First Trip To India
 

My first trip to India. Planned for March. 1st to the 29th. As an independent budget backpacker.

I have wanted to go to India for 20 years and now having lost a significant amount of weight I feel up to going and more fully engaging in the trip.


I have posted on Lonely Planet Thorn Tree. Just want to get your idea of my itinerary. Especially should I cut something as it feels like I am travelling to fast. The goal is trains for the long haul. Buses or car hire for shor trips. Here is my itinerary:

March 1st: Fly out of Toronto
March 2nd: Arrive in New Delhi
March 3rd: Solo Tour of New Delhi
March 4th: Hop ON, Hop Off Tour of New Delhi
March 5th: Delhi to Varanasi
March 6th: Varanasi
May 7th: Varanasi
March 8th: Varanasi.... Day Trip to Sarnath
March 9th: Varanasi to Agra
March 10th Agra
March 11th: Agra, Day Trip to Fatepur Sikri
March 12th: Agra to Jaipur
March 13 and 14th: Jaipur
March 15th: Jaipur to Ranthambore
March 16th and 17th: 4 tiger safaris
18th (at night): Head to Udaipur
19th: Udaipur
20th: Udaipur
21st: Udaipur To Johdpur
22nd and 23rd: Jodhpur
24th: Jodhpur to Jaisalmer
25th and 26th:Jaisalmer
27th: Jaisalmer to New Delhi
28th: Easy tour of Delhi
29th: Fly out of Delhi
30th: Arrive in Toronto

Any thoughts or suggested revisions?

I feel I should drop something to create a wider buffer at the end. Maybe end the trip off with a couple days in Delhi. Maybe travel slower is more optimal.

Hello there.
You have two very good reasons to do this trip in reverse (near reverse actually) - a) Jaisalmer is desert and a full month later, it'd be much hotter in the day time. b) Varanasi is very intense and not as tourist friendly - Rajasthan in general more so. Ideally you should keep Varanasi at the end.

I'd recommend roughly del(overnight or two)-jaipur-jaisalmer-jodhpur-udaipur-ranthambore-agra-varanasi.

Between jodhpur and udaipur are the superb temples of Ranakpur and the fort of kumbhalgarh. It's not very well connected by public transport so you'd have to hire a car for optimal results.

Should be a fun trip - enjoy.

Wow. Never thought of taking that approach. Question: I kind of want to skip Jaipur. What if I flew to Jodhpur. Is air travel safe in India? I would bypass Jodhpur and hit it on the way back through from Jaisalmer and on my way to Udaipur.

Want to avoid long bud rides.

You can fly. Check skytrax for airline reviews. It's safe - the major airline - jet, has been losing customer service standards lately, but is approved to fly into Europe and Canada. Indigo is OK and Vistara is better if that works for your route.

I'm from Jaipur, and there's a lot to see, but of late, so many people want to skip it because of the tout hassle and the resultant reputation online, that I've ceased to bother convincing them otherwise.

Trust me I would love to come to Jaipur. But I feel that I need to drop one thing from my itinerary and travel in a more relaxed fashion..also allow for a a couple days at the end to relax in Delhi. Maybe do some non tourist stuff. Go to a movie for example. To see what the movie experience is like in another country so different than I am used to.

Can you fly into Jaisalmer? Guide books say no. Yet i have found flights.

I'll be on that flight (Jai-JSM) third week November. Can post after that. It'd be a first for me too - as those flights have started this month. Last time we drove. No harm booking a flight while the fare's cheap.

Guidebooks take a while - i was in a shop yesterday and there's still so little info despite the girth of the LP (can i say that word here?)

The most over the top theater in all India (70s art deco) is in Jaipur - called Rajmandir ;) Hey, i didn't bring this up ...

You can go to Fatepur Sikri on the way to or from Agra/Jaipur rather than as a day trip. I would also stop at the stepping wells and monkey temple. This makes for an extremely long day and you must hire a driver, starting as early as possible to avoid driving in the dark, but the sites were all very interesting.

If you can fly to Jaisalmer, definitely do that. This must be something new as that option was not available to us. While it is interesting to get the experience of driving on the roads and seeing the countryside, travel by road take a much longer than you would think.

Reversing the trip due to weather may not be a bad idea, but know this...no matter what you do, it will be hot. If you click on my name, you can see my trip report. We had a month and did not feel rushed at all. Consider flying directly from Delhi to udiapur to save time on the road and do Delhi at the end of the trip. We thought Jaipur was worth visiting. Whatever you do, you will have a wonderful trip.

You should also consider trains, even overnight ones.

https://www.seat61.com/India.htm

I am mainly doing trains. One definite flight. Avoiding buses at all costs. Have a slight anxiety issue with having no access to a washroom. Connected to some health issues growing up. If no train and the distance is short. Like 4 to 5 i will opt to car hire.
And for all the helpful advice.

I looked at average March temps through out March for Rajasthan. What I found is that the first 23 days or so is similar to a hot southern Ontario Day in summer. The Last 5 or 6 days is when it really hits the 100s.

FatePur Sikri. Would you advise car hire between Ranthambore.. Sawi Madhpour and Agra so I could hit Fatepur instead of making it a day trip from Agra?

Sorry. You answered the question. Car hire.

One question i should ask. As a person With a horrible fear of spiders I would like to keep encounters in my room to a minimal. I know you can't control that completely. 5 star hotels have spiders too. But how much should I spend it get rooms to maximize the chances of it being bug free?

Even though I like the idea of traveling on a budget. Also I need to be realistic as to my sensibilities. I am allowing a budget of $80 a day. Flights, car hire and tiger Safari is on top of that.

I would like to this budget conscious. But not sacrifice me mental sanity in rooms that have creatures with 8 legs.