River travel in India offers a window into the country’s soul that no other form of transport can match. The Ganges — the holiest river in Hinduism — flows from the Gangotri Glacier in the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal, and its banks are home to some of India’s most sacred cities. Varanasi, the oldest continuously inhabited city on earth, is the Ganges at its most intense and most spiritual — a city where dawn boat rides on the river reveal the extraordinary ghats (stone steps descending to the water), where priests perform the Ganga Aarti ceremony at dusk with fire and devotion visible from the water, and where life and death play out simultaneously and openly in a way that is profoundly moving. Ganges river cruises typically run between Kolkata and Varanasi, calling at a series of historically and spiritually significant towns along the way. Mayapur, home to the largest ISKCON temple complex in the world; Murshidabad, former capital of Bengal with Nawabi-era palaces; Chandannagar, a former French colonial enclave; and the ghats of Varanasi itself create an itinerary of remarkable variety and depth. The cruise ships operating on this route are comfortable, boutique vessels with expert guides and excellent onboard cultural programming. Kenya’s backwater houseboats in Kerala offer a completely different Indian river experience — drifting through a 900-kilometre network of lagoons, lakes, rivers and canals in the ‘Land of the Coconuts’, watching herons fish from the banks, coir workers weave and children cycle along the waterside paths. The Kerala backwaters are one of India’s most iconic and peaceful landscapes. India’s rivers are best experienced October to March, when temperatures are moderate and the monsoon season has passed.