Getting There & Around

Getting There & Around

If you choose to fly into Orissa you will be arriving at Bhubaneswar. Bhubaneswar is connected to Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Bangalore by daily flights on several airlines. Biju Patnaik Airport, a small, decently efficient airport, is hardly 4 km (2½ mi) from the city center. There is a taxi stand outside. For Rs. 160 you can get into the city center. The "taxi-men" are reasonaby easy to deal with and are not that prone to cheating.

Trains from Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and the South pull into Bhubaneswar's main railway station close to the city center. Auto-rickshaws can conveniently get you to your hotel. Puri is connected to Delhi and Kolkata by rail and you can use an auto-rickshaw to transfer to your hotel. The best way to see Orissa is by car, although there are good bus services linking Puri with Bhubaneswar. Road travel will offer a chance to wander through rather picturesque Oriya villages. Car agencies generally offer very reasonable prices in Orissa. A Bhubaneswar-Puri transfer will set you back no more than Rs. 850 or Rs. 950. Sightseeing around Puri to, say, Konark and Raghurajpur or to Chilka Lake, comes to a little over Rs. 1,000 for a 10-hour day. Allow your driver time for lunch, and give him Rs. 50 or so to have it, and remember to tip him at the end of the day—Rs. 100 or Rs. 150 is a decent amount (minus the lunch amount).