One or two days is enough for most visitors. That covers Hanumat Dham at Visrat Ghat, the memorials to Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqulla Khan, and a wander through the old bazaars. With extra time, add a trip to Khudaganj for khurchan or continue on to nearby Bareilly.

It is a Holi tradition in which a man dressed as a 'Laat Sahab', a British-era lord, rides through town on a buffalo cart. Revelers splash colored water and playfully throw shoes at him. His identity is kept secret, and several smaller processions also wind through the streets that day.

Shahjahanpur is called Shaheedon ki Nagri, the City of Martyrs, because freedom fighters Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan and Roshan Singh came from here. All three were executed after the 1925 Kakori train action, and memorials and a road named for Bismil keep their story present in the town.