Thanks for the opinions offered on an earlier post. We're deciding to brave the heat and visit Rajasthan in April--I think we can handle it...

We're flying into Mumbai and out of Delhi
Here's a first go at an itinerary:

Sat. Arrive Mumbai 9pm
Su Night in Mumbai
M Night in Mumbai (we would also be open to an overnight rail or could spend less time here if that seems better)
T Fly to Udaipur (again, would also be fine with an overnight train)
W Night in Udaipur
Th Leave for Jodhpur, traveling via Kumbalgarh Fort and Ranakpur; night in Jodhpur (bus or car for this portion?)
F Night in Jodhpur
Sa Leave for Puskar, via Ajmer, (on morning train?); night in Pushkar
Su Night in Pushkar
M travel to Delhi (could take overnight train from Ajmer??); night in Delhi
T 10:50pm flight out of Delhi to EWR

Does this sound good? Are the numbers of nights right?
Would we have time to sub in a night somewhere smaller (like Narlai)? Or is there another stop you would recommend? (I like the idea of stopping at a heritage hotel for a night along the way if it makes sense.)
Is this the best order to visit these destinations? Any suggestions regarding means of transportation between each place?

Thank you for any help!
Ashley

I doubt there is a train between Udaipur and Jodhpur which will allow you to visit both Ranakpur and Khumbalgarh. I could be wrong ("Often wrong, never uncertain," as my dear MP sez). The Aravelli Hills are most lovely. Get a driver from U. to Jodhpur or you will miss the best part of the trip. I recommend Rames Meena

You are attempting to do WWWAAAYYYY too many destinations. The rule to think of is: "I can't do it all. I can't do it all." Better to see a few places well than a drive-by for more places.

I recommend Ramesh Meena as a driver in India. We like him very much. He's a very safe and professional driver and quite pleasant as well and speaks English excellently. He specializes in the Rajasthan area. His contact info is: : [email protected] or [email protected]. Telephone is +91 9829807074. He can give you a daily all inclusive rate for your trip when you contact him.

I agree you are putting too much in too short a time. Here are some thoughts.

1. The drive between Udaipur and Jodhpur will take you about 6-7 hours, that is <i>without</i> any time to stop and see Rankpur and Kumbhalgarh. Both of those sites are quite interesting, and Kumbhalgarh is enormous and you could spend the entire day there if you want, but at a minimum you need two hours. The two sites are about 45 minutes apart from each other. It is possible of course to see them both and get on Jodhpur (at least in the winter months, I think in the summer you really will find the heat at Kumbhalgarh esp will slow you down), but it will take up your <i>entire day</i> on Thursday, i.e. you will leave early in the morning from Udaipur and arrive at Jodhpur at sunset (you do not want to be on those roads at night). So that leaves you ONE day to see Jodhpur. That is far too short, and a lot of driving on both ends. Jodhpur deserves more time, as one day will barely give you time to see the fort and perhaps some of the old town; and in the heat of April the fort alone may wipe you out.

2. It is not possible to do the above by bus to the best of my knowledge, as there is no public bus that will take you to both places in one day. I am not even sure there is a public bus to Ranakpur at all, but I have not checked. (Neither have train stations near by either, although Ranakpur has one not too far to the best of my knowledge.) You will have to hire a car and driver, which actually makes the trip easier.

3. It might also be worthwhile to overnight at Kumbhalgarh as there is a nature preserve where you can do horseback rides or jeep trips, and there and a sound and light show at the fort in the evening (see the Aodhi for a possible hotel, take a look at http://www.eternalmewar.in/User/Trav..._Retreats.aspx). You could also consider overnighting somewhere else which is a bit further along the way. Alistair Sawday (whose excellent book <i>Special Places to Stay India</i> you should get or see his website http://sawdays.co.uk/, click on the book for India), reccos Fort Seengh Segar, see http://www.deogarhmahal.com/.

4. The rest of your itin looks OK, but I still don’t understand the 2 days in Mumbai. The desert areas are so much more interesting, IMO, and you have so little time. I am not sure what you plan to see in Mumbai that is worth so much time; it is the longest you seem to be spending anywhere.(I have been to Mumbai like 40 times, and I always wonder how tourists manage in such a place.) I would still would recco cutting out Mumbai in favour of spending more time in other places. For example, Delhi offers far more interesting sights than Mumbai, so even if you added just one more day to Jodhpur, I would add the other day to Delhi, and skip Mumbai entirely.

5. Trains between Mumbai and Udaipur, for reasons I do not quite understand, take more than 17 hours. So your “night” train would depart about 3:30 pm in the afternoon. You are much better off flying, as the flight takes about 2 hours. There is a 5:35 am departure on Jet Airways that would be quite good, as otherwise you have to fly in the afternoon and will lose most of the day in Udaipur. Of course, with this early departure, this is yet another reason to skip Mumbai and just head out to Udaipur as soon as you arrive into Mumbai. If you stay at a downtown Mumbai hotel, you need about an hour, even in the middle of the night, to get to the airport, so with a 5:30 am flight, you will need to leave for the airport at like 3:30am. This does not make for the most fun vacation. If you stay at a Juhu Beach hotel or in Andheri, which would put you about 15-25 minutes from the airport, you will be 1.5-2 hours or so <i>each way</i> with traffic to Mumbai tourist sites during the day. This is why I keep saying to skip Mumbai.

Thank you for the help! After hearing your cautions, we're going to cut Pushkar out and concentrate on the other spots. I understand the cautions about Mumbai, but we're actually looking forward to visiting...

Still, I hope this sounds better--
Here's the new plan:

F in transit to BOM
Sa arrive BOM 9pm (hotel in Mumbai)
Su night in Mumbai
M night in Mumbai
T early flight to Udaipur/hotel in Udaipur
W night in Udaipur
Th early departure with car/driver to see Kumbalgarh Fort and Ranakpur/night in Ranakpur or Narlai (hoping for an interesting overnight stop)
F drive to Jodhpur/night in Jodhpur
Sa night in Jodhpur
Su 6:30pm catch overnight train to Delhi
M arrive 6:30am Delhi/ day and night in Delhi
T day in Delhi/fly out at 10:50pm to EWR
W arrive EWR early


Here are some questions:
1. We're on a budget, but for Mumbai we have the opportunity to use my father-in-law's points to stay at the JW Marriott in Juhu. I don't think he has points for anything in town (Hilton is the other option). Would it be better to skip on the JW to stay in town and then make that super-early drive to the airport on our last day or would two days of driving into town from Juhu be worth the JW and being closer to the airport for our night of arrival and our early morning departure?

2. Considering our budget--we would prefer not to exceed $100/nt for lodging (and would of course prefer to spend less, too)--any suggestions for lodging in Udaipur/Jodhpur?

3. I reserved first-class a/c train tickets for our overnight trip from Jodhpur to Delhi. I have the confirmation, but seats aren't assigned. Is this something to be concerned about? I believe this may be standard for 1A class, but can anyone confirm?

4. Cicerone, you mentioned staying at Kumbalgarh. I had assumed we would go there in the morning and then go to Ranakpur second (as it is only open to non-Jain public after noon). What do you think?

Thank you again!
I look forward to seeing your comments and appreciate any/all suggestions--

Ashley

Here are my thoughts on your questions:

1. I would never turn down a free hotel, and more so in a place like Mumbai where good hotels are expensive. The JW Marriott is located on Juhu Beach, which is a destination in itself, and a lot of tourists staying in Central Mumbai don’t get to see it. It is interesting to walk along the beach, esp at sunset and in the evening, to see the food stalls, rides, etc. It’s a family place for fun, not unlike the main beach on Marine Drive in downtown Mumbai. There is also an excellent restaurant next door to the hotel which I would recommend (Mahesh). You might enjoy staying in the Juhu area on the Monday, including going to Bandra which has art galleries and restaurants and is much more laid back than central Mumbai. You could also spend some time by the pool at the Marriott on the Monday, which you may appreciate in the heat.

Also, your day of sightseeing in Mumbai will be on a Sunday, which means traffic will be significantly better. Sunday is not a work day for office workers, which will cut down on traffic. It’s Monday that would be the worse day of the two.

I stay at the JW Mumbai quite often myself (including next week) and like it a lot. Juhu is the “Malibu” of Mumbai and many Bollywood stars live in the area, so it’s worth a walk around. (It does not look like Malibu unless you have a good imagination, but the beach is quite pretty.) And you may not recognize the stars, although they sometimes work out in the health club at the hotel. (I have seen Amitabh Batchan there! I could become a groupie of his, even if he is over 70. He likes early morning workouts if you are interested, between 6:30 – 7:30 am…)

I don’t think there is a Hilton in Mumbai any longer. I believe what used to be a Hilton for a few years is now a Trident (run by Oberoi who generally run good hotels). Not sure if your father-in-laws points would work there. The hotel is actually next door and connected to the Oberoi Mumbai, but the Trident is more of a 3-4 star while the Oberoi is a 5 star. While I think it is perfectly safe, this is one of the hotels which was attacked by terrorists in November 2008. It certainly has a good location for downtown Mumbai, although you are a long drive from the airport.

2. For Udaipur and Jodhpur hotels, I would look at the Sawdays’s website or book or even try tripadvisor.com where you can search by price.

3. Night train berths are not confirmed on trains until like a day or so before the departure. You can find your assignment when you get to the train, they are posted on the cars and also on a reservation list in the station. As you are a married couple traveling together, you may be lucky enough to get one of the 2-berth compartments. It is my understanding that they wait until close to departure to assign compartments to see how many married couples are traveling.

4. It’s perfectly possible to do the Ranakpur/Kumbhalgarh trip and on to Jodhpur in a day, it will just be quite a long day. I had suggested overnighting because you had expressed an interest in staying someplace smaller outside the main cities for a night. So Kumbhalgarh may work, or a place further north which is closer to Jodhpur may work as well. The order you suggest works find. Ranakpur is not open until Noon as you know. Of the two, visiting Kumbhalgarh will take more time than Ranakpur, as the latter is much smaller, and unless you have a real interest in seeing all the various temples (which can begin to look the same after a while and some of which require a walk to get to), you probably won’t spend more than an hour at Ranakpur.

a. Incase you are driving from Udaipur > Jodhpur, you may visit Kumbhalgarh fort, partake of early lunch at the Aodhi & proceed to Ranakpur. The temples are open till about 5pm. Allowing one hour for sightseeing, you should plan to be there by about 3:45pm. You will see the tall & handsome chief priest on his devotions at the main temple, make an offering of about Rs.50/- and ask him to explain the temple architecture & jain philosophy. He speaks fluent English. I have forgotten his name.
b. Thereon you may proceed to Fort Dhamli, an off-beaten destination but 'real Rajasthan'. It is a remote village some 60 odd miles short of Jodhpur. It would cost you about USD 90/- on MAP. You will love the destination for it is very different to what you have seen so far. Make sure your driver knows the route or ask him to get in touch with the owners to get proper directions.
c. You will get your seat number from the passenger rooming list pasted on the bogey of the train. For AC 1 the seat numbers are alotted at the time of formulation of final charts by the railways.
Hope it helps.

Thank you again for all of the tremendous help!
I posted this as its own entry as a trip report but wanted to follow up here as well:

We had a fantastic time! As it turned out, we only had 10 days (slightly abbreviated due to the ash cloud from Iceland's volcano), but traveled from Mumbai to Udaipur to Narlai and Jodhpur before ending the trip in Delhi. We started an extensive travelogue; the first half (Mumbai through Narlai) is now posted on www.hitherandthither.net (the travelogue is linked in the column on the right). It's quite long, but whether you read or skim it, hope you enjoy! We plan to have the second half up soon.


PS--If you stop by on the site, say hello!