India a price guide!!

wandering_kat

Depends first and foremost on the season you plan to be there. From October thru the winter season, prices will rise, and in the peak of summer, you'll have your pick of rooms and can bargain to your heart's content, because most tourists avoid summer in Rajasthan.
I spent an August there a few yrs back, and definitely got some good value for money, just because the hotels were desperate to fill some rooms.
As for the peak season,if you want a double with attached bathroom, you're probably looking at anything from Rs200 upwards, depending on your bargaining skills, your fussiness levels, and which city you're in (eg. Pushkar's pretty cheap, Jaipur's more expensive, from my experience). So it's difficult to say how much for a room in Rajasthan in general. Also bear in mind things like the Pushkar Camel Fair, where prices skyrocket for the duration of the event. Not sure what other events happen in Rajasthan, but that will also affect prices....

A bit verbose - i'm tired! - but i hope that helps a bit. I've always stayed away from the area during peak peak season, so maybe my figures are off the mark a bit....

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Aishah

The times when room rates are high in Jaisalmer are Christmas - Jan 3rd; they can be astronomical, and you won't get much of a bargain here in these times at most places. The other time is the month surrounding Divali - 2 weeks before and a couple of weeks after. This year it is Nov 10,11. Generally rooms will be slightly higher during the winter months. What other prices are you wanting to know? Transport prices do not fluctuate, they are fixed.
BTW - I noticed a price for sunscreen at 50r here in a previous post; I have a very good sunscreen recommended by skin cancer specialist in jodhpur - it is Ranbaxy Suncross with SPF26 - not cheap, 190rupees for 100mls. But I am extremely allergic to many creams on my face and I have no reaction with this one - amongst other things it contains zinc oxide.

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cheenee jeenee

I note the prices are from 2005. Is there much of a difference in 2007? Are these prices for Indians or foreigners?

Nick-H

Ordinary shops do not charge extra to tourists or foreigners; it would be illegal. Touristy places and hotel shops may well do, although it is still illegal.

One common thing is they will add a heavy premium to the cost of a bottle of water: do not buy it from your hotel!

Any packaged item will be marked with a MRP. That is the price you pay. It will also state that it includes taxes --- if it does not you will have to pay tax.

Any larger, expensive item (like buying a camera, etc) --- always ask for the price including all taxes, or they may well not add them on untill time comes to pay.

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Lugubert

In a handful of cases, my family's history goes back to the early 15th C. Not a hint of anybody ever not being 100% Swedish.

During, now, some five months in India, March-April '03, October-December '06, at least one half of it at sufficiently high altitudes in the North, I never felt any need for using any sunscreen or sunglasses.

I suppose I'm just lucky.

camelgirl

Yes, you are lucky. I bring the darkest sunglasses I can find, always wear sunscreen and sometimes a hat!

Of course, location is also a factor. Didn't need them in hill stations or winter in the north.

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kristinm

Well - we are planning 5 weeks in Rajasthan from 30th Dec to 6th Feb...and I have booked ALL the accommodation as of yesterday.. I feel very pleased with myself. So I've been able to get a look at the budget now. We're going mid range, and for the nicer rooms mostly (What is the difference between deluxe and luxury?????!!!) and it has averaged out at just under 3000 rupees per night. That's for double rooms with an extra bed including taxes. The prices vary so much its amazing.. Mumbai - 5,500/night!!! and we're there 6 nights.. I looked and looked and ended up just accepting how expensive it was, yet Delhi is quite cheap. 2 nights in Castle Bijaipur, in a SUITE, 7000/night - can't wait, that's our big special blowout nights.. (though it seems cheap for a castle compared to a midrange in Colaba!), and the other expensive place is Jaipur. These really blew out the average. So now we have about $100AUD/day to spend after our accomm (3,500r approx)....I'm sure we'll manage on that if we don't go overboard on the shopping.

Don't know if that's any help to anyone re budgeting.... I wanted quite comfy accom as with the kid and all our usual travel routine is to have a little lie down in the afternoons before we go out for dinner - read, listen to some music and so on, and I am a person who needs my sleep. So I went for the more expensive (quieter I hope) rooms with views or windows where poss...in Jodhpur and Jaisalmer we have views of the fort, and in Udaipur we are right on the lake....

baissaa

At first, sorry if I am going to ask the same thing again, but I've read nearly all thread and did not find the clear answer.
Me and my partner are planing to go to India in Jan 2008 for approx 3 months. We're going to try to travel and see as much as possible. Roughly, how much should we budget for a day? Would RS1000 be reasonable or is it totally unrealistic. Of course, I understand that there would be no posh hotels for us then

machadinha

It really depends on your wishes and needs. Would you like to travel by train, bus, air, car & driver? First-, second-, third-class? Eat and live like (many of) the locals, or hang out in fancier restaurants? Do you smoke or drink? Do you want to stay in budget hotels, mid-range, higher-end? Air-con or non-AC? Plan to see a lot of monuments? Stock up on souvenirs?

What aftershave do you wear?

India can be rock-bottom cheap if you're prepared to rough it, but like anywhere else the sky is pretty much the limit (although outside of the major cities, there's arguably often a limit to that sky). You'll find a few more price indicators here: How to get the most out of the Itinerary section.

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baissaa

Already found the answer somewhere here in this forum Thanks anyway

SFtoBLR

We're planning to do as much traveling as possible while we're there, is airfare cheaper to buy there as well? I'd just assumed it was or at least wouldn't make a difference. We'd like to put off buying tickets or tours til we have a better idea of our schedules, so unless it's dramatic it probably doesn't matter.

If it helps to answer, we'd like to see as much of Asia, the ME, Egypt, So Africa, Rwanda, (all of Africa actually) and the whole of India, that safety conditions and Visa availability will allow. One of my best friends is from Ethiopia, she's planning to meet us there to show us around, so that's a must!

Love the rest of this thread - much of what we were planning to bring is out the window now!

Cheers,
Lisa

Aishah

I was booking tickets through Flight Centre, Australia, for Delhi-Sydney return. I live in India and tried this via internet. What I ended up doing was booking with a travel agent here - Flight Centre, Australia, told me that for any tickets with departure originating from India, then best to book from India. It was cheaper. So I guess this might be the case for you. Also check out:
http://www.indiamike.com/india/inter...-flights-f124/
there are some Threads there re cheap flights.

camelgirl

Sounds like a fantastic trip--how long are you going for and how long are you devoting to Asia and India, in particular If you have enough time, you won't be flying that much. Trains are way more interesting and put you into direct contact with the people & the countryside.

I'd say you need at least 6 months for Asia to do it "all." Actually, there is no way you can do all of any continent, but I'm sure you mean all the highlights. We spent 7 months & only traveled in Thailand, Burma, India & Nepal and didn't see all of any country Of course, you can see much more if you don't want to hang out anywhere. I'm big on hanging out & frittered away 2 months in Nepal years ago

I would add that if you don't already have it on your Ethiopia itinerary, be sure to include Gondar. It's got sensational churches & ruins. It's also up in the mountains and very beautiful with lovely cool weather in the summer.

SFtoBLR

We will only be there for about a year. My husband will be working, and our daughter in school so I'm not sure how much time we will actually have to travel, but our 1st priority is India, then Egypt (daughter is obsessed), Thailand (I have to pet a tiger), then Nepal, China (husband must see Wall, I must see terra cotta soldiers), then the rest of Asia as able. I know we won't be able to see it all, but the plan is to take advantage of the proximity and relative lack of jet lag to deal with to gauge what to go back to.

Funny side note - my sis in law lives in NZ, and we'll only save an hour or so of travel time to get there from India vs here. She'll kill us if we don't though so we need to add that to the list too.

Is Gondar where the churches are cut into the mountain? Ethiopia is something my friends and I have talked about doing since our oldest kids were in kindergarten together. There's 6 of us who've become like sisters over the years, at least 2 are planning to come. Genet's family has a large home outside of Addis Ababa that we'll use as our base, and we're putting ourselves entirely in her hands. Whether Montana or Montezuma I've always found traveling w/a native to be the very best way so I can't wait for this!! Her husband is Algerian - hopefully conditions will allow the same opportunity there. His mother has offered to escort us if he can't - she's fantastic so I hope she comes anyway.

BTW - I love train travel, and plan to take them whenever practical. When I did the backpack through Europe thing, and even traveling here in the States, I got the best advice, met the coolest people and generally had the best time on trains. I'm more of a quick tour the biggies, then get out where the people really live and play kinda girl - trains are best for this too.

the opoponax

Train travel is crazy mad retarded cheap in India, especially if you are willing to travel Sleeper Class. I don't think I paid more than $15 for a two-day long haul trip from Pune to Kolkata.

Domestic airfares are a little cheaper than you'll find in the US, but then at the same time India is a smaller country so you're usually not talking about the same distances. As an example, it costs somewhere around $50-100 to fly between Delhi and Mumbai; the flight time is about an hour and a half. To me this seems about comparable to flights of similar distance/duration in the USA.

I have no idea what international airfares are like, but I would guess they aren't all that much cheaper than anywhere else. Asia doesn't seem to have anything comparable to Europe's budget airlines like EasyJet, RyanAir, etc. where it can cost as little as 20-30 Euros to fly across the continent.