Bob - I am envious...39 days! W will be lucky if we squeeze in 3 1/2 weeks for our trip. We will also try to book it all on our own. Please be sure to post what you decide upon as well as the costs. When will you be going to India?

Agree with Thursday on all points, especially the part about Kathmandu. It makes no sense at all to go to Nepal and stay in that city which, for what I hear, has changed a lot recently and not for the better.

To clarify, I meant above that to go to Nepal and only visit the capital makes little sense to me.

Isn't Kolkata closer to Varanasi than the Delhi-Kathmandu portion? You might make life easier for yourself to do those two cities back-to-back.

Should you ever decide to go South to Kerala, or Ooty, Coonoor, or Mysore, thereaer wonderful heritage hotels in those places. Kabini Lake has an old hunting lodge on its shore.

thanks again for these additional ideas....

for my detractors, we have only scratched the areas in the north, having visited the big 3, so now we want to branch out a bit... i have continued interest in the south and will address that on another trip as well as bombay...

i know varanasi is closer to CCU, but flight prices work better the other way... i may still consider some daytime train usage as well for some connections....as i said this is only a first pass...

good points about visas, etc, i was not aware of that so i think i will dump kathmandu, yet again...

i will look into some indian mountain areas...

Darjeeling is a natural from Calcutta.

so now you can include Udaipur?

Check the terms and conditions of the visa, I think there is (or was) a rule that if you are in transit for less than X hours you can reenter India without complications. If you fly BKK - DEL/CCU (in transit only) - KTM and then back to India you'd be okay. Or, you could go to KTM last and fly to DEL/CCU to connect to BKK.

jsm - how recent was that? The two month rule has only been in effect since around the end of last year. (It's a reaction to the guy who was scouting for the Mumbai bombers.) And you'd definitely have to stay international airside - you couldn't switch to the domestic terminal to go Delhi-Kolkata.

Do you know about www.sawdays.co.uk ? A good resource for interesting properties. We used it when we were researching places in Assam, and used it to find a couple of the places we are staying on our upcoming trip.

As mentioned, because of the new India visa rules, make your Kathmandu stop on your way to India or on your way out, but don't plan on re-entering India after Kathmandu.

thursdaysd, I know people who travelled in May, 2010 in north India and Bhutan, they'd travelled around India first and then flew Delhi - Paro. They flew from Paro - Delhi and connected the same day to London and had no issues. If rhkkmk does want to include KTM he could transit through DEL or CCU enroute to KTM. Or, he could look at open jaw tickets with KTM as one distination and a city in India as the other.

thanks for these ideas...

no, kathie, that is new to me...i'll check it out

When will you be traveling?

we are thinking fall, 2011...november/early december

Good time to go --- cooler and after the monsoons, so water in the lakes and ponds.

last time we were there the same time and many lakes were low....global warming i guess

Bob, I'm envious. If it were me (and it's not), I'd fly from Delhi to Varanasi & then Kolkata, and then head south to visit Mysore, Madurai and Kerala. I've been to Varanasi, but none of the other places and I'm dreaming of visiting them. If you are going to Rajasthan though, what about, as Craig suggests, Udaipur and a visit to the Jain temples in Ranakhpur?

Here are some options to consider. There are plenty of heritage options in Rajasthan. There are many listed at http://www.travelpaisa.com/hotels/ra...-havelis-.html
I guess you are looking at options other than that at Rajastha, let me try : At Himachal, there are many heritage options at Kasauli. The other popular one is Ross Common.

At Goa try Fort Tricol. If you are bored of large palaces try this at Chikmagalur - www.thippanahallihomestay.com/

thanks...

udiapur was an ommission... it is a definate...
trying now to see if i can limit the trip to 30 days in india and leave some days either side for thailand...

less FF miles to fly to and from thailand rather than india...

flights are reasonable from bkk to kolkata so that is the reason to start there.....flights that i find from CCU to vns all go through delhi and are expensive, so i thought we might drive