Sarnath, Bodhgaya & Kushinagar
Varanasi → Gorakhpur
6 days 5 nights
year-round
Starting from
Price on request
per pilgrim · 6 days / 5 Nights
Quick answer
In short
Experience My India's 6 Days Buddhist Circuit follows the Buddha's life - the Ganga Aarti at Varanasi, Sarnath's first sermon, the Bodhi Tree at Bodhgaya where he reached enlightenment, and Kushinagar, where he passed into Mahaparinirvana. Three of the four great sites, with a private AC car, hotels, a guide and meals. Rated 4.9 out of 5 · 385+ reviews. You arrive in Varanasi and depart from Gorakhpur - WhatsApp +91-7302265809 to book. Buddham Sharanam Gacchami · Dhammam Sharanam Gacchami · Sangham Sharanam Gacchami 🙏
Experience My India's six-day Buddhist Circuit is the classic pilgrimage in the footsteps of Gautama Buddha - a focused, reverent journey through three of the four great sites of his life, beginning in Varanasi and ending at Kushinagar.
It opens with the Ganga Aarti on the river at Varanasi, then moves the next morning to Sarnath, the quiet deer park where the Buddha preached his very first sermon and set the wheel of dharma turning. From there it crosses into Bihar to Bodhgaya, the holiest place in the Buddhist world, for a full day at the UNESCO-listed Mahabodhi Temple, the sacred Bodhi Tree, the Great Buddha statue and the monasteries built by nations across Asia. The road then carries you north to Kushinagar, where the Buddha attained his final liberation, Mahaparinirvana, and lies in a serene reclining statue - a profoundly peaceful place to close a pilgrimage.
A private AC car runs the whole circuit, with five nights of hotels, local guides and meals, arriving in Varanasi and departing conveniently from Gorakhpur, with no backtracking. This is a pure Buddhist circuit, shaped for pilgrims and seekers from India and across the world. For your dates' price, WhatsApp +91-7302265809.
Route overview
Varanasi → Gorakhpur
Departure
Varanasi
Stop 1
Varanasi & Sarnath (1 night) → The Ganga Aarti and the first-sermon site
Stop 2
Bodhgaya (2 nights) → Mahabodhi Temple, the Bodhi Tree and the monasteries
Stop 3
Kushinagar (2 nights) → Mahaparinirvana Temple, Rambhar Stupa and Matha Kuar
Final arrival
Gorakhpur
6 days / 5 nights - a pure Buddhist circuit from Varanasi, departing from Gorakhpur
Three of the four great sites of the Buddha's life: Sarnath, Bodhgaya and Kushinagar
Ganga Aarti from a boat at Varanasi and the first-sermon site at Sarnath
Mahabodhi Temple, the Bodhi Tree, the Great Buddha, the monasteries and Sujata Kutir
Two unhurried nights at Kushinagar: the reclining Buddha, Rambhar Stupa and Matha Kuar
Private AC car, five nights of hotels, guides versed in the Buddhist sites, and meals
You are met at Varanasi Airport (VNS) or Varanasi Junction and transferred privately to your hotel to check in and freshen up. The arrival day is kept easy so you begin the circuit rested.
Day 1 - Arrival in Varanasi and the Evening Ganga Aarti
The circuit opens on the Ganga - a quiet arrival, and the lamps and chanting of the Aarti by dusk.
As dusk falls we take you on a boat on the Ganges to witness the grand, synchronised Ganga Aarti at Dashashwamedh Ghat from the water - a fitting, serene welcome to the land of the Buddha.
Good to know
The boat view is far calmer than the crowded steps, and a clearer vantage for the ceremony.
We return you to your hotel for the night.
Stay
Varanasi
A short 30-minute drive to Sarnath, the peaceful deer park where the Buddha delivered his very first sermon, the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta - the great Dhamek Stupa, the Chaukhandi Stupa, and the Archaeological Museum housing the original Ashoka Lion Capital, India's national emblem.
Day 2 - The First Sermon at Sarnath, and on to Bodhgaya
Where the teaching began, and then the road into Bihar, to where it all began.
Good to know
The Sarnath Archaeological Museum is closed on Fridays; the stupas and gardens stay open and are flat and easy to walk.
We drive about 250 km, roughly 5.5 hours, across the Bihar border to Bodhgaya, and check into your hotel.
Good to know
Experience My India starts the drive after the Sarnath visit and breaks it with a comfortable halt.
We stay the night in Bodhgaya.
Stay
Bodhgaya
We spend the morning at the UNESCO-listed Mahabodhi Temple Complex and meditate beneath the sacred Bodhi Tree, the spot where Prince Siddhartha attained supreme enlightenment and became the Buddha.
Day 3 - Full Day Spiritual Immersion in Bodhgaya
The holiest ground in the Buddhist world - the Bodhi Tree by morning, the Great Buddha and the monasteries by afternoon.
Good to know
The Bodhi Tree area is for quiet meditation; keep silence within, dress modestly, and note that cameras may carry a fee.
We visit the Great 80-foot Buddha statue, seated in serene meditation, and the monasteries built by Japan, Thailand, Bhutan and Tibet - each in its own national style, so that a short ride carries you through the architecture and atmosphere of the whole Buddhist world.
We then cross the Falgu River to Sujata Kutir, where the village maiden Sujata offered the Buddha milk-rice that broke his long fast before his enlightenment.
Good to know
The monasteries are a quiet wonder, and reward an unhurried e-rickshaw ride in the cool of the afternoon.
We stay the second night in Bodhgaya.
Stay
Bodhgaya
After an early breakfast we check out and drive north about 340 km, roughly 7.5 to 8 hours, to Kushinagar, the place of the Buddha's Mahaparinirvana.
Day 4 - Bodhgaya to Kushinagar
The long road north, from the place of awakening to the place of the final passing.
Good to know
This is the long day of the circuit; Experience My India begins early and breaks it with rest and meal halts, and the AC car keeps it restful.
We arrive in Kushinagar, check into your hotel, and spend a relaxed evening at leisure after the long road - a gentle pause before the quiet, meaningful day to come. Kushinagar is a small, green and peaceful town, and the stillness is part of its gift.
We stay the night in Kushinagar.
Stay
Kushinagar
We visit the deeply moving Mahaparinirvana Temple, which houses a serene 6.1-metre reclining statue of the Buddha carved from a single piece of monolith sandstone, depicting his final moments as he passed into parinirvana.
Day 5 - The Mahaparinirvana Site and Ancient Stupas
The quietest and most moving of the great sites - where the Buddha laid down his body.
Good to know
Pilgrims from across the Buddhist world come to sit here in silence; it is the emotional heart of the circuit.
We visit the Rambhar Stupa, the historical site where the Buddha's body was cremated - a large, simple brick mound amid green lawns, circumambulated by monks and pilgrims in quiet devotion.
We then walk to the peaceful Matha Kuar Shrine, with its large seated Buddha carved from blue stone in the earth-touching posture, marking a spot where he is said to have given a final teaching.
We stay the second night in Kushinagar.
Stay
Kushinagar
A relaxed breakfast, and some quiet final moments at the Thai and Sri Lankan monasteries of Kushinagar - serene gardens and shrines in the style of their home countries, a gentle, reflective way to take leave of the circuit before the road home.
Day 6 - A Final Monastic Stroll and Departure via Gorakhpur
A last quiet morning among the monasteries, and an easy transfer home.
After checkout, a short 1.5-hour drive of about 50 km to Gorakhpur Airport or Gorakhpur Railway Station for your journey home.
Good to know
Tell Experience My India your departure time so the last morning is unhurried; we can also help book your onward flight or train.
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Usually within minutes on WhatsApp.
Guest rating
Based on 385 reviews
Everything you need to know about your pilgrimage with Experience My India.
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What travel guides don't tell you before you arrive.
There is a right way and a wrong way to route a Buddhist circuit of these three sites, and the difference is a wasted day in the car. This circuit is built the right way - you enter at one end and leave from the other, and you never retrace a single kilometre.
You arrive in Varanasi, by air at VNS or by rail at Varanasi Junction, and the circuit then moves steadily in one direction: south-east to Bodhgaya, then north to Kushinagar, and out from Gorakhpur. The two driving days are the real ones - Varanasi to Bodhgaya is about 250 km, roughly 5.5 hours, and Bodhgaya to Kushinagar is about 340 km, 7.5 to 8 hours, the long leg of the trip. Within each place the distances are small.
The clever part is the ending. Kushinagar is a small town with limited connections of its own, and the instinct of many planners is to loop all the way back to Varanasi or Gaya to fly home - a punishing drive of six or seven hours tacked onto the end of the trip. There is no need. Gorakhpur, with its airport and its major railway station on the main line, sits just 50 km from Kushinagar, about ninety minutes away. By finishing at Kushinagar and leaving from Gorakhpur, you turn what could be a long final slog into a short, easy transfer.
One honest footnote for the planners among you: Kushinagar now has an international airport of its own, opened a few years ago to serve Buddhist pilgrims directly. Flights to it are still limited, however, so for most travellers Gorakhpur - larger, better connected by both air and rail, and only a little further - remains the simpler way home. If a Kushinagar flight happens to suit your route, we will of course use it; otherwise Gorakhpur is the dependable choice, and we tell you plainly which makes sense for your dates.
That one decision - exit at Gorakhpur, not back the way you came - is what keeps this a six-day circuit rather than a seven-day one, and what lets the last day be a gentle stroll among the monasteries rather than a dawn start in the car. Experience My India plans it this way as a matter of course, starts the two long legs early, and breaks them with proper halts. The result is a circuit that feels contemplative rather than rushed. WhatsApp +91-7302265809 to shape the pace to your group.
Most pilgrimages build towards a climax of grandeur. This one is different, and quietly more profound, because of where it ends. The road does not finish at the golden spires of Bodhgaya or the great stupa of Sarnath; it finishes at Kushinagar, the small, green, unhurried place where the Buddha came to die - and that ending changes the whole meaning of the journey.
At the Mahaparinirvana Temple you stand before a six-metre reclining Buddha, carved from a single block of sandstone fifteen centuries ago, lying on his right side in the moment of his passing. His face is utterly serene. This is not a scene of grief; it is the image of mahaparinirvana, the final and complete liberation, the release from the cycle of birth and death that the whole of his teaching had pointed towards. To have reached enlightenment at Bodhgaya two days before, and now to stand at the place of his final peace, is to have followed his life to its very end.
The tradition remembers his last words to his gathered disciples, spoken here: that all conditioned things are impermanent, and that they should strive on with diligence for their own liberation. There is no more fitting thought to carry home from a pilgrimage. And there is a rightness in closing the circuit here, in the quiet, rather than at a crescendo - you leave not dazzled but settled, having been reminded, at the place where the Buddha himself let go, of the one truth his whole life taught.
Experience My India places Kushinagar last on purpose, and gives it two unhurried nights, so the circuit ends not in a rush to the airport but in stillness - a morning among the Thai and Sri Lankan monasteries, and only then the short road to Gorakhpur and home. Rajeev Sharma and the team carry this journey with the quiet it asks for. Buddham Sharanam Gacchami.
Pro tip: Our local guides know these nuances intimately. They navigate crowds, time the darshan, handle protocols and share the stories textbooks miss.
Watch before you go
Watch the real Ganga Aarti, the Ram Mandir darshan flow and the ghat atmosphere, curated by our local experts so you arrive prepared.
Live aarti atmosphere
The evening ceremony at Dashashwamedh Ghat
Temple flow guide
The darshan process before you reach
Ganga boat experience
Sunrise rides over the holy river
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The practical details that make the difference on the day.
This is a pure Buddhist circuit - it covers Sarnath, Bodhgaya and Kushinagar, three of the four great sites of the Buddha's life; only Lumbini, his birthplace in Nepal, lies beyond, and can be added on request.
You arrive in Varanasi (VNS or Varanasi Junction) and depart from Gorakhpur (airport or Gorakhpur Junction, about 50 km from Kushinagar), with no backtracking.
Two long drive days - Varanasi to Bodhgaya (about 250 km, 5.5 hours) and Bodhgaya to Kushinagar (about 340 km, 7.5 to 8 hours) - eased with early starts and rest halts in a private AC car.
The Buddhist sites are quiet, meditative places - keep silence within the temples, dress modestly, and remove shoes where required.
At Bodhgaya, cameras may carry a fee at the Mahabodhi Temple, and the Bodhi Tree area is reserved for quiet meditation.
The Sarnath Archaeological Museum is closed on Fridays; the stupas and gardens stay open.
This circuit does not include a Kashi Vishwanath darshan - it is purely Buddhist; for a trail that adds the Kashi darshan, ask Experience My India about the Kashi & Buddha Trail.
Meals are vegetarian throughout and the pace is gentle and reflective; share any meditation wishes or dietary and mobility needs and we plan around them.
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Thousands of devotees have experienced Ayodhya & Varanasi with us.
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Experience My India's 6 Days Buddhist Circuit follows the Buddha's life - the Ganga Aarti at Varanasi, Sarnath's first sermon, the Bodhi Tree at Bodhgaya where he reached enlightenment, and Kushinagar, where he passed into Mahaparinirvana. Three of the four great sites, with a private AC car, hotels, a guide and meals. Rated 4.9 out of 5 · 385+ reviews. You arrive in Varanasi and depart from Gorakhpur - WhatsApp +91-7302265809 to book. Buddham Sharanam Gacchami · Dhammam Sharanam Gacchami · Sangham Sharanam Gacchami 🙏
30 min reply No hidden costs
Local guide, Experience My India
Born and raised in Varanasi, among its ghats, temples and pandits. I have been guiding pilgrims for more than 40 years, across Ayodhya, Kashi and Prayagraj, in Hindi, Telugu and Kannada. Experience My India was built on one belief: a well-planned yatra is a deeply felt one.
More about RajeevPlease review these policies before confirming your yatra.
Processing Time: Approved refunds will be processed within 7 to 10 working days via the original payment method. Force Majeure: If a tour is cancelled by Ayodhya Varanasi Guide due to unforeseen circumstances (extreme weather, government restrictions, or vehicle breakdown), a 100% refund or an alternative date will be offered. Unused Services: No refunds will be provided for any part of the sightseeing missed by the guest due to late arrival or personal choice during the tour.
We understand that travel plans can change. Our cancellation slabs are as follows: 48 Hours or More before the tour: Full Refund of the advance amount (minus a small 5% processing fee/bank charges). 24 to 48 Hours before the tour: 50% of the advance amount will be refunded. Less than 24 Hours or No Show: No refund will be provided as the vehicle and driver are already blocked for your service. Peak Dates: For bookings during major festivals like Holi, Janmashtami, or Radha Ashtami, all advance payments are Non-Refundable due to extreme demand.
To provide competitive local pricing while maintaining high service standards, we follow a split-payment structure: Advance Deposit: A 50% advance payment of the total package cost is required to process the booking. Balance Amount: The remaining balance must be paid to the coordinator or driver upon arrival or at the start of the tour. Mode of Payment: We accept UPI (Google Pay, PhonePe, Paytm), Bank Transfers, and Cash. Exclusions: Please note that E-Rickshaw charges (for narrow lanes near Banke Bihari Temple), Guide fees, and Temple donations are typically not included in the package and should be paid directly in cash.
We want to ensure your spot is secured so you don't miss the divine Darshan timings. Booking Confirmation: A booking is considered "Confirmed" only after the receipt of the initial advance payment. Voucher Issuance: Once the payment is verified, we will issue a Digital Confirmation Voucher via WhatsApp/Email containing your driver details, vehicle number, and reporting time. Reporting Time: For Same Day Tours, guests are expected to report at the designated pickup point (Hotel/Railway Station) at the scheduled time. A maximum waiting period of 30 minutes is allowed, after which the tour may be treated as a "No Show."
