A little help from the experts, please

Laerke

Hi guys, we are in the very fist phase of planning our next trip (we hope we can do it next year, but it probably won’t happen until 2008…) So we are open to any suggestions, nothing is set in stone yet. I hope you’ll take the time to read our itinery, thanks in advance!

We’ll be coming into India from Nepal around the 15th of August, we’ll then head for Varanasi, spend some time there, then onto Agra to see the Taj, only staying 1 or 2 days. After that Delhi. (that should take about 2 weeks) 1st of September we’ll move north, we would like to go to Leh (either flying up there and then going down via Dharmasala, McLeod Ganj, Manali, Kullu, Shimla, Haridwar and Rishikesh, and a side trip to Amritsar. Or going up by bus/train/jeep through those towns, and back down the same way)
1st of October to 1st of November we’ve set of to see Rajasthan, Jaisalamer, Udaipur, Jaipur, Pushkar, Jodhpur (any where else we should see?) Normally we’ll stay in budget accommodation, but we would like to stay a few nights in one or more Heritage hotels as well, any suggestions? Then around the 1st of November we’ll fly to Goa either from Jaipur or Delhi, and spend about 2 weeks there. Then take a bus/train to Hampi, spend a few days. Then take a train to Tirmala (is this worth seeing?) And then a train to Chennai, from where we’ll fly to Port Blair, spend about 2 weeks (should we make it 3 weeks?) Fly back to Kolkata – and out of India from there.

How does all this sound to you guys? Okay weather wise? Should we not do the south bit (Goa, Hampi, Chennai) And just stay longer up north and fly to Port Blair from Kolkata instead?
All together we’ll have 3 ½ - 4 months.

P.s – sorry about any spelling errors…

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cmsach

hi thread,
I am chander from delhi and would like to extend my help to you.
If you need any help in regards to heritage hotels there are anumber of them in rajasthan. MOst of them are palaces and havelis( the residences of the nobles attached to the royal families). SO a number of them are pretty expensive. I would howeer be able to give you some suggestions.
you can address your queries to me here in the forum or on my email chander_sachdev@yahoo.co.in.
regards
chander

gypsichief

hiii...i have a feeling it would be ur first time in india ...i am sure u will have lotta fun but i think there are too many places that u wanna cover in such a short time...
i sugesst u do the north properly this time..rajesthan, himachal, uttaranchal, delhi,varanasi n if u have time leh-ladhak..oe north n goa..
south india is quite different from north n there are a lotta places apart from goa ,humpi n andamans....lotta good places in karnataka n kerala too..u will find heritage hotels in almost all the tourist places in rajesthan ...

Laerke

Hi, thank you for your replies, and thanks for the offering of help Chandler! I've actually been to India twice before, so maybe I shouldn't sound as cluelees as I do... *s*
I've just read Steven_ber's sticky on how to get the most out of your itinery questions ( a little late, I know) But I'll re-think and re-post later on!

Malkers

Personally speaking I would say 2 weeks in The Andamans would get just plain boring unless you really want to do absolutely nothing. 24 hours in Port Blair is more than I could ever stand again and after 3 days on Havelock I was totally bored out of my wits although it was a welcome break to have a nightly chorus of a thousand frogs instead of a thousand horns. The Andamans is no Maldives!

2 weeks to go from Varanasi via Agra to Delhi seems a long time to me too, I did that including Jaipur in 4 days and got to see most of the usual stuff albeit a little rushed.

I'd have a rethink about those 2 I have mentioned and squeeze in a bit more like Kerala & The Nilgiris but then we're all different!

Certainly that trip is not overdoing it especially if you are active folk which I'd say you are reading your post.

Enjoy
Malc

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