traveling to India - any help out there?

[trigal]

My sister is stationed in Dehli for two years and DH and I will be spending a couple of weeks visiting her next summer. Since we are both teachers, we can only go in the summer, which is the crappiest time to go to India, but it'll have to do.

Anyway, we are generally not the "tour" type people, but we're not stupid enough to think we can easily travel around India without some serious guidance!

Does anyone have any experience in India? We're hoping to find a company that can help us organize the trip, including hotels and travel arrangements. We'd also like to try to head up to Nepal for a few days.

Any help at all would be greatly appreciated!!

[knitty]

I would use a good travel agent to book hotels and a car and driver, then be free to wander at your own pace around any places you visit.

A car and driver is not expensive, at all, by the way.

[mdgirl]

Flying within India is pretty easy and there area couple cheap airlines. We used Jet when were there the first time and while it was a little cramped everything else was fine.

I don't see it mentioned much as a tourists destination, but I though Chennai was quite nice. Less polluted than Delhi or Mumbai, and the ocean is nicer there than in Mumbai. Although I was there in the winter, so maybe in the summer it gets super hot.

[hz80408]

I went with my parents and family friends from Calcutta in July 2007. It was hot, but not entirely unbareable. Just be prepared to sweat as soon as you walk outside. We had a hired driver while we were in Delhi and visiting surrounding areas. It was very cheap and convienent. Unfortunately I don't remember the name of the company. We flew Air India from Delhi to Calcutta and it was really nice. I remember being given warmed towels for the flight.

We also spent a few nights in Mussoorie, which was an itneresting town built into the mountains. When we opened our hotel windows, clouds literally rolled into our room.

[Brit]

Caveat: I am no India expert.

Last year my husband had an assignment in Chennai, so we lived in Chennai for six months. We were quite successful doing a fair amount of travel around India without a tour or guide. If you are interested in doing this, I have a few suggestions.

For in country flights, you will find the cheapest deals (that I have found anyway) if you book on local carriers through ixigo.com.

You can also hire drivers pretty easily, we tended to use Sixt Rent a Car to hire drivers, but there are probably plenty of other companies. For example, for our trip to the Golden Triangle, we flew to Delhi, then hired a driver to take us to Agra, Jaipur, and return to Delhi. I don't recall how much that cost, but that means that it was probably not especially expensive. For cheaper rides within a city, hiring a rickshaw for the day is a good way to go.

We aren't really "tour people" and are pretty confident travellers, so this may not be for everyone, but if you want to do it and are willing to put in the time to research what you want to see and do, then I think it is totally doable.

ETA: We also visited Nepal without a tour/guide. Same deal as with India, you just need to know what you want to see and do and be pretty firm about it so your driver doesn't waste your time taking you to his brother's souvenir shop, etc. In Nepal, we had to do some pretty hard negotiations with the drivers to get a fair price and even then it was not quite as smooth as when we dealt through Sixt in India. Negotiating for Nepali drivers is not for the faint of heart, but it turns out that it is right up my H's alley.

ETA Again: Neither of us is Indian or speaks any Indian language in case that makes a difference.

[sillygoosegirl]

We spent 6 weeks in India without a guide or driver. India was shocking and I was terrified when I first got off the plane, but honestly not difficult and not unsafe (except the roads, which are very unsafe no matter what). We did meet a lot of people who had a driver and a guide and then went on and on about how cheap it was, but it was still not anywhere near within our budget. Around $100/day, including all transportation and accommodation is what we were told people were paying in 2010. However, not including food, or the big budget killer in India: entry fees. We met these people because they were staying at the same $5-$20/night hotels we were staying at. So while I'm sure their vacations were a lot more laid back than ours was, the markup was considerable. And they missed out on such classic India travel experiences as riding in a luggage rack on the train. My big regret was that I was feeling too polite to take a picture. Not quite sure why, there are a bunch of Indians with pictures of me on that train ride on their phones.

We used Lonely Planet to find our way around and were largely happy with it. However, it did seem that once a place got into Lonely Planet, they would double their rates, whereas a similar place across the street would be about the same without the inflated prices. For reasons that never became clear to me, the big Hindu pilgrimage destinations were by far the most difficult places to navigate as a tourist.

There is a lot about India in our blog: middendorfrtw.blogspot.com

[expatjen]

I live in Chennai and Bangalore (in the South) and have traveled a bit to Mumbai, Delhi, Goa and Agra during my 6 years here. I have a fantastic travel agent who books all of our domestic and international travel and would be happy to pass along her info. We tend to hire drivers when we travel domestically, it's just easier and there is no negotiating for fares, etc. Chennai in the summer will be HOT. Like 100+degrees hot. and so very humid. Just plan for that. If you want any other info on Chennai, let me know, I'd be happy to help!

[mrsukyankee]

My husband's family lives in Delhi & Amritsar, and my dad lived in Mussoori for a year. I spent time in July and would definitely say that sticking to the Punjab region would be a great idea - you can go to Agra, Delhi, Amritsar and perhaps a hill station or two, and enjoy yourself. It will be hot, but it is bareable.

[alleinesein]

Definitely fly down to Mumbai for a few days. Summertime in Mumbai is wonderful--I was dreading coming here in the summer and so far there have only been 2 unbearable days and they were both in September. Monsoon season is mild (mid 80s and short, heavy rain) in this part of the country. Its much hotter up north and I know that this summer the flooding from the monsoon rains was pretty bad.

I highly recommend staying at a Taj property if that fits into your budget.

Try contacting Delhi Magic for some prices. We use their Mumbai contact to coordinate trips to Delhi, Agra, Goa and Kerala. Their prices are very reasonable and they will work with any budget. www.delhimagic.com/

If you want to know about Mumbai let me know. I've been living here since June and I return to the US next week. Hoping to be back by next spring

[anasara]

DH is from Chennai originally & I've been to Tamil Nadu (the state where Chennai is located) several times. Can't help much with places to stay since we've bunked with family but getting around India was very easy. In the city we stuck to autos (the motorized rickshaws) & when going outside of the city (took a day trop to Pondicherry) we hired a car. When not eating @ home we ate street food or in any of the local cafes. Food prices have increased sharply but it's still quite cheap compared to the US if you stick with local foods; for the 2 of us a meal cost less than $5 when we were there last August/September 2011). I've never flown within India but know many family & friends who do regularly. It's cheap but be prepared for random strikes to mess things up. So long as you're flexible you'll have fun with it. FWIW I also hate organized tours & have traveled extensively in non-western countries (mostly West & North Africa) so I'm fine with extreme heat & humidity, pollution, etc. It's fun!

[pittpurple]

DH and I spent two weeks in India last oct and visited the golden triangle. I loved Jaipur the most, there are just so many lovely places to see and the shopping was fantastic. We did the trip on our own and took the train (booked ac cars ahead of time online) and it was definitely an experience! We only ate at places in lonely planet and never got sick, although I know we paid more than the average, food was so cheap it was totally worth it.

Personally, I would never want to spend much time driving in India and felt much safer on the trains, the roads were surreal!