Travelling around India

Hello all

I am planning a trip to India with my girlfriend in December. We are young travellers (aged 21) who have experiance travelling through Europe and both lived in England for our Gap year. We are planning to travel around India from the 11th of December to the 26th December. We do understand that this is a limited amount of time to see India as it is basically the size of a continent, however we are young and do not mind being on the move very often.

We would like to try and stay away from the touristy destinations although seeing the Taj Mahal and other famous sites would be a must for us. I am a huge fan of cricket and will be carrying a couple bats and balls with me at all times, hoping to catch a few games with the locals. What is the best way to travel around India ie. train, air or car? What areas do you recommend we travel to? Do remember our limited amount of time.

We would also like to attend a retreat if possible, paint elephants, meet plenty cool people and see the natural wonders of India. I am hoping that some of you have travelled through India with similiar ideas for travelling as we have, except with first hand experiance.

We are then going to Thailand and Vietnam. Any suggestions for Vietnam would also be greatly appreciated. First hand advice would be a great help and maybe some of you are heading in the same direction at a simialir time, would be awesome to meet up. Thanks for reading and hopefully you have some cool tips for us young travellers.

Thanks

Mike and Kiah from Cape Town

Hi Mike & Kiah,
Greetings from Goa - India!!

Your query is very exhaustive and I am sure a lot of people will chip in with their views. You are right - India is huge and it will be a herculian task for any one individual to offer advice on all the regions.

I am based in Goa - India and own a small family run beach resort.

Should you be planning to visit Goa ( Normally all visitors to India do that) I will be happy to assit you.

Goa is good for the following.
1. Chilling out, beach activities, water sports etc.
2. Known for its parties
3 Spice plantation with elephant rides and other activities involving elephants.
4. Some of the world famous historical monuments ( Bom Jesus Basilica, Ancient Shiva temple in Tambdi Surla etc)
5. Can also arrange for you to play cricket with a Local team.

If this information interests you, kindly write to me. You can also visit my site -snip-

Regards
Vivek

[ Edit: Sorry, no promos please. ]

Thanks so much for your speedy responses. I do understand that it is a pretty vague entry, although we just trying to get ideas as to where we should go with limited amount of time.

We will certainly be visiting both Mumbai and Goa.

Thanks again

Mike n Kiah

Since you are on a very limited time, here's my suggestion with what you have said you would like. Fly into Delhi, get to your guest house. Your guest house will be able to arrange a taxi for a trip to Agra and back. Take another taxi, possibly using the same guy and you can use this to negotiate a better price, but taxi down to Jaipur in Rajasthan, then back to Delhi again. Fly to Bombay, taxi to Pune where you can do a retreat. Back to Bombay and train down to Goa. In goa you can go to a number of tousity elephant things and Im sure they will let you paint them if you pay them enough! Don't bother with carry cricket bats all over the place, every self respecting Indian kid will have a bat and be happy to let you use it.

this is going to be more expensive obviously by taxi, although probably not as much as you think. But with your time restraints, you have no idea how difficult and exhausting it can be to travel in India by public transport. A good taxi driver will get you there, and be your guide and help you with food etc, making a really fun trip rather than a frustrating one.

Hi! 2 weeks is too little a time to visit a vast country like india, but if you are specific
about your interests, it will be easier to lead you to your interests.

• funds--if they are limited, travel by train to destinations where distances are not more than 5to 600kms. that way you could sleep in the train & save money on nights stay. Else fly.

• Having come to india I would suggest you go to a national forest if you wish to see a striped tiger

in the wild

1. Ancient civilization of india is more down south, close to Bangalore(hampi, Belur & Halebid & many more) lots of temples & carvings if you are interested in any.

Where do you fly to Thailand from I mean which city of India, just to avoid crossing your path during your travels in India

Chak

Hey! Im arriving in delhi on 2nd November, going to be travelling around india for around 2 months!

Dodger, the taxi to agra and to jaipur sounds like a good plan. roughly how much could we expect to pay for the taxis?

Also are the trips worth doing, when everything is organised for you or is it much cheaper to arrange this yourself?

as much info as possible is greatly appreciated!

thanks.

Boozle

You have a lot of time to visit India if you plan your trip well!!!!

You can cover north as well as south India during these trips.

You can visit Agra, Delhi and jaipur-jodhpur within 2-3 days...For down south you can visit
kerala for elephant and relaxing Beaches.

[ Edit: Sorry, no promos please. ]

Hi Mike/ Kiah!

Yes, your post is vague. India is too big a country to cover in just a short time. So you will need to prioritise. Delhi and Agra are good places to start, but it depends on what you wish to cover. I love the mountains here in India, but for all I know, you may be a desert fan.

Welcome! Hope my post helps in some small way.

Apu

Quoting boozle

Hey! Im arriving in delhi on 2nd November, going to be travelling around india for around 2 months!

Dodger, the taxi to agra and to jaipur sounds like a good plan. roughly how much could we expect to pay for the taxis?

Also are the trips worth doing, when everything is organised for you or is it much cheaper to arrange this yourself?

as much info as possible is greatly appreciated!

thanks.

Boozle

Hey sorry mate I just saw this. I've never done the taxi thing as I've not been pushed for time. From what I remember though you can hire a taxi for about 1500rp a day. But it's really hard work negotiating. That triangle area of Delhi, Jaipur and Agra is always more expensive because they are use to tourists flying in and still thinking in pounds and dollars. Worth doing, well you have to weigh up the pros and cons of your own trip. How much time do you have, how many people in your group, and then the variables of what driver you get. If your guest house is arranging the taxi, ask..no demand that you want to meet him before you leave. Ive heard of people being sent out with taxi drivers that were either miserable or rude, or didn't speak any English. But if you get a good one who really wants to show you his country, it can make for an awesome way to get around. I've paid over the top on tuc tuc rides just because the guy was friendly. Yes of course its cheaper to arrange yourself. But honestly until you see how India operates you can't understand just how difficult it can be to arrange anything. Again it comes down to time. If you have the time to haggle and fight with drivers, till you find the guy you want, then yes do it yourself. The trains to both Agra and Jaipur arent too bad to organize through a travel agent in Delhi.

I have travelled to all of these places you mentioned: India, Thailand and Vietnam. I spent 5 weeks in India and I didn't feel like I even scratched the surface, but we did get around. First, Indian people are the nicest and friendliest people I have ever met. I would suggest to combine flying and rail. Mumbai is nice if you get away from the airport and get down to the south part. There is tons of cricket games going on in fields just a block west of Victoria Rail Station. Jaisalmer was a highlight to my trip. We flew from Mumbai to Jodhphur and then took the train to Jaisalmer. It is like stepping into a National Geographic magazine. If you get out there, you MUST stay INSIDE the walled city. Guesthouses will tell you there is no water inside the wall or that they are inside the wall. Be careful because they will do anything for your business. I can tell you a great place if you are interested. Jodphur is also a very nice place to spend a few days. Make sure you are in the old blue city. I felt like Jodphur is the friendliest city. The people seemed very happy there. We took the train back to Jaipur. We made arrangements for an auto rickshaw to take us on a full day trip to all the sights in Jaipur. We paid 300 rupees for the entire day and I think we got a steal. I can also recommend an AWESOME place in Jaipur to stay. You might want to spend 2 days in Jaipur but we had enough with one day. We went to Agra for one day and that was plenty to see the Fort and Taj Mahal. We also continued on to Varanasi and Darjeeling, but if you only have two weeks I wouldn't recommend to go on. Varanasi is an important holy city but I was quite disappointment. Some people exploit it for that reason. I didn't make it up to Delhi becuase I am not big on cities and I think it would be simliar to Mumbai/Jaipur. I also heard people throughout my travels talk about how much they loved Pushkar and Udaipur. We went to Goa and Pune as well. They were very nice but I wouldn't recommend trying to the north and south in one trip. I would focus on one or the other. I plan to go back to Goa, Kerala etc on a separate trip.