Most searches for hotels in Varanasi, India start from a single fact: nearly all worth considering sit directly on the ghats, the stepped stone embankments that run for several kilometers along the western bank of the Ganges. At Dashashwamedh Ghat, priests line up each evening with multi-tiered brass lamps for the Ganga Aarti, an hour-long ceremony of fire, conch shells, and synchronized movement performed nightly. A few hundred meters inland, the gold-domed Kashi Vishwanath Temple, one of twelve Jyotirlingas dedicated to Shiva, draws a steady line of pilgrims from before dawn. Varanasi is one of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities, and its riverfront is built for ritual rather than rest, though a handful of heritage properties along the ghats give travelers a quiet vantage on both.
This guide covers where to stay along that stretch of riverfront: heritage havelis converted from royal residences, a couple reachable only by boat, and one long-running guesthouse known for its art collection. It also covers the city’s anchors beyond the ghats: the Kashi Vishwanath Temple corridor, the cremation grounds at Manikarnika Ghat, and Sarnath, the Buddhist site eleven kilometers north where the Buddha delivered his first sermon. For Seekers extending a trip toward an ashram stay, Varanasi works as a starting point rather than a full itinerary; SanctumStay’s guide to India’s ashram landscape, which begins in nearby Rishikesh, picks up where a Varanasi visit leaves off. For Discerning travelers, two or three nights are enough to take in the ghats, the temple, and Sarnath without feeling rushed.
At a glance: 
- Best season: November through February, when daytime temperatures stay in the high teens to low twenties Celsius and the dawn ghats are clear of summer haze.
- How to arrive: Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS), about 25 kilometers from the ghats, or Varanasi Junction railway station, the main stop for trains from Delhi, Kolkata, and Mumbai.
- How long to stay: Two to three nights covers the ghats, the Kashi Vishwanath Temple corridor, and a half-day trip to Sarnath.
- Who it’s for: Seekers continuing toward an ashram stay further along the Ganges, and Discerning travelers drawn to ritual and river life without an organized tour group.
- Don’t expect: road access for most riverside heritage hotels (several operate boat-only check-in), photography at the cremation ghats, or much quiet before dawn.
Why Varanasi
Varanasi’s significance to Hindus rests on its association with Shiva and its standing as one of the seven sacred cities of pilgrimage, but the built fabric of the riverfront is largely an 18th-century creation. After the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb demolished the original Kashi Vishwanath Temple in 1669 and built the Gyanvapi Mosque on its foundations, the site went without a major Hindu shrine for over a century until Maharani Ahilyabai Holkar of Indore, the Maratha queen, financed a new temple in 1780 immediately adjacent. The temple’s gold-plated dome, visible from much of the old city, was added later, a gift from Maharaja Ranjit Singh of the Sikh Empire in 1835.
The same wave of Maratha patronage reshaped the ghats themselves. Ahilyabai Holkar also rebuilt Manikarnika Ghat, the cremation ground that Hindus consider one of the most direct paths to moksha, while the Bhonsale rulers of Nagpur and the Scindia family of Gwalior funded their own stretches of riverfront, each named for its patron. Darbhanga Ghat, now home to a heritage hotel, takes its name from the royal family of Darbhanga in Bihar, who acquired the site in 1915. Eleven kilometers north, Sarnath represents an older and entirely separate layer: the deer park where the Buddha preached his first sermon after attaining enlightenment, laying out the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. The Dhamek Stupa marking the spot was first raised by Emperor Ashoka around 249 BCE and rebuilt in its current form around 500 CE. Hindu ritual life and Buddhist pilgrimage history sit eleven kilometers apart, neither one a footnote to the other.
The Land
The Ganges runs unusually here: rather than flowing south as it does for most of its course, the river bends northward past Varanasi, so the city sits entirely on the western bank, facing an open floodplain that floods every monsoon and dries to sand for the rest of the year. The ghats run for roughly the length of the old city, from Assi Ghat in the south to Raj Ghat in the north, a continuous stone embankment divided into more than eighty named sections. Dashashwamedh Ghat sits close to the center of that stretch and hosts the main Ganga Aarti; Manikarnika Ghat, the principal cremation ground, lies a short walk north of it. Behind the ghats, the old city is a dense network of lanes, the galis, too narrow for cars and in places too narrow for two people to pass without one stepping into a doorway. The newer cantonment area, where Varanasi Junction railway station sits, lies several kilometers inland from the river; Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport is a further 25 kilometers beyond that, on the city’s southwestern edge. Sarnath sits 11 kilometers north of the old city, reached by road rather than river.
What to Do
Ganga Aarti, Dashashwamedh Ghat. Each evening shortly after sunset, a row of priests takes up position on a raised platform at Dashashwamedh Ghat, multi-tiered brass lamps in hand, and performs a coordinated sequence of offerings to the river: fire, incense, conch shells, and large feather fans moved in unison. The ceremony runs roughly 40 to 45 minutes and draws large crowds watching from the steps or from boats anchored just offshore. Entry is free and no booking is required, though arriving thirty minutes early secures a seat on the steps rather than a view from the back of the crowd.
Kashi Vishwanath Temple. The current temple, financed in 1780 by Maharani Ahilyabai Holkar after Aurangzeb’s demolition of its predecessor a century earlier, sits beside the Gyanvapi Mosque on the site of the original shrine. The temple opens at 2:30am and stays open until 11pm, with general darshan available from around 4am to 11am and again in the afternoon. Mobile phones, cameras, and smartwatches are not permitted inside and must be left at a locker outside; during the monsoon month of Shravan, Sparsh Darshan, the touch-based form of viewing, is suspended for all visitors.
A sunrise boat ride past Manikarnika Ghat. Rowboats depart from Assi Ghat and several other points along the river from around 5am, covering roughly three kilometers north past Dashashwamedh, Darbhanga, and Scindia ghats to Manikarnika, one of Varanasi’s two cremation ghats and, for Hindus, one of the most direct routes to moksha. Cremations run continuously here and are visible from the water; photography at the cremation ghats is prohibited and enforced by those working there. The same stretch, in the low gold light of early morning, shows the full working life of the ghats: laundry, bathing, prayer, and funeral rites side by side.
Sarnath. Eleven kilometers north of the old city, Sarnath marks the deer park where the Buddha preached his first sermon after reaching enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, setting out the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. The Dhamek Stupa, a 43.6-meter cylindrical structure of brick and stone with Gupta-era floral carving on its lower courses, was rebuilt in its present form around 500 CE on the site of an earlier stupa raised by Emperor Ashoka in 249 BCE. The surrounding archaeological park, excavated from 1815 onward, also holds the ruins of monasteries and the Ashokan pillar whose lion capital, now displayed in the adjacent Sarnath Archaeological Museum, was adopted as independent India’s national emblem.
Where to Stay
The four hotels in Varanasi below sit at different points along the ghats and at different points on the price spectrum, from a palace conversion accessible only by boat to a family-run guesthouse known for its art collection.
BrijRama Palace
Built in 1812 by Shridhara Narayana Munshi, a minister to the Nagpur estate, and acquired in 1915 by the royal family of Darbhanga in Bihar, for whom the ghat below it is named, BrijRama Palace occupies the full footprint of Darbhanga Ghat. The 32-room hotel has no road access; arrival is by boat, with the palace’s own vantage point onto the Ganga Aarti at Dashashwamedh Ghat a short distance downriver. Rooms keep the high ceilings and arched windows of the original palace, restored as a hotel in 1994. Among hotels in Varanasi near Kashi Vishwanath Temple, BrijRama sits at the top of the price range, reflecting both its scale and its position directly on the river.
Guleria Kothi
A restored 18th-century riverfront house on Guleria Ghat, a few minutes by boat from Manikarnika Ghat and from Kashi Vishwanath Temple, Guleria Kothi has 15 rooms facing the Ganges, a rooftop restaurant called Ganga Teere, and a meditation hall, a detail that sets it apart from most heritage properties on this stretch. Like BrijRama, it has no road access and arranges boat transfers for guests, including transport to the evening Ganga Aarti. Pricing sits in the upper-middle range of Varanasi’s heritage hotels, below the largest palace conversions but above standard guesthouses.
Amritara Suryauday Haveli
Built in the early 20th century by the royal family of Nepal as a retreat house, the haveli at Shivala Ghat has been restored into a 14-room hotel under the Amritara group, a short walk from Kedar Ghat and around 1.5 kilometers from Kashi Vishwanath Temple. Rooms keep the building’s original proportions, with air conditioning, en-suite bathrooms, and steps down to the river from the ghat itself. The haveli’s age and single-building scale put it in the middle of Varanasi’s heritage-hotel range, more accessible than the riverfront palaces while keeping the same ghat-facing rooms.
Book at Amritara Suryauday Haveli
Hotel Ganges View
At Assi Ghat, on the southern end of the riverfront, Hotel Ganges View occupies a family home converted into a hotel in 1990 by its owners, longtime collectors of Banaras-school painting. The property displays its collection, much of it 19th and early 20th century work by artists including Ustad Mulchand and Sarada Prasad, throughout its public rooms and a small library devoted to Indian art, textiles, and craft. Since 1999, the hotel has run an occasional lecture series, Aspects of Banaras, on the city’s music, painting, and religious history. Rooms are air-conditioned and simply furnished; among Varanasi hotels near ghats, Ganges View is one of the more accessible options, particularly relative to its central location and the scale of its art collection.
Where to Eat
Kashi Chaat Bhandar. Near Godowlia, a short walk from Dashashwamedh Ghat, this 60-year-old chaat counter is built around tamatar chaat, a sweet and spicy tomato preparation cooked slowly in ghee with potatoes, found almost nowhere outside Varanasi. The menu also runs to palak patta chaat (fried spinach leaves), aloo tikki, and golgappe, eaten standing at the counter rather than seated.
Blue Lassi Shop. In Kachaudi Gali near Kashi Vishwanath Temple, this multi-generation shop serves lassi in clay kulhads, thickened with malai and topped with fruit, a fixture of the lane for decades. The shop is cash-only and has no seating beyond a few narrow benches.
Malaiyo, winter only. A dessert specific to Varanasi, made by whipping milk, sugar, and saffron into a foam overnight in the cold air and serving it the next morning, malaiyo appears at street stalls across the old city from roughly November through February and disappears once the weather warms.
Practical Notes
Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS) connects to Delhi, Mumbai, and several other Indian cities, with the airport around 25 kilometers, roughly 45 minutes to an hour, from the ghats. Varanasi Junction is the main railway station for trains from Delhi (the Vande Bharat Express covers the route in about 8 hours), Kolkata, and Mumbai. The most comfortable months are November through February, when daytime temperatures stay in the high teens to low twenties Celsius; April through June is hot, reaching the mid-40s, and the monsoon from July through September brings heavy rain and flooding to the lower ghats. Cover shoulders and knees inside Kashi Vishwanath Temple and other shrines, and leave phones and cameras in the lockers provided at the temple entrance rather than in pockets. Photography is prohibited at Manikarnika and Harishchandra, the two cremation ghats, and is enforced by those working there.
How many days do you need in Varanasi?
Two to three days covers the core of Varanasi: an evening Ganga Aarti at Dashashwamedh Ghat, a visit to Kashi Vishwanath Temple, a sunrise boat ride past Manikarnika Ghat, and a half-day trip to Sarnath. A single overnight is workable for travelers focused only on the ghats and the temple, but it leaves no time for Sarnath or a second aarti viewing from a different ghat.
Can you visit Kashi Vishwanath Temple without booking in advance?
Yes. General darshan, known as Sugam Darshan, does not require advance booking and is available daily from around 4am to 11am and again in the afternoon, though queues can run long, particularly on weekends and during festivals. Paid VIP or Sparsh Darshan slots can be booked online in advance through the temple’s official portal, and Sparsh Darshan is suspended entirely during the monsoon month of Shravan.
Which hotels in Varanasi are on the ghats themselves?
A handful of hotels in Varanasi India occupy buildings directly on the ghats, including BrijRama Palace on Darbhanga Ghat and Guleria Kothi on Guleria Ghat, both reachable only by boat. Amritara Suryauday Haveli sits on Shivala Ghat with road access nearby, and Hotel Ganges View overlooks Assi Ghat at the quieter southern end of the riverfront.
By late afternoon, the light along the ghats turns the color of the sandstone itself, gold sliding toward orange as the steps fill again for the evening Aarti. Boats gather just offshore, their passengers facing the platform at Dashashwamedh as the first conch sounds. Upriver, smoke still rises from Manikarnika. Eleven kilometers north, the Dhamek Stupa at Sarnath stands in a stillness that has nothing to do with the river at all, two traditions, a few kilometers and two and a half thousand years apart, sharing the same stretch of Uttar Pradesh.
