With Chandigarh as the capital state, Punjab is the city of Sikh where you get to pay a visit to the most sacred Golden Temple in Amritsar which was founded by Sikh Guru Ram Das. You get allured by the green fields, clear sky, and charm in the spicy yet tasty cuisines. To explore the essentials of this Northern state, book an ideal Punjab tour package presented by Swan Tours at the most budget-friendly rates.
Tour Packages to Punjab
| Punjab Travel Packages | No. of Days | Price* |
| Punjab Family Packages | 4 Days / 3 Nights | Rs. 21, 400 |
| Punjab Nature Walks Packages | 5 Days / 4 Nights | Rs. 25, 299 |
| Punjab Romantic Packages | 5 Days / 4 Nights | Rs. 28, 519 |
| Punjab Sightseeing Packages | 5 Days / 4 Nights | Rs. 31, 000 |
| Punjab Affordable Packages | 6 Days / 5 Nights | Rs. 34, 888 |
Tour Packages to Punjab
Area: 50,362 km²
Capital: Chandigarh
Population: 2.8 crores (2012)
Ideal duration to Visit: 03 to 05 days
Best Time to Visit: October to March
Currency: Indian Rupee
Airports: Chandigarh, Amritsar
Language: Amritsar Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu and English
Popular Festivals: Baisakhi, Hola Mohalla, Lohri, Karwa Chauth, Basant Panchmi and Teeyan.
Popular Food: Butter Chicken, Shakkar Para, Lassi, Chole, Parantha, Sarson ka Saag, Makke ki Roti and Karma Prashad.
Punjab is state in India which brings in vacationers in India. The culture and society of Punjab is different from various other state it is rather distinct from the various other states of India. The most popular tourist places of Punjab, such as Jalandhar, Amritsar and Chandigarh are very popular locations in Punjab. If you are planning trip to Punjab after that you need to have to try our services as soon. We at Swan Tours give you Punjab tour packages at sensible expense and ensure to supply the best golden temple tour packages and also taking in the sights. Swan Tours provide an enjoyment remain at a 3, 4, 5 star resort in Amritsar where you also get to witness the Wagah border and the outstanding event executed thereafter. You can also obtain tailored packages for the Wagah border tour. Our team of experts will certainly assist you relating to any type of queries as well as will certainly likewise help in making booking for your holiday packages Punjab. If your suggestion is to celebrate your holiday in Punjab after that chose our Punjab tour package for exploring popular tourist places and sightseeing places. At all resorts, breakfast will be supplied that will certainly exist within the travel schedule. So what are you waiting on? Choose any kind of tour packages to Punjab and tour packages from Punjab begin checking out points in Punjab with us. You can likewise personalized you explore according to you need and also comfort.
Punjab Holiday Packages
Because of its proximity to the Pakistani border (Lahore is only 40 mi away), Amritsar has not seen the development, and attendant sprawl, that other North Indian towns have endured. The city is an important commercial hub and is an integral part of India tourist itinerary: much of the aromatic Basmati rice that's now an international staple is exported by Amritsar dealers, and dried fruits and woolens from hill regions as far away as Afghanistan are handled by wholesalers here. The robust rural culture of Punjab's farmlands permeates Amritsar, with tractors plying the city roads and peasants making their way through the market centers as well as the famous Sikh temple. Traffic and tumult are muted, so you can get around easily by cycle- or auto-rickshaw.
Highlights of Punjab Tour
If you are seeking a memorable Punjab tour, Swan Tours Punjab holiday packages are the right choice for you. Swan Tours offers Punjab tour packages Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kerala, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune or Gujarat. Check out from over 30 tour packages to Punjab with best price and explore Punjab tourist places and sightseeing attractions. If you desire to understand more regarding Punjab travel package such as the best time to visit, how to get to Punjab, tourist places to visit in Punjab, where to stay in Punjab, what to eat in Punjab, Popular festivals in Punjab, Temples in Punjab and much more.
Tourism in Punjab
For Tourists ,The Golden Temple of the Sikhs is reason enough to come to Amritsar, and even if you think you've had enough of India's overwhelming religious pageantry you should not miss it. It resembles more a Mogul palace than a typical Indian temple, and its layout and ambience are a living lesson in the teachings of the Sikh religion, a syncretic movement combining Hinduism's bhakti (devotion to a personalized god) with Islam's monotheism and egalitarianism. Sikhism was founded by Guru Nanak around the turn of the 16th century, and developed under the gurus who succeeded him into a distinct new religion. Amritsar ( "Pool of Nectar" in Punjabi and Sanskrit) takes its name from an ancient sacred pool that Nanak is said to have preferred for his meditation and teaching.
History of Punjab
The site was granted to the fourth guru, Ramdas, in 1577 by the great Mogul emperor Akbar, and gradually developed as a pilgrimage center. As the 1500s came to a close, songs by the Sikh gurus and selections from Hindu and Muslim poet-saints were canonized as the Adi Granth ("First Book") by the fifth guru, Arjan, at the same time as the great gurdwara (temple; "door to the guru") was being constructed here. In succeeding years, the temple and the sacred book together gained increasing importance in the Sikh faith. In 1699 the 10th guru, Gobind Singh, further consolidated the faith, establishing a distinctive physical appearance for his followers—most notably long hair kept in a turban for men, and braids for women. Singh marked this turning point by leading his followers to Amritsar from the Sikh gurdwara at Anandpur Sahib in the Punjab Hills. Upon his death in 1708, Singh's closest disciples announced his instruction that leadership of the Sikhs would henceforth be centered on the teachings of the sacred book (now called the Guru Granth Sahib) rather than a human guru. To this day, the life of the Golden Temple, as in all gurdwaras, revolves around the Guru Granth Sahib, beginning before dawn, when the book is taken out of a building called the Akal Takht and carried pro-, cession ally across the huge, white marble compound—across a cause-way on a square artificial pond—to Harmandir Sahib, the central temple whose gilded copper plating gives the complex its most commonly recognized name. The temple's day ends late in the evening, when the book is brought back to its resting place.
During the time of the gurus, the Sikhs' development as a separate community often brought them into conflict with other forces in Mogul India. In 1761, as the Mogul empire declined, the temple was sacked by the Afghan raider Ahmad Shah Durrani. (It was rebuilt three years later.) In 1802 the temple was covered in gilt copper by Maharaja Ran-jit Singh (1780-1839), whose rule extended as far as Kabul and Kashmir and marked the height of Sikh power. In 1984, the Indian Army's "Operation Bluestar" brought tanks into the complex in a disastrous four-day firefight with heavily armed Sikh separatists who had virtually taken over the complex. India's Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated about five months later by two of her Sikh bodyguards, in what was widely believed to be retribution for the Army attack on the temple. Amazingly, the temple now shows few signs of this tragic event, or of the decade of separatist violence and state repression that plagued Punjab afterwards. The grievances of the Sikh community have perhaps not all been resolved, but the horrible tenor of the dispute is a thing of the past, and Amritsar and Punjab are generally safe places to travel. Harmandir Sahib was not badly damaged in 1984, and the outlying buildings that were harmed have been restored. All day long, while a select group of singers, or ragis, broadcast hymns from the Guru Granth Sahib throughout the complex, pilgrims from rustic Punjabi towns and villages—India's hugely productive breadbasket—make their way around it, some performing seva (voluntary service) by cleaning the marble or completing other tasks. These worshipers are very welcoming to strangers, proud to show off the most sacred place in the Sikh religion. The dignity that pilgrims invest in the site, and the grandeur of its design, transcend the turmoil of its past.
Where to Stay in Punjab
Most hotels and the train station are near the British-era cantonment, and the Golden Temple is about a 15-minute ride away. You approach the temple through the Hall Bazaar, which leads to the clock tower gate. To symbolize the religion's egalitarian welcome to all castes, all Sikh gurdwaras have four entrances, but this is the main one. To the left of the stairway leading into the complex is a counter where visitors leave their shoes (many of the attendants here are volunteers, and their handling of others' shoes is another illustration of the Sikh doctrine of caste equality.) If you smoke, leave all tobacco products behind, as they're forbidden here. Pilgrims wash their feet at a spigot by the gate before entering the temple complex. Sikhs will already have their heads covered, with turbans for males and the chunni scarves worn by women; if you haven't brought a head covering; make use of the bin of colorful scarves by the stairs.
Amritsar Wagah Border Tour
02 Nights / 03 DaysPlaces Covered Wagah Border » Golden Temple » Amritsar
Things to do and Places to Visit in Punjab
From the top of the gateway stairs, you look across a wide pool of water—known as the sarovar, or "sea"—at the golden roof of Harmandir Sahib. Go down the steps on the other side and you'll reach the white marble walkway 24 ft wide, known as the parikrama (circumambulatory path), that surrounds the pool. Each side of the pool is 510 ft long, and pilgrims normally make a complete circuit before they approach the Harmandir Sahib. Doing so gives a good sense of the scale of the place, as well as providing a series of angles from which to gaze at the Golden Temple. (You can take pictures from a distance, but put your camera away before you leave the causeway for the central sanctum.) Various points around the parikrama are considered auspicious places to bathe; the bathing steps along the east length of the walkway are said to mark a spot that equals the purifying power of Hinduism's 68 most holy tirthas (holy places). Just behind this is the entrance to a small garden that adjoins an assembly hall on the right and two large pilgrims' hostels to the rear. On the left, fewer than two tall minarets that have yet to be fully restored from the damage they suffered in the 1980s, is the Guru Ram Das Langar—named after the fourth Sikh guru, this is the temple's communal dining hall. All gurdwaras have such a langar (the name of the place as well as the free meal served here), as eating together and serving a meal to others is perhaps the most fondly practiced of all Sikh rituals. Don't hesitate to join in; meals are served daily from 11 to 3 and 7 to 11, and the food (usually a few thick chapattis and some dal) is simple and robust. In another kitchen at the southwest corner of the parikrama, pilgrims make a donation in return for a packet of halvah, made from cream of wheat, which is then taken to Harmandir Sahib and presented as an offering, with a portion given back to worshipers as prasad (which some translate as the "edible form of God's grace").
Halfway across the east side of the parikrama, the causeway out to Harmandir Sahib is on your right, and to the left is the five-story Akal Takht, topped by a gilt dome. This building, whose name means "Timeless Throne," represents Sikh temporal authority—day-to-day administration—as opposed to the spiritual authority of Harmandir Sahib. It was here that much of the heavy fire that met the Indian Army during Operation Bluestar originated; the original building was largely destroyed during the fighting, but it has now been fully restored.
To reach Harmandir Sahib you go under an archway known as the Dar-shani Deorhi ("Gateway of Vision") and cross a 204-ft long causeway, which has brass guide rails to separate arriving pilgrims from departing ones, as well as a central passageway for temple functionaries. Take the left passageway. (Note that sometimes, particularly right at dusk, pilgrims arrive in great numbers for particular ceremonies. Access to the Harmandir Sahib is controlled at such times and pilgrims can back up on the causeway, making a visit to the sanctum a lengthy under-taking.) Pilgrims typically bow down at the doorway after traversing the causeway, and then circumambulate the central temple around a small exterior parikrama. Some stop to bathe on the east side. The exterior walls are decorated in beautiful pietra dura (marble inlaid with semi-precious stones) said to have been brought by Maharaja Ranjit Singh from Mogul monuments in Lahore.
Visit Old Temples in Punjab
On the temple's ground level, the Guru Granth Sahib sits on a special throne. Attendant’s wave whisks over it constantly to keep flies away, and a granthi (lay specialist in recitation) sits reciting the text with harmonium players and other musicians off to one side. Feel free to enter the temple and listen to the recitation of the holy book, or witness the continuous recitation (akhand path) of the second and third stories; just remember to keep your head covered and refrain from taking pictures. As you go back through the Darshani Deorhi (Gateway of Vision), a temple priest or volunteer will usually be stationed under a small tree handing out servings of the halvah that previous pilgrims have offered to the temple. The ritual of receiving prasad is one that Sikhs share with Hindus. Just around the northwest corner of the parikrama stands an old jujube tree that is said to have healing powers.
The Central Sikh Museum, upstairs in the clock-tower entrance, contains graphic paintings depicting the tumultuous history of the Sikh gurus and their followers. Included are scenes from the British period and Operation Bluestar.
Outside the temple's clock-tower entrance, about 500 yards north, a small plaque and narrow gateway mark the entrance to Jallianwala Bagh. Here, on April 13, 1919, occurred one of the defining moments in India's struggle for independence. The day was Baisakhi, celebrated by Sikhs as both the first day of the New Year and the day that Guru Gobind Singh consolidated the faith under the leadership of the Khalsa ("God's own"; a fraternity of the pious) in 1699. The city was under curfew after reported attacks on some British residents, yet some 20,000 people had gathered here to protest the arrest of Indian nationalist leaders under the Rowlett Act, a British legislation that allowed for detention without trial. Seeing this crowd, British Brigadier General Reginald E. H. Dyer positioned his troops just inside the narrow en-trance to the small garden (which is surrounded on all sides by residential buildings) and ordered them to open fire. Some 1,200 people were wounded, and several hundred died. This event, which is chillingly reenacted in Richard Attenborough's film Gandhi, caused widespread outrage and contributed to the launch of Mahatma Gandhi's noncooperation movement. The British attempted to suppress news of the incident, and when an inquiry was finally held, such comments as "It was no longer a question of merely dispersing the crowd, but one of producing a sufficient moral effect" (Dyer) did nothing to assuage a worldwide response. Nobel Laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore renounced his English knighthood, and even Winston Churchill, him-self no enemy of the empire, raised an uproar in Parliament (though a majority in the House of Lords approved of Dyer's actions). Jallianwala Bagh was subsequently purchased by Indian nationalists to prevent its being turned into a covered market, and it remains one of the most moving monuments to India's 20th-century history. Queen Eliz-abeth visited in 1997, after much negotiation over whether or not she should make a formal apology (she didn't, but she and Prince Philip removed their shoes before entering the grounds). Today the garden is planted with a few rosebushes, and the bullet holes from the British fusillade remain. The well, into which some dove in a vain attempt to save themselves, is on the north side. A modern memorial occupies the east end, and a small display to the left as you enter the garden features contemporary newspaper accounts of the incident.
Book Punjab Tour Packages with Swan Tours
We at Swan Tours ensure a Punjab tour that is more than a trip. Our team believe in handing out inquisitiveness and also knowledge that is both cherished and also cherished by our client. In our Punjab travel package, we diligently choose destinations as well as events to boost the travel experience. Bringing the very best of Punjab in one single scenic tour that as well at economical costs with optimum amount of fun is what we aim at.
For further Information on Tourism in Punjab, Punjab Travel Packages and itineraries combining tourist destinations in Punjab with Himachal Pradesh and the other nearby states contact Swan Tours.
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