mumbai-dehli-kolkata in july-august

dmckie250

Hi everyone,

first of all just wanted to say thankyou for all the information on this forum - you've all helped me come up with some ideas already!

anyway, my sister and i are flying into mumbai on the 2nd of july and are planning on spending 7 weeks travelling across the north of the country until we fly out on the 21st of august from kolkatta.
(i know the fact that it's going to be very hot and very wet but its the only time of year we could come!)

we are thinking of going to udaipur, jodhpur, jaisalmer, pushkar, ajmer, jaipur, agra, dehli, amritsar, drahmshala, manali, shimla, nainital, varanasi, and finally kolkata.

we have a few questions:

1) is it possible to going on the camel treks at jaisalmer during the monsoon or is this a bad idea? how bad is the weather likely to be in the desert early-mid july?

2) we would love to go on a elephant safari - are there any nature reserves open at this time of year or are they all closed?

3) we are planning on a budget of £100-150 per week (8000-12500 rupees), is this ok? I know we will be doing a lot of travelling but if needs be we can go over this.

4) is there anything you seasoned professionals think that we should include/skip? I know we have planned everything towards rajasthan so can anyone advise of things worth seeing on the way to kolkata?

and last but not least

5) we plan on spending about 2-3 days in each place but are quite flexible. can anyone give any advice on this itinerary if there will be difficulties in train/bus travel from place to place?

thanks a million guys!

Duncan

dmckie250

oh and 6) are there many ATMs around? I dont want to be carrying around too much money!

mikewill

Hi Duncan

I'll do the easy one first; there are loads of ATMs and many of them are work better than those in UK. Some you just swipe your card rather than insert it - no risk of it getting eaten there! Many are in little a/c rooms with an armed guard outside. Tell your card company you're going to India then you won't have to ring them to unfreeze your card when you try to use it - happened to V last time out.

Good luck - I'd say your trip is a little heavy on the Rajasthan side. I'd spread yourself around a bit more to get the flavour of different areas. Just look at a map of the whole of India and see how concentrated your planned sites are - just Varanasi between Nainital and Kolkata and nothing between Mumbai and Udaipur.

There are some NPs open all year, but I can't think of one offhand where you'll get an elephant safari too. They are mostly used in parks that close.

Is that a budget for two or one and how do you plan to stay? If you stay cheap you could spend 300Rs a night, but it's easy to spend 1200Rs or even much more for luxury or heritage places. 2-3 days is OK for most places.

It is going to be stupidly hot until you get up into the hills. Are you sure you're ready for that? It will limit how much you can do each day unless you are used to high temperatures and humidity.

Need a little more info on what you want out of the trip to be more able to help. But will try if you want.

Mike

radhey

To add to what is said above,
1. Reduce Rajasthan, also because there is some political disturbance in that side of the country and it cannot be said right now whether it will dissipate by the time you reach India.
2. Entire north India will be very hot and sultry and depending on the progress of monsoon rains, many places would have problems of waterlogging. From weather point of view, Rajasthan will be drier than hill stations, Varanasi and Kolkata.
3. You can take off Shimla, or spend only a couples of hours there on way to Manali. You can plan about hill stations after reaching Delhi [tours are being operated daily from Delhi to these places and nearby tourist locations] after seeing the weather conditions. Himalayan hills are prone to land-slides and they often disrupt schedules during rainy season.
4. It is not clear why you are joining places far off such as Kolkata and Rajasthan, and whether you are interested in Himalayan hills or monuments or just to have a feel of India. One way to reduce Rajasthan is to camp in Delhi and have a round trip of Jaipur-Agra.
5. The budget looks low for a westerner, as you would like to have/ use slightly comfortable accommodation, bottled water, better quality food, tissue, mosquito repellers, et al that will sure add to your budget.
6. May like to look at my blog at IndiaAdvice.blogspot.com for information links.
7. A general advice I tend to repeat to fellow travelers: Have as much information about your place of visit as possible in hand so that you do not spend time and energy sorting things out after reaching there.

dmckie250

hi mike & radhey,
that budget was per person so i guess if we're sharing a double room then £200-250 between us should allow us to stay in the odd palace as well.

what do we want from the trip? well...everything of course! we'd love to see all the old temples and the bustling modern cities, and if possible throw a little bit of tranquility in there too. the reason I am travelling all the way over to kolkata is because i have a friend who will be volunteering at a school there all summer and i'd love to go along and see the work she is doing. the only reason we are doing so much in rajasthan is because all the places people suggest to visit seem to be there! if you can suggest other good alternatives then i'd love to hear them.

could you advise on anything between nainital and varanasi/kolkata? is lucknow a nice place to visit? are there any other nice hill stations that are worth the long treks up to? we would like to take some yoga classes and maybe even do some volunteering if we have the time.

thanks for the help

Duncan

wonderwomanusa

I love Lucknow and hope you have time to stop there. Don't miss the crumbling British Residency, and the Bara Imambara is awesome!

I stayed at the Hotel Gomti (run by the UPTDC, I believe); the room was comfortable and the bathroom very nice and clean. The restaurant left a bit to be desired, but there are good places in walking distance.

radhey

Yes, Lucknow is good place to see India - present and past [In Varanasi, you will see more of India's past living, and Delhi and Kolkata have become more cosmopolitan and life there has become more busy]. It is a good place to see the present day life of Indian crowded towns and a few good monuments of Avadh era of northern Indian history.

dmckie250

just been doing a bit more research and i like the idea of doing a trek up to the valley of flowers. i did the annapurna sanctuary trek in nepal a few years back and i'm guessing this will be similar (except for the fact that you can drive most of the way up there).

does anyone know of any good (cheap) trekking companies? or should I just wait until we get to dehli to arrange something?

travellingdoc

hidmckie250,i have been to hemkunt shaib, valley of flowers is a long but simple trek. i can give u a rough itenary:-
day 1:-Delhi to Rishikesh(6-8hrs by road,average road conditions) stay at good hotel n enjoy indian meal at most famous chotiwala restautrant.
Day 2:- rishikesh to govinddham(base for start of trek)u can on way stop at rudraprayag and see sangam to 2 branches of ganga.
Day3:-Trek to govindghat approx 14 kms.stay overnight at lodge.
DAy4:-To valley of flowers NRI,foreign origin tourist may need to pay slightly higher fees for entry. u can camp there or come back by night. better to camp and go alittle further.
day 5:- U can go to hemkund shaib gurdwara it is adjacent to a wonderful lake holy lake take dip before going for the gurdwara.same day back cant stay there.
day6: back to base camp. start n stay n syalsour.
day7 back to rishikesh.
onway to hemkund u are guarnteed breathtaking views ull remember a lifetime i still dream after 7 years i had been there.

dmckie250

ok so my itinerary is looking like july in mumbai/rajasthan/amritsar/shimla/dehli/agra
then august 1-10 valley of flowers trek
then 10-21st lucknow/varanasi/kolkata.

sounding pretty good! now i just have to sort out our visas...

radhey

bon voyage!

dmckie250

just been checking the indian rail website and the train from mumbai-udaipur only goes every two days, and it is already wait-listed. I dont have an indian credit card so I cant book the tickets online - what should I do?!

we only plan to spend about 3 days in mumbai and if we have to wait another 2 days for the next train it'll mean we've got less time to spend elsewhere. can anybody offer any suggestions?

capt_mahajan

Browse the 'Indian railway' forum here, specially the stickys for credit card solutions.

dmckie250

thanks for the heads-up! all sorted now, we're waitlisted 15/10 for 3ac and have booked sleeper class just in case. if we cant get the 3AC it's free to cancel the waitlist right? and if we do it's Rp40 to cancel an eticket for sleeper I think.

two weeks til we fly - really looking forward to this now