Basic question about India

Old Jan 12th, 2006, 01:41 AM
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Basic question about India

What would be an average per diem per person for travel in India excluding international airfare? Assume nice but probably not 5 star hotels, most time efficient and convenient transport within India, no tours.

We're thinking 14 days or so, not sure when yet, maybe August, maybe Christmas time, 2006.

I know...no positive answer is possible...but a ballpark figure would be very helpful.
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Old Jan 12th, 2006, 02:26 AM
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Your three major costs are hotels, car/driver and meals. If you go at Christmas (which will be far more comfortable weather-wise) figure on $200/nt for non-5* hotel, $60/day for driver/minivan and $20-$30pp (a guess) for meals.

By the way, I loved your trip report.
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Old Jan 12th, 2006, 05:08 AM
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Craig,I don't know which India you're talking about,but I think your hotel figures are waaaay off.You can stay in a decent hotel in most places for $50 or much less.Certainly much less in smaller cities and villages,which are the interesting places in my book.
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Old Jan 12th, 2006, 05:43 AM
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MD - I think if you read some of Kim's other posts you will see that she probably isn't looking to stay in a $50/nt hotel in India. On her last trip, for example she stayed at the Conrad in Bangkok, a pretty nice hotel on all accounts. Secondly, although I appreciate that the smaller cities and villages may be more interesting and may have less expensive lodging, Kim is only going to spend 14 days in India. I believe it will be her first time so most likely she is going to do the Delhi - Agra - Jaipur route with one or two additional destinations. If she winds up going in the summer then she may choose to go elsewhere in India - perhaps you can shed some light on that. Lastly, the "I don't know which India you are talking about" comment shows kind of a wise-ass attitude on your part and a lack of appreciation for the diversity amongst the travelers on this forum.
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Old Jan 12th, 2006, 06:02 AM
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kim, i'm working on a 14 day trip for next november...that is high season...top end hotels (or should i say western comfort level) are in tight supply and there is often overbooking these days...i am finding the prices to be $140-200 per night for rung two hotels, i.e. sheratons in agra and jaipur and the intercontinental in delhi....this is using travel agents in delhi, who get a break on the rooms...top tier hotels often run in the $300 plus category....

i have made contact with a couple of delhi agents and am evaluating each of the programs they suggest...while some do india on their own it has been suggested that for a first visit we might want planning and on site assistance, including a car and driver....its getting the details done and the arrangements made that you need assistance for according to all reports....just buying a train ticket or retrieving your luggage can be a hastle ---at least this is what is reported....india does not yet have the smooth efficient tourist industry infastructure that thailand has developed...

many agents have been suggested here...i am finding great differences in not only prices, but approach that each takes... they all seem to want your india experience to be fabulous...their services come very reasonably....each is willing to fully detail expenses, costs and profits...nothing seems hidden...

hope this helps...

i too loved the report

bob
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Old Jan 12th, 2006, 06:03 AM
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Thanks,Dad,for the patronizing lecture.
My point was that there are many options for far less than $200 a night,and I'm not talking about dumps.
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Old Jan 12th, 2006, 06:26 AM
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MD - Why the attitude???? My point was that you really didn't recognize what the OP was asking for. By the way, I was looking for your India trip report - did you ever post one?
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Old Jan 12th, 2006, 12:52 PM
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Thank you. We don't even have a rough itinerary yet...it would be our first trip to India. It seems like there is quite a range of price and level of comfort. I'm just trying to get an idea of how much we'd realistically need to spend to be comfortable. We spent about $6000.00 total for our trip to Thailand this year...17 days in Thailand and 1 day on each side in Nagoya. This was the upper side of our budget. We had 4 free hotel nights with points.
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Old Jan 12th, 2006, 02:48 PM
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Kim-
Last August, I spent $129 a night at the Imperial hotel in Delhi with (huge) breakfast included.

Big buffet lunch in the 5* hotel was about $13 each. Nice lunch outside the hotel about $3 each. Dinner about $10-15 in a nice, non hotel spots. Quite a bit more in the hotel restaurants or room service.

The rest of our trip cost $1120 total for guides, car and drivers, Delhi to Agra train, all tolls, AND all these hotels:

Agra-1 night at Amarvillas: $300

Jaipur-2 nights at Samode Haveli Heritage hotel $115/night including breakfast
Delhi- 1 night (midnight to 6 am!)at Metro heights $30?
We paid only for lunch, dinner, shopping and monument entry fees.

Christmas is about two to three times as expensive at the hotels. Imperial at $259, Udaivilas at $375.
Flights between cities were $115-$150 for me. 30% discount for under 25 yrs old.

Trains are very nice and comfortable and often ridiculously inexpensive- $15 2nd AC car Delhi to Agra ( 2-3 hours). For an ovwernight 1st class sleeper Udaipur to Swai modhopur (8 hours) and then 2nd AC car Sawai to Delhi (about 5 hours)was $90 total for the two of us.

The weather was hot in August, but I didn't find it unbearable. Actually it was just about equal to Thailand in Dec 04, or the one time I went to japan in July. Because we had a driver, we were mostly in AC.

Many of the monuments were pleasant due to their construction, especially since my driver gave me an umbrella.
Several people told us that August was cooler than earlier in the summer, since the monsoon had already passed.

I am not a pool person normally, but found the pools at all our hotels just heavenly- all had wonderful "alladin in paradise" layouts, service and the water was really refreshing at that time of year.

In December the water and weather were really not condusive to sitting by the pool. My daughter did at the Udaivilas, but did more reading than swimming. She liked the decadant atmosphere and frou-frou drinks!

It was warm enough in when the sun was out, but we found it very cold in the shade and at night. Wore our mittens, down jackets and wool hats and scarves much of the time!
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Old Jan 12th, 2006, 04:00 PM
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Hi Kim. We're returning to India for our third trip, in Mar 2006. We've found many good hotels in the US40-60 range. If you want clean, central hotels with air cond, cable, restaurant etc. you can find them under US100 everywhere. Just depends if you know where to look. I've just been offered a 10% discount in Kolkata simply by asking for it. It's a 3 star place in the central business district for 1400 rupees inc tax. US35. It's air cond, has cable, a fine restaurant and it's a bargain. If I'd wanted to stay at the Fairlawn and pay for the run-down "Raj atmosphere", I could have!

Our travel budget is around US100 per day for the two of us. Sometimes blows out to $US200 if we stay at a Palace hotel. Trains AC Chair class are around US20 per person to travel 600 kms. If you want to spend a fortune, you can, however the magic family run hotels all over India give great value. I can give you some names if you wish.

Also buy a Footprint guidebook. They give great insights into India! Have a great time planning your trip. BTW we stay at the Westin in Bangkok & the Pan Pacific & Raffles Plaza in Singapore but always find great value hotels in India sometimes by simply asking on websites like www.indiamike.com which is a marvellous trip resource!
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Old Jan 12th, 2006, 04:05 PM
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Yes,I love Indiamike! It's a great resource. I'd also be glad to give you the names of hotels I have used,if you give us your itinerary.
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Old Jan 12th, 2006, 04:31 PM
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Kim, did the $6000 include air fare for 3?
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Old Jan 12th, 2006, 06:27 PM
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Kim,
We visited India last year and had a three weeks visiting Rajasthan followed by a week with friends in Delhi.

In our experience India is a great destination with some very nice heritage properties that offer an interesting cultural experience and wonderful accomodation at great rates.

As you probably know it will be very hot in August and at Christmas you'll need to book in advance to get into some of the nicest places.

If you search you'll find my trip report with details and web links on all of the places we visited.

The following will give you a rough idea of costs...

We hired a car and driver and paid about $40 per day. We were very happy with an Ambassador which is a wondefully anachronistic Indian car, very comfortable for two in the back and well designed in terms of suspension. Personally I felt it was an advantage not to have a faster vehicle! It would certainly be more to rent a foriegn vehicle or an SUV.

I don't remember the price of meals but I think that's because they were very cheap. One of the advantages of some of the heritage propoerties was some fabulous homestyle meals which were VERY reasonable.

The places we stayed in varied between an eco resort at $25 per night, Heritage hotels from $30-100 and Devigarh at $350 plus per night. For the most we spent around $75 per night on accomodation.

I think some of the tensions in the posts above arise from the fact that there seems to be a presumption that people only stay in one type of property and this is a reflection of what they can or cannot afford.

Just to give you an idea we stay in a very wide variety of properties...I like luxury too and we've just returned from a week in Ladera in St Lucia. I've stayed in lots of the luxury end chains (Banyan, 4 Seasons, Ritz etc) and gone on vaious safaris but in India we really enjoyed the local properties which offered a wonderful personal exerience.

Devigarh was interesting, a modern (design hotel type place) restoration of a fort outside Udaipur and though it was by far the most expensive it wasn't the one we most remember. In fact the porperty we really loved was one of the cheapest. It was great because we met the family and they took us out on a trip around a local village.

I highly recommend one of the travel agents we used. I have his web address handy because he just sent us a Christmas card! It was so nice to get mail from India! Ramesh is extreemly pleasant, reliable and very knowledgable I really recommend his service.
www.rajasthantravelbycab.com


Hope this helps!
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Old Jan 12th, 2006, 07:35 PM
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Wow...all of these replies are really helpful. Thank you all so much.

Craig...the $6000 figure does not include airfare...we flew free, 3 tickets "bought" with miles. The $6000 does include flights within Thailand though, as well as trains in Japan...$500.00! 19 nights away from home total, about $300.00 per day. The very top of our budget...the absolute max. Lots of "extras" though...private cooking class, private bicycle tour to Ko Kred near Bangkok, John Gray sea canoe trip, elephant camp for 3 days, almost daily spa treatments for me, and nice hotels. The Conrad was actually the cheapest, at $145.00/night nett including an extra bed and breakfast (paid bfast separately for Teaghan's bfast, we got 2 free bfasts for Hilton Honors status).
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Old Jan 12th, 2006, 07:42 PM
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I haven't read through all the responses (in a rush, as I'm leaving for Thailand/Cambodia in the AM), but for two people last year, just before Christmas, we spent about $6000 total -including airfare and shopping without really worrying about a budget.

Bought our airfare early ~$1000 each. Splurged on certain hotels in certain areas - I highly recommend splurging on the Amarvilas in Agra. $320 a night through AmEx travel services (TOTALLY worth it). In Jaipur, stayed at a beautiful palace that was the side home for royalty back in the day - ~$70 a night. In Delhi, roughed it at $30 a night since it was just a transition. Had a driver through Rajasthan - cost
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Old Jan 12th, 2006, 07:48 PM
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sorry - got cut off. $90 for 3 days driving -Delhi, Agra, Jaipur. Then flew to Bombay. Stayed at Gordon House (boutiquey hotel) for 90/night. Then Goa for a few days at $70/night - Laguna Anjuna. Had to go to a wedding in Goa, which cost ~150/night. Then our last 2 nights (which we had planned on being at the wedding venue, but didn't love it), moved to Taj Exotica for a little more than $200/night.

Again, was very happy to splurge on the Amarvilas, and the last nights in India.

Btw, this included our domestic flights, meals, nights out etc... Though we were completely treated with food, drinks, parties during the few days of the wedding.

Also, Christmas time I think would be much better, though a little more expensive. In the North, it's perfect weather and not smoldering. Warm and sunny during the day - but not too too hot so you get killed while sightseeing/shopping. And nights were cool and crisp.

Even thinking about our trip to India brings warm feelings...
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Old Jan 12th, 2006, 08:27 PM
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kim...the prices i have been quoted for 14 days including 3 days in kathmandu and visiting agra, delhi, and jaipur only, range from $1299 to 2099. per person for hotels, transportation (private suv size car), driver and his expenses, entrance fees, local guides in some sites, airport meet and greets and transfers....only food is extra and airfares (to delhi and to kathmandu).....and oh yes shopping...

this is totally private touring with the car and driver at our disposal at all times...

the hotels are second level: intercontinental in delhi, sheratons in agra and jaipur and hyatt in kathmandu....i choose the hotels....i may add the imperial as i am receiving lots of pressure from friends to do this...
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Old Jan 12th, 2006, 08:35 PM
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All very helpful! The specifics are great and appreciated. This trip we've got a good amount of planning time, so I want to be sure I explore all of the options before deciding, as well as be sure I have enough budgeted to cover my choices, as I seem to be hopelessly drawn to the more expensive things, be it hotels or dining room tables
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Old Jan 13th, 2006, 01:46 AM
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Patricia, magnificant report - brings back clear memories of our trip. Looking forward to hearing about Jodhpur and the rest.
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Old Jan 13th, 2006, 01:47 AM
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Whoops - posted in the wrong place.
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