riverside5467

Looking for a 5 nights holiday in the coming month of October. Searching for some help to plan it in the proper manner.
What are the points to be kept in mind while negotiating with a company?

Kathie

First point, in a mere 5 days you are trying to cover too much ground. With that amount of time one destination or at most two works best.

thursdaysd

Five nights gives you four days. You could do Delhi and Agra OR Jaipur.

I have no idea what exactly you are asking.

jacketwatch

I too think 3 cities in 5 days is too much. I would do Delhi and Agra. You have to see the Taj and there is plenty to do in Delhi. Drop Jaipur or add more days.

Craig

Of course, no one has answered your actual question, as you do not know what you want to do. So let's assume that Delhi and Agra are a good itinerary for your 5 days. In dealing with an agent (and there are one or two good ones recommended here), you need to be as specific as possible as to what you want - guide or no guide, driver, no driver, train plans or flight plans. What type of hotels do you want? How much do you want to spend? I hope this helps but your post is so vague - you have been lucky to get any response from me or anyone else...

dihagraindia

Although most of the members here are not convinced but it is still doable very comfortably. You can plan your trip as below:
New Delhi - 2 nights
Agra - 1 night
Jaipur - 2 Nights
5 nights means 6 days depending at what time your flights are landing and taking off so if you are landing early and take off late you can use those 2 days very easily. New Delhi-Agra-Jaipur is India's most famous tourist circuit. People land in Delhi use a day or 2 for sightseeing transfer to Agra on 3 day overnight stay at Agra and on the 4th day reach Jaipur. Agra sightseeing is done on 3rd day evening & 4th day morning. Sightseeing of Jaipur is done on 5 day and remaining in the morning of 6th day, later transferred to New Delhi to catch their flight during night.
Hope this will help you plan your holiday.
As far as the negotiations with travel Agents are concerned, as rightly said by craig, it depends on the services, type of vehicle, hotel category etc.
It is highly recommended to do this tour through a personal vehicle, you should be very much clear about the budget you are going to spend on this. If you are on a low budget, these three cities offer very good train connectivity but for that you have to be in a proper conversation with a person in India who can arrange train tickets for you.
I hope this will be of help to you.

cwn

riverside5467

You trip plan is indeed possible and can be delightful!

Here is our trip with 5 days on the ground which we thoroughly enjoyed and saw the things we wanted to see plus some. Yes, more time would have been nice, but my husband didn't want to go period...surprise half way through he said he was loving it and asked "why hadn't we planned more time". I can't print my reply!!

Arrived from the US at 00:30 checked into Hotel in Delhi (after 2 long flights)
Day 1 Delhi
Day 2 Drove to Agra (2 + hour drive)
Day 3 Drove to Jaipur (5 hour drive + 3 stops)
Day 4 Jaipur
Day 5 Drove back to Delhi (3 hour drive)..we could have flown out late that night, but I hate those midnight departures so spent the night took an early morning flight.

I made a list of the sites I wanted to see in each city, knew I wanted a private car and driver for the whole time so we could be totally flexible. Didn't want to waste time dealing with a train or taxis. I sent my itinerary to three Indian agents with good reports on Fodors. Of the three, only one responded promptly with the plan and hotels that I had requested (others were all over the place with other suggestions/changes) and he was the least expensive. We emailed back and forth and fine tuned some things. I made a small deposit by PayPal. The trip was beyond expectations and the driver was great. We did not have a guide, though we did ask for one for two sites.

If you are interested in the details and pictures look at my trip trop...www.springmix3013.blogspot.com. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on April 12...that is our first full day in Delhi. After India we go back to Europe for awhile.

jft

I just returned from trip to India ( see my report from yesterday). We arrived from Toronto at 830 pm - used great driver Ramesh Kumar who arranged guides for us. Stayed two nights in Delhi( one full day of touring) then drove to Agra- saw Agra fort that afternoon, view of taj at sunset, then tour of Taj Mahal at sunrise. Went back to hotel for breakfast and then drive to Jaipur with stop at Fatehpur Sikri. Dinner in Jaipur with day of touring ( amber fort and city palace). Next day we flew to Chennai but you can drive to Delhi. Very doable.

jft

Oops- was old forum! I thought it was page one of India forums but was 25!