Agra was not the first city we visited, and we only stayed there one night. It’s about 4 hours by car, south-east of Delhi. Considering Agra is one of the busiest cities for tourists, we didn’t have any difficulty finding a clean, reasonably priced hotel near the Taj Mahal, the reason we went to Agra. We seemed to be on the “tourist strip”, there were a number of hotels in a short area with a restaurants and a Pizza Hut within walking distance (yes a Pizza Hut, and although they had “masala pizza” on the menu, it was like walking into a Canadian restaurant). Tourism may have been a low this time of year, as the hotel we stayed at dropped their price by almost half without us even haggling. See the pictures here.

The Taj Mahal was an impressive piece of architecture, very beautiful, however I wasn’t “wowed” as others have been. Perhaps because I had already seen the Golden Temple and was blown away with it’s size, intricacy and beauty. Indian nationals are charged Rs 20 to get in, foreigners Rs 750 (about $20). We hired a guide to tell us all about the Taj Mahal, and he also came with us to Agra Fort, which was just a short drive from the Taj Mahal. This was the first fort we saw in India, and it was very cool. The forts are quite large, and this one had been converted to a palace at some point, as some of the rooms were intricately decorated with stonework and mirrors. Wikipedia has some good entries on the stories and history of Agra Fort and the Taj Mahal, and is worth a read.