Travelling to India - Itinerary help
 

Hi everyone,

My sister and I are planning on travelling to India together from around the 3rd of Jan til the 1st of Feb and I was wondering if someone could help!

I have been to India before for business, but I only went to Bangalore, Mysore, Delhi and Agra. I am wanting to go to Delhi & Agra again (because my sister hasn't been and I liked it). Kind of have 2 rough ideas at the moment.

Option 1:

Delhi - Agra - Bharatpur - Jaipur - Pushkar - Jaisalmer - Jodhpur - Udaipur - Ratlam - Ajanta/Ellora - Mumbai - Aurangabad - Hyderabad - Kolkata - Varanasi - Delhi.

Option 2:

Kolkata - Varanasi - Khajuraho - Agra - Jaipur - Delhi - Bikaner - Jaislamer - Jodhpur - Pushkar - Udaipur - Ratlam - Mandu - Ajanta - Mumbai. Then from there either go to Aurangabad - Hyderabad - Kolkata OR Goa - Hampi - Hyderabad - Kolkata.

Obviously these are very rough ideas, I'm hoping people will give me suggestions as to what should be cut, added, how long to stay in these areas or even just some suggestions for things to do.

Thanks :)

Both Ajanta and Ellora can easily be seen from Aurangabad, so I'm confused about the routing of Ajanta-Mumbai-Aurangabad. I'll leave it to others to tell you that you're trying to do way too much.

India makes much more sense at this time of the year than China.

And yes, you are trying to do too much. SLow down and enjoy India. Travel within India is often slow and you haven't allowed for any travel time. Indeed, even if you could teleport between destinations, you have way too many stops. My general rule is that any place worth stopping is worth spending three nights - which is just two full days. So choose a maximum of 8 to 10 destinations for your time in India.

Option 1 seems good to me. Jaislamer and Jodhpur are surprisingly beautiful. And don't worry about timings. January-Feb are fine for your initiatory .

Thank you sandeepsinghdahiya. I'm thinking Option 1 would work best given the time that we have. We're pretty quick travellers, we like to explore & don't usually spend too long in the one place unless we've planned to do it that way. We like to move around.

Marija, I haven't travelled to those parts before, so I can't be expected to know that. Which is why I posted this thread.

Thanks Kathie, that's a good system/way of looking at things/tip. I'll have to keep that in mind when it comes to finalising everything :)

You could count 2 days on an average for each place, and then count half a day for travel between most places. Then you'll know if you can fit all of this in 27 days.
I like the 2md option too, especially with hampi, it is like no other place in India. You really cant miss it. A combo of north + south will give you some diversity. And I Hyderabad and Kolkata? I would give them a miss unless I have a flight to catch, especially Kolkata.

Transportations in India could be really annoying. You should keep in mind that the train or the bus could break or delay.
I spend almost 20 days travelling from Chennai to Cochin on the coast. I think if you want to go from delhi to kolkata and see the rajastan too, you should not stop in Mumbai and around. What I will do is to go Delhi- agra then varanasi and then kolkata. after going back to delhi (i will take a flight) and do the rajastan. I think that only the rajastan (without udaipur that is quite far) will take a week or even 10 days, being fast. Otherwise I will do delhi-agra, and then down to mumbai, through some part of rajastan that are on the way and from mumbai, move to goa and then to kerala. I would do the secondo trip, that even if is longer gives you both the north and the south India. and in the south you will hve the change to relax a while. (and btw the kerala is amazing). An itinerary I did was delhi.agara.varanasi.kolkata. andaman island. chennai. is more expansive, cause the flight to andaman island is not that cheap, but those island are beautiful and still not much turistic as goa. Enjoy that beautiful country and make sure not to be in agra on friday, cause the taj mahal will be close.

I think the Option 1 will give you a wide variety of experiences to explore given the activities available in these cities. Say for example Delhi, Agra has lots of arty as well as adventure options while bharatpur as you must be knowing has great wild life sanctuary. But as pointed out earlier slow down to experience more of each place

Meanwhile I know a blog that has loads of details for tourists to explore activties or getaways to explore in different cities of India, its http://www.tushky.com/blog/#.Uno12_kbDfI...do scan through some interesting articles there to have better idea. Hope it helps in some ways :)

Disagree with Ashwinb on Kolkata. You have it in all of your options so if you can make it work do not miss it. I suggest you spend more time in Kolkata instead of Delhi or other cities.

I think you should follow option 1 and it will take 15 days to explore .

I like option 2 better. It includes Goa and Hyderabad, two places you definitely do not want to miss :) If you're in Hyderabad, you could try to see if you could go check out Bangalore, Karnataka and/or Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

Have a fun trip :)

Foggy weather in January could slow you down too. Keep your itinerary light. There is so much to see, enjoy, and take in, especially in major cities. You don't want to feel rushed.

I think option 1 will be best with minor changes, If I have to plan a similar trip I will plan liek this

Delhi - Jaipur - Pushkar - Jaisalmer - Jodhpur - Udaipur -Bharatpur- Ratlam -Agra -Varanasi -Aurangabad - Hyderabad- Ajanta/Ellora - Mumbai - and back home. either directly from mumbai or via delhi.
Going towards east indian only to visit Kolkata is not a good choice, you can plan another trip for eastern india, you will need around 10 to 20 days for east and north east india