Dehli- Agra- Jaipur -Bombay

Kierjan

I'm trying to plan a trip to India for January of next year. At the moment the plan is fly in to Dehli spend a few days there. Go north to Haridwar/Rishakesh(by train) to the River Ganges (I've been advised that going to Varansi would be too far away) back to dehli. Then on to Agra(train again) for a day or two, The Jaipur and Udaipur for a few days (both by train) and from Udaipur fly to Mumbai for a couple of days.
I'll admit that I really don't know much about India. Have looked up a few websites and the train website. What I'm wondering is if that itenerary would be feasible in about 2-3 weeks and if there's anything there not worth doing or something that i'd be close to that I'm missing out on. Thanks, Jan

camelgirl

You could do that in a few weeks. Are you flying into Delhi and out from Mumbai? If you are than it's a good general plan. But not if you have to get back to Delhi to fly home.

If you do have to get back to Delhi you might want to forget about Mumbai and consider more time in Rajasthan. You can take a train from Delhi to Jodhpur, spend at least one full day there (we spent 4 days there), the Merhengar Fort is excellent http://www.rajasthantourism.gov.in/d...mehrangarh.htm
then head by train to Jaipur which has a lot to see. You could keep going into the desert to Jaisalmer, then return to Jodhpur if you want to go down to Udaipur.

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zoltan

Hi Jan,

> the plan is fly in to Dehli spend a few days there.
> Go north to Haridwar/Rishakesh Then on to Agra, Jaipur and Udaipur for a few days (both by train) and from Udaipur fly to Mumbai

Interesting itinerary but as you have indicated, you don't seem to know much about what's worth seeing.

I would first ask where you are flying out from then, what sort of budget are you looking at (ie. can you afford a few internal flights) ?

Very briefly, based on the information above:
- I haven't been to Rishikesh, so I can't comment on that.
- Agra is suitable for a 1 dayencounter. Go to the Taj & then make your way out to Fatephur Sikri (make sure you go out the back to the elephant corral - which many people seem to miss)
- Personally, I didn't think much of Jaipur http://www.indiamike.com/india/images/icons/icon13.gif
Thumbs down you could better spend your time in Udaipur or an extra day in Delhi.
- En-route to Udaipur (or as a day-trip), go out to Ranakpur to see the Jain temple (this is (I believe) the most important Jain temple in India.
- Mumbai has a few places worth visiting (including: Elephanta Island; Mahalaxmi dhobi ghat; Gateway of India and the architecture of the buildings in the city centre)

Cheers
Zoltan

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kristinm

The jain temple at ranakpur is beautiful - really beautiful! I also wasn't enormously thrilled with Jaipur and Jodhpur - but lots of people love them. We loved Amritsar which is a 5 hour train trip from Delhi and back, Udaipur, Jaisalmer, Bundi and Mumbai - the food in Mumbai is sensational and its a great city (although again lots of people seem to disagree) we had 5 whole days there and could have had more!

Kierjan

Thanks for that.All your advice is being taken on board. We're hoping to fly out of Mumbai. Budget isn't too bad but India is just the start of a round the world trip so don't want to blow the budget there Could probably manage one or two internal flights if they were going to save a lot of time and make the whole thing a bit easier.
Kristinm - would amritsar be worth it as a day trip from Dehli?Time wise i mean? would you have to stay there overnight.

Kierjan

Revising already!! HAving read this thread and some other posts on here i'm rethinking the plan. The timing is the same. About 3 weeks in January. Still planning to fly into Dehli, from there visit Haridwar and/or Rishakesh, back to Dehli and on to Agra.
Here's where I started making some changes.
I could go from Agra to Jaipur to Bundi(pass through Rathambore possibly) to Kota to Udaipur(could go to Ranakpur from here???)
from Udaipur onto Mumbai. This is where we plan to fly out of.

Or else
Agra to Rathambore (skipping Jaipur) on to bundi and Kota, then to Udaipur and fly to Mumbai.

Or else Agra to Jaipur, to Ajmer to Udaipur.

What do all you more seasoned IMers think. And another thing I'm unsure of is how long to spend in each place. We have around 3 weeks to play around with (not too tight on time though) Your advise is really appreciated since INdia is such a huge country to try to come to terms with.
TIA, Jan

kristinm

Is there anything exciting in Kota - we only caught a taxi from there to Bundi - its only half an hour between the two.. There might well be of course??

Kierjan

Sorry that's what I meant. From what i've looked up it seems i'd have to go to Kota to get to Bundi (by public transport)
I haven't really considered private drivers. What do yo think. Is there any stretch where it might be better to hire acar and driver that use train??
Other than that what do you make of the itinerary? Is it doable and are all the places worth visiting?

kristinm

We got to Kota - caught the Golden Mail express out of Delhi and then had the most dreadful trouble getting a taxi to Bundi - just a big hassle.. there were 3 of us and a load of luggage and my son jacked up about catching the bus after the train (we had a couple of really draining bus trips).. there are buses though they go from about 2 km from the station and there are other buses nearer and you have to find out which ones and you have the taxi touts hassling you and its all rather head-splitting!!!

Turns out that Haveli Katkoun in Bundi would have picked us up for about 800r rather than the 1100 we paid to be crammed into a tiny taxi with a driver who was texting with both hands while driving!!!!

I don't really know about the other stretches - we got a car from Jaipur to Agra - terrible road, very slow trip and expensive.

Maybe Bundi to Udaipur would be a good drive - you could stop at Chittorgarth on the way through and see the fort...It would be a solid drive though for one day.

There are other people who are up on all the trains - we are a bit of a car and driver family here and abroad, we love to stop off along the way at dhabas and interesting stuff.

We stayed near Chittorgarth on the way from Bundi to Udaipur and the drive was really interesting both legs - from Bundi to Chittorgarth you can stop at the Bijolia temple and another one - the name of which I never quite got right - starts with an M? Anyone? but which is on the edge of a gorge, stunning! - these are ancient and very beautiful Shiva temples with Kama Sutra carvings similar to Kajahuro. So maybe you could overnight in Chittorgarth -that would make it about 2 3 hour drives or you could possibly do it in a very long day if you didn't spend too long at Chittorgarth fort - we didn't actually see that fort but that's a long story and we had seen many other forts!!! And we had a plane to catch in Udaipur.

Regarding Amritsar - you need 2 days at least, morning train up and then night train back the next night, you'd only have 4 hours there otherwise .. we chose to do that instead of Haridwar, mainly because we didn't think we had enough warm clothes for Haridwar (Jan)it was a tough choice.

zoltan

Jan,

How about the following:
Arrive Delhi. Train to Agra. Train/taxi to Orchha (a really lovely relaxed location). Taxi & bus to Khajuraho. Fly to Varanasi. Train to Delhi. Fly (or train) to Udaipur and finally, fly or train down to Mumbai.

I know the route is different to what you were considering, but it would be doable in a 3 week time-frame & may be just as enjoyable.

To give you an idea of distances and other places you can see along the way, have a look at this free on-line map: www.mapmyindia.com

Cheers
Zoltan

Kierjan

Thanks for the idea Zoltan but i think at this stage after doing some reasearch into that route i'd like to try to stick to it, as much as possible anyway.
So far plan is this.
Day 1
Arrive into Dehli
Day 2,3
Sightseeing Dehli
Day 4
Morning Train to Haridwar - sightsee haridwar.
Day 5
Either sightsee Haridwar more or day trip to Rihakesh (by bus or car)
Evening Train back to dehli.
Day 6
Dehli to Agra Morning Train Sightsee Agra(& Fatephur Sikri) Overnight in Agra
Day 7
Sightsee Agra (& Fatephur Sikri)
Train to Sawai Madhophur. Overnight there
Day 8
Rathambore (safari) Overnight there?
Day 9
Train to Kota, Bus/Car to Bundi
Day 10, 11, 12
Sightsee bundi
Day 13
Kota to Chittaurgarh (Bus/Car) Sightsee Chittaurgarh (Over night stay - not certain about this or whether to go straight to Udaipur - can be flexible I suppose)
Day 14
Chittaurgarh to Udaipur Train
Day 15, 16
Sightsee Udaipur
Day 17
Bus/Car to Ranakpur
Day 18
Bus/Car to Kumbalgarh and on to Udaipur
Day 19 Flight to Mumbai
Day 20, 21
Sightsee Mumbai.


So what do the seasoned travellers think???

Bits I'm not sure about
If we go to Haridwar would you recommend a day trip to Rishakesh or not?
When we go to Agra, if we go to Fatephur Sikri the first day will we be able to stay overnight there? or would we have to go back to Agra to stay?
Can we stay overnight in Rathambore or is it close enough to Sawai Madhophur that we could stay there the night we do the Safari?
If we decide to stay overnight near Chittaurgarh is Bassi fort close enough to there, that's the impression I'm after getting from reading posts here but i'm not certain.

Anything else that you might do differently, skip or leave out etc?
Thanks a million again for all the advice and time, Its appreciated.
Jan

kristinm

We stayed at Castle Bijaipur near Chittorgarth - it was really lovely, our 2 nights of luxury in the trip and we made the most of lolling around there - which is why we didn't see Chittorgarth, I believe Bassi Fort is lovely too. Bijaipur Castle was about 40 minutes from Chittorgarth - about 3 hours to Udaipur.

Oh and sorry - I got completely confused, the Bijolia Temple and the other temple (please someone tell me the name) are on the Bundi - Chittorgarth road, so that leg is well worth taking a car and driver for those stops alone!!! We also stopped at a great Dhaba on that road but I have no memory at all of the name of the village..... The guys at Haveli Katkoun organised a really good driver for that leg.

Also - you don't need to overnight in Ranakpur .. we did both in a day on the way to Ghanerao, but many do them both together as a day trip from Udaipur - you get a car for the full day - you can probably share if there are only 2 of you. Didn't look like there was much there in Ranakpur besides the temple... Kumbalgarth is great too.

We loved Udaipur - stayed on the Hunaman Ghat which is the quieter side of the lake, but a ten minute walk across to the hustle and bustle.. it was really lovely and friendly and quiet (if anywhere in India could be called quiet!!!) over there.