Planning · when to go
Best time to visit Agra, month by month
October – March. Warm days and cold nights. November and February to March give the clearest dawns; December and January carry a fog risk that can hide the Taj until mid-morning. The Taj Mahotsav, ten days of craft and music in February, is the festival to aim for. Our pick: February — clean skies after the fog, the Mahotsav, and marble that goes pink at dawn and gold at dusk exactly as promised.
The season, honestly
October to March is the season — warm days, cold December and January nights, and the risk, in those two months, of a fog that hides the Taj at dawn and delays the morning trains. April to June is brutal; the monsoon (July–September) brings the river up and the crowds down.
October to March
Oct: 35° / 19° — season opens
Nov: 29° / 13° — golden light, clear skies
Dec: 24° / 8° — cold; fog some mornings
Jan: 22° / 7° — cold nights; fog can hide the dawn
Feb: 26° / 10° — clear dawns; the Taj Mahotsav — the pick
Mar: 32° / 14° — warm and clear; Holi
April to September
Apr: 38° / 20° — hot — the Taj by 7am
May: 42° / 24° — fierce; record 48.6°
Jun: 41° / 26° — peak heat, first storms
Jul: 36° / 25° — monsoon — the river rises
Aug: 33° / 24° — wet, humid, fewer people
Sep: 34° / 24° — monsoon easing
If you can only come in the heat
Start at opening, be back indoors by eleven, and go out again an hour before sunset. Taj Mahal at 8am in May is emptier and better than at noon in December — the city's rhythm is the desert's, and it rewards anyone who keeps it.
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