Travel - A Trip to Mathura and Vrindavan from Delhi - One Day trip

If you are going on a one day trip try to leave early around 6-7 AM, for obvious reason that you will get less traffic on your way. Take the Mathura road or NH 2, I have not done this trip via the newly constructed Yamuna Express Way, the reason for this is that if you indeed leave a little earlier then you can visit one more place in the same trip. But I will explain that later.

If you leave between 6-7, you will reach Vrindavan anywhere between 10-12 depending on your speed, traffic and other things. Remember you have to reach there between this time as most of the temples get closed at around 1 PM. so try to utilise this time. Park your car near to the ISCON temple as it get very heavy rush on weekends and it best to avoid while leaving Vrindavan. Once you are in Vrindavan go straight to Bankey Bihari ji temple as this is what you have come for. The other noteworthy temple in Vrindavan is ISCON. It should take you take you around half an hour for this. Now, just opposite to the temple there is a snacks shops which serves very good tikki and lassi. Dont forget to enjoy that.

After visiting that place, if you have time in your hand you can go to some of the Gardens in Vrindavan, if you wish. But since you are on a day trip I think it wont be possible unless you decide to waste your time in Vrindavan. After visiting this, come to ISCON temple. It should take you another half an hour.

You should be able to finish both these temples before 1 PM, otherwise you will waste a lot of time in Vrindavan waiting for the temples to open again at 4'o clock. Remember the same is true for the temple at Mathura, they also close at 1 and opens at 4. So, if you dont complete Vrindavan before 1 PM, you will waste solid 3 hrs of your day.

Once you have completed both these temples by 1 PM, go to Goverdhan. Goverdhan is around 20 km from Vrindavan. Since all the temples will be closed here as well, the only thing that doing note worthy here is Parikarma of the Goverdhan Parvat. Parikarma can be done by car, hired rickshaw or by walking. Since walking and rickshaw take a lot of time. This would again mean you will miss the Mathura. So try to hire an auto-rickshaw or a car for the purpose. The Parikarma is of 25 kms, divided in two parts of 15km and 10 kms. The parikarma is divided by a road going in front of the temple. The first 15 kms easy as the road is newly built and is quiet wide. However, the other 10 kms, goes thorugh the village and the road is quite narrow. During the second half of 10 kms, there are two ponds that note worthy. One is Radha Kund and Krishna Kund. They are believed to be dug by the Shri Radha and Shri Krishna respectively using their ring and flute respectively. You should be able to finish this by 2:30 - 3:00.

After completing the Parikarma, head straight to Mathura. It is around 30 kms from Goverdhan. You should reach Mathura by 3:30 - 4:00. Go straight to the temple or Shri Krishna Janam bhoomi. There is another temple here which Dwarkadheesh. Once you reach Janambhumi, there are lot of restaurants where you can have your lunch. Take lunch and go to Janambhumi. there are two temples to visit there, one is the karawas or jail, where Lord Krishna was suppose to be born and another a newly built new temple. If time permits and you have kids there is a live show cave that you can visit. 

Things to know about Mathura temple, the temple security does not allow you to carry any electronics with you mobile, camera, electronic key, ipods and ipads etc. Either you can keep them in your car or better there is shop next to the temple where you can keep your stuff for nominal charges. 

With this your one day trip is concluded in vrindavan and Mathura. You should be able to reach Delhi by 11 PM. 

Update: You can use the newly constructed Yamuna Expressway to go to Vrindavan, it takes around 1 and half hour to reach there. This should make your travel a bit relaxed.