January in Sikkim or Kerala?
 

I'm thinking about traveling to India in January 2017 and am torn between Sikkim (probably not so many visitors) and Kerala (probably a lot of visitors). Any advice? I've been in India - Rajasthan, Delhi, Varanasi, Agra, Khajuraho and then on to Nepal - many years ago. I do OK in cold weather. Spending a couple of weeks in Tibet in late November a couple of years ago wasn't a problem at all. It is the perfect time to go to the south however. What to do? Will northern India be less expensive? What about festivals and events? Does any area stand out in that regard? I'm always beholding to Fodorites for the best travel advice.

January may not be the best time to travel to Sikkim. It is bitterly cold and perhaps foggy. Since you will need to fly into Bagdogra I am not certain if they have the CAT facilities installed on the airport. There are only limited flights to & fro this region. The best time for this would be definitely, October / November & March/April.The hill views are excellent in October & November.
January, after 10th, is not considered peak time in Kerala. You can do this trip, in addition to Madurai, Chetinad, Chennai & may finally end up in Calcutta.There are some delightful market walks in both Madurai,Chennai & Calcutta, which will bring the local life alive by an enthused story-teller!
And you have Hyderabad!! You will love your stay at the Taj Falaknuma; the famous Hyderabadi cuisine, the Biryanis; the pearls & the refined Islamic culture that you find in some of our Indian cities of both north & south.
Happy travels!

Both the destinations are good to visit during the mentioned period. However in North East you will find only one type of landscaping and that is hills. Whereas in Kerala you can find different types of landscaping i.e Hills (in munnar), Backwaters (Alleppey) and Beaches (Mararikullam).

January is bit cold but you can witness snowfall at this time which is definitely an advantage.

Culturally, both places are quite rich.

As far as festivals are concerned there is no major festival during this period, in any of the destinations.

Its the season time for all Indian destinations and hence North india too, will be equally expensive

Much of Sikkim is semi-tropical. While some areas are cold and barren like Tibet, much is gorgeous and lush. We visited in November and loved it. If you are interested in Tibetan Buddhism, you'll see more of it in Sikkim than in Tibet.

Photos at http://www.marlandc.com/Sikkim-2010

Such generous responses! Thank you for the photo link Kathie. I wandered through some of your other photos as well. They certainly convey a sense of place. I am interested in Tibetan culture and would like to experience it in areas outside of Tibet or Nepal, which I've visited. Thus the interest in Sikkim.

vp_singh you mentioned that AFTER Jan. 10 it's no longer peak time in Kerala. That's fantastic. I always prefer shoulder or low seasons to travel because it's a nicer experience. I don't want to temp the fates but I've never had a weather problem - not yet anyway! January is the only time we can make a trip in 2017 so I'm stuck with that timeframe. You've made me very happy.

I'll be back when we finally make a decision!

Thanks to all.

OK, here's the latest update. I changed my mind about destinations a couple of times but have finally put on hold two tickets from LAX to Kolkata. Northeastern India it is! We'll have about 14 days on the ground which I think gives us more than enough time to see Kolkata, Darjeeling and Sikkim.

Do I have enough time to add Chitwan and/or Pokara in Nepal? Is that too ambitious? Or maybe I can add destination or two in Assam? Does anyone have any comments or suggestions?

I need to explore West Bengal guide books as well because day trips from Kolkata might be a great way to experience that region.

Kathie, I'll have to re-read your trip report about Darjeeling. It was so detailed and I suspect we might have the same travel attitudes :-)

No, I don't think you have enough time to add some Nepal destinations to your trip. I don't know whether you could add a destination in Assam - in part, it depends on your interests. In our two weeks, we visited Sikkim, Darjeeling and Kolkata. We absolutely loved Sikkim, and if I was going to do this trip again, I'd opt for more time in Ikkim, seeing some of the remote areas we didn't visit and I'd likely skip Darjeeling. I expect we wouldn't have had such a negative reaction to Darjeeling if we had visited there before Sikkim, but after Sikkim, it was a major disappointment.

Transportation in this area is necessarily slow. Figure it will take whole day to get from one place to another. You will fly into and out of Bagdogra. I believe there are connections from Bagdogra to Assam, but again, there would be lots of driving.

Let me know if there is additional info I can help with.

Yeah Kathie, I suspect you're right. Nepal is for another trip. And since my husband and I both love cities, we might enjoy Kolkata - or not. When we're not harassed too much on the street, exploring Indian cities is a great adventure. Maybe a short cruise? Either one or two days might fit the bill so I'll check that out.

I've started searching for your trip report to Darjeeling and Sikkim but you have so many postings it will take forever. Can you send me the link? I think I remember that you were annoyed by the controlling manager of the hotel you stayed at in Darjeeling but I can't remember much else. Thanks.

When I get a better idea of my itinerary and have done more research, I'm going to start another thread asking for input. Fodorites are always so helpful.

Take a look at Calcutta Walks - a great way to experience the city. And look at my trip report - we enjoyed Kolkata much more than We had anticipated.

http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...p-to-india.cfm

We are also fans of Calcutta where we spent a very memorable few days. I'd also recommend a walking tour (we did several through a local architect) and do go out to see the Marble Palace which is a wonderful old house museum. What we loved about Calcutta was the variety, I still remember passing an Armenian church, several mosques, Hindu temples, a Sikh parade and a synagogue all in one day!

We liked the main bazaar and in a bid to get entrance to the synagogue ended up at a bakery run by a Jewish family where they gave us a letter of introduction which meant the gatekeeper would let us in, the security was quite tight. Anway, I was amused to see that the Jewish bakery was selling Christmas cakes to Hindus ;). There's so much multiplicity in india, I love it!

Before Calcutta we were in Assam on a trip down the Brahmaputra with Assam Bengal Navigation. This type of trip isn't our usual travel style (long story - short versionI was recovering from major surgery) but we had a very enjoyable time. I didn't write a TR on the whole thing, mainly because Dogster had written about a similar trip the year before and nothing I could have said would have added anything! Viewing rhino at Kazaringha National park on elephant back was quite something but my main memories of the trip are the river, the villages, local, the weaving and the sense of the diversity of Indian and Assam, where we saw Buddhist monasteries, ancient temples and palaces, river islands and World War II cemeteries.

Hope this helps. We were there in mid to late December and the weather was great.

Thank you Kathie and welltraveledbrit for the heads up on Calcutta Walks. That's the kind of thing we always like to do.

welltraveledbrit, you make me excited about exploring Kolkata. What kind of baked goods did the Jewish bakery sell? Were they Indian, western, something else? I will look for it because the 'main bazaar" in any place is a magnet for me. Also, it would be great to get over to Assam. I have the drive of my younger self but the energy of my actual age so let me see how things stack up - ha, ha.

Kathie, thank you for the link to your Darjeeling/Sikkim/Kolkata report. The Glenburn sounds lovely (nix any controls over my vacation) but the $500 per night is pretty steep for me. I'll have to check out the other options in Darjeeling...the Elgin, Windermere or Mayfair? Your description of Sikkim reminds me of so many experiences I've had in Buddhist countries or areas...the atmosphere is so easy. I'm looking forward to that part of the trip especially.

Thank you so much and I'm sure I"ll be posting soon.

I was referred to Calcutta Walks by dogster - another of his wonderful recommendations! You would likely be interested in the Multi-Ethnic Walk) I can't remember the actual name of it).

As far a hotels are concerned, we stated at Elgin Hotels in Sikkim - all historic properties - and loved them. So if we would have stayed in Darjeeling Town, I expect we would have chosen Elgin.

Evaluate carefully whether you have time for Assam this trip or whether it needs to be another trip. For us, it needed to be another trip. The daily drives are exhausting.

Jahlie - they were Western style cakes. The bakery is called Nahoum and Sons and it was set up by Baghdadi Jews more than a century ago. If you go to the synagogue in Rangoon in Burma they're from the same diaspora. Anyway here's a fairly recent article on the Calcutta bakery from the Guardian...

http://www.theguardian.com/travel/20...-kolkata-india

We did two walking tours, one led by an architect who was featured in the NY Times ages ago and a second with a chap he set us up with (a neighborhood activist working on preservation) who showed us around the palaces in northern Calcutta. The former was interesting because it addressed what do you do with colonial public buildings in a place defined by a post -colonial identity, and the later was interesting because we went to northern Calcutta into apartments and homes and it was fascinating to have him show us how the palaces have been broken up into smaller domestic architectural forms.

I wish I could offer more advice on Assam but we were on a tour so everything was laid on for us. Frankly the most interesting things were from the boat so they'd be hard to replicate when traveling any other way.

Thank you welltraveledbrit for the bakery info...I'll try to find it during one of our adventures in Kolkata. If only we had time for the cruise...

Just come back from India....for me Sikkim was not worth the hassle to get there, every journey to see anything took hours and was not a pleasant experience. Hotels were bad as well so we left a day early.

We loved Sikkim, but then we are very interested in Buddhism and loved seeing Tibetan Buddhism being practiced.

There are lovely heritage hotels in Sikkim, I'm sorry you didn't find one.

Transport to and within Sikkim is slow and difficult, as you are being given on twisting mountain roads.

Hi
January is the great time but but for visiting Sikkim, its chilly out there, so for me Kerala is your best bet this January.
Both Sikkim and Kerala has been culturally rich, with beautiful landscapes, picturesque view, colourful and vibrant lifestyle and traditions, high spirited festivals and fairs. Both places has been abundantly blessed with Nature and its elements. Great places, but for January, Kerala is the best bet.
Thanks.

Kerla is the best option to visit in January. You will feel like you are in heaven.

Staying is not very expensive as well as you can visit some goood places over there.