats is superb. The instruments are weathered and unlabelled, so a guide helps if you want to know what you are looking at.

• Area: Dashashwamedh & the Central Ghats
• Entry Fee: Nominal
• Opening Timings: Roughly 7 am–5 pm
• How to Get There: Man Mandir Ghat, just north of Dashashwamedh — walk
• Duration: 45 minutes

Things to Do in Varanasi

Activity	Experiences	Area	Price Range	Duration
Sunrise Boat Ride on the Ganga	Sunrise/Sunset, Iconic	Dashashwamedh & the Central Ghats	$4–$15	2 hours
Ganga Aarti at Dashashwamedh	Cultural, Iconic	Dashashwamedh & the Central Ghats	Free–$6	1.5 hours
Banarasi Street-Food Trail	Food, Cultural	Kashi Vishwanath & Godowlia	$5–$15	2–3 hours
Old City Heritage Walk	Cultural, Under-the-Radar	Manikarnika & the Northern Ghats	$15–$40	3 hours
Subah-e-Banaras at Assi Ghat	Cultural, Wellness/Relaxation	Assi & the Southern Ghats	Free	1.5 hours
Banarasi Silk Weaving Workshop	Shopping, Cultural	Kashi Vishwanath & Godowlia	Free–$100+	1–2 hours
Hindustani Classical Music Evening	Cultural, Under-the-Radar	Assi & the Southern Ghats	Free–$15	An evening
Ramlila at Ramnagar	Cultural	Outside Varanasi (Day Trip)	Free	Seasonal

Sunrise Boat Ride on the Ganga

Push off from the ghat while it is still dark and the whole city rearranges itself — the ghats face east, so the sun comes up directly across the water and lights the entire riverfront at once, tier by tier, in a way you cannot see from land at any other hour. Rowing boats drift north past Man Mandir, Manikarnika, and Panchganga while bathers wade in, laundry gets beaten on the steps, and the first pyres of the day send smoke up between the buildings.

Book through your guesthouse the evening before, and take a rowing boat rather than a motorboat, which is quieter and closer to the water. Fix whether the price is per person or per boat before you get in, since that ambiguity is where almost every dispute starts.

• Experiences: Sunrise/Sunset, Iconic
• Price Range: $4–$15 depending on boat and duration
• Duration: 2 hours
• Book via: Your guesthouse the night before, or GetYourGuide

Ganga Aarti at Dashashwamedh

Seven priests stand on seven raised platforms and move through a choreographed sequence with tiered brass lamps, conch shells, incense, and peacock-feather fans, all in unison, while several thousand people watch from the steps and hundreds more from boats moored below. The ceremony runs around forty-five minutes and happens every evening without exception. Floating diyas go out onto the water at the end.

The practical upgrade is to watch from a boat rather than the steps: you see all seven priests square-on instead of through a forest of raised phones, and it costs a few pounds. If you stay on land, arrive an hour early. Timings run roughly 6:30 pm in winter and 7 pm in summer.

• Experiences: Cultural, Iconic
• Price Range: Free from the steps; $3–$6 per person for a boat
• Duration: 1.5 hours including waiting
• Book via: No booking from the steps; boats hired at the ghat beforehand

Banarasi Street-Food Trail

Breakfast in Banaras is kachori sabzi — fried, puffed, and eaten with a spiced potato curry and a jalebi straight from the pan — and the lane that specialises in it is known simply as Kachori Gali. From there the day runs through tamatar chaat served in a leaf bowl, chooda matar in winter, baati chokha, thick lassi in a clay cup, and malaiyo, the seasonal saffron milk foam sold only between November and February. A Banarasi paan closes every meal.

Eat where the queue is local and the turnover is fast, which in these lanes is most places by mid-morning. Malaiyo is genuinely seasonal, so do not plan a summer trip around it.

• Experiences: Food, Cultural
• Price Range: $5–$15 per person
• Duration: 2–3 hours
• Book via: Self-guided around Kachori Gali and Godowlia, or a GetYourGuide food walk

Old City Heritage Walk

The galis defeat maps entirely — two metres wide, unsigned, shared with cows, motorbikes, funeral processions, and several thousand pilgrims, and they will disorient you within about four turns. A guided walk is the only efficient way to read them, threading between the small shrines set into walls, the akharas where wrestlers train on earth floors at dawn, the silk workshops, the flower markets, and the hundreds of temples that never make any list.

Morning walks are considerably more comfortable than afternoon ones. Getting lost here on purpose is also a legitimate plan, provided you have accepted in advance that you will have no idea where you are.

• Experiences: Cultural, Under-the-Radar
• Price Range: $15–$40 per person
• Duration: 3 hours
• Book via: GetYourGuide or a local heritage-walk operator

Subah-e-Banaras at Assi Ghat

Assi Ghat wakes to a programme that the state tourism department put together in 2014 and which has since become a genuine local fixture — Vedic chanting from around 5 am, a free open-air yoga session on the steps as it gets light, then live Hindustani classical music or dance, and a morning aarti at sunrise. It is free, well organised, and considerably calmer than anything happening at the central ghats.

It is undeniably a curated programme rather than a spontaneous ritual, and some visitors find it staged. Go once for the music and the yoga, then find a quieter ghat if you want the unmanaged version.

• Experiences: Cultural, Wellness/Relaxation
• Price Range: Free
• Duration: 1.5 hours
• Book via: No booking — Assi Ghat from around 5 am daily

Banarasi Silk Weaving Workshop

A single handwoven Banarasi sari can take two weavers several weeks to a year, depending on the density of the zari brocade, and the craft has a geographical indication tag protecting it. Weaving households, largely Muslim, work in the lanes around Madanpura and Peeli Kothi, and many will let you watch a pit loom in operation — the pattern set on a punch-card jacquard, two people working in coordination, silk and metallic thread advancing a centimetre at a time.

Be alert to the standard scam, in which powerloom or synthetic pieces are sold as handloom silk at handloom prices, often after a commissioned rickshaw driver takes you somewhere you did not ask to go. Buy where you can see the loom that made the piece, and expect real handwork to cost real money.

• Experiences: Shopping, Cultural
• Price Range: Free to watch; saris from around $60 to several hundred
• Duration: 1–2 hours
• Book via: A weaver’s workshop in Madanpura, ideally through a guide you already trust

Hindustani Classical Music Evening

Ravi Shankar and Bismillah Khan both came out of this city, and the Banaras gharana remains one of the most distinctive schools in Hindustani classical music, particularly for tabla and for the thumri form. Small evening concerts run at ghat-side venues, guesthouses around Assi, and cultural centres, often with an audience of thirty people sitting on the floor a couple of metres from the musicians. The Sankat Mochan Sangeet Samaroh each spring brings the biggest names for several all-night sessions.

Listings are informal and rarely online, so ask at your accommodation or around the Assi cafés on the day. Hearing tabla played well in a room that size is worth rearranging an evening for.

• Experiences: Cultural, Under-the-Radar
• Price Range: Free–$15 per person
• Duration: An evening
• Book via: Local venues around Assi Ghat; ask on arrival

Ramlila at Ramnagar

For thirty-one nights each autumn, the entire town of Ramnagar becomes the set for a staging of the Ramayana that has run in the same form since the 1830s — no microphones, no electric lighting beyond oil lamps and gas lanterns, and no fixed stage. The audience walks between locations across the town as the story moves, boys play the divine roles, and the Maharaja of Banaras attends in procession. UNESCO has recognised the tradition as intangible cultural heritage.

It runs from around September into October, following the lunar calendar, and different nights cover different episodes. Check dates before travelling, go with someone who knows the sequence, and be ready for a very late finish.

• Experiences: Cultural
• Price Range: Free
• Duration: Seasonal — 31 nights in September and October
• Book via: No booking; cross to Ramnagar by boat or road in the evening

Varanasi is not an easy city and it does not try to be, which is exactly why it stays with people who visit. Give it three days and you can watch the sun come up over a riverfront that has looked much the same for centuries, stand quietly at a fire that has not gone out in living memory, eat a kachori at seven in the morning in a lane too narrow for a car, and hear tabla played in a room with thirty other people. The best places to visit in Varanasi are strung along six kilometres of ghats, with Sarnath to the north and Ramnagar across the water. If you’re weighing up where to stay between the intensity around Dashashwamedh and the calmer Assi end, our Best Hostels in Varanasi guide rounds up the budget stays worth booking.

FAQ