Srinigar (Srinagar) to Jaisalmer?

butternan

Hello all!

I know it sounds a bit like a stupid itinerary but I am trying to please both myself (ski in Gulmarg) and my girlfriend (who would love to see Jaisalmer and is afraid of cold weather).

Problem is that we will be having only 14 days in India. For the time being my itinerary looks like this:

1 Jan -> Arrive in Delhi
5 Jan -> Arrive in Srinigar
7 Jan -> Arrive in Gulmarg
10 Jan -> Leave Gulmarg......
??????
14 Jan night -> Leave India

Doing a bit of research I have found the following options:
1- Fly Sriningar to Delhi to Jodhpur and train to Jaisalmer.
2- Fly Srinigar to Jammu and train to Jaisalmer

Option 1 looks quite costly and also quite time consuming as it involves three travel legs.
Option 2 looks cheaper but the train from Jammu is about 23 hours.

Any suggestions?

dreamer

Hi there

Think this might be a bit of a rush Have you booked your flights to Srinagar yet? Can you go there a bit earlier? There was a posting a few days back on here that air deccan are offering flights from 2 rupees plus tax in January next year. I certainly found some to and from Srinagar. Maybe you could get one of these cheap flights back to Delhi and then catch the train to Jaisalmer (even this takes 19.5 hours though) Even so you don't seem to have left much time to see Jaisalmer and get back to Delhi from there.

There are no flights to Jaisalmer but maybe you could get another cheap one to or from Jodphur? Not sure if there is a train from Jammu. Does it go through Bikaner?

The only other thing I would say is with all that travelling and huge temperature changes ( below freezing and 7 feet of snow in Kashmir now and still at least 28 degrees in the day in Jaisalmer ) you may be setting yourself up for a fever!

Anyway good luck and I hope you manage to get to both of them - they are my two favourite places in India

Sarah

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butternan

Hi Sarah,

Thanks for your info. I will definetly look up the Air Deccan offer.

Yes, there is a train from Jammu:

9224 JAT ADI EXPRESS JAMMU TAWI 07:00 JODHPUR JN 05:40

It does go via Bikaner (00:45).
But I would still have to reach Jammu: 12 hours bus or fly in which case it might make more sense to fly back to Delhi.

I guess there is no direct Srinagar-Jodhpur flight...
Tried to look for flights between Delhi and Jodhpur and they seem quite expensive.

I agree with you that whichever way I go it doesn' t really leave much time in Jaisalmer and it might all be a bit too rushed.

Have you ever been to Bikaner? How does it compare to Jaisalmer?

...and yes, I will have some funny temperature changes especially since I will be leaving from Singapore where it is always over 30 degrees... 30 to - 7 to 28

cheers,
david

dreamer

Hi David

I haven't been to Bikaner, but from things I have read and comments by other people it doesn't compare to Jaisalmer. Maybe worth a stop for a day if you are passing through.

You can only fly to Delhi or Jammu from Srinagar I think. I found Spice Jet to be the cheapest ( apart from the Air Deccan special offer) but if you cancel with Spice Jet you don't get a refund, just a credit less 600 rupees booking charge which is held as a credit for a year. The other economy airlines may do the same thing.

The flight from Srinagar to Jammu only takes 45 minutes so I am surpries it takes 12 hours on a bus I would take the flight anyway!

Anyway try to make it to Jaisalmer if you can - it is a magical place

steven_ber

Sorry, not time to read the replies.....just a suggestion....

Check out the Jammu - Jaipur train (s), I'm sure there's one gets to jaipur about lunchtime, then you could spend half a day there before the overnight train from Jaipur to Jaisalmer.

As I recall, the Jammu - Jodhpur train is slow, so the Jaipur option might not add much time to the overall journey.

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Train information.

butternan

Hi Steven,

Thanks for your suggestion. I checked out the trains:

2414 JAMMU JP EXP JAMMU TAWI 18:15 JAIPUR 10:10
and
4059 DLI JSM EXPRESS *JAIPUR 23:57 JAISALMER 13:00

seems much more convenient than

9224 JAT ADI EXPRESS JAMMU TAWI 07:00 JODHPUR JN 05:40
and
DLI JSM EXPRESS *JODHPUR JN 06:45 JAISALMER 13:00

Especially taking a train at 7AM in Jammu would mean spending the night there...

It would also leave me some time to eat in one of my favourite india restaurants ever: Mohan in Jaipur

I have never hired a car/driver. Have you got any experience on that? Would that possibly reduce significantly travel times?

steven_ber

I'm slightly releaved, I knew the train went from Pathankot to Jaipur, but something was telling me it started it's journey in Jammu (I had no info on me when I replied).

The Jodhpur connection is too tight.

butternan

Well, got back from my trip a couple of days ago.
As expected I didn' t manage to get to Jaisalmer after Gulmarg.

I did manage to get to Pushkar though and found it a really nice place (apart from the impossibility of finding decent indian food)

Already looking forward for my next trip, hopefully whithin 6 months so I can get some more mileage from my VISA

Thanks to you all for your help