Hi Everyone,

I'm at the beginning of arranging my first month long trip to India in November.

After researching various areas I am keen to visit as many places as I can, but still to remain sensible in terms of appreciating those places before moving on.

Generally speaking, I'm looking to fly into Delhi and explore Rajasthan (and it's many iconic cultural sites), travel up to Punjab (namely to see the Golden Temple and border, with a stop to Shimla on the way may maximise that travel?) , next to Mumbai for a few days, then onto the South (to experience the backwaters, rice paddies and tea plantations), with a stop off in Goa (for the beaches) on the way down.

With this in mind, I would therefore I would appreciate your feedback with the initial ideas around itinerary and ask for your honest feedback on:
a) The destinations I have chosen
b) The order of my travel
c) The volume of destinations in the trip
d) General tips and advice

Days 1-9 - Delhi + Agra, Jaipur and Udaipur
Days 10-13 - Shimla? and Amritsar
Days 14-17 - Mumbai
Days 18-23 - Goa (South)
Days 24-31 - Thiruvananthapuram, Varkala, Alappuzha, Kochi and Munnar
Day 32 - Travel home

I plan to maximise a variety of travel options:
- Several internal flights to cut down on travel time from North> East> South
- Train travel
- Car and driver (where recommended)

With your feedback, I will be able to make amendments/ choices/ further thinking where necessary start to move onto planning the more finite details needed.

Thanks in advance

kaxlee - sorry I can't help as I'm an indian novice too, but I'm joining in as what you have planned is not dissimilar to the sort of trip I'd like to make next year to celebrate my 60th birthday.

I hope you get some responses!

Kaxlee, this sounds like a great itinerary about which you've done much planning and thinking.It 's sooooo difficult to narrow down, isnt it? .

May I ask, WHERE do you plan to take flights and trains? This may influence my and others recommendations for possible otehr routes that may "flow" differently, or in a different order. For now, just looking at your itinerary, I am thrilled for you.

Fantastic that you're going to Amritsar!! You'll be awed by both Taj Mahal and Golden Temple , but the latter to me is particularly wonderful as it is a living monument,full of devotees now, and not just ancient history.

A couple itin-related suggestions:

From Amritsar, if you're interested in visiting a hill area (from which you can see the edge of the Himalayas) I'd recommend McLeod Ganj/Dharmasala instead of Shimla (if you dont have time for both). It's about a five hour drive from Amritsar (assuming you'll have a driver) or accessible via bus. IF you have time to go to Shimla too, great--it's a specia, charming, "Raj" era feel place (The Mall is like an old-fashioned English town's High Street, Indian style!) But "McLo" is much closer and easier to reach by road from Amritsar, and you'll have the fun/interest of the Tibetan influence and people(The Dalai Lama's commpound is there).

On the road between Agra and Jaipur, I recommend a short detour along a country road, to Abhaneri. Famous for its stepwell, the village is also interesting, and (at least when I was there) the people were eager to interact with tourists, and glad to show off their homes, children, crafts, etc. I don't think they see many tourists. It was lovely , and while they wanted a bit of $ for some of the items, it was very low key and not the least bit pushy. There is also a small palace there.


In Jaipur (just a couple miles outside the main town) I'd recommend visiting the "monkey temple" aka Galta J. IMHO, it is more "personal" than the well-known sites of Jaipur.

I havent been to Goa but DO check Julie's great ongoing trip report.

If you haven't already, check the incredibly detailed info on the Indiamike website

sorry for typo. that's Galta Ji ( monkey temple)

We've now spent four months in India on three different lengthy trips. I've always really wanted to go to Amritsar but have never been able to fit it in an itinerary, so I hope you can. I guess I should mention that we have never yet made it to the Taj Mahal since neither one of us has a burning desire to visit there.

I am surprised to see the you do not have Varanasi on your list since for us it is quintessential India, and I highly recommend it. However, I know Varanasi is typically a love it or hate it destination. If you decide to add in Varanasi you could also add in Orchha.

Also, you seem to only have the larger and more well-known tourist destinations on your list. When in Rajasthan we were very delighted by staying as smaller, rural estates of the minor royalty (many of them now take in paying guests to supplement their income). Click on my name to find out trip reports from a couple years ago, and you'll find places we stayed and liked.

If your only objective is to go to the beach, we preferred northern Kerala to Goa for the beach. But, it depends on your travel style. Goa has beaches with restaurants and bars much like you'd see in the US or Europe. Kerala' beaches are nor like that.