Is there a train from Mumbai to Agra? I can't find it on the India Railway website. Any suggestions on hotels to stay at in Agra? Anyone know how far it is from Mumbai to Goa? Is there a train for that?

Yes, the Rail India site is hard to use unless you know the train number, and and you can’t get the train number at all in my experience, the eternal puzzle…in any event it’s a fair distance by train from Mumbai to Agra and even futher from Agra to Goa. Night trains and then some hours after that are going to be reqruied IMO. According to my limited research at http://www.indiagroove.com/, the shortest train Mumbai-Agra is 20 hours and the shortest trip Agra-Goa is about 30 hours.

Agra has no airport, so you have to fly into Delhi (2 hours by the fastest train about a 4 hour drive) or Jaipur (about 3 hours) to get to Agra.

Indiamike.com is also pretty helpful on those questions.

For hotels in Agra, do you have a budget? If you are thinking of trains, I assume you are on a somewhat limited budget, so a range would help. A very useful website for hotels in India is http://sawdays.co.uk/, click on the book for India. You can also buy the book, but the website will give you a very long list of hotels to start with. A lot of these hotels are in the budget range, and all seem interesting and several, like the Imperial in Delhi, are outstanding (but it ‘s not a budget hotel by any means).

The Lonely Planet book is also excellent for budget hotels in India, IMO.

Sorry, the bit about flying was intended to say that if you wanted to skip the train idea you could fly, but have to fly into Delhi or Jaipur and then train or drive down. Would save a heck of a lot of time however. There are numerous flights daily between Mumbai and Dehil. Kingfisher or Jet would be the first choice of airlines. Note than many trains to Agra go from Nizamuddin station and not New Delhi station, which is not in central Delhi, but is east and south of the centre, so you would not have to battle entire Delhi city traffic between airport and city to get to the train station (still some traffic of course). It's near the Oberoi hotel.

Its a really long train ride from Mumbai to Agra. I've taken the Mumbai-Delhi train and it was close to 24 hrs so I'm assuming to Agra it should be about the same. I'd suggest flying to Delhi and then taking the train to Agra. There are lots of budget airlines doing this route and if you book sufficiently in advance, you get pretty good deals.

Its about 650kms from Mumbai to Goa (is that what you're asking?) and if you take the train, it will take you about 12 hours. There lots of trains doing this route including overnight trains. Again, its easier to fly.

Thanks for the information. Sounds like flying around is the best way to do this. Would you recommend contacting a travel agency in India for help with arrangements? We don't need flight reservations for getting to India (my SO works for NWA), it's just flying in India and getting hotels. Who would you recommend for a good, reliable travel agency?

Latlinda,

Booking airline tickets directly with the airlines for domestic travel within India is very easy on the web. See -

http://www.flykingfisher.com

http://www.jetairways.com

http://www.airdeccan.net

http://www.spicejet.com

Of these Kingfisher and Jet Airways are full-service airlines, and both have high standards of service (Kingfisher has the edge). Air Deccan and Spicejet are budget airlines offering low fares. If price is no concern, I suggest you go with Kingfisher.

While www.indianrail.gov.in is no bahn.de, now they've added the Railway Map to the site, I don't think it's too bad. What you need to do:

Click on "Trains Between Important Stations" at top left.

Select your stations, select "All Classes" and click on "Get It". If you're lucky, you'll see a list of trains and times, with the train number to the left, and the classes available and the days it runs to the right. Pick the one you want.

If your station isn't "important" you'll need to go to the map and pick a big station just before or just after (depending on whether it's your start or end that's missing). Then select the best train and click on "Get Schedule" to see whether it stops at your station.

If there are no direct trains you'll need to use the map to pick a likely transfer point (this is where you'll miss bahn.de) and do the same procedure twice.

Note that some places have more than one station, Agra has three, you'll need to try all of them. Also, make sure you look at trains leaving Mumbai CST, not one of the other stations.

However, to answer the OP, there are direct trains from Mumbai to Agra - looks like the best one is 2617, 13:50-10:26. For Mumbai to Goa, you have a choice of leaving early in the morning (0103) or late at night (0111). Note that there is no station called "Goa", or even "Panaji". You want either Karmali or Magdaon. You'll then need transport to the beach, as the stations are inland. I took the train to Karmali for Panaji, and found it very difficult to bargain for a ride, as I was clearly not going to walk it!