Transport around India

Hi,
my boyfriend and I are planning on visiting India in July 2009 for 2 months.
We want to fly into the cheapest city (any ideas),
and travel from the north to the south or vice versa - Rajasthan, Agra, Delhi, Jaipur, Jodhpur?, Goa, Mysore, Ooty and more.
Can anyone recommend the best way of doing this, especially on a budget? i.e; trains - how? or are flights cheapest? any good places to visit along the way? etc
Thank you, Wanda.

P.s : how do i subscribe to my own posts????

Hi Wanda,

I would say that when you are travelling long distance it’s cheaper to use flight e.g. if you want to come to Bangalore from Delhi then I would suggest a flight. A flight one way would take 2 hours odd and 3500 INR (approx) whereas it will take more than 24 hours by train. The fare can be cheaper depending on how would you like to travel but if you consider the time factor then flight in this case is cheaper.

Hopping from place to another place in nearby areas again is much better if you take a bus. It will give you a chance to see the places from close quarters, meet local people and taste the food.
You can make Delhi in north, Bangalore in south and Calcutta in east as the base and then go around the places. From Delhi you can go to Agra , Jaipur etc and from Bangalore you can cover Mysore , Ooty etc.

Mysore is just two hours from Bangalore.
Ooty takes 6-7 hours by bus from Bangalore and 5 hours from Mysore. A direct ticket would cost you around 400-500 INR (based on the type you want to opt for. It can be cheaper as well). On your way to Ooty, you can stay for a day in one of the National Forests as well. It’s an amazing experience. You can also go to Kerela.

I personally would like to suggest Coorg as well which is (maximum) 6 hours from Bangalore.

Depending upon the places you mentioned I think you can start from Delhi, then Jaipur & Agra etc then Goa and from there to Bangalore.

I don’t know what kind of places you are looking for. If you can let me know about the places you have in your must-see list and also the kind of travel that interests you, perhaps I can help to work it out for you. Eg now-a-days I love to travel to off-beat places. More solitary it is and far away from shopping frenzy tourist mobs better it is for me. Anyways, let me know if you need any help. I am going to be in Bangalore if I am not travelling.
Feel free to shoot questions.

Cheers,
Reshmi

Hey wanda
before you book all your flights etc jus check what time monsoons are expected to hit what city
coz it might ruin your trip, you may end up seeing only your hotel!!!!

may be fly in to delhi, tour rajasthan (you can also hire a private taxi) the advantage of that is you hav your own flexibility
in terms of how long you wanna spend in a city n what time u wanna head out also
beats haggling wid the local taxi drivers/ figuring out the bus numbers etc
it more or less breaks even.
trains can be booked online at the indian railways website. www.indianrail.gov.in/
flights aswell can be booked at travel websites like www.makemytrip.com
i suggest get to delhi- then travel around rajasthan by car(+agra)
you should see agra jaipur jodhpur jaisalmer udaypur pushkar
also dont miss out on the monuments n history in delhi (a lot of people use delhi as a base but dont see it!!!)
if you wanna see the mountains i would suggest Manali (overnight bus) and from there depending on your
inclination you could go hiking camping or jus chill.

I agree wid reshmi's suggestions abt down south she seems to hav a better idea than i do so wont tread on her toes!!ahaha
but i would suggest kerala-cochin periyar n the back waters
you can always fly out of cochin or bombay..oops its called mumbai now.

if theres more u wanna know just drop us a line.
take care
M

Hi,
For long distances flight is the best option as the other people says and for small distances better to travel by bus and train has good connectivity.
For the route as far I think you should start from Rajasthan then - Agra - orchha - khajuraho - varanasi - colcata - bhuvneshwer - then start for south part of India and bigin with Tamilnadu state, places as Mahabalipuram - pondichery - tanjour - madurai - kanyakumari - kovalam beach the visit all the kerala part then continue towards karnataka - maharashtra state and then you can finish your tour in Goa.
I hope this information will help you.
Wish you all the best.
Raju India.

Well, I do not fully agree to taking flights within the country since you wanted to go cheapest and are going to be here for 2 months so time is not a constraint. Trains are a better option.. they are cheap, you can book the tickets online 3 months in advance at the indian railways website www.indianrail.gov.in/. Also, one gets to see the real country when 'grounded'. Book for 3 tier AC, they are most comfortable and affordable. You need to book in advance to get confirmed booking.

Also, since July to September is monsoon season you'll have to really avoid long trips to mountains like Manali etc. I suggest you fly in to Delhi (monsoon isn't for long and as effective in this part of the country). See Delhi and its historical places, go to Rajasthan (Jaipur, Jodhpur, jaisalmer udaypur pushkar and some more places in the state etc). Hop over to Agra for Taj mahal etc. It is called Golden triangle. Rajuindia is an expert in this area, you can take his help for all your needs. Keep at most 3 weeks for this to elaborately.

After doing this you can move to south India. Mysore, Coorg then to Kerala and then in the last leg of your journey come to Go. During this period Goa is the cheapest but still very beautiful. You can fly out of the country either from Goa or Mumbai.

Quoting Wanda08

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I don't agree with Kuku's comment that time is not a constraint.

2 months is a fair amount of time but you would still need to be fairly realistic about how much you could see and do.

Also, domestic air travel within India is fairly expensive. There are a few decent flights to be had if you do some research and the distances can be huge so a flight or two will give you more time n each place

India sure is fun though

we found the cheapest place to fly to was mumbai, in july. But this is sorta in the middle so may notbe perfect for you.

We found that coach was very cheap. we had a 7 hour (that turned into a 21 hour thanks to the driver driving into a bog) coach jouney that was alot cheaper than flights. That was from bangalore to Goa.

Flights from goa - Bangalore seemed pretty cheap but sell out at week ends as the more affluent indians have weekend trips to get merry in goa.

Bangalore - Mysore is only an hour and was really cheap, i cant remember how many rps but was around £5 i think, i can find out for you with my diary if you like.

mysore to the national parks (Bandipur in our case) can be arranged with a guide (who charged about 1500 per day including travel to national park of bandipur). we had a really informative guide who also took us to the local restaurants bars and introduced us to his friends some of whom were police men who seemed really happy to talk to us for some reason.

he will probably be at the train station wating for tourists now as we speak. we were reluctant at first but he was a really nice guy, honest and sincere, i wish i had some contact information for you because he was great. i could get a photo or you tho lol.

We got a flight from Mumbai to Aurangabad for what worked out at about 170 GBP. Which seemed alot but we were only in india for a short time so had the money for it.

Thanks everyone, for being so helpful and responding so quickly!!
A lot of information here, so will have to take my time and work our way through it,
but will probably be calling on you all again for more advice !!
Wanda.

p.s; any advice on airlines to use? or average ticket prices? at the moment i'm thinking it's likely we'll fly into Delhi but we're open to cheaper suggestions !