Very Basic Route. Opinions?

Hi. My name is Rob and I am an 25 year old American male planning on traveling alone in India for the first time for around 3 months starting December. I understand that it is a ways off, but I will be in Southeast Asia from July to October and Nepal through November and am just trying to get a very basic idea about my basic route through India.

I would like to travel relatively slowly and get a feel for each area, not always on the move. I really like the idea of contrasts between the madness of cities and the relative calm
and natural beauty of the mountains/foothills.

After reading a little, this is a very rough basic route that I have come up with. I would like to travel by train as much as possible and I hope to make plenty of stops along the way
and plenty of day trips to surrounding areas.

The basic checkpoints:

-Cross from Nepal into Darjeeling area.

-Darjeeling to Kolkata.

-Kolkata to Varanasi through Bodhgaya.

-Varanasi to Allalahbad.

-Allalahbad to Delhi.

-Delhi to Uttarakhand (Haridwar, Rishikesh)

-Uttarakhand through the Punjab to Amritsar.

-Amritsar to Himachal Pradesh (Mcleodganj, etc.)


I have a few questions. First, regarding time, how would this basic itinerary work for the time (3 months?)

I would love to take some time down south maybe to somewhere more rural, relaxed and warm, (ex:the same route in 2 months, and one month in Kerala) but would doing so force me to experience the North at too rushed a pace?

How would a trip like this compare to the same 3 months down South (Maharastra, Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, etc).

Are places like Darjeeling, Uttarakhand, and Himachal Pradesh accessible/enjoyable this time of year (December - Feb)?

Any suggestions for places I can't miss along the way? Keep in mind I am looking more for sounds, smells, markets, functioning religion,music, and food than historic monuments. If it helps, the three things that I am most interested in learning more about/experiencing are food, Tibetan Buddhism, and Indian classical music.

I know this must seem very frantic and rambling, but I have just been brainstorming. I just want to make the most
of this opportunity.

Thanks for any advice.

Darjeeling region will be soaking wet and miserably cold during December. The wettest place in the world is just a few KMs away from DJ.
Himachal Pradesh will be mostly dry (inner valleys) but freezing cold.

The rest of your itinerary goes through the plateau region (that's north india minus the himalaya) where the weather will be comfortable.

As for places on the way: yes. the way east to west over the plateau has many interesting archeological sites, specifically from varanasi to delhi: Allahbad (Khajuraho temples nearby), Orchha (exquisite!!!), Gwalior, Agra.
There are many more interesting sites in that historically rich region.

As for don't-miss: Delhi and Kolkata - allow a few days in each for the full city experience. more sounds&smell than you can take.

Regarding overall strategy, I recommend:
1. Go to south India instead. easy weather, easy to travel, great food, everybody speaks english - everything's easier.
2. Personally I'd do the entire trip in India. Iv'e been to Nepal, Thailand, Laos and more, and I feel India is more intense/engaging/the-real-thing/out-of-this-world experience.
I prolly won't convince you in a forum post, so ur'e invited for a 'india setup' meeting, check my profile i'm from SJ.

I agree with goldistan that you should plan on also going south. Winter is the very best time of the year to travel in India to places like Rajasthan and most other places that get too hot in the Spring and Summer.

3 months in the north in winter is too long & too cold. A month is probably plenty.

I don't agree that you should dispense with the rest of your trip and just do India, even if it is the most intense & out-of-this world experience (it is). All the places you are going are worth seeing. I've also been to all of them (not Laos, it was closed to the West when we were living in Northern Thailand, though we could look at it across the Mekong river. I still hope to get there).

It's sounds like you're going to have an amazing trip.

Be sure to get yourself a 10 yr. tourist visa for India before you leave which as a U.S. citizen you can get as easily as shorter ones (just more $). You may already know how this works, but mainly, like all tourist visas you can stay within India for a maximum of 180 days. If you leave India (to hop over to Nepal) you have to stay our of India for 2 months before you can return (new rule) BUT you don't need to get another visa. This way you won't have to waste time trying to get an India tourist visa from Thailand or Nepal where you can only get a short one anyway.

Thanks for your replies. I get the feeling that 3-4 months in the North would be rough going, and that, the Himalayas in the dead of winter may be not be worth it.

What do you think of this idea?

-2 weeks in Varanasi (from Nepal), surrounding areas, and Kolkata

- take 2.5 - 3 months to make my way from Kolkata down to Kerala and then up the West Coast to Mumbai.

- Depending on timing and how much cash I have left, direct train or flight to Delhi and a few weeks in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh (Late Feb, Early March).


Would 2.5 - 3 months be enough to make the journey from Kolkata to Mumbai along the coast at a relatively relaxed pace?

Would it be better to stick to one coast and take more time?

As a first timer, am I allowed to miss Rajasthan?

What about heading West from Varanasi to Delhi and taking the remaining 2.5 - 3 months making my way to Kerala through Rajasthan and down the West coast?

After Kolkata and West-Bengal you can visit coastal Orissa and then go inland and go to Karnataka and Kerala.
If you take a long overnight train from time to time you have plenty time to explore quiet a specific region. [/quote]

Rajasthan is great but there are a lot of other great and less touristic regions.
Many people stay just in Goa and the South

How long your time in India is you always must choose between the different options.
This one is also good

2.5 - 3 months is plenty of time to make any of the journeys you mention at a relaxed pace. You don't need to stay on one coast!

You should get a guidebook before you leave, Footprints, Rough Guide & the ever-popular Lonely Planet. They all offer great ideas for different itineraries and you can combine as many as you want, since you have more time. The idea is to try not to zig zag too much or repeat places (unless you want to). Make big circles.

You only need a general idea of what you want to do. (which is why I don't want to get into an actual itinerary for you) Once you get to India you will find yourself with lots more ideas and you can alter your route however you wish. You will meet many other travelers like yourself and you may find yourself traveling occasionally with a new acquaintance to somewhere you didn't know about. (that happened to me many years ago in Nepal when I met a French woman who knew a French monk living in a monastery near Dhuilikel & she asked if I wanted to take a 2 day trek with her. I did and it's one of my best memories--the trek & meeting a French monk & sleeping on a mat in a monastery I had never even heard of.)

You can miss Rajasthan, but it is a very interesting and unique State. You'd probably really like it. We've been there a few times and I'd still go back again (but not in summer).

Thanks again for your replies.

Camelgirl, I definitely hear what you're saying and agree. I am certainly not looking to figure out a detailed itinerary, as I love the freedom that relatively open-ended travel brings!

I am really just trying to gauge the amount of ground I can cover in the time I have and get a general route/direction to start from.
Judging by the replies, a big relaxed loop from Varanasi - Kolkata - Kerala - Mumbai - Rajasthan - Delhi may actually be a possibility in the 3-4 months I have, while I had the idea that one would need way more time after just looking at a map.

Thanks for brainstorming with me.

To get an idea of the time it takes to travel by train explore this site erail.in.

There has been very heavy fog in North India (particularly Delhi, U.P. etc) pretty much since mid-December and has not let up even as we approach the end of January. This has forced numerous train cancellations, delays etc. If December is your start date, it might perhaps be worthwhile to think about starting in South India and ending up in the North by the end of January.