Amritsar is a medium sized city about 30 km from the Indian-Pakistan border. The city had a very peaceful, relaxed feel to it compared to other cities we visited — most likely because Amritsar is home to the Golden Temple, the holiest of temples of the Sikh religion. The Golden Temple is an incredible display of marble and gold, and feels very serene. We stayed at the Hari Darshan hotel, which was clean, served great food and was very reasonably priced, considering we had a (somewhat obstructed) view of the Golden Temple complex from our balcony, and we could hear the hymns and readings from the temple from within our room. See the pictures here.

Aside from the awesome Golden Temple, Amritsar is also home to a number of smaller temples including the impressive Shri Durgiana, a Hindu temple. Our hotel was beside the entrance to the busy shopping bazaars, in which we spent significant time walking around and became lost in the many turns and narrow roads. The border town Attari is just 30 km from Amritsar, which we visited to see the border closing ceremony which was very cool.

Amritsar was probably my favourite city to visit, mostly because it was very peaceful and didn’t have the aggressive salesman and energy of the other cities. The Golden Temple was also my favourite place to visit in all of India. The temple compounds were very serene and peaceful, and the temple was impressive. We spent 3 days in Amritsar, visited the temple each day and I could have stayed longer. See the pictures here.