Kathmandu to Delhi Overland

Manto

Hi,

Going overland from Kathmandu to Delhi in October.

We want to see Varanasi, Agra, Jaipur, the Chitwan National Park, Lumbini and obviously Delhi and welcome any other suggestions. (although we only have two weeks!)

Any advice or recommendations? Have nothing planned yet and getting a bit worried now!

camelgirl

More info please? Where are you flying into? Delhi or Kathmandu? How are you planning to go overland and what route? Buses? Trains & buses? How long do you want to spend in Nepal?

Your "want to see" list seems a bit long and not focused enough for a 2 week trip, which means too much traveling between places and no time to see anything once you're there. Your current plans would take about 7-8 days for just the traveling, by my unscientific calculations.

Tapestry

Manto - just wanted to recommend in case you haven't done it yet to search this site for previous posts seeking similar info. i did a brief search just using 'Delhi Kathmandu overland' and there are numerous threads that would be helpful. Use different keywords and log a bit of time reading the responses, I think it will be helpful for you.

It hadn't sunk in from your previous post that you literally have only two weeks for your entire India/Nepal trip and if this is the case it would be very difficult for you to visit all those places unless you were on the go all the time. You must also figure in the 'sit back and enjoy' part of your journey!

I think you're going to have to eliminate some destinations, because you haven't even included Kathmandu in your list and that alone deserves a few days.

Check out some old threads and maybe revise your plan so you don't unwittingly overextend yourselves.

Manto

Ok, this has kinda confirmed what we already thought -we're not very good at this! After long discussion have decided to revise our thinking. How does this sound?

Day
1 Fly into Delhi, then onto Kathmandu.
2-3 Kathmandu
4 Fly to Delhi, and then fly onto Varanasi.
5-6 Varanasi
7 Varanasi to Agra (train)
8 Agra for day, then travel to Jaipur (train)
9-11 Jaipur
12 Travel to Delhi(train)
13-14 Delhi

Is 2/3 days 'enough' in each of the main ones we want to see, i.e. Kathmandu, Varanasi, Jaipur, Agra, Delhi? We also have the option of adding a few days extra at the start to give us a bit longer -which we obviously need!!

Tapestry

It really seems a shame to fly all the way to Nepal and leave after 3 days. If you're going to Nepal it makes sense to have at least a week so you can also see Bhaktapur and Pokhara. I think it's hard to do India & Nepal any justice in a two week trip. I think you'd be very tired. And your itinerary leaves no room for error. But I'm hoping other IMers jump in here and give some specific advice, because I mostly wish to offer a general opinion that if you look at the cold hard reality of it, you should probably just do one or the other, or do Kathmandu/Bhaktapur/Pokhara & Delhi/Bharatpur/Agra/Jaipur, a week in each place.

Just a thought.

Manto

Thanks -I think you're right. We were thinking that as well - we are now verging towards forgettting Nepal altogether now and sticking with India i.e Delhi, Jaipur, Agra, Varanasi. Enough to keep us busy for the two weeks? Anywhere else we should see in this area?

Tapestry

I think you're smart to just focus on India, there's more than enough to see here. If you have two weeks in North India I would say just add one or two more places you'd like to see. Maybe add from places like Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary, a tiger reserve, Pushkar, maybe go to Amritsar. You could try one of the close-ish hill stations like Mussoorie. Depends on what you want to see. But just stay in India and give each place 2-3 days and you won't leave disappointed.

Good luck.

camelgirl

I agree that you should just focus on India with only 2 weeks. You need at least 5 days to a week to enjoy Kathmandu and the other valley towns mentioned.

If you plan as you go, which gives you the most flexibility but also uses more time organizing, you can stay or move on as it suits you. Definitely 2 to 3 days in each place plus travel time will use up 2 weeks. I don't recommend Mussoori only because getting there and back uses up a lot of time. You really will use most of a day and possibly longer for each journey.

I think Varanasi is actually out of the loop of the kind of trip you could do.

I would recommend Delhi a couple of days (& do some sightseeing, there is tons to see),
Agra with a must see stop of Fatepur Sikri (can do the Taj and Fatepur Sikri in one day but you can also see FS on the way to Jaipur),
on to Jaipur two or 3 days there (Varanasi it totally in the opposite direction),
train to Ajmer then bus to Pushkar. At this point you have some options. You can continue on to Jodhpur by train, spend a day there or just keep going to Jaiselmer for a couple of days. Then head back to Delhi.

Any one of these places you could stay longer. But if you make it a circle, it's the most efficient way to see more.

You can see I've limited the area to cover. It's how we do it. In fact we will be spending 5 weeks in November doing almost the same route I've mentioned--spending more time in each place and seeing a few other places as well!

Manto

Thanks guys, been really helpful -feeling more relaxed about it now we don't have so much to cram in. We can always return to see Nepal another time!

I really wanted to see the Ganges and the rituals that take place there. Is there somewhere closer than Varanasi we can go?

Otherwise, we was thinking we'd do the area nearer Delhi e.g Agra, Jaipur first and then travel across to Varanasi and just take an internal flight back to Delhi as the last leg.

Would love a tiger/nature reserve if there's one near (compensate for the Chtiwan National Park we'll be missing in Nepal!) Any ideas?

dzibead

How will you be traveling? Are you planning to hire a car and driver? If so, Namaste India Tours, a member here, does Rajastan car trips (as well as "overviews" of Delhi) - highly recommended. wwww.namesteindiatours.com The website has other useful information, too.

For Ganges rituals, as an alternative to Varanasi you could go up to Haridwar and Rishikesh, but Varanasi is so amazing I think you should do it! You could start with a car & driver loop from Delhi to Jaipur, over to Agra (and camelgirl is right - Fathepur Sikri is a "must see" part of your trip to Agra) and back to Delhi. Then you could take an overnight train from Delhi to Varanasi, so you wouldn't "waste" the travel time. That would be cheaper than flying and you'd also get a train journey, which is a great part of the "India experience." (You could also take the train from Agra to Varanasi instead of returning to Delhi but you might still have to pay for the car and driver's return to the starting place.) You could then either take a train from Varanasi back to Dehli, or fly, and still have time to go up to Haridwar and Rishikesh and maybe on to Mussoorie, for a taste of a hill station.