[monkgonemad]

great info -

truth is delhi airport is SOOOO easy to get out of from pre-paid booth. only thing to remember - never hand your ticket over till your are happy where youve arrived.

much ado about absolutely nothing. do change about 750 rupes for the night till you get into town - esp if you have cash, you CAN get a better rate. if visa card - get 20000.

70s - in most countries its only 2 hours before departure. my flt did not even hit the board until 1.5 hours till we were supposed to leave - and then delayed 2 hours (agrh!)

[phobal]

Originally Posted by desi1234

Hi Friends,
I found out a bus service from Delhi Airport to Various Punjab cities. Here is the link.
http://indocanadiantransport.com
Best thing is you can buy tickets online and they have bus service every 1-2 hrs.

Hope it helps

Ashish
(http://ashugupta.info)

i didn't know this

[alext]

"A convenience store is located to the right of the exit of the customs hall, selling the usual bottled water, newspapers, and overpriced snacks. Beside that is an ATM and beside that is the prepaid taxi booth."

I am either confused by your description or my experience was a little different. The pre-paid taxi booth I used was right to the left as soon as you leave the baggage claim area. There is a line of booths. At one was a team of tourist info people yelling and next to them was a guy sitting quietly. The guy sitting quietly gave me a good rate (forget but less than 750rs.) and all went well from there.

Anyway I like this part:

"It is highly recommended that you secure a chauffer to pick you up and take you to your hotel, but if not, you can go to the pre-paid taxi booth which will charge you just as much as a pre-arranged ride."

I really strongly suggest to first time India travelers that they get their hotel to pick them up from the airport. It was a considerable comfort to me when I did this. And in fact this year I am going to get a pre-arrange pick up again. Firstly you do not have to deal with sorting out which is the correct booth and secondly you know the driver will know where the hotel actually is!

[zzzehar]

Whoa ! Are they getting privatised? At last we could expect something better from the Indian Gov.

[phobal]

Originally Posted by zzzehar

Whoa ! Are they getting privatised? At last we could expect something better from the Indian Gov.

I think it's a good thing, the airports as they are now are a gong show.

[zzzehar]

I would love to see President's Rule in India one day. I really feel ashamed and depressed when I browse thru the news channels everyday with heart breaking stories of rapes, corruption from top to bottom and especially the involvement of "N" number to pricks after a desicion has been made by some top authority. Why do we need so many people to think and then look for WIIFM when a desicion has been taken by a commanding authority?

I think the president and the prime minister are just there for the heck of it.

[phobal]

Bump to my precious little thread

Still need help with this

DOMESTIC TO INTERNATIONAL CONNECTION
-Specifically where the transfer bus can be caught
DOMESTIC ARRIVAL
-Terminal, prepaid taxi, and services
NEARBY ACCOMMODATIONS
-Especially budget hotels.

Thaaaanks

[Indiafan]

Originally Posted by phobal

Bump to my precious little thread

Still need help with this

DOMESTIC TO INTERNATIONAL CONNECTION
-Specifically where the transfer bus can be caught
DOMESTIC ARRIVAL
-Terminal, prepaid taxi, and services
NEARBY ACCOMMODATIONS
-Especially budget hotels.

Thaaaanks

Any info on how to get from domestic to international is highly appreciated.

[nanstallon]

situation at International airport on 16 April:
arrived 01.25, got through immigration 02.40 and changed money at Thomas Cook (India) - £180 = 13,200 rupees after commission. May not have been the best rate, but I didn't want to spend my holiday queuing at a bank for ages just to possibly get a slightly better rate!
lot of taxi touts, but they eventually allowed me to wait for bus at stop immediately opposite exit. It was clearly marked.
03.00 airport bus into city centre (runs every hour on the hour) - 50 rupees- Uncompromisingly local; no-one could speak English and destination in Sanskrit with no English translation.
Dumped by New Delhi railway station at 03.35 or so. Station closed up; not the choicest place to be in the middle of the night; ended up paying 800 rupees plus 180 rupees 'tax' for 4 hopur kip/safe place at very basic Victoria Hotel.

coming back for 03.25 flight on 3 March:
tuk-tuk from Qutb Minar 150 rupees.
not allowed into airport proper until 3 hours before flight.
visitor lounge free 5 hours before departure; otherwise 30 rupees. Civilised - not crowded, and abl;e to watch some cricket on rather crackly TV.
a tea etc stall, a restaurant, a bookshop and a general souvenir shop which I found a bit pushy - the guy was openly disappointed that I only bought one item (950 rupees) to use up my last Indian money, and kept on at me to buy some more stuff with credit card/foreign money. No doubt, prices higher than in town, but what do you expect?
at least six queues before I got on my flight. All very edgy when you're tired and not sure if you're getting it all right. The procedure desperately needs to be more user friendly, but thanks to British Airways for having staff around to reassure me.

Regards

John

[jivan]

seems a double post there nonstallion, although liked the experiences & all the info. tagged there. It seems very similar to my experiences in the Santa Cruz (Sahar) Airport few years back for recieving as well as sending a friend. Hope to see things come to a better way in my life-time

[Kingstonian]

Delhi International Arrivals

Easy to change money - 1st thing I saw after picking up my bag was a choice of exchange booths

Sim card - next task was to get an Airtel sim card for my mobile - also easy, though took a little longer - 1st booth on left just outside the baggage hall. I didn't need my own photocopy of my passport, dutifully organised after reading other threads on indiamike - the woman running the booth took a copy herself on a small machine she had there. She also seemed mildly entertained by my tourist paranoia over spam and roaming.

Hotel pick-up - had been arranged, but I got confused by the guys hanging around inside the airport building waiting for pick-ups - my name wasn't on anyone's card there, so I assumed my lift wasn't there.
Note for others: if your lift isn't there, just go outside the building - there's another, much bigger, bunch of guys waiting there. (So simple, once you know. )
Eventually found my hotel driver, still clutching a scrubby piece of paper with my name on it, scrumpled up in the long wait he'd had before I finally emerged ... His English was minimal (and my Hindi almost non-existant), but he was patient, helpful and courteous (until he later hit a pedestrian with the car, but that's another story).

Pre-paid taxi - two booths, one inside, next to the Airtel booth, and another outside (as described before in this thread, I think). When I couldn't find my lift, I rang the my hotel, and then booked a pre-paid taxi - about R180, or was it less? to Old Delhi. When I came out of the building, and then found/was found by the hotel lift after all, I was then taken in hand, metaphorically speaking, and led to the main pre-paid taxi booth where a refund was duly given.

Private taxi to the airport - By Day 2, I'd adopted/been adopted by a taxi driver known to my hotel. Charged somewhat over the odds, but suited me, as he didn't talk much, drove well, and had a sense of humour. When he took me to the domestic terminal for my Varanasi flight on Day 3, he asked me to pay him before we pulled up at the terminal. I gathered this was because he wasn't licensed in some way for airport drop-offs?? I didn't sense any kind of scam.

Overall impression: the place works. At its own pace. If I don't understand it, someone will show me what to do. No rip-offs that I could spot, either then or in retrospect. A bit of banter with the guys waiting for other pick-ups - all laughing and good-humoured, no aggro.

Domestic terminal 1a to Domestic Terminal 1b
Another day, (Day 3 of my stay) I had a 3-hour delay before my domestic flight from Delhi to Varanasi. Spent a while in the internet cafe in the domestic terminal.

I wanted to try and change my return flight, so also used the time to scoot over to the Jet Airways desk at the other domestic terminal. As I'd already checked in, this was "illegal" - achieved with only a little blagging of the guard at the exit - and cost me a small verbal wrist-slapping from a disappointed-looking Indian Airlines official after I got back to terminal 1a. Gosh I'll never do that again ...

I scooted between terminals thanks to the services of a delighted autoricksaw driver and his side-kick - lurking outside the domestic departures terminal touting for rides. "Delighted" as I couldn't be bothered to haggle over the R200 he charged for the return trip - which took about 10 minutes each way. Another time, I'd have aimed to pay something more in the region of R50??? (er, R20??)

Food at Varanasi aiport restaurant
Another delay ... a chanced snack at the upstairs restaurant - perhaps my most memorable meal in 11 days in India - the Most Perfect Paneer Pakoras. Freshly prepared and cooked, in fresh oil, I would guess - as my order took longer to arrive than the cooked food ordered by people who arrived and ordered after me. The batter was crisp, lightly spiced, delicious. The inside was perfectly cooked through. The whole was sweetness itself, and I can still taste the food melting in my mouth as I write this.

[Indizen]

Originally Posted by phobal

OVERVIEW
Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI, IATA: DEL, ICAO: VIDP) is located in Northern Delhi

Delhi Airport is located near Palam village in south west Delhi.

[machadinha]

Kindly note that all the posts above till post #26 date to early 2006.

Updates very welcome So thanks, Kingstonian.

[two_roads]

Getting from the International to Domestic terminals.


After you have gone through the immigration, collected your baggage and finished the customs formalities, you should enter an area that has the forex and domestic flight information kiosks.
Here, on your left you have a smallish corridor leading to a lounge. This is the waiting area for the transport service from the international to domestic terminal. The lounge had a couple of gun totting guards who checked my papers and let me know when the next bus was due.
The only document you need to have at hand is the domestic flight ticket and passport.
The service is free and takes ~15mins, but the frequency is not too great. I had to wait for around 1hr (but i had landed in Delhi in the middle of the night, things might be better at other times of the day)

[kidsan]

Originally Posted by alext

I am either confused by your description or my experience was a little different. The pre-paid taxi booth I used was right to the left as soon as you leave the baggage claim area. There is a line of booths. At one was a team of tourist info people yelling and next to them was a guy sitting quietly. The guy sitting quietly gave me a good rate (forget but less than 750rs.) and all went well from there.

If there is one piece of information this thread should be giving it is how to get a taxi into town without getting ripped off! Imho this is crucial for 1st time travellers. However, the info quoted above (as well as in the OP) is simply wrong. If you paid 750rs you got ripped. You were also lucky not to end up getting the whole 'hotel burned down' scam.

If you want to avoid this and pay the 'official' rate then you need to head to the Delhi Police Pre-Pay. For this, you leave customs, ignore the gauntlet of rip-off merchants lining the hall and leave the arrivals hall by a door on your right. The DP pre-pay is outside the hall on your right...you can't miss it. Tell them your destination, pay the correct fare (should be around 300rs if my memory serves me) and take your change and ticket. Once in the cab, do not hand the ticket over until you reach your destination This is crucial as it will help to cicumvent any nonsense from the driver. Note that the ticket will need to be shown to allow the cab out of the airport but do not let the driver use this as an excuse to keep hold of it. If he tries, firmly ask for it back.

If there is any attempt at telling you something like your hotel is booked, burnt down, doesnt know where it is then he is lying!!! It is possible he wont know all the hotels but he will definately know paharganj and all the big hotels. It is worth knowing the area your hotel is in. If it's Paharganj and he pretends not to know where it is then tell him to take you to New Delhi railway station as this is only a very short walk away.
If they do try something on then my advice would be to be very firm and take no nonsense. If this doesnt work then insist on being taken to the police...this should scare them out of it.

Good luck...