First time in India: invited for a few days to HYDERABAD. Worth going?
 

One of my friend will be going to Hyderabad for business at the end of September for about one week. He invited me to meet him there for a few days.
I have travelled to Asia before: Thailand, China, Japan, but never to India.
Also, I will pretty much be on my own during the day to visit and I am a female. Is that going to be a problem?
Is this place interesting enough for me to visit, or am I going to get bored?
What is there to do? How long should I stay?
Should I go or forget about this trip?

I have not been to Hyderabad but have been to India and loved it. Met several single female travellers and none reported any problems.

If you type Hyderabad into the search box you can pick-up previous threads - look out for those from Cicerone, thursdaysd, rhkkmk - they were of particular help to me when I was planning my trip to India. I am sure one of them could give you some info on Hyderabad.

Well, that is a tough one. If I understand your post correctly, you would ONLY be going to Hyderabad and only for a few days. You are coming from somewhere else (the US?). It’s a long way to go to just see Hyderabad for a few days, and presumably a lot of money to spend to get there. If you can’t extend your trip to include other places in India, I would say it is not worth it simply to go to Hyderabad. While it is an interesting city and has quite a rich history, I don’t think that I would recommend that someone travel all the way to India and see ONLY Hyderabad. I guess it would be like someone from India going all the way to the US and only visiting say Philadelphia and then going right back home. They would see an interesting place, but would be missing a lot of other interesting places in the US.

That being said, I do think Hyderabad is quite an interesting city. Certainly a mix of the ancient and the modern as it is a high tech hub and also a very important city historically. They have some wonderful buildings, the courthouse (built by the British) is like something out of Arabian nights. They have several good museums and some good shopping, especially for pearls. The food is wonderful and the people are very nice, and you will see a Muslim-majority city which is an interesting contrast to much of the rest of India. If you can get a copy of a book called The White Mughals by William Dalrymple (who has written several other very good books on India, including City of Dijiins which are stories about Delhi) before your trip, this would be good to read as it will give you a good history of Hyderabad, as it was quite powerful and the Nizams were very colorful. If you can get out to the Golconda fort that is worth a visit for sure. You are very safe on your own in Hyderabad. It is also very cheap to hire a driver and a guide for a day (which I would recco you do) to take you around to the sites. End of September weather-wise in Hyderabad is going to be warm to hot and a little bit rainy as the monsoon will still be there (they don’t get the real deluges of other parts of India, however).

Hyderabad has excellent air connections to other parts of India, so if you wanted to extend your trip you could to other places like Delhi and Rajasthan (i.e., the more typical tourist places like Agra where the Taj Mahal is located). Weather would still be a bit hot in those areas, so don’t try to do too much. While you would be very safe on your own if you wanted to travel on your own in India, IMO you might get weary traveling alone. I think India is a country where it is a bit hard to travel alone. Trains are late, things break down, you do get the beggars, etc, and it is nice to have at least one other person there to commiserate with (and also to share the beauty with too, don’t get me wrong). While I think you would enjoy it by yourself, I also think it might be more work than you want on your own. Up to you. I have traveled on my own in India on short jaunts like 3-4 days and that is fine. I would not want to do like 2 weeks on my own.

As Cicerone says, where would you be leaving FROM to get to Hyderabad?

If you are already in India then why not. If you are not, then depends where you are. And if you are not, then go for longer and visit other places.

I spent a week in Hyderabad alone and had no problems. There is plenty to see, especially if you are not so familiar with India. Just visiting a market, or shopping, or wandering around is an experience, never mind the history and "highlights".

I'd already been in the country for two months and still found plenty to occupy me. Of course, it largely depends on you. Just "being there" isn't everyone's cup of tea.

Is your friend Indian? When I was there in January, my first stop was to see Indian friends in Bangalore. I probably wouldn't have gone to BGL otherwise but it set the tone for my trip and was absolutely wonderful to have someone show me the ropes, introduce me to various foods and slip into the culture before venturing on to an independent adventure.

Very tiny point, isn't Hyderabad the bangle capital of the world?