first time to india with family - good places to stay and visit with children

Since getting helpful advice and reading IndiaMike we are planning a bit of a different trip than at first!
We are thinking of going from Mumbai to Udaipur any suggestions on a good overnight train? Doesnt have to be an overnight train though. Any ideas welcome.
We are keen to see a bit of Rajisthan (we think a week may be enough)

Would like to go to Bundi and maybe Jaipur.
Someone has suggested as there are four of us, hiring an a/c car would be a good idea for some travel.
Also I am keen to see the Taj at dawn. Any advice on a good place to stay or way to do this welcome. Would it be feasible to hire a driver from Delhi to Agra?
Then to Delhi, Agra and then up to the hills. Rishikish sounds lovely. Keen on the morning yoga with a whole lot of people. It will be monsoon when we travel.
From Rishikish we need to get back to Mumbai, probably on a flight.

Any good places for the kids to see would be greatly appreciated. They love animals, food, swimming, and other kids. I have checked out a few websites of members(thanks to those people).

We dont want to move around too much as only have 3 weeks. This may already be packing in too much.

Any highlights of places in this area that people have traveled with children would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

You won't see much of Rajasthan in that amount of time unless you race around and travelling most days, and that ain't a good idea with the kids. We found that two days in each place was okay, but three was much better. I guess it all depends on how old your kids are and how well they travel.

The elephant ride at Amber near Jaipur was a highlight for my kids, as was Ranthambhore, Taj, Keoladeo and Jodhpur's Mehrangarh Fort.

Absolutely, it worked brilliantly for us, although we flew in to Delhi and got a driver for just the first 10 days, going it alone after that.

Yep we did it, and they sorted out the hotels too making it quite relaxing for us: I wonder if that's why I quite liked Agra?

I doub you've seen my blog but I'd like to think it's full of useful info about the places we went. The kids also did a few articles

www.winchcombe.org/india2009

My 8 year old is saying:
animals: Ranthambhore, Keoladeo, Sariska
food: Nirula's (for the ice cream), Karim's (naan's are great she says but some food is quite spicy), Dum Pukht (depending on your budget)
swimming: Raj Palace in Ranthambhore had a lovely pool
other kids: they're everywhere but we enjoyed the kids we met at railway stations and whilst waiting at railway crossings.

Then unfortunately you're not going to see very much. It's a big place.

My eight year old says she loved everywhere we visited but Ranthambhore was a big favourite. Horse riding and elephant riding was also brilliant.

I'm happy to answer any questions here or via PM.

Claudeellis, which month are you planning this for?
Rajasthan can be a disaster during summer! It's way too hot for anyone to have a good time!

Great thank you for your advice. What a fantastic blog. It is loaded with useful information. I will contact you via PM.
People seem concerned about the heat. I note that you were just there - April? which is supposed to be very hot. We are going in July which is still hot. Thanks again and will be in touch.

Great thank you for your advice. What a fantastic blog. It is loaded with useful information. I will contact you via PM.
People seem concerned about the heat. I note that you were just there - April? which is supposed to be very hot. We are going in July which is still hot. Thanks again and will be in touch.

In July - monsoon and hot!But planning on sticking to the Eastern areas.

Cheap flights from Mumbai to Udaipur...

You could do worse than base yourself in Udaipur and do daytrips around the area as well as spending a night or 2 in Bundi and a night or 2 in Jodhpur maybe... Getting a car and driver is an excellent option for a family, we did it on some legs.. its great to be able to stop along the way and look at things.

The Taj at dawn is amazing! We stayed in a boring but clean-ish midrange hotel..

Another great trip from Delhi for one night is the train to Amritsar, go to the border ceremony, tour the golden temple the next day and have a walk around Jallianwallabagh etc then get the night train back to Delhi, its a great train..

Thank you for the Amritsar idea and information. My husband is very keen on seeing the golden temple. Udaipur also sounds like a good place to hang out for a while.

Hi Claudeellis, thanks for your kind comments about my blog. Hopefully you found that you can click the 'kids' tag or the 'planning' tag in the tag cloud which will show you all the articles that you'll probably need.

I'm putting here answers to some of the questions you PM'd me about as hopefully it may help someone else one day.

I'll try and pick out and answer all the questions below but if I miss any or if you need more info please ask again.

Our girls are 11 and 8 and haven't ever been outside Europe, mainly camping in France so had never been even stayed in a hotel for more than one night. Also we live in a fairly good area and they'd only ever met about three non-whites. So India could have been a real culture shock, but they're kids, they didn't even bat an eyelid. All my worries disappeared.

[QUOTE=claudeellis]
July is when we are travelling and although it sounds like not the ideal time to be in India, unfortunately it works out for us re work and holidays back here in New Zealand. Also a great time to leave our winter!
[/QUOTE}
I've been to Delhi, Jaipur and Agra in July before and there's a lot of good points about travelling then. Yes it's hot but from my experience April feels hotter. It was so dusty and brown in April whereas July has rain occasionally which helps keep the dust down, it's warm too like Thailand. For me Thailand felt hotter and more humid and rained a lot more too, I've visited India once in July and Thailand three times in July.

Our first 10 days was with our car+driver from Namaste India Tours (see my reference for them) and I can't stress highly enough what a wonderful start to the holiday this gave us. No stress, just enjoyment. Yes it cost more than doing it myself but I didn't have to worry about anything, including hotels.
After 10 days we went on our own and had trains for the rest of the travel, bar one taxi.
Next time I go I think I'll do one week with car+driver and lots more trains.
In all places bar the last two nights in Delhi, we had one room with two extra beds. This was mainly for our kids' perceived safety. It worked out fine probably cost less and made it a real family holiday, all together 24 hours a day...and we're all still alive, who'd have thought!
I only had to book four hotels and I prebooked three from England:
In Udaipur we stayed at the wonderful Jagat Niwas Palace hotel and even in low season April it probably only had one room left. I booked by email and had to pay up front for the first night. Top tip for the Jagat, just get a standard room Rs1450 (+Rs650 each extra bed) which won't have a view but you can enjoy the view at breakfast and dinner.
In Ranthambhore we stayed at the Raj Palace Resort which was lovely even though it's fairly budget for the area. I reserved a room via email but paid nothing upfront.
In Alwar we arrived at the Alwar Bagh, another gorgeous hotel, two pools and play equipment and the Aravalli Hills behind you, and did a deal. I'm probably not a very good deal maker on hotel and they probably read the 'wow' expression on my face. I probably only saved 20% and got breakfast thrown in.
In Delhi at the end we stayed at the Hotel Ginger which gets really booked up quick. It was full when we were there. They've got family rooms for Rs1200 or something, it's really clean and modern.

I think that's possibly a good idea although you can cover great distances by air or overnight train.

Rajasthan will be hot (for you and me) but there was quite a breeze in the Aravalli Hills and Udaipur which cooled us down.
There's always Mt Abu - but I've never been there.

Our temperatures were between 37 & 45, mainly 40. Yes it was hot for us and I guess your climate is similar to mine, but we coped fine.
If some had told me we'd hit 45 I may not have gone. In fact I skipped Jaisalmer because of warnings about the heat.
For the kids the occasional hotel with a swimming pool meant they could really cool down and more importantly exercise without overheating.
Strangely we hardly used the AC in the hotels and only during the afternoon if we did.

We arrived in Delhi on a Saturday and drove to Agra on the Sunday, doing the Agra Fort and spending one night at the Amar Yatri Niwas, which was fine.
Our driver picked us up at 6am on the Monday for the Taj. We did Sikandra and Fatehpur Sikri afterwards en-route to Bharatpur (for Keoladeo)

Sorry to disappoint you but it'll be closed then due to the monsoons.
I'm not sure whether Sariska is open then but that's well worth a visit if you're nearby, or like me you just love the wildlife.

I've told her: she's pleased.
I think Keoladeo is probably open in July but am not sure. I never realised I liked birds so much until I went, but what was really nice was hiring the tonga (horse drawn cart), they kids loved that.

You'll find what's right for you. I changed mine sox or seven times but never a lot following advice from IndiaMikers.
Have you checked out erail.in yet for trains? There's one train that goes overnight from Mumbai to Udaipur if you want to do that.

Pushkar, Pushkar and Pushkar. Also I think that I'll never go to Pushkar again.
Now I'll get shot for this but after seeing Rajasthan's wonderful forts etc, Delhi seemed bland. But I think we were tired, it was the end of the trip and we only had one full day there.
However Humayun's Tomb remains a favourite of mine and Karim's is just wonderful. We finished our trip with a wonderful meal at the very upmarket Dum Pukht in the company of one of IndiaMike's own comedy geniuses.

Have I mentioned that I'd never go to Pushkar again?
I regret missing Jaisalmer, but I will make it there one day.
I originally planned to go from Udaipur to Bundi via Chittorgarh en-route to Ranthambhore but my daughter wanted to try an overnight train and the best option was Udaipur to Jaipur.
Bundi sounds wonderful.

No worries, that's what IndiaMike is all about. I'm pleased to be able to finally help someone.