Help! I need Itinerary Advice.

machadinha

The advice you've been given is all very sound. Jorge & Ruins' itineraries make sense, they still look a little hectic to me but I guess any 2-week trip would be. For a hassle-free luxury trip the Palace on Wheels is a great idea, not that I've ever been on it, might be fun for your children too. Look 'em up on http://www.palaceonwheels.net/ . From a quick glance these are 1-week trips so you could then fly to another destination and visit two or three places there, or just plan for a half week of acclimatizing before and souvenir hunting after with some sightseeing or daytrips, this will be enough to keep you occupied, believe me. If you do a Google search on "palace on wheels" you'll find similar deals with different itineraries, they usually need to be booked well ahead I believe (and my are they frickin expensive I see now).

A good idea is to look at a map that shows India on the same scale as your home country if you haven't already. Ruins you answered your own question, Pushkar and Bundi are two relaxing places not too far from Delhi (in the sense that Bundi will probably take you "just" the good part of a day to get to). There is also not a whole lot going on (which is why they're relaxing ), but they're just nice to sit and soak up the atmosphere and Bundi has some excellent sights, while Pushkar is just a sight in itself.

If you insist your itinerary

might be doable *in itself* if you do most of it by plane, I've never travelled that way so I couldn't tell you. Delhi to Agra and Jaipur can easily be covered by train, a couple of hours each. Except for Kerala where you'd still need to figure out where you want to go, these are all big & hectic cities (Udaipur maybe a little less so but it's still crowded and heavily touristed), making it harder to appreciate them on a first visit especially if you're pressed for time. For relaxing in Kerala if this involves a beach or a houseboat it's not just the flying there but then getting to your actual destination and settling in as well. Flying to Thiruvananthapuram then on to nearby Kovalam (beach) by car or bus is probably your best bet, or to Cochin then arrange a boat trip or houseboat (or rather have one booked already). Finally you haven't said how old your older kids are and if you have a lot of travel experience with them but consider if it's not too much pressure on them. India can be pretty overwhelming at first even without running around like a madman, it took me about a week to even remotely get into it I think, and probably a lot longer to really do so.

Anyway, best of luck with it. Oh one final thing, for the north that time of year bring some woollies, it can get chilly at night as in 5C'ish. See also here.

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karelle

Thank you - everyone for all your help!
My very opinionated family has budged a little... but still insist on seeing certain cities.
We MUST see varanasi now for at least 2 days, which cuts out alot.
Also most of my family agrees on seeing Kerala.
As I am just organizing this trip but not bankrolling it I am working around other peoples wishes and not my own.
Thank you Jorge for your itinerary it has given me an idea of travel time.

My plan now is
Delhi - 3 nights
Varanasi - 2 nights
Bombay - stopover on a flight to Cochin
Cochin - 1 night
Kumarakom - 2 nights
Periyar - 1 night
Madurai - 2 nights
Delhi - 2 nights

Thank you so much for stressing that I would be pulling my hair out by the end of the trip!! You've all saved me from a lot of frustration

ruins_explorer

Yay, have a great trip!
It is so neat that you will be travelling with your family. I was thinking about starting a family soon, but I wasn't ready to "give up" travel. Sounds like you have found a way to combine the two.

karelle

I know! I will look foreward to it as I don't see them very often.