Itinerary - North & South via train

Hi - we kind of have an idea of where we want to go: Into Mumbai and head South - Goa, Kerala, Periyar, Pondicherry, Chennai and North: Delhi, Agra, Jaipur - plus Varanasi if possible. We only have about 6 weeks as part of our travels (I KNOW its not long enough!!) ... can anyone give advice about travelling by train to these places (is it possible to go from Chennai to Varanasi by train for instance, and how long might our journeys take between each place) Also, we want to head to Kathmandu from Delhi - which is best? Flight/Train?
Thanks so much! :-)

Pinga,

Have a look at the web: http://www.indianrail.gov.in
you must click on Trains between imp. stations, and you'll find all the answers.

From Chennai to Varanasi it takes 38 hours.

Jorge

Thanks Jorge, thats great!

Nice trip, we did it on our honeymoon in 1997. You'll find the report here:

http://iw.sify.com/travel/moreover/impres11-india.html

Happy travels,

Hans

dhans
A very interesting Travelogue. Good job. Just curious, did you return in October again?

In december. I'm currently working on the report it starts like:

It was absolutely fabulous to be back in India. After having travelled all over Asia since the mid eighties, we paused for a couple of years after our kids were born. The travel bug was no longer content with France though, so Mum and Dad decided to go to South India over Christmas 2005 and Frank (5,5 years old) and Marit (almost 4) agreed wholeheartedly. For the parents it felt like coming home and the kids loved it. Climbing up Chamundi Hill in Mysore, riding elephants and speedboats in Munnar, Relaxing on the lake in Ooty, performing arts in the park in Pondicherry, staying with a wonderful family in Cochin, running through temples screaming “ayappah…” in Tamil Nadu; everything was great. The friendly attention of the Indians for the kids was a bit much at times, but then there was always the private space of our own Ambassador car and the care of our wonderful driver Gandhi. Forget Disneyland, India is the place to go!

I'm 3/4 trough with the report (16 pages so far), I will post it when it's ready.

Happy travels,

Hans

All places mentioned above can be appraoched by Train but there is no train to Kathmandu .If you wanna go by train to Kathmandu reach UP-Nepal border anywhere by train and crossover (for example --go upto Nautanwa by train and crossover to Bhairwa bazar on Nepal side and catch a Bus to Kathmandu.) Flght will be more convenient.
You can plan your Train journey at this site.

Anyday option of joining a vacant Armchair by my side is open to you --nothing beats Armchair trekking