making it up as you go along

hi folks, long time reader first time poster.

how easy is it to rock up to India and decide your itineray as you go along? i've travelled a bit before in SE Asia, Japan, China and Europe using cheap sleeps and eats along the way.

we've got five weeks across August, not the best time i know but it's all we've got. i've booked Smyle Inn in Dehli for the first three nights and then...i was hoping to just go with the flow as it were. she wants to see tigers and i like 20hr+ train journeys.

i guess what i'm asking is am i being daft turning up with no real plan, or will my decent travel experience see me right?

x

personally - i dont think its a problem, not having a game-plan.
BUT...
try and at least prioritise/list out what/where you want to visit... or you'll be zigzagging unnecessarily...
india very very big country - lotsa looking!

train reservations, can sometimes go awry at the best of times -
august = monsoons... ahem - the potential of schedules going whack is that much more.



:brishti

Brishti is right, the only problem might be trainreservations. Especially your favourites, the 20+ hrs trainjourneys get filled up soon. So an option could be to book one or more trainjourneys later in your trip and improvise your way towards that city. Otherwise it is east to make things up along the way with a guidebook in your hand. August is not a very busy time, so you will probably be able to get hotelrooms by just showing up!

the only things i have to see are cities, train stations and i'd like a week of beach and/or jungle action but i'm not picky. she'd like to see tigers but i've heard most parks are closed in August. ooh, and the taj mahal.

i've had a vague idea to slowly make our way down to mumbai, then leaving a massive train ride back to dehli. we've got five weks in total.

I think you must get the skeleton structure fixed by booking those train journeys.

But others who do more travelling than I do may be able to advise how likely the 'tourist quota' is to come to your rescue.

T.A.M, with the right attitude and with travel experience, you should be fine, try to learn about quotas on the trains, it'll help a lot for last minute bookings.


Hello Brishti

Why August?

I noticed that availability (Mumbai-Goa) is very difficult from 28/8 till 06/9

Is there an Indian Holiday, or are the kids off school during this time?

It helps to have a rough outline of where you want to go, and why you want to go there ... and it should be arranged in the direction you want to travel, so you don't have a lot of criss-crossing/backtracking to do.

Once you're on the ground in India, you may find that some of those reasons evaporate, because you have heard about somewhere that interests you. Or it's too hot, or too wet, or too cold to follow your original plan; it is always helpful to be flexible.