Fatehpur Sikri to Agra: the way back by car, bus or train

Fatehpur Sikri to Agra is about 35 to 42 km by road, depending on which part of Agra you are going to, and about an hour by car: 37 km to Agra Cantt railway station, 38 km to Agra Fort, and 41 to 42 km to the Taj Mahal and the Fatehabad Road hotels. The palace complex closes at sunset. When we checked, two daily trains went back in the afternoon, at 4:07 and 5:38 PM, and buses ran to Agra’s Idgah bus stand until early evening.

This page is the way back; getting there, the tickets and the walking order are in our Agra to Fatehpur Sikri day-trip guide. One disclosure: Altitude, the rooftop restaurant above MG Road 2 in Shahganj, is ours. It is the lunch suggestion near the end, and everything before it we would tell you either way.

Fatehpur Sikri to Agra distance, by where you are going

Road distances from the Sikri end, worked out with OSRM routing on 7 October 2026. The times are what to allow, not what the map says: the highway is quick, the last few kilometres into the city are not.

By rail, the Fatehpur Sikri to Agra Fort distance is 36 km, and Idgah station is 34 km. The road back is NH-21, the Jaipur road; allow longer in the evening rush.

Leaving the monument: the shuttle, the gates and sunset

Fatehpur Sikri is open from sunrise to sunset every day, Fridays included, and the ticketed palace complex shuts with the light. The Jama Masjid, the Buland Darwaza and Salim Chishti’s tomb are free and outside the ticketed area, and the district’s own page says the dargah stays open longer. The palace is the part with the deadline.

Back to the car park

Private cars wait at the car park at the base of the ridge, about a kilometre from the palaces. The shuttle runs back from the Diwan-i-Am end, where it dropped you, so after the mosque walk back to that side. Travellers report that the morning ticket covers the ride down; if yours does not, the fare is small. Or walk it, about a kilometre downhill.

If your car is in the car park, do not go down the Buland Darwaza steps. They bring you down into the town, towards the bus stand and the station: right for the bus or the train, a long way round for the car.

When to start back

Our rule: head for the shuttle half an hour before sunset. The ticket windows shut a little before the gates, everyone else leaves in that last half hour too, and the drive is easier in daylight. Sunset at Sikri, calculated and rounded:

Add an hour on the road and you reach Agra roughly 45 minutes after sunset. In December and January, fog can settle on the highway after dark as well as in the morning, so in those months leave earlier rather than later.

By taxi or hired car: fix the return before you set out

The easy way back, and the one we would choose. If you hired the car in Agra for the trip, the return is already in the price; the work is agreeing the details before you leave the hotel. A drop at Agra Cantt for a train is a different job from a drop at your hotel.

Came out by bus or train and want a car back? Do not count on an app cab finding you out here; book a one-way cab before you set out, with the pickup time and place fixed. For scale, one booking site listed one-way cabs from Fatehpur Sikri to Agra at about ₹970 for a hatchback and up to about ₹3,300 for an SUV in October 2026. Ask whether tolls and parking are in that.

Fatehpur Sikri to Agra by bus

UPSRTC, Uttar Pradesh’s state buses, run between Fatehpur Sikri and Agra’s Idgah bus stand, which is close to Agra Cantt station. At Sikri they leave from the town below the Buland Darwaza, near the railway station.

We could not find a published timetable for these ordinary buses, so this is what travel guides and travellers have reported, not an official schedule: a bus every half hour to an hour, an hour to two on the road, a fare of somewhere between ₹50 and ₹100, and the last one at about 7 PM.

The cheapest way back and the slowest: fine in the cool months if you travel light, a poor choice in May and June, with luggage or with a train to catch. From Idgah, an auto or an app cab takes you on.

Fatehpur Sikri to Agra by train: the timetable

Fatehpur Sikri station is in the town, about a kilometre below the Buland Darwaza and close to the bus stand. When we checked, none of the afternoon trains went to Agra Cantt: they stop at Idgah, a short ride from Agra Cantt, and at Agra Fort, by the old city.

Both afternoon trains come a long way, the passenger from Kota and the Avadh Express from Mumbai’s Bandra Terminus, and either can run late. Check the running status on NTES before you walk down, and buy an unreserved ticket at the counter.

Get off at Idgah for Agra Cantt and Sadar Bazaar. Even for the Fort, an auto from Idgah usually beats staying on the passenger, which the timetable gives 48 minutes for the last stretch. The morning train only suits you if you slept in Sikri or were at the gates at sunrise.

The train is also the one option with a fixed time. In mid-October, leave the palace by about 5:00 PM for the 5:38. Miss it and plan on the road: the only later trains are specials, which come and go.

Making an evening train at Agra Cantt

If Sikri is your last stop in Agra, work back from the train: an hour on the road from the Sikri car park to Agra Cantt, and half an hour at the station. When we checked in October 2026, the fast trains to Delhi left Agra Cantt like this:

• Gatimaan Express 12049, 5:35 PM, not Fridays. Leave the Sikri car park by about 3:45 PM to go straight to the station, or by about 2:15 PM with lunch on the way.
• Vande Bharat 22469, about 9:00 PM, not Mondays. Stay at Sikri until the light goes, eat in Agra, and be at the station by 8:30 PM.
• Shatabdi 12001, 9:25 PM, daily. The same plan, with 25 minutes more in hand.

The Taj is closed on Fridays and the Gatimaan does not run, which makes Friday a good day for Sikri and a bad one for that train; Agra on a Friday has the rest of that day. By train from Sikri, the Avadh Express reaches Idgah at 6:48 PM, which leaves time for the nine o’clock trains unless it is running two hours late.

Luggage: if the car is yours for the day, the bags can stay in the boot; otherwise ask about the cloak room at Agra Cantt when you arrive in the morning. For a gap before the train, see where to eat near Agra Cantt station.

A lunch stop on the way in

This is Altitude’s journal, so weigh this accordingly. Coming in from Sikri, west Agra comes before the Fort and the Taj, and we are in Shahganj, on the top floor above MG Road 2: about 35 km from the Sikri car park, or 50 to 60 minutes. Going on to the Taj side, the stop adds about 3 km; Agra Cantt is 5 km, or 15 minutes, from us.

Lunch starts at 1:00 PM, not before. Leave Sikri at about noon and you arrive as the kitchen opens; leave at eleven and you will be waiting on the pavement. Out of the palace early? Akbar’s tomb at Sikandra, 9 km from us, fills that hour well (see our guide to Akbar’s tomb). To eat at Sikri itself instead, here is what there is to eat near Fatehpur Sikri.

What to order on a driver’s clock

For a group with a car waiting, the quick answer is a One Plate Wonder: a complete meal that serves one, with one butter naan, two butter rotis or steamed rice. On our menu as we write:

• Dal Makhani Meal, Kadhai Paneer Meal or Chole Meal, ₹380 each
• Kulcha + Dal Makhani, ₹380
• Chilli Paneer + Hakka Noodles, ₹410
• Chicken Curry Meal, ₹450
• Punjabi Chole Bhature, ₹280, or Pav Bhaji Paaji, ₹250

One plate each keeps the order simple and the bill easy to split. The pizzas are 12-inch thin crust, baked to order and worth the 25-minute wait. Veg, non-veg and egg dishes are clearly marked across all 225 dishes, from ₹20 to ₹830. We do not serve alcohol; the cold list is mocktails, mojitos, iced teas, lemonades, shakes, frappes and coffee, and every mocktail is 30% off from 1 to 6 PM.

There are 60 seats on the open terrace and 40 indoors with air conditioning, which is where you want to be in May, June and the monsoon. There is no Taj view from our roof — the city and the sky, and a chair after a morning on stone.

Book a table online before you leave Sikri, or the night before: free, confirmed instantly and free to cancel up to two hours before. Monday to Friday, a table booked for between 1:00 and 6:00 PM gets 30% off what you order before 6:00 PM, which for a lunch is everything. Friday counts, and Sikri is open on Fridays when the Taj is not. Other weekday bookings get 20%, weekends 15%. One offer per bill, booked online in advance, and none on 31 December, 1 January, major festivals or public holidays; the offers page has the terms.

Leave Sikri at, lunch at, train at: the afternoon, timed

Timed for a weekday in mid-October, when the sun sets at Sikri at about 5:50 PM and the Taj closes half an hour earlier. In other months, move the last row with the sun.

The first four rows are weekday lunches inside the 30% window, if the table is booked online. The dinner row gets 20% on a weekday or 15% at the weekend. Too tired to go out again once you are back? Order from the same kitchen to your hotel.

Or do it the other way round

Not a morning person? Shahganj is on the way out of the city as well as in. Lunch with us at 1:00 PM, be on the road by 1:45 PM, and you reach Sikri at about 2:45 PM, three hours before the October sunset. Head for the shuttle at about 5:20 PM and you are back in Agra soon after half past six, for dinner or a late train.

Coming from Jaipur with Sikri on the way? The last hour of that drive is this road; our Jaipur to Agra road trip has the rest of it.