Hello. We are planning a trip to India in Jan 09 and wanted some advice from some of the folks who have been before. We are currently planning to fly to Delhi, perhaps volunteer there for a week to get aclimatized and then venture off to Rajastan and then to Varsanai and Katmandu for three days each. We will be there for four weeks in total.
We like to learn about the people and culture, not interested in tigers or safaris and dont want to stay in high end hotels but rather in b and b type places, but clean safe ones.

Here comes the questions. Just thinking about Kolkata. We can fly into Delhi and out of Kolkata on British Airways. Is this adding too much? Not a huge fan of big noisy cities and would rather be in a smaller town but at the same time if there were a great reason that we should not miss this, or some areas around the city, then open to suggestions. Or Bangalore. Open to any advice as we can fly from a different location and take the train or small plane in between. We will probably only go once so want to make the most of it.

Any help is appreciated. We are 55/60 year olds and I am a well seasoned traveller and my husband is just starting his adventure travels.

There is a wealth of info here on the very places you want to visit. Have you had a chance to look through the other postings?

Pls do yr research on these city :::

DELHI-AGRA-JAIPUR-GAJNER-JAISLAMER-Khaimsar-Khajrla-Ranakpur-Udaipur { fly to Varanasi } - Fly to Kathamandu { Fly to Kolkata } and International Flight
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I assume you mean January 2010, as “Jan 09” has already passed and your message is dated April 2009.

While geographically is makes a bit more sense to fly home out of Delhi as your itin is north India, there is certainly no reason you have to. I assume these BA flight options are non-stop, which would make them attractive, otherwise to have to change planes to get to home from Bangalore or Kolkata does not make sense to me.

I think I would also want to know how long you would plan to stay in the Bangalore/Kolkata area. As cities are not your main focus, you need to have the time to get out to the countryside areas. If you only have 2-3 days in these places, with flight times (you have to go from or connect through Delhi for virtually all flights), IMO this would be a waste of time. There are many small village areas in north India where you could happily spend time rather than just spending a few days in Bangalore or Kolkata. If you can commit to 5 days or more in the Bangalore or Kolkata area, then this sort of side trip might be interesting as you can get outside the cities. Otherwise, I would stick to Rajasthan and to seeing more places in a smaller area. If your trip is only 3 weeks, then including Bangalore or Kolkata with the above itin would seem not to be possible, as you want a week in Delhi. Even with a 4 week trip, with only 3 weeks to cover Katmandu, Varanasi, Rajasthan (and I assume Agra) I believe you will find yourself having to make some tough choices about Rajasthan.

One option to consider would be going to Bangalore or Kolkata or elsewhere <i>first</i>, and flying out of Delhi at the end of your trip. Getting to Delhi from parts of north India would be quite easy by car or train rather than air (e.g. from a place like Agra) and therefore you may find it easer at the end of the trip to see Delhi and then fly home. Also IMO going to Bangalore may a somewhat “easier” introduction to India than landing in a place like Delhi.

Of the two you have mentioned, I personally would choose Bangalore just because the climate is lovely then (is most all year anyway), the city is quite green and pleasant for a large city, and most importantly with a week you would have time to go down to Mysore and spend time there, which is probably the “smaller” type of place you may have in mind (although it not a small village by any means, but culturally very interesting, perhaps staying outside Mysore would even be an option, you might look into that). Bangalore does not hold a lot for the tourist, but for a day or so there is enough to see and there are some major temple areas as well which are nearby like Devarayandurga, Nandi Hills and there is also the Bannerghatta National Park. There are a myriad of flights between Bangalore and Delhi, and you may be able to work flights so that you can fly into Delhi from Varanasi, Katmandu or Rajasthan and connect on to Bangalore or vice versa.

FYI you can usually fly non-stop from Varanasi to Katmandu, as it is on the Buddhist pilgrimage route, so you may want to do that, then fly from Katmandu to Delhi to start the Rajasthan itin. This may save some backtracking to and from Delhi. Look at flights. It’s often only Indian Air that does this flight, but this may be the one case where the routing makes taking them worthwhile. I would also mention that if you can fly to Bangkok on BA, you may be able to connect on to a Thai Airways or other flight to Katmandu from there, so going to Katmandu first, then to Varanasi, then to Delhi and them Rajasthan may work from and itin point of view. Or go to Katmandu last, and then go from there to Bangkok to connect to your international BA flight home. There would seem to be many options. You can also fly from Bangkok to Varanasi on Thai.

If you have the option to fly non-stop from Hyderabad, that would also be quite a nice option, IMO, as it would give you a very different flavour from north Indian Hindu culture, and Hyderabad is a very interesting “smaller” city (again it’s a big city but does not really feel like one compared to Mumbai or Kolkata IMO) that offers quite a bit to see and do. Hyderabad is also a major air hub and you could get to it from Delhi quite easily.

Kolkata would certainly be interesting and there is actually more to see and do there in the city itself for a tourist than Bangalore, but it is really, really huge and somewhat polluted, and therefore does not seem to fit your criteria above.

While I don’t think Mumbai is worth a stop and would not at all meet your above criteria, one option for the end of the trip might be to fly from Jaipur or Udaipur Aurangabad to see the Elora and Ajanta caves, which are quite spectacular and the area around it may meet your above “small village” criteria. You can them fly from Aurangabad to Mumbai in about an hour and may be able to connect right to you intl’ flight from there (change of airports required but easy to do only a few miles apart). Again, this could be done at the beginning of the trip as well.

Trains to Delhi or Rajasthan from Bangalore would take about 35 hours, and would not really be feasible IMO. Even a train from Kolkata is going to take close to 20 hours and this may be more time than you want to take. An overnight train of 10-12 hours is about the longest trip you may want to do at one stretch. I like Indian trains, but not for 20 hours in one go…..However, it is quite the cheapest way to travel.

Cicerone gives great advice, live42: but I'm just wondering... why on earth a week in Delhi? Volunteering as what?

Having just come from Delhi two days ago, [after many trips to the rest of India] I can't really think of a worse place to begin my Indian travels. It's logical, sure, but violently expensive compared to the rest of India - and IMHO, completely dull in comparison to almost everything else. Why not bounce in there, jump straight to Udaipur or Ahmedabad on a cheapo flight, then work your way back up thru Gujarat/Rajasthan as slowly as you can by car. There are some fantastic places to stay in-between the usual tourist haunts.

At the end of Rajasthan you'll logically end up in Delhi. Fly from there to Varanasi, then fly, as Cicerone advises, on Indian Airlines to Kathmandu, then fly Kathmandu to Kolkata and out back to wherever.

Kolkata is a big, noisy, in your face kinda city - but that's India too - it ain't all palaces and picturesque rural poverty. Unless you're careful in Rajasthan you'll be taken for the usual tourist ride. Maybe that's what you want... who knows?

And read travelaw's recent trip report. Right now. Do a search. It's required reading.

Thank you so much for your great advice Cicerone. You are correct, it is 2010, thank you. I guess we will just stick with our original plan and stay north to the cities we planned and Rajasthan. We dont want to spend the entire time in a car or train! Good advice.
Dogster I had read the report by Travelaw and it was one the best reports I had read and really enjoyed it alot. She is a wonderful writer and made me feel that I had already been there, and want to go back. I was having second thoughts of where to go after reading your report from Kolkata actually.
But as mentioned above I will stick north I think, there seems to be enough to see and have an incredible holiday.
We like to volunteer somehow for up to a week when we travel to countries that are less fortunate than ours. It makes me feel I can justify my trip in my own mind. We have not actually booked anything yet, still in the research stages. I did find two places in Delhi where we could volunteer with street kids for a week. They provide the food and accomodation so the high prices of Delhi should not be an issue. But thanks for the suggestion, I will look into other cities to volunteer instead perhaps.
I will look at the website Roger18. Thank you.

I have done a Habitat for Humanity trip to Chennai, and see that they have a trip to the Delhi area in December 2009, so you might check their website in a few months for 2010 programs, as they only seem to have listed trips through the end 2009 at this point. These are the “global village” trips, see http://www.habitat.org/cd/gv/schedule.aspx and then look at the various countries and dates. Accommodation and food are provided on those trips as well. I find these trips extremely rewarding (I leave on Thursday on one to Papua New Guinea). One issue with volunteering in India can be language, working with street kids in Delhi you may find that Hindi is needed more than English; that is another thing I like about the HH trips, you feel like you are immediately doing useful work, even if it is just wheeling concrete around. I also think that there are volunteering scams out there, so make sure you check on the bona fides pretty thoroughly.

Yes Thanks Cicerone. I know that there are many scams there, people making money off others good intentions One deciding factor for me the the price they charge. If it is over a couple of hundred dollars a week in a place like India you know that someone is making a profit. I will look into Habitat thanks. I was not sure if they will let us volunteer for only a week.
On working with street kids, we did that in Peru, and it was great. We did a lot of dancing, singing, charades and art work. Just being with them was a huge reward on both sides. Also we like to do an exchange of 10 words a day where we can learn (in this case) Hindi and they can learn English with flash cards and chalk boards. THanks so much.

Yes, HH will let you go for less than a week in most cases. For most trips, the actual building time is 7 days (some are longer, you have to read the schedule for each trip). There is then the house dedication day, and generally 2-4 days recreation at the end, which often involves travel to another location in the country (for example, at the end of my trip to PNG, we are going to a dive resort for 3 days, this is included in the price of the trip). You can actually miss those. You can often even miss some of the build days, but it is up to the team leader to accept you if you can’t come for the whole trip. They like to have a full complement of people available to work on the house, but going just for the “build” days only is usually acceptable. The dedication day is actually very much a highlight, there are usually musical performances and dances and a big feast put on by the village, something you won’t get as a tourist in the country for the most part.

okay, we are getting stuff booked. So excited. Especially after reading other trip reports and Dogsters amazing journals. Although I must admit I dont know if I am quite up to that much adventure....

We arrive on British Airways on Jan 26 at 130AM, hotel in Delhi not booked yet. Hopeing to get an overnight hotel and then hire a driver for a few hours to show us a few sights and then take us to the train station for our 545P departure. I understand however that Jan 26 is a major holiday in India and will be parades etc., so hope that it does not delay our plans too much or cause any major problems with keeping on schedule. I always like to arrive for trains/planes etc in plenty of time to compensate for the unknow that may happen.

Overnight train to Jaisalmer. Staying at the Shahi Palace, view room requested, for three nights. Some some great reviews and the most expensive room is only 1850 r per night. We will see two days of the desert festival and then do an overnight camel safari.
Jan 31 take the train from Jaisalmer to Jaipur, overnight (seems all the trains run at night??)
Arrive early morning and start a one week volunteer program with street kids in Sikar, 120Kms away and stay with a local family there.

one week free after that....maybe Udaipur? We want to leave this open, but have some ideas beforehand.

one night in Agra of course. Question: I know that the Taj Mahal is closed on Fridays, but can you still take pictures at sunrise or sunset, I mean is there a huge fence around it so that you cant get close enough??

Then we are off to Varanasi for four nights staying in room 303 at Palace on the River which had great reviews as well.

Back to Delhi for two days and then home.


Feedback and suggestions would be most appreciated. Trains or flights? We could also hire a driver I suppose , where would it make the most sense?

If we do go to Udaipur we will probably fly from there to Delhi and then make our way to Agra as it will save a lot of time. What do you folks that travel in India a lot think?

Thanks for any suggestions.

How great to see things are moving.

You know, your time with the kids in Jaipur will be a greater adventure than any of Dogster's. Keep mental notes and share when you get back, eh? I'd love to hear every tiny detail about that.

Check this website:
http://www.mahindrahomestays.com

You know, with the weeniest juggle of dates, you could squeeze in Kathmandu after Varanasi. Just a little Nepali quickie, a taster, but you could do it. Varanasi/ Kathmandu/ Delhi.

Of course, you don't HAVE to go to Udaipur. Do you want some alternate suggestions?

Tell the guys at Rashmi Palace in Varanasi you're a friend of the guy who was dragged into the river by Bruno. You'll be staying in the very Dogster suite, if I remember correctly.

Yup, fly Udaipur to Agra. You maybe could fly Agra to VNS [via Delhi] to save that epic shlep by road.

If you have anything specific you want to see in Delhi try these guys:

www.delhimagic.com

I think they are kinda expensive, but they are the quality end of the market. Up to you. Check out their trips anyway.

It's all a question of feeling comfortable on your first day. Remember, you won't hit your bed till 3.00 a.m. Then you're on a train all the next night. I'd be thinking of a nice little cruise around between check-out at 1.00 p.m. till you need to be at the train station. There will be parades, doubtless. The trick is - EMBRACE the holiday, don't run from it.

I'd imagine that the other most important thing will be to remember your husband is not a very experienced traveler and India can be a bit of an eye-opener. So go in gently.
Not for you - for HIM.

You need to get to the station WAY early, just because it'll doubtless be bewildering to the extreme. There's hardly any time between a good night's sleep and getting to the station. Why do anything much? I promise you, the railway station and the train journey will be quite enough adventure for the day.

I would work your schedule to be able to enter the Taj Mahal. You've got plenty of time and flexibility, why not? There is a perhaps twenty foot wall around the outer courtyard and then another 20 ft wall between that and the grounds of the Taj. One of the delights of the Taj is walking from the first courtyard through the big gates and getting your first glimpe of the Taj framed in the doorway.

On the river side, there is no wall, so you can go across the river to the foundations of the second masoleum (the Black Taj) that Shah Jahan was building and get a lovely view of the river side of the Taj Mahal from there. Not sure in January, but I think the sun will be in your eyes in the morning from that side of the river.

Despite being well trained by the airlines, in India you don't want to arrive too early for trains. The stations are big and confusing, but the trains are never early, and are quite often late. If you arrive too soon, they often won't even know which platform your train will be on yet! I arrive 30 minutes in advance at most to decrease my stress. Find your platform, then find the big empty bulletin board where they will staple the car/seat assignments about 5 to 10 minutes before the departure. Prepare to hustle once the train is actually there... Sometimes the cars are not quite in order and finding yours can be trying!

I enjoy trains, and they are really cheap in India. Night trains are more comfortable in that you sleep away the time. I've taken the night train to Varanasi, then flown back to save time on that leg. There is a nice express train from Delhi to Agra in the mornings, and it is faster than driving. If you take it, you could take a train from there to Varanasi the following day.

If you use a driver to get to Agra, you might as well drive both ways as you'll be paying for his round trip. Just be aware that the drive can take anywhere from 4 to 8 hours.

If I was doing this, after Udaipur I'd take the night train to Sawai Modhopur for two days in Ranthambore Park. Stay at Sher Bagh for a nice experience. Don't get your hopes too high for seeing a tiger, and you''ll enjoy the other wildlife better. The night train arrives about 5 in the morning, but luckily the hotel will pick you up and give you breakfast and a tent right away. From there, take the train to Agra (not sure if you can go direct or through Delhi) then head to Varanasi.

Palace on the River makes you pay through Western Union in advance. Keep your receipt, and confirm again a few days in advance. Also be aware that room 303 means four long flights of stairs every time you come or go from the building! Unlike many here, I give the hotel mediocre ratings, but was glad to end up in a room with a river view on the second floor.

Thanks for your quick responses.
Dogster I re read your Varanasi report, you stayed in 304 and said 303 was not that great. I may try to change to 304. I have already prepaid all in advance with Pay Pal. The stairs may be an issue as I have a lung problem and stairs are tough anyhow. Although it has never stopped me from doing anything, I am just slower. I assumed 3 would be third floor. I will plan to be out all day and just come back at night. I know in your report Dogster you complained about the stairs. Was the fourth floor really worth it do you think?

Our original plan was to include Katmandu before/after Varanasi but then thought that maybe we were trying to do too much and that two days would prety much be taken up travelling in airports.....maybe we will rethink it.

lcuy, thanks for the advice but we have just come back from a safari in Tanzania so not interested in seeing animals, this trip is all about the people and places.
I certainly do plan on going into the Taj Mahal, but want to see it morning and night and also from the back so thought that if we arrived on a Friday night perhaps we could view it at night first then, and spend the next morning and day at the Taj.
Thanks for the advice about the trains. I will try to arrange for our driver to help us find our train car in Delhi, as it will be our first day and we will be tired and probably overwhelmed by it all.

The stairs ARE a killer. What is worse, once you get out of the hotel, there are another four million steps down to the ghats. I'll check which room I had. If you want to eat there [and you will] then the restaurant is one floor above you. So one way or another, you'll end up walking up stairs. Slowly slowly stop a lot.

Try and squeeze three nights in Kathmandu. It's incredibly easy. One hour flight from Vns. I'd estimate that you'd spend a grand total of three hours more traveling than if you just flew to Delhi. BTW only Indian airlines does the VNS to KTM flight. I don't think you're hurtling around TOO much. It's just a taste of Nepal.

I just changed my flights to arrive three days earlier ( I will now miss the holiday and parades which is fine by me) and can now include Nepal.
Thank you Dogster.

I think we may head for Pushkar instead of Udaipur as it is a bit closer.
any comments on that?

Hi live, so exciting that things are coming together. I see you are booked in Shahi Palace in Jaisalmer ~ we also booked that hotel based on the reviews, but were very disappointed with it. Here is what I wrote in my trip report:

Jaisalmer: Shahi Palace Hotel. $44/double. We stayed our first night in this backpacker- type hotel, but moved because we felt it had been oversold to us – the rooms were small, the bathrooms abysmal, and the place was extremely noisy. It was suggested to me by the driver that perhaps their reviews on some advisor websites may be self-created. Don’t know if that is true, and maybe I was oversensitive because the cold I caught from a fellow passenger on the way over was in full bloom, but all I wanted was some rest and couldn’t get it. We heard every person coming into and leaving the hotel, late into the night returning from camel safaris and early in the morning leaving for camel safaris – heard the desk clerks talking as if they were in our room, and there were dog fights and pigeon wars going on just outside our windows. Had there been no screen in the bathroom window, the pigeon hostilities would have been going on in our room. It was also cold – I had to ask for extra blankets – and the pillow was as thin and as comfortable as cardboard. I will say the rooftop restaurant/lounge has a great view of the fort, especially at sunset (food not so great), but that did not make up for the rest of the issues we had with the place, so we moved to:
Taj Rawalkot: thegatewayhotels.com/index.htm?hotelId=TJSARK&page=Overview
They gave us what I thought was a great price $55/night (especially since the neighboring Hotel Rajwada quoted us a ridiculous price and we heard that though the hotel is very pretty, the rooms are nothing special). It was a bit out of town, again no problem as we had a car available. Rooms had nice furnishings and the beds were extremely comfortable. Bathrooms were very nice – plenty of amenities. Breakfast was included and was quite good. Also ate dinner here one night and it was fair. The hotel courtyards were peaceful and there was a great view of the fort from the pool area – a nice place to sit and relax with a drink. Best part: it was quiet!!

So glad you are going to get to Kathmandu. You can see a lot even in a couple of days and it is very interesting.

In Varanasi, the Rashmi Palace is really the best place to stay on the Ganges. The rooms are basic, and yes, the stairs are a pain, but the location is excellent. As dogster says, just take the stairs slowly, slowly. He is right that you will go up to the restaurant on the top floor quite a bit while you are there, so at least if you stay on the 3rd floor you are closer to that.

RE Pushkar v. Udaipur, both are tourist havens. but I heard from many quarters that if you are going to pick one over the other, pick Udaipur. I haven't been to Pushkar, but enjoyed Udaipur as a kick back and relax for a couple of days.

Keep us posted on your progress!

Thanks Trav.
Yes I did see your experience in Shahi, but when booked asked for a room with a view, which means I will get a window I assume, and a larger room. I saw that some of the reviews that said some of the rooms are small and no windows, so asked for a bigger one. Hopefully it will work out. I never travel with out earplugs and one of those lucky ones who (normally) can fall asleep lying down anywhere, (but cant seem to sleep on a plane as I am sitting). If things dont work out we will move, but being the festival weekend we wanted to be sure to have something booked.

Getting very excited.

Okay here I am again.....another question. I have decided, after Dogsters comment, to put Nepal back onto my itinerary. Here is the question. I have searched and searched and cant seem to find an airline that goes from Kathmandu to Varanasi, only the other way around. If we do Varanasi first and then Nepal I have to change my reservation at the Palace on the Ganges, which I guess would not be the end of the world, but just wondering, is it that you can only fly in from Varanasi and not the other way??? Or am I just missing something. I am usually pretty good at finding this stuff on line...

We would like to fly, Delhi, Kathmandu, Varanasi and then back to Delhi.

When I did my research last year there was a flight with Indian Airlines that left at 14.10 and arrived in Varanasi at 14.50 but it only went on Tue, Thur, Sat & Sunday.