Single woman with 3 weeks in India

Hey There,

I was wondering if anyone had itinerary advice for a single female traveler in India, with 3 weeks to work with. I will be coming directly from a visit to the Phillipines, which will be my first visit to an Asian country. I am a very green traveler. My primary interests are historical/religious/architectural sites, as well as festivals. Any ideas of where to start would be greatly appreciated. I have been researching various parts of India, and they all seem so appealing that I can't make up my mind.

Thanks!
Alyssa

Depends if you are planning on the north or the south. If you fly into Delhi you can try Amritsar, Benares, khajuraho and Agra and some Rajasthan. Are you taking buses around or trains or flying?? it affects how much you can fit in.
have a fabulous time.

Alyssa
The first choice you have to make is between South India and North India. You can not do both in just 3 weeks. For North India, the classical places you could cover in 3 weeks are Delhi, Varanasi, Khajuraho, Agra, Jaipur, Udaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer.
In the south you could cover Cochin, backwaters, Periyar, Madurai, Trichy, Pondicherry, Mammallapuram, Chennai.

Hello Alyssa and welcome to indiamike.com

Please give the date you arrive in India, then we can see if any festivals can be fitted into your itinerary.

Click on the How to get helpful replies....link below for more suggestions.

My advice is to sample only SOME of the big attractions of India and fill the rest of your itinerary with some smaller more relaxing places.

Say Delhi, The Taj, Fatehpur Sikri (Bharatpur is a good base for forays into these two places and has a nice bird park to wander around! try Deeg and Mathura as day trips from here)

From here take a different option than the normal Jaipur Udaipur route!
Head down to Bundi, perhaps with a stopover at Ranthambore for a bit of tiger spotting, again a relaxing spot away from the touristy stuff apparent in the hotspots of India!

From here you could se Chittor or even head out towards Mandu and Maheshwar two beautiful spots.

From Bharatpur you could take the Madhya Pradesh options Of GwaLior Orchha and Datia , continuing down to Bhopal or even Pachmeri for a bit of respite from the heat!!

Heading North from Delhi there are all sorts of places for a bit of relaxation, Rishikesh Mcleodganj, Shimla, Mandi................

Like I say don't fill your entire holiday with the big tourist spots try, to pad it out with smaller but just as interesting places!!