India: Bangalore & Airlines Booking
 

Hello!

Can you recommend a good website where I can book tickets for travel within India? We will be doing multiple one way trips. Also, since I noted significant differences in airfares off of Jet Airway's site for "Your Country" India versus U.S., is it a problem if I book tickets using the Indian website instead of the U.S. one (where I live).

Lastly, any recommendations of interesting tourist spots near Bangalore? Without getting too specific about what I like or don't, a name or two that you can think of, would be great.

Thanks!

Hi Comfy: I'm booking flights in to Bangalore right now. I'm using the Kingfisher website. Easy.

http://www.flykingfisher.com/

Yup, the rates are different if you are not an Indian National. But not on Kingfisher, I've just realized.

Remember, you have to show your passport every time you check in. It only needs one sharp eyed check-in person to give you a whole lotta grief - just when you don't need it.

So I'll be interested to hear what happens.

You can check

http://www.cleartrip.com/

for various flights on your itinerary. All the airlines have online booking on their websites, but its easier on some than others. Jet and Kingfisher are good airlines but there are also tons of budget airlines like SpiceJet, Indigo, Jet Lite, etc.

If you're looking for a place to visit outside of Bangalore, you could consider Mysore.

Much appreciated, thanks. Dogster, I noted the hefty Nonresident airfare tax (on cleartrip) and no, I don't like grief :)

OK from my Bangalore file (still a work-in progress):

Bangalore is quite a green low-rise city and there is a little bit to see in it, nothing compared to a place like Delhi, but there are some things to see, notably the Vidhan Sabha or the State Secretariat, Cubbon Park, a very large park located near the Vidhan Soudha, the Government Museum of Bangalore, the Lal Bagh Botanical Gardens, and Tipu Sultan's Fort and Palace. There are a few Hindu temples as well (oddly, the largest landowner in Bangalore is the Catholic church, and there are numerous churches scattered throughout the city, no one can explain to me how this came to be). Get a guidebook if you are planning multiple trips and consult some websites too. It’s not a tourist city so sometimes you have to hunt around a bit for information.

Bangalore is also known for its pub culture and has many outdoor and indoor pubs/cafes, it is quite a pleasant place in terms of climate and has a young population due to the high tech hub it has become so it has a nice café lifestyle. For restaurants, the Italian restaurant in the Park Hotel is quite good, and the hotel has the very popular i-bar too. I also think all the restaurants in the Leela Hotel are good, both western and India. There is also a branch of Olive (the restaurant which started in Mumbai and had a branch in Delhi until recently) that is quite good, it’s called Olive Beach and has very good Italian, what they are calling “Mediterranean-fusion”. Nice lively atmosphere. Finally, there is Mavalli Tiffin Rooms
A Bangalore institution, known mostly as “MTR”. (Tiffin is Anglo-Indian for a meal, mostly meaning lunch.) Casual. Great food, supposedly the best dosas in India. (I think there is one in the Hyatt in New Delhi as well.)

If you have the time, a trip to Mysore would be a great trip, it’s about 3-4 hours by car or rail. A day trip is possible but a bit hard to do (personally I am not a fan of Indian roads at night, they are bad enough during the day), and there is a good deal to see in Mysore so an overnight may be best. Read up on the history of south India so you can better understand what it is you are seeing.

There is an aryuvedic resort at Soukya, take a look at http://soukya.com/. About a half hour outside the city is Nrityagram village, which has an Indian classical dance academy. Take a look at http://www.nrityagram.org/village/sponsors/sponsors.htm. I have not been to the village, but have seen a troupe of the academy’s dancers perform in Delhi some months ago, they are excellent. A bit further out would be Bannerghatta National Park, and the Nandi Hills are which apparently has some interesting temples and forts.

Bangalore is a centre for yoga and the Whitefield Ashram, and the ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) Temple Complex are important spiritual centers not too far outside the city, any may be worth paying a visit.

Bangalore is a major air hub as you may be finding out, so you can easily get to other parts of India for trips as well.

Thank you Cicerone: you have no idea how timely your post has been. I'm just locking in the Bangalore part of my imminent trip at this moment.

Best place to stay...? Leela? Taj? Courtyard Marriott?

oops, I was in Chennai for a minute. I know the Courtyard Marriott hasn't uprooted and flown to Bangalore.

Cicerone, Much appreciated. I will have someone drive me around so not worried about road conditions in the night or otherwise. Thanks!

Of COURSE you will have someone drive you! No tourist drives their own car in India...sorry I just assumed that you knew that. My comment was more aimed at road safety at night, which is less than during the day, and during the day it's not that great. There are some roads, like the Delhi-Agra road that even the US State Dept reccos on its website not be driven at night because they are tood dangerous. I don't belive that the Bangalore-Mysore road falls into that category, but I have done some long drives at night, like Mumbai- Pune, and would not really recco it at all if you can avoid it, even for "safe" roads. You have lots of trucks using the roads at night, and that makes it more dangerous in addition to some of those long-haul truckers being tired, and then you have animals and people constantly crossing the roads, and without street lights its hard for your driver to see them. You can of course take the train.

Sorry dogstor, just saw your post I generally stay at the Leela and like it a lot, really you can’t fault it at all, of course you pay for it too. I have also stayed at the Oberoi but not in several years, I liked it then, generally they run very nice hotels. The Taj West End is supposed to be good too, and I think is the best of the Taj hotels in Bangalore, but the other Tajs may be worth looking at for location. Traffic is not anything as bad as Mumbai or even Delhi, but if you are going for business, in my experience it makes more sense to be closer to where you are meeting if you can.

There is a JW Marriott under construction that I believe is going to open later in the year. That would be a good choice if your trip is after the opening date. It’s in a good location. Two caveats: don’t book it unless your trip is a few months <i>after</i> the expected opening (the Courtyard here in Hong Kong is behind schedule and they even took bookings but ended up moving people over to the JW Marriott because they weren’t in fact ready to open) , and there is a lot of construction going up there as the hotel is part of a huge complex, so if the rest of the complex is not done it could be noisy with construction.

Dogster, I just saw on your other post that you are possibly looking for more boutique hotels. You should get Alistair Sawday's book called Special Places to Stay India. This has literally hundreds of very interesting places to stay. They also have a website at http://sawdays.co.uk/, click on the book for India. The vast majority of these hotels are not in the luxury range and some are in the very low budget range, but all look interesting. There is one in Bangalore which intrigues me called Villa Pottipatti. That might be more interesting than the Leela or any of the others. I had thought you were on a business trip, but for pleasure you might want to avoid the more business-oriented hotels.

Cicerone: thank you so much for your generous advice. I do know about that great Sawdays site. I too was taken by the Villa Pottipatti - alas - full up. So I've gone for the Taj West End.

As I'm on this inaugural voyage of this new Golden Chariot train, doubtless full of self-important VIP freebies [I'm paying - less 15%] I thought I'd smooth my way in and out at the Taj. This is such a last minute trip I'm just gonna reduce the culture shock for the first week.

By time I get to Goa I'm cruising down market. [mostly because the thought of big luxury beach hotels stuffed with overweight Russian tourists doesn't thrill me].

Then Oberois in Delhi and Kolkata. I don't think I can go too wrong there. Yeah, I know it's safe. I know I should be out there in some flea-pit living the life - but this time thru I'm just gonna reduce the stress.

Dont' worry, the overweight Russian are all the in the Maldives these days...enjoy India!!

Cicerone and others,

Couple more questions: How far apart are the International and Domestic Airports in New Delhi? How long does it take if we use a taxi? Lastly, any recommendations for a good hotel near one of the airports there (3-star or up..... mostly for sleeping off the jet lag to catch a domestic flight but I can't deal with a dump!)?

Thanks so much.

The domestic airport is about 3-4 miles from the international terminal. You will have to collect your luggage and go through customs and immigration at the international airport and then get over to the domestic airport. There is a free bus transfer between the two, or you can take a taxi. If you take the bus, plan at least hour for the transfer, it could take longer (see below). If you take a cab, the transfer takes about 20 minutes. There is a pre-paid taxi desk in the arrivals area where you can arrange and pay for the taxi and someone will then take you out to the taxi area. This would not cost more than US$10 at most and would be worth it IMO.

Hard to recco a 3 star near the airport, most that I know are 4/5 stars in Gurgaon and Noida (the main suburbs and booming office park areas), you might try the Radisson (the radisson.com ) which is a 4 star very close to the international terminal and an easy driver over to the domestic, try the Sawday book as well to see if they have any reccos in the 3 star range. I think even the Radisson is going to run you close to or over US$200 a night, but perhaps I am wrong on that. The Grand Hotel on Nelson Mandela Road was a Hyatt until about 2 years ago, and is less than 4 miles from the airport and would also be a thought. http://www.thegrandnewdelhi.com/ . I think it might be in the same price range as the Radisson (There is also a Grand Hotel Intercontinental in Connaught Circus in downtown New Delhi, so don't confuse the two.)

With regard to the free bus transfer service between the international and domestic service, the bus only runs once an hour, but no one can tell you when the bus will actually arrive or depart. Once you have gone through Immigration, gotten your bags and handed the Customs man your little slip of paper, go out into the arrivals hallway and look to the left for signs for the transfer lounge. (Pre-paid taxi counters are on the right, these guys will be calling out to you.) You can ask someone in the transfer area how soon the next bus will leave. You will invariably be told &quot;coming soon&quot;. This can mean anything from 5 minutes to an hour (welcome to India). You could maybe wait for a while, and if it doesn't show up, consider going back out into the hall and arranging for a pre-paid taxi to take you over to the domestic airport.

There are no facilities to speak of at either the international or domestic terminal, at the present moment there is even less in the international terminal as most of it is under construction, there is a McDonalds and a place to get tea in the domestic one, but I can’t say what is open after about midnight. The transfer bus waiting area in the international terminal has sofas which are pretty comfortable and a bathroom, so for a long wait in the middle of the night they would be preferable to the waiting area in the domestic terminal. (That was the case the last time I did the bus transfer which was about a year ago, due to construction this waiting area may be gone or changed, I can’t say for sure).

If you just have a few hours and don’t want to pay for a hotel, take a taxi to a hotel like the Radisson and have a meal at their 24 hour restaurant or at the Kebab Factory which is a good Indian restaurant, very casual. You can hang out for a few hours by ordering and eating slowly, and it’s more comfortable than the airport, you can also perhaps order drinks in the lobby (or hit the bar which should be open late). The bellman can keep your bags, or just hire the cab for the whole trip and he can keep them in the car. If you are there during the day and the Radisson has a spa and lets non-guests book treatments, that’s a great way to get a shower and a treatment like a massage that is good for the jet lag. Also try the Trident Hilton for this, they have a very nice spa, not sure they let non-guests take treatments. Check now and make a reservation if they do.

Take the train to Hampi from Bangalore - you won't be disappointed!! I'd skip Bangalore and head over to Mysore - palaces &amp; temples galore without the chaos.
For a good meal, try the Dasaprakash chain.
Also, for the love of God, please don't drive the Mysore-Bangalore road - my aunt died on it in 1999 - while they may have paved it better since then, the drivers are probably still nuts - just my 0.02 cents.

Another vote for trains and Mysore. If you have a choice of rail or road in India, take the train - much safer and more comfortable. And definitely stay off the roads at night. I loved Mysore, lots to see there, and I also visited the Hoysala temples at Belur and Halebid - that required a long day trip from Mysore.

From my Mysore trip report: &quot;Although the palace is a must-see, there are plenty of other sights around Mysore. I spent one very long day on a coach tour organized by the Karnataka Tourism Development Corporation -- which would have been shorter without the obligatory visit to a silk &quot;factory&quot; (i.e. shop). The first stop was the Hoysala temple at Somnathpur, an exquisitely decorated building on a star-shaped platform. The last, after dark, was at the Brindavan gardens to admire the illuminated fountains. In between, .. we visited the Durga temple on Chamundi hill (incredibly long line to get in), the museum (which appeared to serve as the Wodeyars' attic) and Tipu Sultan’s summer palace at Srirangapatnam..&quot; If you're a shopper Mysore is a great place to buy silk, saris or sandalwood.

Right on - and if you want souvenirs, go to the Cauvery government shop for authentic and reasonably priced stuff. Belur and Halebid are must-sees in Karnataka and you can also check out Tipu Sultan's stuff in nearby Srirangapatna.

this is so useful guys. I'm gonna be in all these places over the next three weeks. Thank you.