3 Weeks in India

CeleryGeneral

Hey there,

I am currently planning a trip to Asia. I am flying from Toronto to Delhi on May 3 and am planning on spending three weeks in India (at which point I'll head up to Pakistan). Initially, I thought that three weeks would be plenty, but the more I research, the more I realize that three weeks is nothing in India. Anyways, I'll have to make do with what I have.

Because of the time constraint, I was wondering if anyone could suggest a 3-week travel itinerary in India. We're going to be two 23 year old males and want to "rough it out" as much as possible to keep the budget low. We'd like to cover as much of the country as possible, geographically speaking. But we'd also like to get peoples' advice on what is worth seeing and what is not. Initially I was thinking of going down the east coast and up the west coast, but i am open to any suggestions. We basically want to see and experience as much as possible in those three weeks.

After travelling India, we were planning on spending 10 days in Pakistan and then continuing on to China. As far as transferring to China goes, we've been looking into the KKH, however due to time constraints, we may be better off flying into western China. Just so I know, if we wanted to do the KKH as quickly as possible, how long should it take?

We'd also be open to your suggestions to reverse the order of our trip, doing Pakistan first, if it would make logistical sense. In that case we could go straight from Delhi to Pakistan, and then come back into India. Then we would continue on from India into Western China. Would this make more sense? Where would the best place to cross the India-China border be? In this scenario, we'd be closer to Tibet and could end up seeing Tibet as well.

I have a lot going through my mind right now (as you can probably tell, haha). I'd appreciate any advice on how best to do this trip.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

SHIMLA

Three weeks is a very short time in which to cover even a small part of India.

Instead of trying to see as much as you can, I suggest you select a particular area and concentrate on it. Considering the fact that you'll be landing in India in peak summer, I advise you to head for the hills. There are many interesting destinations in Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal, which will keep you happily occupied for three weeks.

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gmmangat

Last year my family and I traveled in India for one month. It was very difficult due to the language, and just the way life moves in India. We had drivers and all our traveling planned before we went and still nothing just fell into place. We traveled night and day but we were able to see alot. We began our journey in Dehli, up to Punjab and the Gloden Temple, the Pakistan border, back to Dehli and then on to Rajastan. 1o days to travel Rajastan, and then to Agra and the Taj Mahal. We then flew to Mumbai for 4 days and then flew to Hydrebad for three days. Then spending our last week in Dehli.

This was way to much traveling for the amount of time we had.

I suggest you plan on just a few places that are not to far apart. Hotels and eating is nothing like you can imagine. I really thought I was ready, but no one can tell you what ity is like when you hit the streets of India. The noise, heat, smells, traffic and people are something you will just have to experience on your own.

All this sounds horrible, but believe me it was a magnificant trip. One I or my family will never forget. We will be going back next year, but will do things differently.

If I can answer any direct questions feel free to ask.

My email address is gmmangat@yahoo.com

Enjoy you'll love it.