North or South India in july ?

wbervoets

Hi all,

We're a young couple and we'll be going on our first India trip in July (10/07 - 29/07) We know it's monsoon season, but we could only take holidays in July

We'll be flying in to Mumbai and are thinking of two options but we can't seem to decide yet :-):

- Take a flight to Chennai and visit the south of India (Tamil Nadu coast & temples, hill stations, Kerala, and then going up again to Hampi - seems like a very nice place). Probably fly back from Bangalore to Mumbai to catch our flight home.

From what I've read it seems the monsoon can be pretty bad though in Kerala, so the backwater & coast may not be the best option. (we could stay longer in Tamil Nadu though..)

- Or we could go to Rajasthan (catch a flight to delhi?) and visit forts, Taj Mahal, Bharatpur bird sanctuary, Udaipur, Bundi, ... (eg. a mix between cities & architecture and some country side nature)
Friends of us went to Rajasthan last year in July and they found weather (temperature & monsoon) ok...

So what would be your recommondation for a first visit to India in July ? Right now we're leaning towards northen India.

We would be traveling by public transport, I'm wondering if it's needed to reserve eg. trains in advance before we are actually in India. We would like to keep some flexibility in our iternary

cheers,
Wim & Nele

PS: We're not really the trekking type so Ladakh & Himalayan trekking is probably not something for us...

citybell

Since you will be visiting India in July ad considering that this is your first visit, suggest you to visit Tamilandu.The rainy season in Tamilnadu starts sometime during early Oct.
Another choice would be to visit Rajasthan.All other areas have rainy season.
If you choose Tamilnadu, you may touch border areas of Kerala to experience rainy season,if you like.

Since you will be taking public transport, i suggest Tamilnadu would be better.

crvlvr

July-August is robably the worst time of the year to visit India. The weather is really hot in places that do not have rainfall and really wet on the west coast and north east. If you have to go in July, avoid Kerala/Goa as most of the tourist services are shut down due to monsoon.

aadil

I would suggest going to the north where it is not so bad as in the south. In Tamil Nadu it may not be really the worst time so it could be done but then the rest of the places in the south would be in the thick of the monsoon season with very heavy showers all the time with no respite at all. Rajasthan and Gujarat are better suited for the drier climate they tend to have around the year as it rains very less compared to the other places in India. I am sure you will still enjoy whichever places you finally decide to visit in India so take care and have a great time out here when you come to India!!!

Cheers,
Aadil.

__________________
Climb high; climb far;
Your goal, the sky,
Your aim, the stars!!!

wbervoets

Hi all,

Thanks for all the responses I think we have made up our mind and we'll go for Rajasthan.

Here is our (draft) itinerary:

10/jul Brussel - bombay (arrive at 01:00 at night)
11/jul Bombay - Delhi (early morning flight to Delhi)
12/jul Delhi
13/jul Bharatpur (Keoladeo Ghana national park)
14/jul Bharatpur (Keoladeo Ghana national park)
15/jul Agra
16/jul Agra
17/jul Bundi
18/jul Bundi
19/jul Bundi
20/jul Udaipur
21/jul Udaipur
22/jul Mt Abu
23/jul Mt Abu
24/jul Bikaner ?
25/jul Bikaner ?
26/jul Amritsar ?
27/jul Delhi ?
28/jul flight Delhi - Bombay
29/jul Bombay - Brussels

Comments welcome we still have to see whether maybe it's better to go north from mumbai at the start and only arrive at delhi at the end. (as now we'll be almost 4days in delhi which is probably a bit too much)

Wim

ps: aadil, saw that you've already been to Leuven Belgium ... cool I hope you liked it :-)

4wdindia

The above route is not correct tecknicaly. If you follow abobe mentioned route you can spend all the day in the car.

I am going to correct the same route as follows but still it is not the best route:-

10/jul Brussel - bombay (arrive at 01:00 at night)
11/jul Bombay - Delhi (early morning flight to Delhi)
12/jul Delhi
13/jul Agra
14/jul Bharatpur (Keoladeo Ghana national park)
15/jul Bharatpur (Keoladeo Ghana national park)
16/jul jaipur
17/jul Bundi
18/jul Bundi
19/jul Bundi
20/jul Udaipur
21/jul Udaipur
22/jul Mt Abu
23/jul Jodhpur
24/jul Bikaner ?
25/jul Bikaner ?
26/jul Amritsar ?
27/jul Delhi ?
28/jul flight Delhi - Bombay
29/jul Bombay - Brussels
Best route is in my next message see below message.....

4wdindia

The best route is as follows::--

10/jul Brussel - bombay (arrive at 01:00 at night)
11/jul Bombay - Delhi (flight to Udaipur)
12/jul Udaipur
13/jul Bijapur castle
14/jul Bundi
15/jul Bundi
16/jul Pushkar
17/jul Pushkar
18/jul Jodhpur
19/jul Jaisalmer
20/jul Jaisalmer
21/jul Bikaner
22/jul Mandava
23/jul Jaipur
24/jul Bharatpur (Keoladeo Ghana national park)
25/jul Delhi
26/jul Amritsar by Train
27/jul Amritsar
28/jul Delhi by Train and Mumbai by Flight
29/jul Bombay - Brussels

Still it can be modify according your choice...
Bon Voyage...

wbervoets

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies, we've been reading a lot about Rajasthan in the mean time and have refined our itinerary: we've removed some places which were really to far from each other (Bikaner, Amritsar, ...) and we'll most probably also fly back to Mumbai from Ahmedabad instead of doing a roundtrip back to Delhi.

So here is our current itinerary:

10/07: Brussel - bombay (arrive at 01:00 at night)
11/07: Air Deccan flight 05:00 to Delhi (07h00 in Delhi) - night in Delhi
12/07: Delhi - night in Delhi
13/07: #2002 Train to Agra - visit Taj Mahal in the afternoon - night in Agra
14/07: Bus to Bharatpur - afternoon: Keoladeo Ghana national park - night near park
15/07: Morning: Keoladeo Ghana national park / Sightseeing trip to Fatehpur Sikri - night near park
16/07: Train to Kota - bus to Bundi - night in bundi
17/07: Bundi (night in bundi)
18/07: Bundi (night in bundi)
19/07: Bus to Chittorgarh - visit fort - bus to Ajmer/Puskar (night in Pushkar)
20/07: Pushkar (night in Puskar)
21/07: Travel to Jodhpur (night in Jodhpur)
22/07: Jodhpur
23/07: Udaipur
24/07: Udaipur (Ranakpur - Kumbalgarh)
25/07: Mt Abu
26/07: Mt Abu
27/07: Afternoon travel to Ahmedabad
28/07: Morning flight GoAir Flight from Ahmedabad to Mumbai / mumbai sightseeing
29/07: 02am flicht back to Europe

and an alternative :-) (the changes are in italic)

10/07: Brussel - bombay (arrive at 01:00 at night)
11/07: Air Deccan flight 05:00 to Delhi (07h00 in Delhi) - night in Delhi
12/07: Delhi - night in Delhi
13/07: #2002 Train to Agra - visit Taj Mahal in the afternoon - night in Agra
14/07: Bus to Bharatpur - afternoon: Keoladeo Ghana national park - night near park
15/07: Morning: Keoladeo Ghana national park / Sightseeing trip to Fatehpur Sikri - night near park
16/07: Morning train to Jaipur (night in Jaipur)
17/07: Jaipur (night in Jaipur)
18/07: Jaipur - Ajmer (2,5u) - Pushkar
19/07: Pushkar
20/07: Bus to Chittorgarh - visit fort - bus to Bundi (night in bundi)
21/07: bundi (night in bundi)
22/07: Bundi to Udaipur
23/07: Udaipur
24/07: Udaipur (Ranakpur - Kumbalgarh)
25/07: Mt Abu
26/07: Mt Abu
27/07: Afternoon travel to Ahmedabad
28/07: Morning flight GoAir Flight from Ahmedabad to Mumbai / mumbai sightseeing
29/07: 02am flicht back to Europe

We still think it's there are too much destinations in this itinerary But it's sometimes difficult to choose, so we still appreciate your valuable input :-)

Here are some additional questions we're currently having:

- should we choose Chittorgarh and/or Jodphur ? I read it are 'similar' forts, so maybe one of the two is enough for a first visit to India.
- we're not too sure about jaipur either, that's why it's missing from one of the itineraries
- and maybe we shoud add a nighttrain to save a travel day... any suggestions which connection?


cheers,
Wim & Nele

kavindra

Just a couple of comments:

1. You are spending very little time in some of the places you are visiting, and possibly attempting to touch too many places. If it were me, I would drop a place or two and spend an extra day here and there.
2. I and my wife visited Chittorgarh from Udaipur (a day trip by bus) and really loved it. It was the highlight of our trip through Rajasthan, comprised of stops at Jaipur and Udaipur. So, I'd highly recommend it.

All the best!

wbervoets

Hi kavindra,

thanks for your answer... I didn't know a daytrip was possible to Chittorgarh from Udaipur so we'll surely keep that in mind when we'll be in Udaipur.

Indeed maybe we still have too much places we want to see in our list... but we're flexible and see how it goes when we're actually in India (it's coming closer )... it should be still relaxing of course

wim

wbervoets

also we removed our ahmedabad stop and have reserved a place on the night train from Mt Abu to Mumbai... this means we can relax longer in Mt Abu

4wdindia

Hi Wim & Nale,
All together you have 20 days for this travel. It is better for you to make this trip in the north because of monsoon.
To see most of the places you have to use all diffrent type of transportation to make this route. If you will do all the route by local buses and trains you will loose most of your time just in the traveling.

So you should have trains only for far distances and for rest you can use car for two person.

But still if you want to travel by buses or trains then it is really too fast travel with lot of places. You should skip some destinations.

Amritsar:- After Taj, second most important bulding to see"it is GOLDEN TEMPLE" you must see it.


Jodhpur is better place to stay and to visit also, no doubt.
Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan and it's also very important town to visit lot of important monuments.

Always try to travel by night trains.

Wish you all the best for your travel.