Revising itinerary for June in Northern India - need suggestions please

drsdg

Hello -

Flying into Delhi on June 5th. Planning to spend 4 nights there, then to Agra for 1 night, Varanasi for 4 nights, leaving on 6/15. Here is where things are starting to get a bit difficult...

We'd planned to visit Bodhgaya, Darjeeling, then fly over to Leh. However, the toy train to Darjeeling is all booked up from 6/16-6/25. That is something we are very keen to do, but I have no sense of how likely it is that we will get a seat off of the wait list (we are #s 10 and 11). So my questions are as follows:

- should we find something else to do between Bodhgaya and Darjeeling, so that we head up on 6/25 and spend 3 nights in Darjeeling before heading back to Delhi? If so - what else would you recommend in that region? We are in our late 20s and open-minded, probably not up for long treks but short ones would be fine. How many days would you recommend in Darjeeling?

- should we skip Darjeeling altogether and head to the Ladakh province? If so, could you recommend a week and a half's worth of things to do in the area?

- Finally, does anyone have a sense of how likely it is that we will get off the WL for the Darjeeling train? Are there other options for getting on, like the tourist quota or booking through an agent? Money is not much of an issue for this particular thing, we both really want to do the toy train.

Thanks so much for any advice / suggestions!

zoltan

Failing the ability of getting a seat on the toy-train, you could go to Darjeeling & take the steam train that goes down to Ghoom.

Although not as long a journey as the full Siliguri => Darjeeling route, it would still be enjoyable.

Darjeeling, if you don't go trekking, allow 3 days to get a feel for the place.

The snow-leopard breeding colony is awesome.

Cheers
Zoltan

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