Car or Train

janv

We are a family of 4, children 18 & 13, travelling to India in late July for 3 weeks for the first time... We know, hot/monsoon etc but with university & school this is the only option. After reading many posts we had decided against planes as the distances are relatively short and there seemed to be no time saving with long lines etc (exception could be Khajuraho to Varanasi or Varanasi to Johdpur).

We were going to hire a car & driver & do the following:
Arrive Delhi (8pm). Early next day by car to Mandawa-Bikaner-Jaisalmer (2 days)-Jodhpur- Mount Abu (2 days)- Kumbhalgarh- Udaipur (2 days)-Pushkar-Jiapur (2days)- Agra- Orchha- Khajuraho- fly to Varanasi (2 days)- train to Delhi (2 days). 21 Days total.

We are wondering if this isn't too much time in the car ( most days its 4 or 5 hours in the car)& if we are not better off with trains. Trying to navigate the rail system is hard ( We have looked at Steven Ber's posts & at the official indian rail sites but without local train and station numbers connections/if we can get seating together etc info it is difficult ) but we think it is possible to do the following by train using 2nd AC Sleeper (any comments on that?):

Delhi-Varanasi (2 days)-day trip to Khajuraho- Agra-Jodhpur-Jaisalmer (2 days)-by car to Jaipur (2 days)-Udaipur (2 days)- Delhi. Around 15 days. If we stay flexible on booking rail tickets, additional days could be inserted to visit Pushkar or Orchha or other places near the destinations that we discover/are recommended between now & July. After that, if there are days left, we would either take a train/fly to Simla/Amritsar/Leh or take mini trips from Delhi to Bikaner etc.

Our problem is also in deciding whether to book ahead ( and how to do it) so that we are guaranteed seats, or staying flexible so that if we like/don't like a place we can adjust. From certain posts we've read it seems that trains do get booked fast so that if you don't prebook you may be delayed for days before getting your destination and also that there are long queues for tickets with no guarantees at the end. That, and reading that trains only stop for a few minutes at stations and your carriage isn't always where its supposed to be seems daunting and time consuming. We have seen debates on whether to get a pass or to do individual legs. Any help on any of these issues would be most appreciated!

Finally, although we are not too worried about hotels (if we go the flexible route we will have a list of 3 or more hotels at each stop that we would try & book), how do you work out the cars between cities? I have heard that a good hotel will take care of that but with going in the hot season we would prefer A/C (OK, we are spoilt!).

I am asking for a lot of help but as you can hopefully see also putting in time & effort (i.e. not freeloading).

By the way, we found what seems to be a great railway map:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...atic_map. png

steven_ber

Very quick reply.....

Too many places.

maybe try the following....

ONT = overnight train

Delhi (fly) Kajuraho (Fly) Varanasi (ONT) Agra & Fatehpur Sikri & Bharatpur (ONT) Udaipur

Then either

(bus) Mt Abu, then late afternoon train to Jodhpur (ONT) Jaisalmer (ONT) Jaipur then see what time you got left.

or

Bus/taxi to Kumbhalgarh/Ranakpur, then taxi/bus or train to Jodhpur, then as above.


A lot depends on if you're traveling during the Indian holidays, if this is the case it would be very difficult to get the train tickets.

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Train information.

janv

Thanks Steven,

Your ideas sound great. We had by last night also come up with:
Fly Delhi to Khajuraho- Fly to Varanasi- ONT to Agra & then we were thinking of hiring a car & driver to go Agra-Jaipur (2 nights)-Pushkar-Udaipur (2 nights)-Mt Abu-Jodhpur-Jaiselmar (2 nights). Looking at the train times, it seemed that a car would be more efficient. By the way, your train schedules are EXCELLENT! Thanks for going to so much trouble.

We are looking into the possibility of reversing the order and getting a flight pass for up to 11 days so that we would do the Agra-Jaisalmer bit by car & driver & then take a plane for Khajuraho-Varanasi-Leh etc. I really want to do more on the train though and so that has to be factored in.

Does you know where I can find out when the Indian holidays are? That is not something we had thought through.