Sightseeing in Amritsar

Sri Harmandir Sahib

Golden Temple

1-minute walk from the hotel · On foot

The holiest Gurdwara of Sikhism, and the reason most of our guests come to Amritsar.

The most sacred of Sikh shrines, Sri Harmandir Sahib is a pilgrimage destination for devotees from around the world and, increasingly, one of India's most visited places. Construction of the Amrit Sarovar — the pool of nectar that gives Amritsar its name — was begun by Guru Amar Das, the third Guru, in 1570 and completed by Guru Ram Das, the fourth.

The upper storeys of the shrine are clad in gold leaf, which is how the English name came about. It is open through the night, and langar — the free community kitchen — serves every visitor regardless of faith, caste or means.

From our front desk: step out onto Hall Bazaar and walk. You can attend the 4 a.m. opening of the Guru Granth Sahib and be back in your room before breakfast.

Ram Bagh Palace

Maharaja Ranjit Singh Museum

2.5 km from the hotel · 10-minute drive

The Lion of Punjab's summer palace, now an armoury, gallery and panorama of his reign.

The Ram Bagh Palace was converted into a museum in 1977 and holds an absorbing collection of archival material from the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh — the attire worn by Sikh warriors, paintings, miniatures, coins and weapons.

Beside it stands the Maharaja Ranjit Singh Panorama, a permanent visual record of his life housed in a two-storey circular building. The upper level carries a vast painting of six of his major battles, fronted by three-dimensional figures and a multimedia reconstruction of the sights and sounds of war. Among the other holdings is a likeness of the Austro-Hungarian artist August Schoefft's Court of Lahore, completed in 1852 and first exhibited in Vienna in 1855.

Bhangian Da Kila

Gobindgarh Fort

2 km from the hotel · 10-minute drive

An 18th-century fort turned living-history museum, with a nightly sound-and-light show.

The foundation of Gobindgarh Fort was laid in the mid-eighteenth century by the leader of the Bhangi misl. The brick-and-lime structure is still locally known as Bhangian Da Kila, though its formal name derives from Guru Gobind Singh. Holding the fort was long considered equivalent to holding power over Punjab's religious and political centres.

It passed to Maharaja Ranjit Singh in the early nineteenth century, who strengthened its walls, dug a moat and added bastions. It is said to have housed his treasury — the Kohinoor diamond among it. The legendary cannon Zamzama, which appears in Kipling's Kim, was housed here by the Bhangis before Ranjit Singh moved it to Lahore, where it still stands outside the museum.

The fort opened to the public in 2017 and now runs daily shows, a Punjabi crafts bazaar and a 7D film on Amritsar's history.

Summer palace gardens

Ram Bagh & Company Bagh

2.5 km from the hotel · 10-minute drive

Maharaja Ranjit Singh's summer palace, set in gardens modelled on the Shalimar Bagh of Lahore.

Named in honour of Guru Ram Das, the Ram Bagh gardens hold rare plants and trees, running water channels and a well-appointed statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh on horseback. Within this quiet greenery the Maharaja built himself a double-storeyed summer palace in the early Indo-Saracenic style, with remarkably cool underground apartments for the hot months.

The grounds, also known locally as Company Bagh, carry the Maharaja Ranjit Singh Panorama — a joint project of the National Council of Science Museums and the Punjab government, depicting the key events of his life in three-dimensional montage.