Two nights is enough and three is better. A rowed boat at dawn while the bathing starts, the lanes on foot with someone who can read them, the evening aarti from the water rather than the crowd, and a morning at Sarnath, where the Buddha preached and almost nobody lingers.

Hotels here are either on the river with the noise and the view, or in the cantonment twenty minutes back with a garden and silence. Neither is wrong; the choice decides how much of the city you absorb and how well you sleep.

Cremations take place in public at two of the ghats. We will tell you where to stand, where not to photograph, and what your guide should and should not narrate — it is the part of the city that most needs a considered approach.