Extending in Delhi--what activities?
 

My wife and I are taking our first trip to India on a 15 day Smartours trip in Feb 08. The tour takes us to Delhi, Jaipur, Agra, Khajuraho, Varanasi, then to Kathmandu and back to Delhi. We can stay on in Delhi for up to two weeks for a small additional fee. Total time in Delhi is one day scheduled, with an additional half day on our own.

We often stay on when we do tours, but I'm not sure what we should see, if we should stay in Delhi and make day trips, or if we should spend more serious money and fly to another city. I am thinking about adding about 5 days at this point, but could be persuaded to stay longer.

We are in our 50's, like museums and cultural stuff, don't do beaches and resorts, and like science/architecture/culinary attractions. For efficiency, I assume we would want a driver at least part of the time.

Advice would be very welcome. The Fodor discussions made our Vietnam extension very efficient and we felt lucky to get a recommendation for a wonderful agency (Martin!) in VN.

Delhi has some excellent museums, including art, history and handicrafts, so I would certainly spend a few days there. (Don’t know much about their science museums, have not been, but I believer there are a few, check the guidebooks; be sure to go to the City Palace in Jaipur and walk through the wonderful Mughal astronomy area, hopefully your tour guide can explain how the various devices work). I assume your 1.5 days in Delhi will include the Red Fort, Chandi Chowk, Friday Mosque and possibly the Qutab Minar. Indira Gandhi’s home and her Delhi childhood home (i.e., Nehru’s home) are both very much worth visiting, IMO. Mahatma Gandhi’s cremation ground is also quite interesting and moving (if your tour does not go there). The National Museum is excellent, particularly the ground floor exhibits on ancient history and their mughal painting collection. (They have a great audio tape, you do not need a guide.) There is a very good, although small, modern art museum. There are also several tombs and temples in Delhi, and some excellent restaurants. It’s one of my favourite Indian cities. I don’t know that I would spend 2 weeks there when all of India beckons, but certainly a few days after the tour is very enjoyable. There is some very good shopping, including great bookshops.

After that, in the marvelous February weather, really your choices are very wide open. Delhi has good air and train service to most all of India, so you could get pretty much anywhere you wanted. There are other places in Rajasthan to consider like Udaipur, Jaislemer or Jodphur. You could take a train to someplace like Ranthambore national park for wildlife viewing (including tiger if you are very lucky). If you like modern architecture, you could drive or train a few hours north to Chandigarh and see a whole city of Le Corbusier buildings. You could train up to someplace like Rishikesh to bathe in the river, take yoga and visit ashrams. You could go to Dharamsala and see that lovely alpine area and try to get a glimpse of the Dali Lama. You could fly to the south to someplace like Kerala and tour that area, including a few days on a houseboat on the backwater canals. You could also go to Hyderabad which is a very interesting southern city with a Muslim influence and great history. You could go to Chennai and take the lovely coastal drive down to down to Pondicherry see the fantastic southern Hindu temples and also the old French colonial areas. You could easily get to Bhutan from Delhi (IMO so much more interesting than Nepal and so much less touristy, I really do not like Kathamandu). I would suggest you get some guidebooks and do some reading up on what might interest you.

A car and driver in Delhi and othere cities is helpful and not expensive, I can post reccos at a later date. For travel between cities, I would train or fly unless the drive is something 4-6 hours (about as much as I like to be on an India road), or unless you do something like drive the coast of Tamil Nadu where you break the drive up over a few days.

Cicerone,
Thank you for a detailed and insightful list of suggestions. I now have a bit of homework to do, following up. And I would be interested in driver recommendations when you get time. Thanks again for a wonderful bunch of ideas.

Great suggestions there from Cicerone.

But look - you are there. Sounds like you have no particular need to rush back home.

You do not need a car and driver. By the time you have finished your organised trip, unless you are total whimps, you will be acclimatized and ready to travel by train. One of the best ways to see India.

No, let me rephrase that - if you go to India and never travel on a train - you have missed an opportunity. Of course many of you will travel on a train courtesy of your travel agents or tour group. A sanitised sort of experience - first class; no contact with the locals and certainly no need to buy your own ticket.

OP - if you are up for being other than a "lead me to the water" sort of traveller - then get yourselves a copy of the IR masterwork "Trains at a Glance" and start planning where you can go.

I don't suppose the above is of any interest. There's about a 1% chance that you will be of a like mind.

Chimani,
Thanks for the further ideas. And I will look into "training" around India. I value a diversity of opinions and find it useful to stray off the beaten paths. Although we use tour groups to get us launched because of their high value/cost ratio, we always try to extend on our own or to skip some planned tour activities just because our tastes don't always match those of the typical tourist--we're in that 1%. So, again, thanks for additional ideas.

To Topdoggerel: I'm probably hijacking this entry, but wondering how you came to choose Smartours. Have you done other trips with them? I've been long interested in India for some time and Smartours price certainly seems right.

However, last year we did the Ukraine cruise with them and were somewhat disappointed. Too much time on the boat on huge reservoirs with not even the shoreline visible and very little to do onboard. Plus the tour seemed sort of disorganized. I see they have made some major changes in the same tour this year, so it's probably improved. Not saying I wouldn't travel with Smartours again, but just wondering how their other tours compare.

Thanks, Geri

we had 2 1/2 days in delhi last november and it was not nearly enough...spend more time there....

you could go and stay at the neemrana fort palace hotel about 1.5 hours outside delhi for a few days....fantastic....

Thanks for the continuing flow of excellent and specific ideas, everyone.

And for geribrum: We took a Croatia tour with them 1 year ago and a Thailand-Cambodia trip in Jan with Friendly Planet. Smartours and FP used to cross-sell each other's tours, but stopped this year; many trips offered still seem identical.
The Thai trip was packed with activities, the guide was excellent, all the connections, buses, etc. were sound. Our trip date was not using the regular guides because they sold out so quickly and added extra dates. The guide has a lot to do with it, but the pace and activities matched us fairly well. Some folks hate the larger tour groups, but as a two-some we find it easier to meet interesting folks in a bigger group. Some folks only want to shop, others only to drink, and sometimes groups of 6 or 8 travel and talk only to each other.
We were surprised that the "free time" listed on the itinerary was usually filled by the guide. Not a problem, just a surprise. We always try to find someone who has blogged any group tour we have taken. So far, the India Smartour is the first one that I haven't found a detailed travel blog about. There are a lot of general comments about Smartours to India on frommers.com discussion boards.

I can recco two car services. If your tour has not arranged for an airport pickup, then I would strongly recco that you arrange for an airport pickup with one of these services, the last thing you will want to do IMO is battle with the deluge of taxi drivers at Delhi airport when you arrive in the middle of the night jet lagged....although there is a pre-paid taxi desk at the airport, IMO they are a pain, often a rip-off and just a waste of time when you could have a car already set and waiting for you.

Kumar Tourist Taxi Service
14/1 K- Block
Connaught Circus
Tel: 91-11-2341-5390
Fax: 91-11-2341-8859
Cell: 91-98-1143-1783
e-mail: [email protected]

Send them an e-mail and they will give you a quote for picking you up at the airport, plus car service around Delhi. I think airport pickup is about Rs500 (about US$10), but confirm this as I have not used them for airport pickup. I know they charge Rs600 (about US$13) for an 8-hour day of touring within Delhi. They have older cars but perfectly clean and fine, if you want an Ambassador (a fun way to see Delhi) ask for one. They also have Toyota Qualis SUVs, not really necessary in Delhi, and would probably cost more.

The Travel Arena
G-31 Jangpura Extension
New Delhi 11014
Tel: 91-112341-4527

My company uses them in Delhi; they do not have e-mail which is a bit more inconvenient for you. They have newer cars. They are a bit more expensive. Airport pickup is about Rs.500 could be a bit more depending on hotel location.

Super info! And an Ambassador is especially good because....?

It is the quintessential Indian car. Although they are not generally used as taxis, it’s like having a black cab in London or one of the old yellow cabs in NYC. (No jump seats in Ambassadors though.) It is made in India.

Cicerone,
Again, thanks for your magnificent insight about things I wouldn't discover until too late otherwise. You (and the other posters, above) are so fine to generously offer your help to folks who travel in areas you know so well.