Trip to India with the family

Dgordo

Hi All,

I am new to this site, but love the content and suggestions people have offered to others.

We are planning a family trip to India this December (Dec. 8th to the 28th to be exact).

We plan on visiting the golden triangle, family in Amdabad & Mumbai, and we figure a side trip to Goa, Kerala, or someplace up north towards the Himalayas.

We have two girls who will be 9 & 10 at the time. This will be their 1st trip to India but are pretty well traveled. We are a relatively adventurous family and we would appreciate any advice on setting up an itinerary, hotels, travel (plane or train), or another thoughts people might have. We have a modest budget, but some flexability.

We would like to try at least one overnight train experience and visiting anything "animal", "beach", or "nature" related would be appreciated by our kids, and us.

Looking forward to your feedback and suggestions.

Gordo

Raj009

hi buddy
what all places you wanna visit actually
mumbai and ahmedabad are big cities
kerala is extreme south , goa is a beach city near mumbai
december is a good time to travel to india

brownboy66

Hi Gordo, and welcome to IM

undoubtedly there will be a few more replies, and as you make a few decisions yourself and narrow down the itinerary it might be good to update this thread (its always easier to answer specific questions) - but here's a few points for starters....

as you probably know great time of the year to travel from a temperature point of view (cool/cold in the north and beautiful in the south) - but also the height of the tourist season. The major tourist sites will be crowded - but then again, where isn't it crowded!

Good idea (choosing to go either north or south). With such a lot to see (and visiting family) 20 days is going to fly by. Guess it will come down to whether or not you want to go to a beach or maybe go to the hills?

If you do a search on the site for travelling with kids, you'll get plenty of information on what can be done. I'm not sure that extensive travelling necessarily prepares you for India. My wife and I travelled all over south east asia, china, a number of small island communities in the south pacific - and nothing was at all like coming to India (which is why we came - its a whole different ball game).

Anyway - check out the travelling with kids threads, and good luck with the planning.

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zoltan

If you're talking Delhi => Agra => Jaipur and with only 3 weeks to play with, you're going to be stretching it without flying to a few of your locations.

I would be suggesting 3-4 days in Delhi. Train to Agra. Spend 1-2 days there (see the Taj & Fatephur Sikri). Train/bus to Jaipur, 1-2 days there.

Visit the Ranthambhore national park.

Train /fly from Jaipur to Ahmedabad and then train to Mumbai.

From Mumbai fly down to Kerala (I think you'd enjoy it more than Goa) then fly back to Mumbai for the flight home.

Cheers
Zoltan

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sb_amd_us

Dgordo....Welcome to IM.
Rajasthan will be very nice in December. We did following in December 2001:

A night train from Ahmedabad which got us to Jaipur next day 6:00AM(Since you mentioned that you want do atleast one night journey in Train): Stayed at Taj Jai Mahal Palace for two nights and did the usual tourist siteseeing
Jaipur - Bikaner....Two nights in Lalgadh palace
Bikaner - Jaisalmer....Two nights in Fort Rajwada
Jaisalmer - Jodhpur....Two nights in Umaid Bhavan Palace
Jodhpur - Udaipur......Two nights in Hotel Trident...
We then went back to Ahmedabad

All of the hotels mentioned above had a two nights/3 days package.

If you still have time....You can combine Delhi for two nights and Agra for a night or two and then fly back to EWR.