Are you the kind of tourist who would like to experience Amritsar city in a new way..!! A way which will bring in special unique cultural & heritage experiences. On our trip, we were on quest to do sightseeing of the best tourist places in Amritsar, to get special sightseeing experience.
We were able to do sightseeing and travel the Amritsar city in a unique way. We explored the best tourist places of interest and also we went to explore lesser known places.
So be with us till the end of this guide, as we take you on a journey of culture, food and sightseeing places.
Here’s our 10 picks for the best places, food & experiences to explore on your visit to Amritsar –
1) Gobindgarh Fort (A Wonder Of Punjab)
The Fort is spread across 10 acres, its situated amidst a large landscape. The entry of the fort is grand with streets lined up with beautifully decorated shrubs & Trees.
The Fort was built in 1760. Even today, visitors are mesmerized with its traditional charm. For senior citizens & fun lovers, a electric vehicle option is available on chargeable bases to ride them into the fort. We suggest you to take a walk to reach the fort, while taking the glimpse at the royal huge entrance gates, the big drums placed at entrance and the artistic cravings on the large fort walls.
This fort is one of the best tourist places to visit in Amritsar, so do not miss this even if you are on tight schedule. We suggest that you dedicate at-least 2 hours of time to explore this lively energetic place.
Facilities Inside the fort–
It has a Museum describing the history of Maharaj Ranjit Singh’s life, a 7D laser show, light shows and Punjabi’s Folk dance “Bhangda” performances. The dance performances are a treat to watch, as they give a glimpse to the rich culture of Punjab. There are food counters for munchers.
2) The Light And Sound Show, at Gobindgard Fort
The light & sound show on fort are scheduled in the late evening, when the stars glitter the skies and cold pleasant winds soothes the atmosphere.
The show, named as ‘Whispering Walls’ depicting the rich culture of Punjab. It showed royal king Maharaj Ranjit Singh, his huge empire and how Britishers tried to take over the empire back in 18th century.
The show touched chords from the very beginning moment, when the light fell on the fort walls and made it alive. The fort started to whisper its story to us.
It took us right into the first moments when the fort was born. It then deep dived into the Ranjit Singh king’s life, his struggle, power, dedication to win and unite whole India.
The show displayed the fight of 200 years, it reached to a peak of emotions, that most of the tourists had teary eyes during its final few climax moments.
We recommend this show as a must must watch to all the city tourists, as it will bring pride in their hearts for Punjab and India.
3) The 7D Laser Show, at Gobindgarh Fort
This show takes you on a epic ride into the times of 18-19th century with 7D technology, into the era of the great King ‘Maharaja Ranjit Singh’. He was the only powerful king of Punjab, who believed in equality among multiple religions & caste.
The show takes you to a virtual augmentation of historical moments. As a viewer, you feel as if you stepped into a time machine and landed into the 18th Century India. It highlights on how he went on to win from one battle to another and become the mightiest king of Punjab.
Again, we strongly recommend you to must see this 7D laser show. Both the Light & Sound show and 7D Laser show were available at a very reasonable price. Usually tickets are priced around 250 INR (Rates may vary at time of your visit).
4) Sadda Pind (A unique cultural heritage Experience)
Sadda Pind is a mini Punjab state in itself. Its English translation means “Our Village”. It is a place where you can go to experience the rich Punjabi culture. It will give a treat to your taste buds with yummiest local cuisines. One can also perform traditional activities like flour grinding in a grain mill, cloth weaving, folk dance performance, camel rides and many more cultural activities .
You can choose to go here for a day visit, costing around 800 INR, which is inclusive of all activities and complimentary buffet lunch. One can eat till you have no space left in stomach and make sure you experience a huge burp before. While stay packages here starts roughly from 4500 INR onwards.
This place has a peaceful vibe, since its located bit on the out skirts of the city. So if you have time, make sure to add this tourist places in your Amritsar trip.
5) Golden Temple (The Most Beautiful Divine Place)
If you visited Amritsar and missed seeing this landmark divine destination of Amritsar, then you are surely missing out on one of the most beautiful divine life feelings. This is undoubtedly the best tourist place in Amritsar for tourists. Locals here also visit this temple often and there are large crowds during festivals.
This divine place is the heart of Amritsar. Here one will feel complete peace in its inner self. It has this spiritual power which soothes your minds, fills you with tremendous positive energy and restores your faith in God.
Its aura is so magical, that one can feel, to never go back to their home.
Keep a room of 3 to 4 hours, as this will be the best moments of your trip, that you take back home with your inner self realization.
Langar Inside Golden Temple-
Langar is serving fresh cooked meals to the people of all religion and faith, who come to seek the blessings in the Gurudwara. The langar happens entire day and night, throughout the year.
The food served in langar is roti, daal, vegetable and kheer(sweet dish). The tradition of langar has its humble beginnings in the late 15th century, by one of the greatest Sikh People Guru, Guru Nanak Ji.
Langars are served in all gurudwaras around the world, so we strongly emphasize that after the main temple visit, you eat Langar here.
Golden Temple fact to amaze you-
The ‘Langar’ is being served to around 1 lac devotees visiting temple daily, which make Golden Temple kitchen the largest free kitchen in the world.
6) The Shopping Market In Amritsar, with splendid marble flooring
The shopping market in Amritsar is a paradise for women shoppers. Golden temple is surrounded by shopping markets on all its 4 sides up-till half km to 1 km in each direction.
The shopping market have many unique hand made designer dresses, kurtis, lahengas, pajamas, patiala dresses with hand embroidered jackets. Another place for shopping is Lawrence road, here you can get shawls, dress pieces for starting price of 200 INR.
Keep an evening’s 2-3 hours free for shopping itself as the market is really big. For boys, keep your patience level high, as your lady would want to spend more hours and would want to explore as many shops as possible. PS. Just kidding☺.
7) Best Places To Eat The Tempting Amritsari Dishes
Khulcha chola is the most popular local cuisine that you should must try, also try sweet lassi and do not miss trying one of the most famous cuisine of Punjab, “Sarso da saag with makke di roti”.
On our trip we asked local’s and went to their recommended famous restaurants to try above dishes, and we were truly impressed with the taste of dishes at ‘Brothers Dhaba’ near golden temple and Bharawan ka dhaba in Ranjit Avenue.
More over if you come across any other good places to eat, do give it a try and do share your experience with us in comments below.
8) Ranjit Singh Museum, dive into history of most powerful king
Handful of tourists visiting Amritsar generally know about this museum and hence most of the tourists end up missing this treasure of Amritsar on their trip. Of all kinds of museums you would have ever visited, we bet that this one is far more unique of all.
Artists have sculptured the real crucial moments of wars of 18th century with ‘life like’ plaster of paris models which looks spectacular. They have recreated the scenes from the times of the King Ranjit Singh.
The artists have created scenes of the local markets in 18th century, the war scenes, the crucial battles they have won and a lot more picturesque models inside a glass chamber. All these scenes will leave you stunned.
We strongly recommend that you take 45 mins off your sight seeing schedule and take a good tour of this museum. The entry fee to this sightseeing place is nominal 10 rupees per adult.
9) Partition Museum
After British left in Aug-1947, partition happened, thus forming 2 countries India & pakistan. This museum depicts the struggle of partition times with pictures and artifacts of those This times.
This museum is newly inaugurated in year 2017 and is in close located to Jalinwala Baug. Since inauguration, thousands of students and tourists visit this museum daily. We recommend every tourist visiting Amritsar to experience this museum.
10) Jallinnwala Baug
Jallinwala Baug massacre killed hundreds of unarmed ladies, men and children by open firing in 1919.
In 1932 , a monument was established to commemorate the peaceful celebration of Punjabi’s new year celebrations
This place is of big historic importance for Indians, so it is important for every Indian to visit this place and feel the historic sacrifices done by Indians for getting us freedom
The Culture Of Amritsar(Punjab)
The culture of Punjab is one of the richest culture in the world. The Punjabi’s are joyful lively people and traditionally they wear colorful dresses.Their food culture if full of tasty delicious dishes like Kulcha Chola, butter chicken, chola bhatura, our personal favourite “makke di roti and sarsoo da saag” and lot more dishes.
The folk dance style ‘bhangra’ of punjab is one of the most energetic dance forms in India.
There is so much more about Punjab’s culture that we can keep on writing pages at length, so we better stop here, so that you can experience some unique things on your own trip.
Weather In Amritsar:
The weather is good all 8-9 months around, while the best time to visit is from September to March.
The maximum temperatures in summer (April to Mid-june) can hover in range of (high) 40 degrees and 25 degrees(low). Winter’s are very pleasant in Amritsar, at time its lowest temperatures can hover to around 4 to 6 degrees.
Tips for international travelers coming to Amritsar for first time :
Try our suggested local cuisines, go to Sadda Pind to know the deep roots of Indian and Punjab’s culture. Visit golden temple, watch the 7D laser show suggested in our sightseeing point 2 & 3 in English. The show also runs in native Punjabi & Hindi language, so visit here as per your language preference.
Amritsar native local people are helpful to tourist. Feel free to ask them about good eating restaurants, sight seeing places around and directions.
Most of the natives understand Hindi(Indian National language) with very few understanding English. In case of any communication gaps, you can take help of Hindi to English dictionary or android apps providing English to Hindi conversion.
Currency value is 1 dollar ~ 80 Indian Rupees. For Euro its ~ 80 Indian Rupees.
(Exchange rates may vary at time of your booking)
How To Reach Amritsar:
By Air:
It has one airport which handles domestic and international air traffic, it is 10 km from the city’s center point.
By Railways:
All major Indian cities are well connect with Amritsar by Railways. Tourists can book tickets from IRCTC online website.
Now that you know so much about Amritsar, so do plan your visit soon..!!
We hope that our guide was interesting and helpful to plan an awesome trip to Amritsar in most interesting manner.
Do ‘Like us’ on Facebook and let us know about your experience in comments below, after your visit to Amritsar. Share this travel planner guide with your friends who are always excited for new interesting places to visit.
Religious, cultural, historical, food, or shopping. Whatever your taste is, you shouldn’t miss this list of best places to visit in Amritsar.