Spoiled for choice as to what to see in India? How about exploring the three fascinating destinations that make up the "Golden Triangle" in the north-central area of the subcontinent? Check out the enormous Friday Mosque and the Red Fort in Delhi, the superlative Taj Mahal in Agra and the beautiful pink-stoned city in rugged Jaipur, Rajasthan state.

The Golden Triangle is a sheer delight to those who revel in the energetic enthusiasm with which the locals approach tourism. Unlike the gentle Tibetan-style Vajrayana Buddhists of the Indian Himalayas, or laidback Hindu Dravidians in the Deep South, the people of the Golden Triangle, like many northerners, don't shy away from offering to help tourists (for a small consideration, of course!)

If you get into the spirit of it, you should easily be able to deal with the taxi drivers, porters and touts who seem so intent on providing assistance. By demonstrating friendliness and genuine interest in their culture, travellers will find that relationship formed become one of the highlights of the their trips.

While Agra is mostly a one-attraction town (but what an attraction!), and Delhi boasts highlights scattered here and there for which you need to take rides between sites, Jaipur - with its breathtakingly beautiful pink stucco architecture - is majestic, walkable and compact. Famous for its heat, India is more enjoyable to explore during the cool months from November to April.

Starting with the capital of Delhi - where international travellers arrive at Indira Gandhi International Airport—visitors are often blown away by the surprising quietude of the Rajpath leading to the usually crowded country’s Parliament, Lodi Gardens and a charming park with a shrine dedicated to the father of Indian independence, Mohandas Gandhi.

The more-expected, classically Indian jostling can be experienced at the Chandri Chowk, the old Delhi market that’s full of assorted sundries and handicrafts and spices and saris for travellers and locals alike. The nearby splendid Masjid-i-Jahan Numa, a multi-domed structure, is the city’s biggest centre for Islamic worship.

Digs of all kinds for travellers of all budgets can be found in the charming Paharganj district, which is full of dozens of hotels and guesthouses. However, if want to avoid the melee of hotel touts that descend on you after you exit your taxi, it is advisable to book a good hotel such as those listed on HotelTravel.com.

You will be doing a lot of travel by taxi, it is the best and cheapest way of getting around town due to a lack of inner-city transportation. After sleeping off your jetlag, breakfast is ideally a tasty combo of paratha flatbread and sweet hot chai (mildly spiced milk tea) in a dhaba (cheap restaurant).

A memorable way of getting from Delhi to Agra is by relaxing for a few hours on the Shabati Express train, while sipping complementary Taj Mahal tea and watching the dry countryside roll by. Once arriving in Agra, the scrumming begins in earnest again, this time by all-day drivers, who are all in cahoots to take visitors all around town before a climatic visit to the Taj Mahal later in the day.

First comes the trip to the Itimad-ud-Daulah, nicknamed the Baby Taj, a smaller structure that is the resting place of a 16th-century Persian nobleman. It was destined to be a model for the similar but far grander Taj Mahal. Then its the big one. Nothing could be better than a trip to the mind-blowing Taj Mahal, which effortlessly transcends all the clichés that have been repeated about it, and is indeed one of the world’s most exquisite pieces of architecture.

The masterpiece of Mughal-Islamic architecture, the Taj was built as a mausoleum for Mumtaz Mahal, the beloved favourite wife of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan (“King of the World”), who was devastated by the loss and wanted the entire world to know it. The structure is at once stunning in its overall subtly curvaceous shapes and breathtaking symmetry, as well as the superb, fine detail of its elaborate inlaid marble for floral and abstract designs in colourful blue, green and red accents.

With the image of that perfect white-marble structure seared into your memory for all time, rest on an overnight train or bus to Jaipur, zooming past camel caravans. Ready for another melee? Drivers will spiritedly fight for their fare in the early morning when vehicles arrive in Jaipur. It’s easy to get lost in the scrum, when would-be drivers jockey to undersell their rivals. It’s all good fun though.

Jaipur is blessed for its historic structures, including the palace of former maharajas in the desert wilds of Rajasthan state. Jaipur’s City Palace Museum boasts stunning Mughal and Islamic arts, intricate doors, arches, carpets, Persian miniatures, brass lamps and everything befitting for a maharaja.

A real highlight in this arid land is the Palace of the Winds (Hawa Mahal), with its hundreds of tiny windows from which ladies of the court would peer out onto the town, while keeping their modesty and not allowing townspeople the chance of returning their own gazes. Come sleep time, you could do no worse then to stay the night in a palace-cum-hotel – the region boasts a few of them.

Accommodation options in all three towns are excellent, with plenty of places to stay, from the humblest guesthouse, to the most lavish, multi-star hotel. Eating options range from lavish, multi-curry Mughal feasts to the humblest snacks of all sweet and savoury kinds. Your vacation can either be a dream or a nightmare, depending on how you treat and are thus treated by the locals. As simply put in the hit film “Gladiator”, you need to “win the crowd”.