We arrived to Agra in a taxi from Sawai Madhopur. Our hostel was a 20 minute easy walk away from the Taj Mahal on a street full of other hostels, cafes, and restaurants.

We could tell this place was set up for a lot of tourists. We were the only guests at our hostel, though, which we guessed was due to it being the start of summer. Nick and I could not walk anywhere on that street without being offered a tuk tuk ride every few minutes.

Our first full day was the only day the Taj Mahal would be open during our visit. We woke up super early in order to get there for opening at 5:30am so we could see the sunrise. As expected we were not the only people who had that idea and there were already lines to buy tickets and get in. It was worth it for sunrise though as the lighting was beautiful and there were definitely more people as the morning continued.

Some moments of our visit were not exactly peaceful, though, as many people seemed to be stressed about getting a photo there (myself included if I’m being honest). I do not mind waiting in a line though in order to have a photo that is centered and without hundreds of people in it. Other people were less impressed with waiting and were pretty rude and aggressive. I was glad there was only one busy spot I liked. We heard pretty awful stories from a friend of ours who had visited recently as well. She was shoved HARD to the ground by another tourist for ‘taking too long’. Luckily it wasn’t that bad for us. We only had one tourist ask sarcastically, “Is the line for this spot another ticket I missed somewhere?” Implying they should be free to go to the front if they wanted.

We walked along the park area on the edges of the main walkways to the structures that surround the main Taj Mahal. There we played around with photos using the reflection from a puddle. Usually there is more water in front of the Taj Mahal but since those were empty there was only one other spot we could get the reflection.

A local also showed us a trick using a phone to get a nice reflection shot for a tip. We happily obliged as it was a neat thing to learn.

After the Taj Mahal we took an uber to Mehtab Bagh, a park that’s across from the Taj Mahal. It had a nice view but was otherwise pretty small.

It also cost a fee to enter that seemed pretty high considering what we got. If we were only in Agra for a day we would have skipped this as it was also pretty far away from everything else we were doing that day and was not walkable to get to. I have seen some stunning photographs from other travelers in this park when its the right conditions, though.

Next we went to Agra Fort and explored all the courtyards and halls. It is a large area with many sections to wander around. Some of my favorite areas were the ones that had views of the Taj Mahal in the distance. There were also 2 bright green parrots hiding out in there, with hundreds of pigeons who were less exciting. There are a few other somewhat notable things to do in Agra, but we realized after visiting that we could have easily done our list in one full day and maybe spent the other day visiting a different place. Instead we spent our second day in Agra catching up on planning.