India first timer
 

Hi fellow fodorers,

I have been reading many trip reports and posts about India on this site and now I have finally decided to take the plunge and go there myself! Since it's my first time I want to see the "classic" Rajasthan and couple of other places. I want to use mostly trains as means of transportation. I am going alone for 19 days in Dec/Jan. Below is my schedule I have come up with so far. It's hard to judge for me if it's doable or if it's too crammed. I don't want to be just running from one sight to another but I also want to leave room for surprises and general hanging around... I have already left out Jaisalmer even if it also sounded interesting. Is Khajurano worth the stop or should I just fly directly from Agra to Varanasi? Any comments or suggestions would be welcome. I would also love to spend a day in a spa. Does anyone know if any of the paces on my itinerary have nice spas?

DAY 1: arrival Mumbai, relax
DAY 2: Mumbai, sightseeing
DAY 3: 5:55 flight to Udaipur, sightseeing
DAY 4: Udaipur, sightseeing, night train to Jodhpur
DAY 5: Jodhpur, sightseeing, camel trek
DAY 6: morning train to Jaipur, sightseeing
DAY 7: Jaipur, sightseeing, elephant ride up to the fort
DAY 8: morning train to Rathambore, fort
DAY 9: Rathambore, 2 game drives
DAY 10: morning game drive, train to Agra at noon, arr.4pm to see Taj Mahal at sunset
DAY 11: Agra, TM at sunrise, Fatempuhr Sikhr
DAY 12: train or drive to Khajurano
DAY 13: Khajurano, sightseeing
DAY 14: morning flight to Varanasi
DAY 15: Varanasi, sightseeing
DAY 16: 14:40 flight to Delhi
DAY 17: Delhi, sightseeing
DAY 18: Delhi, sightseeing
Day 19: flight home to Europe

On more thing, surely I can do all the train, flight and hotel bookings without an agent? I could just use a tour company for booking guides in each city. Thanks in advance for your input!

As I'm sure everyone will tell you, you are trying to do way too much. You are literally racing through India and will be spending most of your time on trains (and I think you are not being realistic about travel time from place to place) and barely have time to see much of anything in the places you are visiting. For example, I don't see how you can do sightseeing and a camel trek in one day in Jodhpur. Slow down, take out some of the places, and spend more time in each place you do visit. Most everyone recommends skipping Mumbai if you are going to spend most of your time in Rajasthan. I also think you should consider dropping Khajuraho. You might also want to consider flying to some places and using a driver to drive between some of the places you are visiting so you can see things along the way. I'm sure others will chime in with many more suggestions. If Cicerone is still posting, she always has tons of information and recommendations for India.

We disagree with CFW - we think your itinerary is very doable. We are just back from 21 days, mainly driving, in India, emphasizing Rajasthan, and did what you are proposing PLUS a number of other sites in Rajasthan. As for Khajuraho, the temples are magnificent, tho VERY erotic - you can do them in 3 hours easily, so have more time than you need there (read up on them to decide if you want to see them - you certainly will see others, but these are unusual; if erotic isn't your taste, you might as an alternative consider adding a day in Udaipur and driving up to Ranakpur to see the Jain temple as well as perhaps Kumbalgarh Fort). Jetways has an early afternoon flight to Varanasi from Khajuraho, allowing that morning to see the temples if you want to shorten your stay there (or you could go see Panna Natl Park in your free time - not as much wildlife as Ranthambore, but still nice). Also, for a night train to Jodhpur - we found day trains comfortable, but the one night train we took (Varanasi to Delhi) was noisy and uncomfortable, so consider your age and comfort level desired. And try to insure you have a local agent to assist you in at least your first train experience in India - it can be confusing for us westerners. We were very happy with Ranthambore, as we saw tigers on our first safari, but sightings aren't guaranteed - if you want a better chance at seeing tigers, go to Bandhavgarh Nat Park south of Khajuraho - a bit hard to get to, but with more certain tiger sightings.
If you are averse to long lines, when you go to the Taj in Agra, most tourists try to arrive as they open (eg 6:30) to see it at sunrise, but the lines can be long - if you wait till 8 or so, the lines may be non-existent. As for hotels - we particularly liked the Jagat Niwas in Udaipur as we were able to get one of their rooms that looked right out on the Lake Palace, at a very reasonable price - the beds were a bit hard, but the restaurant was great and also looked on the Lake Palace.
The bottom line is, we think your itinerary is reasonable in the time you have - enjoy, and be sure to read up and be prepared for culture shock (even the roads and traffic are a shock for us westerners!) and have plenty of bottled water!

The Taj Mahal is closed Fridays - just plan accordingly.

Personally, I would need a vacation after visiting 9 different destinations in 18 days but everyone is different. Note that sometimes plans get disrupted in India for any number of reasons - flight delays, the hotel you reserved months in advance has no rooms when you arrive, etc. This itinerary does not allow time to spend a day in a spa. I'll let you sort it out based on what the India experts say - I've only spent 12 days on the ground in India (Agra-Jaipur-Ranthambore-Delhi).

I think a good local agent can be helpful though, rather than trying to book everything yourself. Sometimes the savings can be substantial and you have the added benefit of having someone there to correct problems should something go wrong. The key is to get your agent to quote everything "a la carte" rather than as a package. Contact several (lots recommended on this forum) for hotel quotes, then fill in with transport, guides etc. If you truly only want to book guides, then why not just arrange through your hotels?

One more thing, Tiina - we are Fodorites, not "Fodorers". :-)

You need to print out a map of India with all the major cities and with a pen plot out your itinerary.

Khajuraho is closer to Mumbai and should be seen after leaving Mumbai, otherwise you're backtracking to go back to Khajuraho from Agra and then go back out to Varanasi which is closer to Agra.

I would never drive from Agra to Khajuraho - so many hours in the car will be exhausting. If the drive is more than 2 - 3 hours, go by train. Indian roads and traffic are awful.

The more you plan and know in advance of what you want to see in each city, the less likely you will be ripped off. The guides love clueless tourists and their $$$.

9 places in 17 days is quite a lot of moving around. As you live in Europe I would ask you this: if someone were planning a trip to Europe that included Milan, Rome, Florence, Venice, Vienna, the Bernese Oberland, Munich, Berlin and Amsterdam in just over 2 weeks, in high season, what would you say? Yes, of course it is doable, but would you <i>recommend</i> that they do it? Would you think that they will see and understand anything or would it all become a blur at some point? That is sort of what your trip is like to me, but in a place of longer distances and with roads and public transport within and between those places that is not nearly as good.

If you have been reading old posts (and I see you have) you would probably know that my view is that trying to fit all the above in about 2 weeks is a really asking a lot of any place, even Europe and especially of a place like India. However, if you simply want to have a trip where you can check off on a list that you have “been there” then you can certainly accomplish that with this itin. But if you want to get a flavour for India and perhaps and relax and enjoy yourself, IMO this itin is more than a bit rushed. I have to say that my travel style is “less is more”, and I far prefer to spend more time in fewer places to try and understand them and maybe get a feel for them, rather than viewing a trip as a contest to see it all (which you cannot do in any event.)

I have also done some research on you, and see that you will be traveling alone and will be traveling over Christmas which is the extreme peak season (recession notwithstanding). Both of these may, IMO, make this itin a bit more problematic for you.

Random thoughts are as follows:

I don’t think Mumbai is worth a stop on such a short trip and for a first timer. I would add time elsewhere. If you can fly into Delhi first, that may help you schedule, i.e. you could see Delhi first and then go to Udaipur from Delhi. Otherwise, I would encourage you to go from Mumbai right on to the Elora and Ajanta caves, which are quite spectacular and would top anything you might see at Khajurao IMO, both in terms of the beauty of the art and the setting. You can fly from Mumbai in about an hour to Aurangabad on Jet Airways, and start for the caves from there. You can then fly from Aurangabad to Udaipur in about an hour, to do the other parts of your itin.

If you take the 6 am flight from Mumbai to Udaipur, and you stay at a downtown Mumbai hotel (which of course you would want to do as you want to do sightseeing in Mumbai), you will have to leave for the airport at about 3 am or a bit later but not much, which means you will need to get up and be getting dressed to check out around 2:30 am. So you may as well stay up all night. This on top of your jet lag, and then the next day having a night train. I am exhausted just thinking about it actually. And all on your own. The good news is that there is unlikely to be traffic going to the airport at that hour. If you stay at a hotel near the airport for your two days in Mumbai, then when you want to do sightseeing during the day, plan on about 2-3 hours <i>each way</i> to get to the main downtown area where you would do most sightseeing (Mumbai traffic is quite bad). This is either another reason to skip Mumbai, or choose a slightly later flight (which of course cuts down on your time in Udaipur), or try to connect from you international flight on to a domestic flight somewhere else as soon as you arrive.

You seem to have one day only in Jodhpur (Day 5 only, arrive on night train from Day 4 and depart next day). You seem to have devoted part of this day to a camel trek. I would spend more time here, the city is quite interesting. The countryside is too, but you need time to explore. I am guessing that the “camel trek” will be about an hour on a camel on the outskirts of the city, as you don’t have the time to get out into the more remote desert given the fact that you also want to sightsee and have only arrived that morning and are leaving the next day. Something like an overnight trek might be more interesting. Also with Jaipur, you have quite a short amount of time. The elephant ride up to the fort is like 10 minutes on the elephant; while fun it is certainly no reason to go to Jaipur or even to go to the Amber Fort.

You have a long time in Ranthambore (3 nights and 4 game drives), which is perfectly fine, but perhaps this means your focus is wildlife and there you could cut out Jodhpur, Jaipur or Udaipur without too much worry. You seem to be rushing through those places but spending the most time in the game park. Focus on your interest. There is a bird park outside Udaipur as well which you may want to see and might mean skipping something else.

As noted above the Taj is closed on Fridays, so you would need to work your schedule around that. I would also hope that the train from Ranthambore is precisely on time, as your schedule does not leave a lot of room for error. (The train does appear to have a good on-time record, although I believe the train you are referring to is Varanasi Express (train 9569) and if so it leaves at 11:30 am, not Noon. You might want to confirm exact departure times as you have to coordinate this with the morning game drive at Ranthambore.)

I do not believe the Khajuraho is “worth it”. As an example, I am a big fan of Varanasi and have been several times, but have only been once to Khajuraho and have no desire to go back. The temple carvings are actually not very fine in quality compared to those you can see elsewhere in India (try the National Museum in Delhi), but they get the most hype because of the erotic nature of the carvings. The temples are also not a major or even minor religious centre like Varanasi, Rikisesh, Hardwar, Badrinath, Karnataka and many other places. The temples appear to be unused. (And believe me, after you have seen about the third temple with your guide pointing out with mock solemnity “woman copulating with horse”, the whole thing begins to seem faintly ridiculous. I would buy a good-quality edition of the Karma Sutra and be done with it. They make nice souvenirs – and gifts.)

Finally I would say that I have traveled a lot on my own in India, but I generally do this as 3-4 day trips as an addition to a business trip. I really enjoy those short trips on my own. I have done longer trips, but not alone, and 2 weeks of having to tackle India on my own, with trains, planes and automobiles may be a bit much. I am not sure I would do that much time by myself. It is not a safety issue, it is more just the daily wear that travel in India can take on you. Sometimes it is nice to leave the decision making to someone else, or have someone else get the train tickets, or bargain with the driver, etc. If you can convince a friend to join you, so much the better. I am not really a big fan of tours, so would not say you have to join one. However, there may be something you could do like Cox & Kings or Abercrombie & Kent who could set up an itin for you, have drivers and tickets arranged, and/or let you join groups from time to time that might be good (and perhaps pricey). Or if you like walking tours, look at ATG Oxford Tours which have some wonderful ones. I have walked with them in Europe. They are not like organized bus tours. Take a look at http://www.atg-oxford.co.uk. Mountain Travel Sobeck might be another good choice, see http://mtsobek.com/, they do camel treks in India (I have used Soebek for things like day rafting trips in Bali.). Another company I am researching for walking trip in the US myself next summer is called Backroads, see http://www.backroads.com/, I found them through the US board where they were recommended; they have some trips in Asia too, including biking trips. You could then add on something like going to Agra and Varanasi on your own, which would be a shorter trip and quite pleasant on your own really.

Leaving Jaisalmer is not a justice . Thats is the only live Fort of India where still 3000 Fanily lives inside the Fort unlike other fort which are a short of Museum . Walking across Jaisalmer Fort { The Common Man Fort } is like walking in the street of Florence or Perugia and I can see you have time for this . Khajuraho is good for 1 Night and now just 1 hour drive you have also CC Africa Pasahan Garh { An experince to stay } , Varanasi has new opening called NADESAR Plaace ... must experince this as well.For more detail on yr query write at [email protected]

TiinaN - While you are planning your trip, you might enjoy reading another submission to Fodor's forums - the one titled 'My First Passage to India' by StCinq. We skimmed it before leaving, but have reread it now and think it excellently written and very evocative of our experience - read esp her Oct 19 entry for the traffic on the way to Jaipur and the shopping experiences. Enjoy your trip planning -

We had in 2001 a similar itinerary , with the following exceptions:
- it did not include Jodhpur and Rathambore
- the order of the visits was this: Mumbai - Udaipur - Jaipur - Agra - Khajurao - Varanasi - Delhi
- Except Jaipur - Agra (done by car), all other trips were by plane.
- we had a private tour (with guide and driver in each place)

Our trip was 14 days and this time was OK for us, so I think that also for you it will be enough (as you have 19 days).

Please make sure that you will visit also the Astronomic Observator in Jaipur.

India is "another world" for us and we enjoyed it. I hope that you will love too this experience/