Two weeks in India - Some advice please

Old Nov 9th, 2017, 02:41 PM
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Two weeks in India - Some advice please

Hi India experts,
Hope everyone is doing well. In a few weeks I will be going to visit India for a second time. Last year we did the golden triangle for one week and this year we want to do it for two weeks. This time we are planning to visit Mumbai (2-3days), Ellora/Ajunta Caves (2 days), Goa (2 to 3 days), Hempi (2 days) and Kochin+a day trip the backwaters (2 to 3 days). We plan to fly into Mumbai and depart from Kochin.

Questions:
1. Is this itinerary too ambitious? We did 3 cities last year in one week and thought that we may be able to do this in 2 weeks. I know the distances are further this time.
2. If too ambitious and have to scale back, which place should I forego? We are not really beach persons. One day relaxing on the beach is probably enough. We are more interested in history and culture.
3. The route that I plan is Mumbai - Ellora (Auragabad) - Hempi - Goa - Kochin. This way we don't have to return to Mumbai and then on to Goa, or from Hempi return to Goa and onto Kochin. I cannot figure out how to get to Hempi from Auragabad without going to Goa first. Any suggestions?

Thank you very much for your help.

stephen
scintor is offline  
Old Nov 9th, 2017, 04:41 PM
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It's not the distances, actually in peninsular India , the railway network, historically developed by the maharajas and then British never ran east west the way it did north south. Hence limited options to connect hampi to goa, for example.

Traveling down the coast is quite easy as there are plenty of trains. I cannot comment to the pace as have done all these places in separate trips, but they're all worthwhile. If history and culture is your thing, I'd suggest keeping perhaps goa for another time - though the basilica of bom Jesus is fantastic but getting in and out of goa will be complicated. Instead consider an overnight train to Bangalore and flight to Kochi or perhaps a connecting flight?

Keep in mind closing days for ajanta and ellora.
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Old Nov 9th, 2017, 08:22 PM
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One reason for the extreme shortage of east-west rail lines south of Mumbai is the steep escarpment of the Western Ghats. There is a line from Goa to Hospet, the station for Hampi, but basically Hampi is in the middle of nowhere. I went to considerable trouble to get there (car and driver from Hyderabad via Bijapur and Badami) and didn't think it was worth the effort.

There are other things to do in Goa besides the beach. Panaji is a good base for Old Goa, and you can visit a spice plantation and perhaps the Dudhsagar Falls.

The trains run all the way down the west coast, but it's a long trip and unless you are into beaches no reason to stop. (Don't be tempted by Mangalore.)

There used to be a slow train from Goa to Mysore, which is well worth visiting, but these days it's a night train and you would have a very long wait at Londa Junction. Might be better going via Bangalore, but probably by plane.
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Old Nov 10th, 2017, 10:48 PM
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You could probably drop Hampi out of your itinerary and reduce your stay in Mumbai. Tweak your itinerary a bit to spend some more time in kerala and Goa. There are a lot of sights to see in both these states. I have writted detailed blogs on both these states and you can go through the links below to get info on both these states:

http://blogmyspace.com/kerala-gods-own-country/
http://blogmyspace.com/go-goa-gone/
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