Proposed Itinerary ...what do you think?

Hello Everyone! I've been reading this site and finding a lot of the information quite valuable. I will be traveling to India the first time this October, along with my husband. My husband was raised in India and his family is still there. He has been in the USA for the past 10 years...so I think we may need a little extra advice regarding traveling.


Oct 20...Reach Kolkata, Celebrate Diwali and site see. We would we staying with my In-laws

Oct 27...Darjeeling, ghoom, tiger hill, jalapahar, katapahar

Nov 01...Reach Kolkata

Nov 02...Rajdhani to Delhi

Nov 04...Start for Agra by car.

Nov 05...Return to Dehli

Nov 06...Shatabdi Express to Amritsar

Nov 07...Train to Dehli, flight to Kochi, Kerala---night stay at resort

Nov 09...Flight back to Kolkata

Nov 11...Visit Countryside with relatives

Nov 12...Wedding Reception (mostly for his relatives to come meet me, I guess. We've been married over 2 years now)

Nov 14...Digha by car

Nov 16...Return to Kolkata

Nov 18...Leave for home



Any advice about places we should visit in Kolkata or any of the other destinations would be very appreciated. I would also like to fit Jaipur in somewhere within our itinerary, but doubt it is possible.

What do you think?


Thank you all in advance!

Shari

May be you could fly to Jaipur from Kolkata.

Train from Jaipur to Amritsar. (Note the running days).

Train from Amritsar to Agra.

The Delhi - Amritsar - Delhi - Kochi - Kolkata leg in only 4 days looks pretty strenuous to me.

So does much of the trip.

I would knock off Kerala completely, for a start, and fly directly to Kolkata.

Also, three connecting halts at Delhi but not enough time/energy to see anything there?

Chuck Digha out unless it has some nostalgic value for your husband. Go to Mandarmani instead, if you really want to go to the sea. This beach has recently emerged and has good classy hotels and a gorgeous beach. Digha is very rotten and full of cheapo crowd.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I'm going to suggest them to my husband. 5 weeks feels like no time at all! I can't imagine how people see India with only 2 weeks.

I think cutting Kerala out will probably be a good idea, and even though I'd really like to go there maybe it will work out better next trip. If we did this we could probably go to Jaipur no problem.

I have also read that Digha was kind of dirty...will definitely check out mandarmani.


Thanks everyone!!!

Certainly if you expect to be back, probably leaving Kerala for a next time is indeed a good idea.

There are trains New Jalpaiguri (for Darjeeling)-Delhi btw, you wouldn't need to backtrack all the way to Kolkata for it. See http://erail.in?T=NJP::NDLS:.

I'd agree all that backtracking over Delhi wouldn't seem practical. I can't work it out for you just like that, but I'd rather seek to keep moving (and now spending some decent time in Delhi to sightsee and stuff when you're there. The city may need some getting into, but it has much to offer), going by any combo of Delhi-Jaipur-Agra-Amritsar (so not necessarily in that order).

For the NJP Delhi Agra leg it is also possible to fly from Bagdogra to New Delhi and then with a car to Agra.

There are also some direct trains from NJP to Agra but not every day and some arrive in the middle of the night.