5 Week Itinerary Review

Hello All,

I will be going to India in late October for five weeks. I have been researching this forum and put together the following itinerary. My only concern is taking 2 consecutive night trains from Varanasi to Kolkata and then Kolkata to Darjeeling by way of New Jalpaiguri. Also, I will be flying out of Kolkata to BKK which explains why I am backtracking. Any suggestions or feedback would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Delhi 4 nights
Night train to Udaipur 3 nights
Jodpur 2 nights
Bikaner 3 nights
Jaipur 3 nights
Agra 2 nights
Night train to Khajuraho 2 nights
Night train to Varanasi 4 nights
Night train to Kolkata
Night train to New Jalpaiguri
Darjeeling 3 nights
Night train to Kolkata 3 nights

Total 35 nights including night trains

Why not take a train from Varanasi / Mughal Sarai to New Jalpaiguri?

Have you registered with www.irctc.co.in for booking your train tickets? Read http://www.indiamike.com/india/india...012-a-t165379/ for more information.

allwet

Are you aware that the Darjeeling Himalayan railway is not operating the full route between NJP and Darjeeling? The latest news is on this link.

http://www.dhrs.org/page4.html

I am aware of this. I planned on taking a share taxi from NJP to Darjeeling.
This is much better and yes I have registered with IRCTC thanks to the help on this forum and Seat 61.

This is my first trip to India so I am trying to avoid everything being rushed and I'm still not sure if Darjeeling would be worth it. Thanks for your input.

Agra is good enough for 1 night instead of 2. Any specific reason for 2 nights in Agra.

Any specific reason for choosing Bikaner and avoiding Jaisalmer?

You can go through my trip report for Agra in my signature and Udaipur Mt. Abu – Udaipur trip report..

What do you hope to see/do in Darjeeling? It may be possible to find the same or similar elsewhere.

I agree with aarosh regarding Agra. The Taj Mahal, the Fort and Fatephur Sikri are well worth visiting but the city itself is not a great place.

I was thinking 2 nights in Agra because I don't like rushed trips. I guess I could do one night only and store my bags at the left luggage at the train station. No specific reason for choosing Bikaner over Jaisalmer. Would you recommend Jaisalmer instead? Thanks for the trip report.
I am thinking Darjeeling because I wanted to see an area of the country close to the Himalayas and the tea plantations. Are there other places you would recommend that may be easier to get to or more interesting? How does it compare with Simla?

Once again, thanks for the help. I'm not used to planning so far ahead but I guess that is necessary for India.

Different opinions on that. If you are planning for 3 nights then Jaisalmer is better over Bikaner. For some information on Jaisalmer read http://ashutoshojha.wordpress.com/20...and-jaisalmer/ and Happy Deepawali , New Year and Trip report - Nakodaji - Jaisalmer - Khichan - Pushkar. For some information on Bikaner read http://www.slowtrav.com/tr/triprepor...d=1400&index=4.

I personally feel if you are flying out from Darjeeling and if you do not mind the toy train journey, you can visit Darjeeling and around.

We've done short visits to both Darjeeling and Simla. We were in Darjeeling specifically because of the railway although we did have time to do other things. Darjeeling was OK although very polluted. We had one very brief glimpse of the Himalayas while we there. There are plenty of tea plantations around and we had a guided tour of one. Currently the hill railway still operates short steam hauled "Joy Trains" to Ghum and back. These need to be booked in advance.

We enjoyed Simla. The main area of the town is traffic free which comes as a great relief after a few weeks in India. There are no tea plantations in the area as far as I know. We didn't get any views at all of the high mountains.

Simla is definitely easier to get to. There is an overnight train from Delhi (12311 Kalka Mail) which connects with the Shivalik Deluxe train on the Kalka - Simla hill railway.

I don't know places such as Haridwar or Rishikesh. These might offer a better mountain experience than either.

Oops. Meant flying out from Kolkata.

OK. So I decided to rework things a bit. I've dropped the idea of going to Darjeeling or Simla and am thinking of going to Amritsar instead. I've also decided on Jaisalmer instead of Bicaner. Here is my near final itinerary before I start booking trains. Please let me know if you think this is too much or if the order is inconvenient. Thanks again for the help!

Fly into Delhi 4 nights
Night train to Udaipur 3 nights
Bus to Jodpur 2 nights
Train to Jaisalmer 3 nights
Night train to Jaipur 3 nights
Night train to Amritsar 3 nights
Fly back to Delhi 1 night
Train to Agra 1 night
Night train to Khajuraho 2 nights
Night train to Varanasi 4 nights
Night train to Kolkata 3 nights

35 nights total including night trains with a total of 8 train tickets.

Edit: I could also just take a train back to Delhi and still be under the 10 ticket limit which might be easier.

Looks like a great trip.
Do you know there are direct trains from Amritsar to Agra, see here.