(almost) 6 weeks in India

ck514

Hi,

Some particulars
age: 29&32
budget: not a clue, hotels between 10-30$
travel type: culture, food, nature (in that order)

I've been puzzling over our travel schedule for a long time, trying to whittle an endless list of places I'd love to see down to something manageable... and finally came up with a schedule I was happy with... but now I'm wondering whether we can do more! My girlfriend and I don't travel click&go style (out of the bus, 3 snapshots and onwards to the next destination) but we do like some pace in our travels. Could you tell me whether we could e.g. easily squeeze more from the rajahstan part of our trip? I'm asking because I'm already trying to book train tickets for the longer legs of our journey. Because of all the OT's (overnight trains) we have a pretty efficient schedule but perhaps a bit exhausting. This is why we went for 4 days per place. I figured if we had time left over we could visit a place in the vicinity.. or do you think we should try and squeeze in Bharatpur or Mount Abu? The schedule is below. I'd really appreciate your comments.

2 days Delhi (OT to Jodhpur)
4 days Jodhpur (OT to Jaisalmer)
4 days Jaisalmer (OT to Jodhpur, bus/train to Ranakphur)
1 day Ranakphur (take bus to Udaipur)
4 days Udaipur (travel to Bundi on 5th day)
4 days Bundi (OT to Agra from Kota)
1 days Agra (OT to Varanassi)
4 days Varanassi (OT to Calcutta)
2 days Calcutta (flight to Port Blair)
8 days Andaman (flight to Calcutta)
1 day Calcutta (flight to Delhi)
1 day Delhi

Darmabum

as is. Unless you really have a need to book trains/transportation in advance, why not just get somewhere, see how it feels, then move on or stay as you see fit. I too am not a click and run traveler, in fact, my last two trips to India have been six months each, in one place - Varanasi. After five trips to India I am now less about sights as just being there . . . watching things. I seldom get bored.

I like your approach of giving each place three/four days. But I would give Agra (Taj Mahal) more time. If you don't necessarily need to see a couple of sunrises and a sunset on/at the Taj, think of going to Fatepur Sikri while in Agra.

Yours is a good-looking itinerary, an enviable one. You can speed-up, see more . . . or slow down, see deeper . . . whatever you do Have a Great Trip.

__________________
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate; our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure - Marianne Williamson

wonderwomanusa

Bharatpur is very nice if you are going to be tehre in November or December, and it is only a couple of hours from Agra. But then, so is Mathura/Bridavan.

In the end, you will have to choose what you want to see the most.

julesa

personally i would recommend more time in the big cities and less in the smaller ones like jodhpur and jaisalmer.

although the latter ones are charming, they are smaller and you will run out of things to do in 4 days. in delhi and calcutta there are innumerable sites to check out.

also any stopover for 1 day is at risk of being lost due to late trains. we had one day planned in varanasi which turned into nothing as we arrived late and were told to head straight for our connecting train at mughal sarai. so you may consider minimum 2 days at every location, to ensure you get at least one.

atala

I have heard that the Andaman beaches were pretty much destroyed by the Tsunami and it is not great to go there nowadays, but there are inexpensive offers for that reason...

incitatus

In order to cut the number of train tickets you have to book why don't you travel directly from Delhi to Jaisalmer?
This would also mean you would be doing the trip to Ranakphur after a night in bed rather than a night in a train.
Personally I'd advise missing out Ranakphur as a stopover enroute to Udaipur and instead travel directly to Udaipur and hire a car+ driver for the day to visit Ranakphur, Khumbhalgarh etc.
Also you coulh hire the car from Jodhpur to Udaipur and visit these places but obviously you would have to pay the mileage back to Jodhpur.
If the hiring of a car and driver seems extravagant ,remember it is very cheap by Western standards and it does allow you to visit places you might not otherwise because of poor travel connections.

ck514

Thank you all for your suggestions. You are all a great help. I'm happy that you think the timelines are feasible, and mostly advise on a different mode of transport/number of days in which city.

I will definitely look into hiring a car and driver for some of the shorter distances.

I am only booking the first train ticket and the ones from Agra to Calcutta beforehand so that we can do Rajahstan in our own pace. See if we are done with Jodphur/Jaisalmer/Udaipur/Bundi after 2/3/4 days.

regards,
Chris