Entering India via Mumbai vs Delhi?
 

My family of four (w/ two kids ages 10 and 15) are planning our first visit to India over the Christmas break (2 weeks including travel to India from the US). We plan to focus on Rajasthan. We'll fly into either Delhi or Mumbai and then fly directly to Udaipur where we'll stay 5 nights (2 at Udaivilas and then 3 at Udai Koth), and then car or train to 1 or 2 other cities in the vicinity, probably including Jodhpur. At the end we'll spend 2-3 nights in either Delhi or Mumbai before flying out.

Which is a better port of entry, Mumbai or Delhi, for our purpose? I gather Delhi is more interesting, but my main concern is that the weather might be cold in Delhi in Dec/Jan and flight delays are likely due to fog. Even a one-day delay is pretty bad on a short trip. Mumbai might be less exciting, though the national park there seems intriguing, and we will have had lots of adventures in Rajasthan by then anyway.

Is Pune or some other place near Mumbai worth seeing? One advantage of going to Delhi might be proximity to Agra. We prefer to avoid very touristy experiences though, preferring instead to see street life, eat at good restaurants, and get the feel of a place. What other things might we do around Delhi if we spend the time there?

Any suggestions would be most appreciated!! Thanks to all.

My perspective is that of an Indian. I dislike the rough, crude culture of Delhi (which may be invisible to Westerners). Mumbai is much better by comparison. If you plan to use either city purely as a transit point, choose Mumbai. If you plan outings to Agra/Varanasi or see the sights in Delhi then the answer is obvious.

International to domestic connections at Indian airports are generally to be avoided--especially in the middle of the night, which is when most international flights arrive. It's generally best to connect in Singapore or somewhere with decent infrastructure and then fly directly to your destination in India. However, this may not be possible for Udaipur. Of the two, Mumbai is slightly less traumatic than Delhi.

Delhi is full of fascinating sights, whereas Mumbai has little of touristic interest (it may be culturally and intellectually vibrant, but there's not much to look at). Pune also has little of interest (though the Karla and Bhaja caves are worth a visit). One of the hill stations could be a good outing from Mumbai, but you'd need a couple of days to get the most out of that.

From a pure logistical stand-point, you are right. Mumbai far more reliable than New Delhi Dec/jan for the fog reasons!!! Even if your int'l flight arrives on time, there is a chance that your connections to Rajastan are delayed.

Mumbai airport is less congested in comparison and more civil.

If you do have a few days to spend before going to Udaipur (which is fabulous, by the way), spend it in Delhi and don't miss the Taj. Yes, you might run into fog issues in Delhi but the city has many sites to see and the Taj is truly magnificent!

Landing in the fog is not generally the problem, so flight arrivals are not really an issue. If your Udaipur flight is sometime after 11 and before about 5 pm, you should not have any fog issues; as the fog is only really a problem in early morning and later evening hours as temps rise and fall and the sun rises and sets.

However, with flight arrival times for most international flights, it is unlikely that you will be able to connect directly from an international flight to a flight to Udaipur from either Delhi or Mumbai. Even if you can, I am not sure I would want to connect directly to a domestic flight from an international flight in any event, and doubly not so sure with children. First of all, the flight itself to India from the US is quite long and you may not really feel like getting on a plane right away, and more so your kids may not want to. Secondly, you will have to change airports in either Mumbai or Delhi. The domestic airports are a few miles away from the international airports in both cities. There is a free bus transfer, this can take up to an hour or more to do if you have to wait for the shuttle buses; and with baggage can really be a pain. You can take a taxi, but with luggage and with 4 of you, this may require 2 taxis, so will require Rupees and some patience and the adults spitting up and neither of you knowing where you are going anyway (and hopefully you both have mobile phones which will work in India). Finally, hopefully you have built in enough transfer time between flights, including the fact that you will have to go through Immigration and Customs at the international airport (including wait time for baggage), then travel to the domestic airport, and then check-in again for your fight. There could be a longish check-in line for your flight at the domestic airport, and if there is a long wait an Immigration or baggage claim when you land, this may affect your ability to make your connecting flight. Security lines for domestic flights at Mumbai airport are in my experience quite long as this is a major business airport and there are lots of commuter flights during the day.

IF you decide to use Mumbai, my advice would be to choose a hotel at the airport and simply stay there overnight and get the first flight out to Udaipur if you cannot or do not want to get a connecting flight out to Udaipur. Do not attempt to go into a hotel in Mumbai, which is 1.5-2 hours or more away. The traffic in Mumbai is quite bad, and if you are only there for one night, it is simply not worth it. There are several good hotels at the airport within literally a 3-4 minute drive, including the Sheraton ITC, the Hyatt and the Leela Kempinski. On the beach and about a 20 minute drive would be the JW Marriott.

I like Mumbai a lot for many reasons but would agree that it holds very little for the tourist, esp for children and esp on such a short itinerary that is focusing on north India. Delhi, however, holds a lot for the tourist and might be a better place to break the journey for a few days. There are some excellent restaurants, and great street life (to be fair, so do Mumbai, but to be fair, Agra has it is spades as does most every Indian city, and especially Indian train station). Dehli is a very good starting for Agra, although you could fly to Udaipur from there and work backwards so to speak.

Pune is about a 3 hour drive or train ride from Mumbai. You can fly of course, but if you are going to get in a plane, then go up to Rajasthan. While a pleasant city, it holds very little of interest for the tourist IMO, esp a first-time visitor to India.

Udaipur of course, is a major tourist city. There is however good street life and you can bike through a good bit of the town, which is a pleasant change. The restaurants will be more limited, and more limited to hotels unless you are willing to experiment a bit. I would not spend 5 nights there, however, esp with only 2 weeks in India. I think you will run out of things to do, or may end up taking very long day trips in a car to see remote places, which the kids may not really enjoy. I also think you will get tired of eating at the hotel every day, which is what you may have to do if you like “good” restaurants.

With only 2 weeks, IMO you should pick 3 places at most to base yourself, perhaps 4 at most if Agra is included as that is drivable from Delhi; and therefore spending time in Mumbai when the focus is Rajasthan does not seem useful. There are national parks around Agra (try reading up on the Chambal river valley or Bharatapur bird sanctuary) and the great desert areas around Jodhpur to explore. The only thing touristy about Agra is the 100 yards around the Taj, once inside it is not touristy and once away from that 100 yards it has some great street life and lots of other interesting sights. It's really an underrrated place, but most people only see the 100 yards around the Taj becuase they rush through in one day, one a 2 week trip in a hurry to "see" India...when it is right there....

The message should say if your flight to Udaipur leaves Delhi between 11 am and 5 pm, the fog should not be any issue.

Actually for the tourist I agree about Delhi over Mumbai. No question. Our last two trips to India (Delhi) were in December and January and fog was an issue. In Dec. we couldn't land due to fog and had to divert to Mumbai fro 9.5 hrs. It was hell! Then two yrs. ago in Jan. we did land OK but was told we were lucky because we had a good, clear night during a stretch that had been particularly foggy.
Delhi is big, crowded and has some of the worst traffic in the world but has great sites to see as well. Though I have never been to Mumbai I am told by many of our friends that its jammed population wise including one fellow who was born and raised there.
I have liked touring Delhi but honestly the cachophany is really too much after a while and quite visible to this Chicago boy. I'll being stuck on the Kennedy during rush hr. any day. :D.
The Taj is a must see. BTW they do not allow cell phones inside it so if you have them leave them at the hotel. Cheers, Larry

Thanks to all who responded. Cicerone, we are planning 5 days in Udaipur because the first 2 days will be pure relaxing and recovering from the trip and jet lag. We're staying those 2 days in Udaivilas which is supposedly really nice, and we may not even leave the hotel much. Maybe that is a waste, but we're aiming more to enjoy ourselves and not to try see as much as possible. I didn't know about biking in Udaipur -- that sounds great! After Udaivilas we'll spend 3 days
more in a simpler hotel in Udaipur and explore the city.

We'll have about 3-4 additional days for another place or two in Rajasthan. What do you all recommend? Jodhpur? Jaipur? A smaller city? What is a good way to get around from Udaipur? Hire a car? Train? Overnight train?

Thanks again all, especially Cicerone's thoughtful and well written posts.

For day trips outside Udaipur I would just hire a car and driver for the day. Your hotel can arrange or you can do this yourself by stepping outside the grounds of the hotel and bargaining with the myriad drivers who will be waiting for your custom. Pick the nicest looking car or most reliable looking driver, best English-speaker or whatever. You may not always find a 4-wheel drive here, so if you want that, your hotel may have to arrange. A Toyota Qualis is the typical 4-wheel drive car for India. There are not strictly necessary for day trips, they are good as the suspension is sometimes better and you get a higher view from the seats. In the winter you would not need air conditioning, but newer cars are probably going to have it anyway. If you want the quintessential Indian experience, hire an Ambassador for the day to tool around in.

If you don’t have one, it sounds like you would benefit from a good guidebook that would give you basic travel info like bus and train information. Lonely Planet is particularly good on this information for India, IMO. I also find their restaurant reccos to be very good, provided you stay with the “top end” reccos generally (their low end are just a little too budget for me...). Udaipur does not have a lot of rail connections, so you will need to fly, bus or hire a car/driver to your next destination. With only 3-4 days, I would suggest you pick one destination and stay there, making day trips as necessary; especially if you pick a place like Jodhpur or Jaislemer which will require quite a trek to get to from Udaipur. If you fly to Jaipur, then you may have some more flexibility as that is a quick non-stop flight (Jet Airways for sure, perhaps other airlines).

You might consider flying to Jaipur and also including at least one night down in Ranthambore at the national park there to take wildlife jeep rides. This might be a very nice change after 5 days of Udaipur and seeing Moghul forts and palaces. If you are very lucky you can see tiger, but even without that there is lots of other great wildlife to see. This is about 3 hours plus a bit more on good roads from Jaipur. From Ranthamboure, you can take a train to Delhi in 5-6 hours. There are only 2 game drives a day, one at about 7 am and one at about 2 pm, so ideally you need to schedule your time there to get at least 3 drives in if you can. There are several luxury hotels to choose from, include an Oberoi and an Aman, but there is also a tented camp at Sawai Madophur run by the Taj group that is more basic and inexpensive and is housed on the grounds of the former hunting lodge of the Maharaja of Jaipur, a real art deco jewel and lots of history there. Take a look at tajhotels.com. I would take the tents over any of the hotel rooms other than the Deluxe Suite which is really something right out of about 1930.

If you choose Jodhpur, I personally am dying to try the tented camp on the reservoir at Chhatra Sagar, which is 60 miles or so form Jodhpur. It could be a longish drive there (about 7-8 hours, which is longer than I would want to spend at one stretch on Indian roads not counting kids in the car; this could be broken up with an overnight in Ranakpur), but once in the area, this could be quite interesting, take a look at http://www.chhatrasagar.com/.

The Oberoi Udaivilas has a fleet of Honda 4-wheel drives and their drivers are very good. (Btw, look at my review of Udaivilas on tripadvisor.com along with some pics). Another good option these days is the Toyota Innova SUV.

Cicerone - you probably meant to say "Rajput" instead of "Moghol."

For a first timer to Jodhpur, I would strongly recommend the Umaid Bhawan Palace.

if you havent already, check this out for your rail travel planning. It works much more easily than Trains at a Glance or the IR site.

http://www.indiagroove.com/

My advice is this after just returning from my 2.5 month trip through India. Whatever big city you fly into will be horrible. Do your tour of the big city you plan to fly into on the way out. Big indian cities are very intimidating even for a seasoned traveler. In my first 24 hours in mumbai I saw someone die on the street, and saw some of the most shocking poverty you could ever imagine. I actually think Delhi is a much better place for small children but its also important for them to experience some of what "true india" is. Mumbai is not much of a tourist destination in my eyes. Delhi has much more to see and is closer to rajastan. Its difficult to listen to Indians on this subject because people from Delhi often hate Mumbai and people from Mumbai often hate Delhi and are very vocal about this.