Going to India with the family!

Hanne

Hello everyone,

In four weeks time I will travel with my father, mother, brother and sister to India! I have been to India before, but neither of them have, and I'm really excited to see how they will react . The whole trip is their gift to themselves for their 25 years of marriage .
The plan is to plan as little as possible ahead and just see where we get, just the way I traveled before.
However I also do have a couple of questions (and I didn't really know in which tread to ask them...)
Since we will be traveling with 5 people, I would like to have some tips for that (I never traveled with more than 3 at the same time).
Will it be a lot more difficult to find rooms (I would never book a room ahead) ?
Will it be difficult to stay together like when we don't fit in a single riksha (I'm thinking about drivers that take you to wrong places..., I can already see my mom and dad suddenly going in a different way )
Will it be difficult to book trains? (booking the next ticket upon arrival in a new place always worked fine for me...)

Looking forward to some reactions!

Hanne.

kullukid

[quote=Hanne;496995]Hello everyone,

The plan is to plan as little as possible ahead and just see where we get, just the way I traveled before.
QUOTE]

The no plan, plan is always the best plan! IMHO KK

spicetrekker

Well in some cases you will need to split across for eg Rickshaws as you yourself have pointed out. In such cases you can always ask the rickshaws to stay close to each other - a difficult proposition with the way they drive but worth a try. In fact if you are more comfortable with India, you can ask your rick to trail the one in which your mom and dad are.

Some other practical suggestions:

1. In larger cities for eg ariport transfers and all ask for a bigger car eg Sumo/Qualis/Tavera ; they can fit 5 + driver easily and would be cheaper than two small cars

2. In trains if you book in advance you should get all five seats together - even if you dont you can typically ask people to adjust by changing seats - this happens all the time in inida

raj_s

In india, its school holidays till the end of june and that means difficulty in getting tickets for the railways and planes. And the hill stations are so much overbooked .If you don't want to book rooms at least try to shortlist a few hotels that suit your budget and do the booking upon arrival.As for rikshas, you need to keep your eyes open

Hanne

We will only arrive in India the first of July. Are the school holidays over by then? Anyway, we will make sure we have or hotel for the first nights in Delhi booked, because we'll arrive in the middle of the night. Tourist-wise its low season I think, so the hotels listed in say LP or rough guide should not be fully booked during that period?

raj_s

By the first week of july almost all schools are functional.
And anyway, these holidays have effect on bookings for railways and airlines - not much problems with hotel bookings in Delhi.

As you said that you are adventurous sort, then why not do the advance booking for the hotel just for a day and then explore Delhi the next day. You could end up saving some bucks.

The only problems is the beggers and the touts but don't worry. Just ignore them and have fun.

Sorry for the late reply.