Need help with 5 week itinerary

magician

Hello Indiamikers - I have been lurking for a while and reading all your advice and making notes. Now I am ready and need your help.

TRIP: April 16th - June 8th. Will travel for 5 weeks of these.

BACKGROUND: I grew up in India until 10 (so speak hindi fluently). Taking trip because finishing graduate school and about to enter the real world. Did a 12 day spontaneous trip 4 years ago when visiting India (see travel journal - link at bottom).

ENJOY: fast pace traveling, scenery (don't care for beaches really - unless its maldives), photography (plan to shoot a lot of pics), culture, architecture. So those are some things that I am looking for.
Also would like to go up north (Himalayas, mountains, etc), do a camel safari, visit a wildlife park, maybe a boat ride, and anything else that is interesting.

LAST TRIP:
Here is where I went last time (12 days) - delhi --> leh --> delhi --> cochin --> goa --> bombay --> aurangabad --> bombay --> agra --> jaipur --> delhi. Flew most places, train ride overnight from bombay to goa, and car for agra and jaipur.

THIS TRIP:
Here are some places that sounded great when I read about them here - bhutan, srinagar (if its safe?), hampi, varnasi/haridwar, khujrao, calcutta, dharmsala, bishnpur, the darjeeling train (on UNESCO list), Mandu. There are many others that I made a list of.

At end of my trip (may 25 - june 8th), a friend will join me - for that will go from delhi to aurangabad and back. Then was thinking of doing rajasthan in car and work in a 1.5 day camel safari in here. Its her first trip to india.

Everything is flexible. Just finished school so need to do this on somewhat of a budget. I think $50/day is reasonable (a bit more when necessary). Don't need luxury - but just need to be safe. Willing to take planes, trains, car, camels, rickshaws, etc. I was thinking of starting up North, work my way down and back up to delhi by may 25 to pick up friend. Though this is flexible too - maybe can meet her in aurangabad.

SO where should I definitely go? Help plan this trip please. And if anyone is in India during this time, come join me at any point.

I have started a travel journal for friends - http://www.travelindiavirtually.blogs pot.com. Please take a look, and hopefully some of you will follow along and encourage me to write and give advice as I go.

Zoltan - thanks for your posts and pics.

Sumit

Mod Note

Hi Sumit. Just a reminder to please keep your trip related posts together in one thread as multiple posts across different threads is not allowed. According - two of your other threads have been combined into this one. This makes it easier for people replying to your questions. Thanks for your help with this.

Uncle_Martin

You give lots of information but .... how do you cope with the heat? Could say yeah fantastic places but just before the Monsoon the heat can drive one Do-Lalli ...

magician

Don't know how hot its going to be. Second - unfortunately that is beyond my control - can't change the weather and can't go another time. So will have to handle the heat. I know India heat and last time was there in June/July.

By the way - when is monsoon season? are there better places to go during this time than those I mentioned?

sumit

Uncle_Martin

At lower altitudes really mild-expletive strong-expletive hot. Far worse than the heat of a Mediterranean type summer ... the Hill stations and Kashmir would be a 'good' idea and the Thar desert a 'bad' idea heat-wise as they say. Darjeeling, Shillong check the rainfall etc. just type the town names into Wikipaedia and process the numbers on climate.

But if you can cope with that level of heat, which I can't, then go for it ... but lots of the places you will want to experience will be outside the comfort zone of an air-conditioned bubble.

dhans

Hi Sumit,

5 weeks seems a lot, but may not be much given the places you want to visit. You mention a lot in the nort east, so it might be advisable to concentrate on that area. Hampi is then quite a bit out of range.

Hans

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magician

I think the stuff I wrote may seem north heavy, but i do want to make it south. I was looking more on doltan's posts - and tamil nadu (mahabalipuram) all seem worth traveling. Did backwaters last time.

I would like to cover ground, I enjoy the trip that way more. I like to see more places and only spend time in one place when needed (the places that I think require more time - aurangabad (3 days), Hampi (3-4days), etc.). I know it'll be tiring to keep going, but that's ok, I enjoy that. I am not a fan of heat (like cold better), but I can deal with it fine.

So should I move some places off the list that I mentioned (either not worth seeing or logistically difficult to build a proper route) and are there more that I should on there (specifically south). I think soon as pick all the places, then I can start building an itinerary. Then just modify that based on suggestions.

Is Srinagar safe? Darjeeling, Dharmsala, Bhutan, (been to leh) are the north ones - should i do all, or pick one or two from this?

Sumit

magician

Trying to plan a 5 week trip. To make this manageable - I am going to try to build it by concentrating on sections.

I was thinking of going to north and then moving down. Will be doing this in May/early june - should i go other routes first as it will get hotter there and then go up north?


I was thinking of going to darjeeling and do the toy train - goes from siliguri to darjeeling I think.

Then I heard there was a train from Darjeeling to Assam that is great - is that true? No other reason to go Assam, but if the train ride is worth it - then what the hell.


Would something like this work (maybe in about 10-12 days) or is this completely off and there is a better way to do this?

delhi --> dharmshala --> manali --> leh --> Katmandu --> shiliguri ---> darjeeling --> gangtok --> bhutan --> assam or Kolkata

I just made this by looking at a map, no other real logic to it. HELP Please.

THANKS IMers

jyotirmoy

May & June both are very hot in the plains, so better head to the mountains.
Leh to Kathmandu? There is no train from Darjeeling to Assam. You will have to come down to New Jalpaiguri.
Consider:
Delhi-Dhramshala-Manali-Leh-Srinagar-Delhi- New Jalpaiguri(For Darjeeling & Sikkim)-Kolkata-Varanasi-Kathmandu-Delhi.

magician

Is this possible?

Will be in mumbai and aurangabad. Then need to figure out which route is best to finish up in delhi.

Go from aurangabad --> varanasi --> khajuraho --> orchha --> Agra/Fatehpur sikri --> delhi.
I am thinking maybe fly from aurangabad to varnasi. Then how should we make our way from varnasi to delhi - car, trains, planes??

Or should I go from aurangabad to delhi and do the rest of it by car? If so that puts us in varanasi at end of trip - how to make it back to delhi - drive straight back or is there something to see on way back?

Anyone done this route before??

Thanks

Sumit

steven_ber

You could get an overnight train from Jalgaon or Bhusaval (closer to Ajanta than Aurangabad) to Jhansi, then go to orchha, Khajuraho, then either fly or get a train to Varanasi (train should be starting soon), then from Varanasi, get an overnight train to Agra, then to Delhi.

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Train information.

magician

i like the suggestion of Delhi-Dhramshala-Manali-Leh-Srinagar. Is there a reason you suggest coming back to Delhi at this point??

Why not go from srinagar-Katmandu-jalpaiguri/shiliguri-darjeeling/sikkim-kolkata.

If I make it to Kolkata this way, maybe I can head to andaman islands to chennai and it takes me into south where I was intending to go later. What do you think??

sumit

magician

Considering Uncle Martin's comments about heat and dhans' suggestions to concentrate more up north, I relooked at this very carefully. Did more research and this is where I am at the moment. How does this look overall??

Week 1 - Starting Delhi, Do rajasthan first as it will continue to get hotter (hit the big cities and work in camel safari).
Week 2,3 - Khatmandu, darjeeling, sikkim, bhutan, kolkata (work in toy train of darjeeling, some trekking).
Week 4 - ????
Week 5 - Aurangabad-varnasi-khajuraho-orchha-agra-delhi (the aurangabad may seem weird - I've been there, but was planning on taking a friend that is going to visit week 5).

Would like to cover Hampi and if possible Andeman islands. Could I go from kolkata-andeman-chennai-hampi-aurangabad for week 4 (or am I pushing it)? Or should I skip andeman and try to cover south and hampi in week4?

Basically really confused about week 4.....Once I have this basic travel pattern down, then I can detail out what to see specifically and how to move around etc. Please continue advising, this is moving forward.

tdmc

I'm just back from 4 weeks in India

we picked up a driver in Jaipur and "did" Rahjastan in 10 days

Pushak - Udaipur Johdpur Jaiisslamer Bikiner Jaipur

It was just long enough could have easily spent another 3 - 4 days.

Camel safari out of Jaislamer - overnight - ride in the afternoon, into the sunset, sleep in the desert - under the stars and ride again in the morning. That's long enough unless you're really keen

Strongly recommend Udaipur - great setting (lake) and very friendly people and a "nice" town - we stayed an extra night there.

I think you can take a camel safari out of Pushkar as well, if you didn't want to go the distance.

magician

tdmc,

thanks for that info....can you tell me how long you spent in each place. I have seen jaipur a few times, so i can go through that in 1 day. There is an amusement park type of thing showing rajasthan culture in jaipur? (memory failing me right now) that was really good (don't know if you got to see that?).

The camel safari sounds perfect. Don't need it any longer - just wanted it overnight to be in the desert. Can you please send details on that - how did you arrange etc.

what did you do for the other 2.5 weeks?

sumit

tdmc

Didn't see the "theme" park in Jaipur - I think our guide was more keen on taking us to shops - a pain, but one of those things - next time a little more independent I think

Here's what we did
Mumbai (arrival) 3 days
Overnight Train to Jaipur and the circuit to Jaisslamer-Jaipur 11 days
Overnight bus to Rishikesh, Rishikesh 5 days
Fly to Kochi, taxi to Alleppey - 6 days
Back to Mumbai, 1 day fly out the next

Camel ride/safari - over night is "enough", sleep "under the stars" it's warm enough (warmer later I guess), and they supply blankets. Go for an afternoon departure and ride into the sunset, make sure you've got a morning ride as well. Each is about an hour. Not too hot that time of day. Full day would be very hot.