Iternary advice required ???

xirokx

Hi,

This afternoon I spoke to my mum about our itinerary so we can organise as much as possible from London leaving us little to do but turn up when we are in India. So I’m hoping 

So here goes:

Delhi (1night) - - - Haridwar - - Rishikesh - - Mathura - - Agra ( Once in Haridwar We would like to sightsee and travel without rushing around , how long do you think this will take? How many days do you think we will need for this?) Some members have given me taxi recommendations who I have emailed for quotes will further advise as soon as I hear from them. I am however still searching for suitable accommodation in Haridwar, any ideas would be great? NEXT from Haridwar we have to go to porbandar but we are totally stuck as mum thinks we can go back to Delhi and fly from Delhi to Porbandar. However after searching around I don’t think there is a direct flight from Delhi to Porbandar is this correct? We would have to fly from Delhi to Mumbai and then from Mumbai to Porbandar. So my question is surely it would be better for us to go from Haridwar straight to Mumbai airport? What is quicker from Haridwar to Delhi or Haridwar to Mumbai? We don’t want to get a train from Haridwar to Porbandar because 31hours on a train will be somewhat excessive and no matter how great the trains are I will probably end up hating them  We also need accommodation in Porbandar can anyone recommend anywhere? Nothing amazing really just the usual with comfy beds, nice and clean and must have hot water facilites? From Porbander we would like to go to Dvarka and Back Dvarka does anyone know how long this will take? Again does anyone know of any suitable taxi firms in Porbandar? Then from Porbandar we are going to Tarapur in Gujarat does anyone know how long this will take us? Also we need a hotel in tarapur in Gujarat or close to tarapur any ideas would be great?? From Tarapur, Gujarat we would like to go to Mumbai, can anyone suggest how we can do this? We would like to fly to Mumbai. Once in Mumbai we need a hotel and a taxi hire company can anyone kindly suggest a hotel and a taxi hire company? We would like to stay in the Dadar district as this has been recommended by friends but before we make any commitments has anyone been there and would you think its suitable place to stay? We aim to go shopping mad and go around all the sights in Mumbai so is staying in Dadar a good idea? We would like a comfy, cosy hotel with hot water any suggestions would be most appreciated

Is this itinerary correct have we missed or overlooked anything? Is it geographically correct? In total we will be in India for 21 days.

Well for now this is as far as we have got we are still toying with the idea of whether we should use the shatabadi express to Haridwar or drive there. Mum and my sisters are still deciding. We saw some pictures of the EC Class on Shatabadi express is it as comfy as it looks?

Also if we chose to go on the shatabadi express can I book my ticket from london? Would I need some sort of confirmation? Would this mean I wouldn’t have to queue when we got to India I could just board the train? Please clarify?

Also depending on how we get to Porbandar be it from Delhi or Mumbai can I book my tickets from London? I would have to call up to confirm once we arrive in India though so I have been told is that correct?

In total 4 adults going to India of which 2 are first timers. The other 2 have been twice but not very confident travellers. A deal is always preferred but we dont mind paying for comfort and ease. We will be there for 3 weeks.


I would really appreciate your advice, suggestions and recommendations and hope you can help us organise our holiday so we don’t have to worry about travel or accommodation arrangements once we get there.

Thank you all very much indeed I’m very grateful

npjai

Id suggest travelling Haridwar to Delhi by train, Delhi-Ahmedabad again train or by air if you have the budget. Instead of Porbandar you can also go to Dwarka via Jamnagar. So you can go by train Ahmedabad to Jamnagar by train and then by taxi to Dwarka. I suggets you contact steven_ber for help about trains. Better would be to hire a taxi in Ahmedabad and drive to Dwarka which should take about 8 hours.

In Bombay, Dadar is a really congested area. Id suggets you stick to Colaba as youll have a better choice of hotels and the sights are all close by.

Also youve made this post very complicated. Pls break it up and youll get better responses.

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xirokx

Well since posting this iterinary I realise I have made several mistakes with a) posting too much info - not breaking it down and b) my iterinary is actually wrong because Mathura and Agra are no where near Rishi Kesh or Haridwar. So I have taken everyone's advice and posted under different sections on this site.

I have been told its better to travel by Road than by train and where necessary by air.

Many thanks for your response

jyotirmoy

For Hardwar you have two rail options from Delhi. One is an overnight journey by Mussori Exp. reaching early morning or the Shatabdi Exp which is day journey.
In Hardwar you dont need a taxi to go around. Use rickshaws or just walk around.
From Hardwar you can easily take a bus & go to Rishikeksh. Infact a portion of the night train would be detached at Hardwar & will go to Rishikesh.
Delhi has a lot of historical monuments, museums, parks etc. so you may plan atleast 2 days in Delhi.
There is a very convinient train from Delhi called the Ashram Exp. which will take you to Ahmedabad. You start in the afternoon from Delhi & reach Ahmedabad in the early morning.
Check out the excellent info provided by Stevan_ber regarding train routes.
Good luck.

Judi

Mmmmmm? Who told you that? The trains are great - and a wonderful way to travel and meet people at the same time. Give them a try, I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

There are many threads here on Indiamike about travelling by train.

Hope you enjoy the trip.

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xirokx

Hey peeps,

Finally arrived in India in the early hours of sunday morning after a nightmare start to our journey. Basically on saturday there were huge delays at heathrow terminal 4 which meant a back log of passengers from saturday passing through the terminal on sunday morning. Once we were seated on the plane the captain announced "due to an exposed wire on the 2nd runway it has been shut so therefore we were not allowed to take off for an hour"

Once we landed though at Delhi Int as it was my first time I will never forget the smell now its second nature a distant memory and its only the third day of our 22 day vacation. Despite our flight being delayed by over 2 hours once we cleared customs, collected our luggage and exchanged our sterling I was so glad to see our driver from "namaste india tours" waiting there with a placard with my name on it - I can't expressed how chuffed I really was. He took us to a hotel someone suggested from this website in Karol Barg but it we really didn't like it. We told the driver who called "jawahar" the owner at what was now 5am. He recommended another hotel in connaught place - the hotel connaught but that was fully booked so he brought us to hotel nirula also in connaught place. We have been here now for the last 3 days and are absolutly loving it. Next morning we met jawahar , as you guys had helped me tremedously with my itinery we discussed this with jawahar and suggested a few changes. Instead of catching internal flights we will be travelling everywhere by road because mum decided to overload our suitcases for aunts and uncles we will be visiting, each suitcase weighs around 30kilos plus we have tons of hand luggage as well so it worked out well we travel by road. Anyway jawahar suggested we can also include jaipur and udaipur on our journey from agra to ahmadabad. We will be staying around 1 - 2 nights at each location on route to ahmadbad.

So our iterinary is :

delhi - haridwar - rishikesh - delhi - mathura - vrindban - agra - jaipur - udaipur - ahmedabad - tarapur - somnath - virpur - porbandar - dwarka - a few other places on route to mumbai.

Already we are 2 days ahead of our schedule so far we have been all over delhi and been to haridwar and rishikesh. We did haridwar and rishikesh in 1 day return back to delhi and became very familar with indian roads. When I get back to London I can't wait to use my horn :-)

Haridwar was scary - as we went to put dads ashes in the ganges from when we got out the car we were hit upon by all the beggars and the fake holy men with snakes around their neck etc (there was only 1 but he was a nightmare) Eventually we found a quiet spot and we said good bye in our own way before getting the hell out of there. The beggars just wouldnt leave us alone. As we are indians the words they were saying and cursing us cuz we didnt give them any money were very hurtful it really frightened by mum she was shaken badly. Then onto rishikesh which was a much nicer and friendlier place we saw ram and laxman jula and then headed back home.

Today we went all over delhi seeing all the tombs, temples, mosques went to a street market and few other places.Btw the new akshardam temple is a must. Namaste tours are really helping us in everyway possible so nice and friendly its such a great help and a great relief. Jawahar is bascially like "its your car you tell us what you want and we will sort it" when we don't know what to do or what is available they basically help us out and always satisfy us. I can't thank them enough......

Basically tomorrow we go to mathura - vrindban and agra we may stay overnight in agra depending on how we feel then moving onto jaipur etc.

I had a question hopefully someone can help - would you guys recommend to stay longer in jaipur or in udaipur? As we are two days ahead of schedule I really could do with some ideas?

Anyway I will keep you updated along the way thanks for all your help guys really appreciate your efforts :-)

I'm off to bed ......

sachin1313

u seem to have great time in India. U will like Udaipur much much more than Jaipur as Jaipur is place with maddening crowd. Udaipur is a nice and good place. Always recommended to stay longer and if u have budget wanna have the real royal touch stay in some heritage hotel. That's the real charm of Rajasthan.

jyotirmoy

Yes Udaipur gets my vote too. Make a day trip to Ranakpur for the fantastic temple with exquisite sculptures.
Have a lunch or dinner buffet at one of the palace hotels in Udaipur, take a boat ride to see the sunset.
Good luck.

aadil

Hi there,

Great to hear that you are here and enjoying your visit. Also don't pay too much attention to what people say to you when you don't pay them or give them any donations or alms as it is your right not to do so and also do as you please and not succumb to pressure tactics and give in to them by giving them something just because they say so or force you to pay up!!! And if they curse you that means that they are not worth giving something to anyway!!!!! So just ignore them and that is the best way out of this mess called India!!! Glad you could find someone to take you around the places you want to travel in the Rajasthan area and see if you can go to Ossian or Ranakpur if possible as there are some really beautiful temples there.

Cheers,
Aadil.

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