help! Itinerary for south india.

First of all, i am sorry for my poor English, i'm a Spanish 32 years old girl and it's the first time i writte in this forum. I am leavig to Madras in 13 days and i am quite lost with the itinerary. We have only 18 nights and we wanted to visit kerala, goa and mumbay, so we'll have to take domestic flights. We have thought in Madras (2 nights), fly to Trivandrum or Cochin and try to go up visiting backwaters, Periyar...(maybe 6 nights?), go to goa (fly or train or bus?!?) for5-6 nights, fly to Mumbay (3 nights) and fly to Madras to come back to Spain. What do you think? Should we leave some places for another year? Maybe, it would be better to visit 2 zones peacefully; taking so many flights could be very expensive.... What zones do you suggest me not to be missed? Maybe car with driver for Tamil Nadu until Cochin and the rest of the days in Kerala.... Maybe flying to Mumbay and go down... please!!!we need help!!! the only sure thing is that we land and take off in Madras, and that we only have 18 nights to stay there...I'm looking forward to your replies!!!

Hello Pau, welcome to IM

My first trip to India was only about ten days, and I included Channai (Madras) and a couple of places in Kerala. After that I've been several times to Kerala only for two weeks.

I do not know Goa or Mumbai, but my suggestion is that (as you seem confidnet that you will go again!) that you do leave them for future years.

You will have plenty of time for a nice trip around Tamil Nadu and Kerala. You can include other TN temple towns such as Kanchipuram (a day out from Chennai) and Madurai, you can go South all the way ---to Kaniakumari, then to Trinandram/kovalam, Backwaters/Allapey, other Kerala beachy places, Peryar, Kochi.

You can take an overnight train from Kochi back to Chennai or fly. If you can afford it is nice to hire a car and driver.

thank you very much, i think that it's a good idea visiting tamil nadu and kerala peacefully. I have also thought in karnataka and kerala. Does anybody know which is more interesting? Anyway, i accept suggestions about interesting places, routes, ayurvedic centres, beaches... in kerala... and everything you can tell me.... Uf! what difficult is to planify so many places with only 18 days...thank you!

Does your flight from Spain make a stop in India? Say Bombay before Chennai. Because if it does, there's no reason to go all the way back to Chennai! Or is it direct to Chennai?

direct to chennai, that's the problem... i'm flying with air france.

i'm here aggain with more questions...What do you think is more interesting:
1)go down from Chennai, Pondicherry, Maduray, Periyar...to Kerala
2) go to Bangalore, Mysore.... and down to Kerala????
Apart from Periyar, bachwater, Cochin... What places in Kerala do you recomend to visit? I mean, quiet villages , beaches, ayurvedic centrs, bars...
Please, help me to do my itinerary, i'm leaving in 12 days! Thank you!

pau,
My suggestion would be to stick with South India alone this time. You have very limited time. so make use of it very effectively.

You can do something like this..

Mamallapuram ( historical place famous for Sculptures) - Pondicherry ( French colony) - Chidambaram ( Nataraja temple) - Thanjavur (Chola temple) - Trichy -Madurai ( Meenakshi temple) - Kodikanal ( hill resort) - Munnar (Kerala) - Kumarakom - Cochin - Varkala - Trivandrum and back to Chennai. If you are very keen to go to Goa, you can drop some of the above places. Again it depends on how you want to make your days.. !! Do you want to rush to see places or taking it easy for few days at one place.

You get lot of ideas in this forum.. gather details and decide.

have a safe journey and good time in India.

Cheers

Chennai, Pondy, Bangalore and Kerala is a lovely trip, but then I'm biased as I just love the south much better I'm afraid! Simple enough journeys on the trains and also doesn't cost too much even by Taxi from Chennai to Pondy at least (around 35 dollars U.S. Max) The Taxi goes down the coast road and it's a pleasant 3 and a half hour journey, depending on road/traffic conditions. From Pondy you'd be able to get the trains to Bangalore (sorry, I don't know the times etc..) but you can get the times from the Indian Railways website (a very user-friendly website) and from Bangalore take the bus to Salem where you can pick up an overnight train to Ernakulam Junction in Kerala - about 20 minutes from the marvellous backwaters and a lovely place to be. I wish you a wonderful trip!

thank you very much! this forum is fanatastic! i only have to decide wether Bangalore route or Maduray's,after visiting Pondicherry. I know it's rainny season in Tamil Nadu now, anybody there can tell me if it's raining very hard? And what about Chennai? Is it easy to find a car with driver there who speaks English? Any interesting place not to be lost there? I'm sorry,i know i make too many questions...i suppose the best way of planifying the rote is being there, but i'd like to have it quite clear not to waste too many time... you know ...Thanks!!!

I've never been to Bangalore, but I have been to Madurai and I would say DEFINITELY GO TO MADURAI!!!!!!!!! Isn't Bangalore just a huge city of like 5 million people? What's so interesting to see there?
Madurai on the other hand is an amazing temple city! It's got a very ancient vibe about it. It was the best place I saw in my trip down south. I would suggest give Bangalore a miss. Madurai will not disappoint you. Honest!

Bangalore is a great place to visit, and if you've never been there I'd suggest you took timeout to go, next time you're in India, Honest!!


visit: http://www.bangaloreonline.net take a look around this very friendly, useful site and if you want to know more, simply type 'Bangalore" into your search engine - you won't be dissappointed....honest!

Vaya difinitivamente a Madurai!
Era mi ciudad preferida en los buenos recorridos de la India!!!!!!!!!

[QUOTE=shanthi]Bangalore is a great place to visit, and if you've never been there I'd suggest you took timeout to go, next time you're in India, Honest!!



I honestly believe you!
Have you been to Madurai?
If so, is Bangalore really better?

thank you very much again!! i really like de idea of going down until maduray... more questions...which route is easyer to go to kerala from Maduray?
-by car until periyar and then cochin
-munnar an quilom (backwaters to allepey)
what about the train?
i'd be very glad of hearing your experiences, including places where you have felt really comfortable...thanks again!!!!!!!!! Sorry for so many questions!

don't apologise for asking questions..........everyone here is always willing to help if they can. Take a look at the Kerala threads on this site and you'll be able to find a lot more out about where you might be happy with travelling to - there's LOADS of threads/posts about the backwaters, kerala, etc..... just put those names into the search engine here on IndiaMike and away ya go!