First of all, I know this is terribly open-ended, but... I'll be in based in DEL for the next four months or so (Oct to Feb), and would like to experience as much of India as possible during that time. I'm thus trying to work out what places I could reasonably visit during...

...a standard weekend (Fri evening-Sun evening)
...a long 3/4-day weekend
...if I take an entire week off

I have essentially no prior experience of India, and my interests are wide-ranging but I have soft spots for diving, good food and spectacular temples. A few places on a very rough to-do list are:

- Goa
- Agra (Taj Mahal)
- Kathmandu (I know, it's not India, but it's not that far...)
- Ellora/Ajanta caves
- Lakshadweep islands
- Varanasi (Benares)

I'd like to exclude the deep south (Kerala/Karnataka/Tamil Nadu) from the equation for now, both because it's far from Delhi and because I may have a chance to visit Bangalore in the future.

Any ideas would be much appreciated. @:-)