For the Hindus of India, this is not a question - of course you swim in The Ganges River. But as foreign travellers, is it actually safe? 

 

Ganga Maa as she is known, is the Holy River of India - a living river, the embodiment of the Goddess Ganga, who upon entering her waters, spiritually purifies souls granting liberation from sin, sorrows and suffering. 

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As a non-Hindu myself, I can say - she is an energy field. One I personally am obsessed with. 

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15 years ago, I visited Varanasi, on my first trip to India (I would not advise this). I remember wandering the allies of Varanasi when my friend and I both had accidentally stood in cow dung, distracted while taking photos. 

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We walked to the steps of the Ganga, scared to put my shoe in the water. Would my foot fall off on contact with this water? I'd only ever heard negative things, but apparently living organisms couldn't survive in the water it was so polluted - so I felt kinda safe. 

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In Varanasi, I had unintentionally booked a room with a river view that was incredibly cheap. I didn't realise I had booked into a room above a burial ghat. Open air cremations took place 24/7 around me. From my balcony I watched the ashes of human bodies added to the river, even un-cremated bodies just rolled in (assuming they were a Holy person). I saw local kids swimming in the water directly beside this, as well as local poorer people brushing their teeth with this water. Were they used to it? How could this brazen mash up of functions continue to co-exist?

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Fast forward to 2026, where I am living in Rishikesh and bathing in the Ganga, completely dipping under water several times, but mostly staying submerged to just under my shoulders for around 20 minutes, most days of the week. When I started this practice, it was not until the fifth day that I became ill. 

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Now to be fair, I was vomitting and having serious diarrhea for 24 hours. I couldn't stop silently crying and I felt like a full purge was taking place. In fact I might even write about that separately, as that was a whole other experience. But I had been in the water 5 times on consecutive days before this was happening. And after having a day off to be sick - I continued to get back into the Ganga. I still haven't been sick again since. 

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What is common though of people who get in the Ganga and then get sick is the way it happens. They get overwhelmingly sick for 24 hours - becoming besties with the toilet, feeling an absolute purge, then thats that. When you get sick from contaminated food or water, it often goes for a lot longer. 

 

This sickness is also sometimes the experience you can have with high energy places, even if you are not as obviously submergered in them, as you are with water. It's an energy purge, a purification - out with the old, in the ways your body uses as cleaning out strategies. This happens as your body adjusts frequencies. Coming in contact with high vibrational water can create a resonances in your own body's energy field. There is a disonance with the resonance that has to be released for the vibratory fields to align. If you aren't into energy work, you probably just read that and thought 'WTF did I just read?' But actually it's true, and it's a thing. 

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So what is the overall take aways I have when it comes to this question? Well there is a few factors to consider when deciding whether or not you should swim in the Ganga; because in my experience - it is very safe. Lovely. Glorious in fact. Being in that water is one of my favourite feelings in the world. And I am not naturally into river water swimming. 

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The first is that the closer you get to the origin of the source of the river, the safer it is. Rishikesh is great for getting in the water, by Varanasi, maybe not so much unless you are a total devotee. In Rishikesh the water is mostly still a beautiful glacial healthy green like colour. At the edge of the water you can still see a decent way into it's depth - it's clean. Also, there's lots of places you can get in that are not so deep, so you can bob down to submerge, without fear of being swept away. (The Ganga has powerful currents - and you should avoid going in too deep - people will not come to save you if you get into trouble). Another way is to sit on the banks and pour the water onto you, if you are scared to get in. If you have someone to go with you, even better.

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The second thing to consider is are you ok with getting sick, if you do try it out? If you have had all your travel shots, including typhoid and Hep A/B, you've got your first aid kit diarrhea tablets, and you feel you'd be ok if you got sick. Places like Rishikesh also have services like Swiggy and Blink it, so if you couldn't leave your room for a day - you wouldn't need to starve either. 

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And what are your reasons for doing this? I mean if you are on a tight travel timetable and this is a bucketlist tick off, that's not really the right reason to get in. But if you are into experiencing different energies; you are open to the experience of what this might bring - even if you do get sick for a day or two - then this is something you really shouldn't miss. We have experienced things in our personal lives after bathing in these waters that are miracles. And the fact that both my husband and I had multiple of these experiences after, within two weeks, we see them as too many, and too separate to be coincidental.

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Another thing to consider is your fear factor around doing this. I imagine if the fear is too much, then you probably wouldn't even read an article like this - but a nervousness from a healthy curiosity is ok. We were nervous the first time we got in - but we did our due dilligence first. We sat on the banks of where we thought might be a good spot and we watched people for an hour or so. Looking at how they were getting in, how far in they would go and what level the water was coming up to. Did the current seem strong there? Was it easy to get out? Was there somewhere better to get in than where we thought? This is all a responsible way to deal with our dip, especially if you are doing this alone and yourselves. Once we found our spot, we took time to ease ourselves in. And admittedly, our first dip was a little nervous. But after a few minutes of coming out - we decided to do it again, now that fear feeling had subsided more, and we could really enjoy it. 

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So is it safe? Put simply, it can be. Plan, prepare and enjoy. 

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