SIMON REEVE ON THE POWER OF VARANASI

Spectacular, overwhelming, spiritual and home to seriously good street food — why India’s holiest city has stolen the TV presenter and adventurer’s heart

- 

Where is your favourite destination and why? Varanasi in India. It is one of the most spectacular places I have been. It’s one of the oldest inhabited cities on Earth and has been a place of faith for something like 30 centuries. It’s said to be older than Babylon. It’s also one of the most overwhelming places that I've been to. But I think you can have as much of it or as little as you like. If you want to really dive into it, then it’s a place that will stick in your heart and your soul for the rest of your existence. But if you want to skirt around the edges, you'll still have a very memorable time. I've also written a guide to Varanasi for a Nutmeg travelling investment brochure. India has the largest population in the world, and it’s one of the most youthful countries in the world. So it’s an incredibly exciting place to visit, but it’s also somewhere all of us should be looking at much more than we are in terms of it being a rising economy and superpower.

When was the last time you were there, and who were you with?I've been there twice. I first went 10 years ago, then again five years ago. I’ve been to India six or seven times, I think, and travelled pretty extensively there. I've been across it twice, following the Tropic of Cancer and the river Ganges from source to sea, which was a hell of a journey.

Where do you like to stay there?We stayed in a little guest house for part of it. There is a Taj Hotel there: the Tajs are quite posh, and that would definitely be an option if I went back again. But the river guest houses are really special. Ours was called Ganpati, and it was a riot of colour. Every room was painted in what some would say garish colours. I would say colours that just make you feel alive.