Hi everyone - thanks again for your wonderful feedback!

Julie - at the moment we only have room for one 'village experience', near Luni. I think you and I have the same budget in terms of accomodation, so I'm researching the hotels you mentioned in your first TR

dgunbug - After reading your TR I did look into the Taj hotels, but the 2 nights, get the 3rd free ends just days before we arrive! Without the deal they weren't quite as economical...

This is the itinerary - version 5 or 6! Any feedback welcomed!
Is there anything in any of these places that we should make sure to visit? Do you think the amount of days in each place is suitable?

Day 1: Arrive Delhi, 8pm
Day 2: Full day sightseeing of Delhi: Old Delhi plus New Delhi
Day 3: Fly to Varanasi, sightseeing, evening Aarti Ceremony
Day 4: Varanasi - early morning boat ride on the Ganges, excursion to Sarnath, overnight train to Khajuraho
Day 5: Sightseeing in Khajuraho
Day 6: Visit Orchha, train to Agra
Day 7: Taj Mahal at sunrise, Agra fort, Itmadullah's Tomb
Day 8: Drive to Ranthambore via Fatehpur Sikri
Day 9: Ranthambore
Day 10: Ranthambore
Day 11: Morning safari in Ranthambore, drive to Jaipur
Day 12: Jaipur: Amber Fort by elephant ride, City Palace, Jantar Mantar, Hawa Mahal
Day 13: Day of sightseeing in Jaipur, overnight train to Jaisalmer
Day 14: Jaisalmer sightseeing
Day 15: Jaisalmer Fort, visit Desert Village - overnight stay in tents
Day 16: Drive to Jodpur, afternoon sightseeing tour
Day 17: Drive to Luni, village safari and staying in heritage hotel
Day 18: Drive Luni to Udaipur via Kumbhalgarh Fort, evening cruise on Lake Pickhola
Day 19: Udaipur sightseeing: City palace, Jagdish temple and Jag Mandir Palace
Day 20: Full day in Udaipur, overnight train to Delhi
Day 21: Sightseeing in Delhi
Day 22: Fly home at 11am

Would you consider doing the trip in the reverse order? We flew directly from Delhi to udiapur which is a much easier introduction to india than Varanasi.

Oops...wasn't finished. We spent three days in Varanasi and considered it one of the highlights of our trip. If you love photography, you won't get tired of wandering the small alleys, riverside and streets. I'm not sure you have enough time. Additionally, if the monsoon rains are late and heavy, the ghats (steps) could still be quite flooded. A couple of weeks difference could make your visit there more enjoyable. We met people who had been in Varanasi two weeks before us, who did not enjoy their experience as everything was wet still.

We too loved Varanasi, and it is so much more than just the sightseeing aspects of it so I too wonder if you have enough time. We spent tons of time just walking and wandering observing all of the life events that take place out along the river for all to observe, and we did two dawn boat trips on the river in addition to the evening one. Khajuraho, despite being a world heritage site with very intricately carved temples, did not do a lot for us (and we are normally fans of art and architecture). OTOH, we really enjoyed Orchha and wished we'd been able to fit in a second night there. This, like Varanasi, is a nice place to just walk and wander on your own without thinking "I need to sightsee". Honestly, to us, the essence of India is the people and observing their way of life. That is what we remember the most and what is most interesting about the country. Tourist sites are nice, but, to me, the entire immersion experience is what makes India such a rich place to visit.

By the way, we took the train from Jaisalmer to Jodphur, and I'm sure it is a whole lot cheaper than having a driver take you there. I think it is about 6 hours by train.

I have to concur about khajuraho. While the temples are stunning, we saw many other stunning temples along the way and felt that the effort to get there was not quite worth it. We spent time in orchha, which was interesting to walk around, but enjoyed even more, the less traveled to city of Gwalior, which we felt offered a tremendous number of sites without the begging of other more touristy destinations. In orchha we had children were particularly relentless in their begging.

dgunbug - we never even considered the possibility of late monsoon rains! We're working with C&K now to do the trip in reverse order. Varanasi is a must do for us, so I'd rather leave it until last to avoid any potential flooding. Thanks for the tip!

C&K did say if we missed Khajuraho it would bring the cost down $200, and I have heard mixed reviews about it. It may be worth skipping and spending the extra time in Agra. We're also trying to train in and out of Jaisalmer, but at the moment we are waitlisted for the train.

We're trying to bring the cost of the trip down as much as possible - hard when there is so much we want to see and do! Any advice on how we could cut costs?

I do not think you will miss much by skipping khajuraho and it will give you more time in Varanasi. We did not use C & K's guides - only their driver. If you do some preliminary reading, a guide will not be necessary and this will save you money. The audio guides which are available in many of the palaces are excellent and I suggest using them rather than a guide as they are sometimes clearer and easier to understand than the Indians with a strong accent. We used tuk tuks locally for transportation (sometimes even when we had a driver available to us.). After our driver drove all day, we preferred to give him some time off once arriving at our destination. The tuk tuks were very inexpensive. In udiapur, we hired a local driver through the hotel and were very satisfied. Drivers were very inexpensive. We ate mostly in our hotels, but the prices were reasonable. It's too bad that you will miss the taj chain discount by only a few days. It was a great savings. We were happy with all our hotels which were not high end, with the exception of the one in Delhi.

Okay, let me take a stab at helping you to reduce costs. We've now taken two six-week trips, and we never would have been able to do that if we had signed on for the full package deal with an agency.

We used our agency to arrange a driver when we wanted one for quite a few days in a row, in other words for a week or so when we wanted to do a lot of moving around from one destination to another. If you just need transportation within a city or area, your place of lodging always has someone they can link you up with. And, there are local taxis or tuk tuks. Any hotel you book at always has a pick up service at the train station or airport, so you don't need a full service agency to do this for you. Arrange this yourself when you book.

Many places if you choose a central lodging, you can just walk. We walked in Jaisalmer, Jodphur, Varanasi and Udaipur. Delhi is another story though. In Delhi our B & B arranged a driver for pickup at the airport for about $10. We also hired the same guy to drive us around the city for very reasonable prices, much less than it would have been to have a dedicated driver.

Lodging has a wide range of prices, and we found anything in the $40 + range to be acceptable if you are not super fussy. Unlike many people who post here, we don't take the 5* route. As I said earlier, making your own reservations for lodging is easy. However, reservations on your own can sometimes be problematic in smaller places if they want a bank transfer as a deposit; this can be very pricey. In a situation like that, having an agency book for you is a better idea.

We did not hire guides through the agency and usually did not have a guide at all, preferring to do things on our own. When we wanted one at a particular site or monument they were readily available. And, your hotel can always arrange a local one for you. So, eliminate all of the things you see on your itinerary where is says something like afternoon tour of the city.

It looks to me as though in your entire trip you'll only be one place--Luni--where you will be forced to eat all of your meals there because there are no other options. Eating out in India is very cheap, and we never ate street food. Alcohol is expensive if you want that.

I am guessing that your Ranthambore portion of the trip is the most expensive because of all the fees that are charged tourists to visit the parks and go on safaris. Make absolutely certain that you want to do this before committing to all of that money.

What are your waitlist numbers for the train? There are a gazillion postings over on TA about calculating whether or not your waitlist number will be confirmed. My guess is that as far out as your trip is, you'll be confirmed. Another thing that I did when I was concerned about waitlists was to get bookings in two different categories like 1AC and 2AC and then took the one that first came up confirmed and cancelled the other. In fact, you may find right now that another category of seating might have seats available right now. We traveled 1AC and 2AC on overnights and added in 3AC for day trips.

Get some good guidebooks, and you can do it on your own. We particularly liked Footprint, Rough Guide and LP Rajasthan because of their level of detail. If you are careful and watch out for the fairly obvious contrived reviews, TA is a good source for narrowing down lodging choices in many different price ranges.

Also, get pricing from a different agency to compare ideas and costs.

Note that out of 3 1/2 weeks we only had a driver for 8 days. Train travel and short flights will definitely save time and money. We enjoy the wandering on our own as it gives us an opportunity to interact more with the local people. The hotels are all accommodating and can find you a local driver.

Thank you both!

I have just gone back to C&K and said we won't use a driver in Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Udaipur or Varanasi. I think this will give us some more independence, which is good! We will still use the driver to Ranthambore, Jodphur, Agra and when we first arrive in Delhi. AND we have asked for the trip in reverse - so thanks again for that tip June!

We will also be training in and out of Jaisalmer - 12&13 on wait list so fingers crossed!

Next up,we will look at our hotels and see if they are centrally located or if we can get something cheaper.

Now I have to ask - originally we had an elephant safari booked in Jaipur. Has anyone else done this before? How do you feel the elephants were treated? To be honest, the idea makes me afeel a little uneasy, having read the way they train elephants in other parts of the world - but thought I would ask for other opinions before making a decision...

I don't know about an ele safari, but if you're considering the ride up to amber fort by ele, my experience was unpleasant. The mahout used a hook, our poor beast had opened wounds, if I'd known in advance about the treatment of the animal I would have taken a jeep.

We took the jeep up and didn't think it detracted from the experience. The fort was amazing.

We rode an elephant up to Amber Fort. According to our guide, they have recently tightened regulations about it -- our Mahout did not use a hook (could be in regs now) and in looking through my photos of the others, I don't see any. The elephants can individually only make (I want to say 2 but it could be 3) round trips each day, and must be done by noon. It wasn't particularly comfy, I must say, but we enjoyed it as in - how many times in your life will you ride an elephant, and the view from up there was stunning.

Later, when we visited Chanoudgarh, the owner showed us the platform his great great grandparents had built at the front entrance for arrivals via elephants (mainly, he said, for ceremonial purposes, as most of the guests would arrive in horse carriages, which used a lower platform.) Marangarh Fort in Jodphur, has an interesting exhibit of howdahs (the framed seats) as well as decorative pieces made for elephants carrying royalty.

I also should suggest you check if there is a gift shop on the premises of the Fort, with proceeds that go toward its preservation. We had a tip to go to the "official" shop in Mehrangarh Fort at Jodphur and found the prices were equivalent (if not even better) to what you might negotiate in the markets. I really am not a shopper, but do like to bring home evocative presents for friends and family, and there were some wonderful things that did not take up a lot of space in luggage, and of a nice quality. It made me wish I'd stopped at a similar shop at the Amber Fort.

We enjoyed all the guides we had. With some, it was clear they had memorized spiels at some of the sites, but we more enjoyed talking with them about their daily lives. When we noticed a lovely newly-wed couple at the Jantar Mantar astronomical "garden" in Jaipur, our guide commented that the groom was very fortunate. His bride had very very long hair, and that suggested that her family had brought her up appropriately and committed to traditions. He explained that his own was an arranged marriage, and how their horoscopes had been carefully researched before he and his wife were even introduced. He explained how the astronomical measurements applied to astrology, and I have to say, it made our visit more memorable being able to relate the site to present day.