East or West from Delhi into Rajasthan Itinerary?

dfoldena · Oct 4th, 2009, 05:10

Hi everyone. My fiance and I are planning a 21 day visit to India in November. We will fly into Delhi and leave from Kolkata on the last day. Prospectively, we plan to spend days 1-18 in Delhi/Rajasthan/Agra, and days 19-21 in Varanasi and Kolkata.

We don't know whether to tour Delhi first and then head off to Agra and then into Rajasthan, or just leave Delhi asap, head to Bikaner and Rajasthan and Agra before ending in Delhi. From there we would set off to Varanasi.

This is our first visit to India, and the given stories of being overwhelmed by the Delhi and Agra madness, we thought it might be nice to just roll out of Delhi and immediately head to Bikaner. We arrive in Delhi at night, so in the itinerary, we didn't count that as Day 1. Also, we are relatively young and get by on little sleep and dawnish mornings.

We would be so grateful for any advice from the collective India Mike knowledge. Thanks in advance.

Our itinerary is as follows.

1 - Negotiate a car and driver (thinking 5rupees/km for a small car for just two of us). Leave for Bikaner (7 hours). Sleep in Bikaner
2 - Negotiate a camel safari for the day and night.
3 - Arrive back in Bikaner. Briefly tour the city and leave for Jaisalmer (5 hours) Arrive in Jaisalmer
4 - Tour Jaisalmer and sleep there.
5 - Tour until the afternoon and leave for Jodphur (4.5 hours). Sleep in Jodphur
6 - Tour Jodphur and sleep in Jodphur
7 - Leave for Kumbalgarh/Ranakpur. I think one is open in the afternoon. Sleep in the general vicinity
8 - Tour Kumbalgarh/Ranakpur (whichever is open in the morning)
9 - Leave for Udaipur (3 hours) and tour. Sleep in Udaipur
10 - Tour Udaipur and sleep in Udaipur
11 - Leave for Chitaurgarh (2 hours) and tour. Leave for Kota. (5 hours). Sleep in Kota.
12 - Shop a market and leave for Bundi (1 hour)
13 - Tour Bundi and sleep in Bundi
14 - Leave in the afternoon for Jaipur. (5 hours) Sleep in Jaipur.
15 - Tour Jaipur and leave for Bharatpur (4 hours). Sleep in Bharatpur.
16 - Tour Fatehpur Sikri and Agra Fort. Sleep in Agra
17 - Visit Taj and leave for Delhi (4 hours) Sleep in Delhi
18 - Tour Delhi and leave for Varanasi at 530 in the afternoon.

The questions we put to the forum are these:

Should we visit Delhi and then head east to Agra and then around to Rajasthan and back to Delhi, or the way I described above which has us going west?

Is a car and driver rental a good way to handle this itinerary, and is 5km still reasonable in the busy November season? I have it at about 2400km.

Is this just foolishness, and are there any glaring errors?

Any and all advice or suggestions would be really great.

Thanks,
D

wonderwomanusa · Oct 4th, 2009, 06:19

On that schedule, why not save Varanasi and Kolkata for another visit? You aren't giving either of these enough time to see much of anything.... just increasing your travel time. And if the trains are late, you'll see even less.

dfoldena · Oct 4th, 2009, 09:26

Is there any part of the current itinerary that we could eliminate. We aren't wed to any of these locations.

My impression is that cutting out the Bikaner and Jaisalmer visits would free up some much needed time, but the forums here seem to rave about Jaisalmer.

Thanks for your reply. If anyone else has anything to offer, please let me know.

Thanks,
D

Aishah · Oct 4th, 2009, 09:54

I think you could cut out Bikaner, and do your safari in Jaisalmer - there are certainly many non-touristic ways to do it and not go along the usual beaten track. Rather than hiring a car - go on the overnight Delhi - Jaisalmer train. If you want a car for the rest of your journey, I suggest you hire it from Jodhpur.

Another idea might be for you to go Udaipur - Basi Fort or Castle Bijaipur - then onto Bundi and skip Kota.

Hal · Oct 4th, 2009, 10:13

You'll be lucky to get Rs 5/km. I usually hear a minimum of 7 or 8 and westerners might have a hard time negotiating even that.

I agree that you should take the train to where you want to explore and then hire cars from there. The other advantage of taking some trains is you can travel at night. I'd start looking at hotels. If you leave it up to your driver you might be disappointed. It's good to have an idea of what's available at what price.

Overall, I'd go for less stops with more time at each. Half a day of travel and half a day of site-seeing isn't really a good way to see India. You'll be exhausted.

Aishah · Oct 4th, 2009, 16:48

5.5rupees per km is the lowest in recent days that I have come across, and this is for a Tata Indica. They can even go for 6.5r per km. 7 - 8 rupees are mostly for larger cars e.g. Toyota Innova, Chevrolet Tavera. So I agree with Hal, you would be lucky if you managed the 5 rupee per km price.

dfoldena · Oct 5th, 2009, 00:01

Aishah - You are absolutely right. We now plan to take trains from Delhi to Jaisalmer and from Jaisalmer to Jodphur.

For the car and driver, if we were to rent in Jodphur and travel to Udaipur (b/c there is no direct train), would you suggest keeping the car all the way to Jaipur, or just going with busses/trains after leaving Bundi?

Also, the original question still stands, is it better to head east, or west upon arrival?

Thanks everyone.

machadinha · Oct 5th, 2009, 00:04

Not really read or digested all the rest, or looked at feasibility of entire scheme or anything, but,

Quote:

Originally Posted by dfoldena

This is our first visit to India, and the given stories of being overwhelmed by the Delhi and Agra madness, we thought it might be nice to just roll out of Delhi and immediately head to Bikaner.

Yes, given the choice, that would be my preferred way (so to head from Delhi to somewhere somewhat more relaxed, then do Agra later down the trip. I've never been to Agra yet, but from all one hears of it, it doesn't seem to me to be any "softer" than Delhi, or not on a first encounter anyway. I would suspect that -- just like Delhi really, which can be a very nice and interesting city, it may just be a little hard to appreciate at first -- it's one of those places that may be better appreciated once one has gotten "into" India a little.)

Some of course may take an immediate liking to it all, so this won't apply to them. I've never been under the impression nor has it been my experience that they are in the majority though.

Aishah · Oct 5th, 2009, 09:53

It would certainly be more comfortable to have the car to Jaipur, and you might use it to go to Amber Fort and outlying sights there on your first day. I don't think there will be much difference in cost, because you have to pay for the car's return to Jodhpur, and it is not much difference in mileage for it to go onto Jaipur then to Jodhpur, or return to Jodhpur from Bundi.

You could discuss this when you hire your car in Jodhpur - then make a decision.

Hal · Oct 5th, 2009, 10:05

If you are worried about being overwhelmed on arrival, it may be best to head west. Varanasi is fairly intense from what I hear.

dfoldena · Oct 5th, 2009, 11:34

Thanks everyone. I think we will head out west after arriving.

If you had an extra day to spend in Jaisalmer or Jodhpur, which would it be?

The Delhi-Jaisalmer train arrives at 1100 in Jaisalmer, and we plan to catch a camel out to the desert at 1500. The camel is due back into Jaisalmer the next day at 1200. The Jaisalmer to Jodhpur train leaves that night at 2315. The way we have it now, we would just spend the rest of the day (1200 to 2315) in Jaisalmer before leaving.

We are thinking of spending another day in Jaisalmer. However, if we do this, we will only have one full day in Jodhpur. Otherwise, we could spend the extra day in Jodhpur. Unfortunately, if we spend an extra day in both, our itinerary would have us visiting the Taj Mahal on a Friday, which doesn't work.

Thus, between Jaisalmer and Jodhpur, which deserves an extra day?

Naturally, I expect all this planning to be fouled by any number of unforeseen circumstances, but it is nice to have an ideal.

Thanks again for all your help.

Aishah · Oct 5th, 2009, 15:21

dfoldena - don't bargain on the train arriving at 11.00 and your getting the camel at 3.00 p.m.! Today for instance the train is arriving around 1.15 p.m. Still you have all tee'd up then you can do what you want. And I'm sure your safari people will wait for you anyway.

Naturally I am biased and will have to say, spend that day in Jaisalmer. Just wandering the back streets is pleasant here! Instead of rushing about from sight to sight you will have more time to enjoy them.

Jodhpur can be seen easily in a day - the Fort, Mandore Gardens and Umaid Bhawan palace are really the main points I think.

Oct 4th, 2009, 05:10	#1
dfoldena Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Chicago, USA Posts: 4	East or West from Delhi into Rajasthan Itinerary? Hi everyone. My fiance and I are planning a 21 day visit to India in November. We will fly into Delhi and leave from Kolkata on the last day. Prospectively, we plan to spend days 1-18 in Delhi/Rajasthan/Agra, and days 19-21 in Varanasi and Kolkata. We don't know whether to tour Delhi first and then head off to Agra and then into Rajasthan, or just leave Delhi asap, head to Bikaner and Rajasthan and Agra before ending in Delhi. From there we would set off to Varanasi. This is our first visit to India, and the given stories of being overwhelmed by the Delhi and Agra madness, we thought it might be nice to just roll out of Delhi and immediately head to Bikaner. We arrive in Delhi at night, so in the itinerary, we didn't count that as Day 1. Also, we are relatively young and get by on little sleep and dawnish mornings. We would be so grateful for any advice from the collective India Mike knowledge. Thanks in advance. Our itinerary is as follows. 1 - Negotiate a car and driver (thinking 5rupees/km for a small car for just two of us). Leave for Bikaner (7 hours). Sleep in Bikaner 2 - Negotiate a camel safari for the day and night. 3 - Arrive back in Bikaner. Briefly tour the city and leave for Jaisalmer (5 hours) Arrive in Jaisalmer 4 - Tour Jaisalmer and sleep there. 5 - Tour until the afternoon and leave for Jodphur (4.5 hours). Sleep in Jodphur 6 - Tour Jodphur and sleep in Jodphur 7 - Leave for Kumbalgarh/Ranakpur. I think one is open in the afternoon. Sleep in the general vicinity 8 - Tour Kumbalgarh/Ranakpur (whichever is open in the morning) 9 - Leave for Udaipur (3 hours) and tour. Sleep in Udaipur 10 - Tour Udaipur and sleep in Udaipur 11 - Leave for Chitaurgarh (2 hours) and tour. Leave for Kota. (5 hours). Sleep in Kota. 12 - Shop a market and leave for Bundi (1 hour) 13 - Tour Bundi and sleep in Bundi 14 - Leave in the afternoon for Jaipur. (5 hours) Sleep in Jaipur. 15 - Tour Jaipur and leave for Bharatpur (4 hours). Sleep in Bharatpur. 16 - Tour Fatehpur Sikri and Agra Fort. Sleep in Agra 17 - Visit Taj and leave for Delhi (4 hours) Sleep in Delhi 18 - Tour Delhi and leave for Varanasi at 530 in the afternoon. The questions we put to the forum are these: Should we visit Delhi and then head east to Agra and then around to Rajasthan and back to Delhi, or the way I described above which has us going west? Is a car and driver rental a good way to handle this itinerary, and is 5km still reasonable in the busy November season? I have it at about 2400km. Is this just foolishness, and are there any glaring errors? Any and all advice or suggestions would be really great. Thanks, D

Oct 4th, 2009, 06:19	#2
wonderwomanusa Maha Guru Member Join Date: May 2003 Location: Northern California Posts: 4,268	On that schedule, why not save Varanasi and Kolkata for another visit? You aren't giving either of these enough time to see much of anything.... just increasing your travel time. And if the trains are late, you'll see even less. __________________ The map is not the territory. --Alfred Korzybski

Oct 4th, 2009, 09:54	#4
Aishah She-who-must-be-obeyed! Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Jaisalmer Posts: 7,629	I think you could cut out Bikaner, and do your safari in Jaisalmer - there are certainly many non-touristic ways to do it and not go along the usual beaten track. Rather than hiring a car - go on the overnight Delhi - Jaisalmer train. If you want a car for the rest of your journey, I suggest you hire it from Jodhpur. Another idea might be for you to go Udaipur - Basi Fort or Castle Bijaipur - then onto Bundi and skip Kota. __________________ "Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards."

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Oct 4th, 2009, 09:26	#3
dfoldena Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Chicago, USA Posts: 4	Is there any part of the current itinerary that we could eliminate. We aren't wed to any of these locations. My impression is that cutting out the Bikaner and Jaisalmer visits would free up some much needed time, but the forums here seem to rave about Jaisalmer. Thanks for your reply. If anyone else has anything to offer, please let me know. Thanks, D

Oct 4th, 2009, 10:13	#5
Hal . . . _ _ _ . . . Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Toronto Posts: 2,303	You'll be lucky to get Rs 5/km. I usually hear a minimum of 7 or 8 and westerners might have a hard time negotiating even that. I agree that you should take the train to where you want to explore and then hire cars from there. The other advantage of taking some trains is you can travel at night. I'd start looking at hotels. If you leave it up to your driver you might be disappointed. It's good to have an idea of what's available at what price. Overall, I'd go for less stops with more time at each. Half a day of travel and half a day of site-seeing isn't really a good way to see India. You'll be exhausted.

Oct 4th, 2009, 16:48	#6
Aishah She-who-must-be-obeyed! Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Jaisalmer Posts: 7,629	5.5rupees per km is the lowest in recent days that I have come across, and this is for a Tata Indica. They can even go for 6.5r per km. 7 - 8 rupees are mostly for larger cars e.g. Toyota Innova, Chevrolet Tavera. So I agree with Hal, you would be lucky if you managed the 5 rupee per km price.

Oct 5th, 2009, 00:01	#7
dfoldena Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Chicago, USA Posts: 4	Aishah - You are absolutely right. We now plan to take trains from Delhi to Jaisalmer and from Jaisalmer to Jodphur. For the car and driver, if we were to rent in Jodphur and travel to Udaipur (b/c there is no direct train), would you suggest keeping the car all the way to Jaipur, or just going with busses/trains after leaving Bundi? Also, the original question still stands, is it better to head east, or west upon arrival? Thanks everyone.

Oct 5th, 2009, 09:53	#9
Aishah She-who-must-be-obeyed! Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Jaisalmer Posts: 7,629	It would certainly be more comfortable to have the car to Jaipur, and you might use it to go to Amber Fort and outlying sights there on your first day. I don't think there will be much difference in cost, because you have to pay for the car's return to Jodhpur, and it is not much difference in mileage for it to go onto Jaipur then to Jodhpur, or return to Jodhpur from Bundi. You could discuss this when you hire your car in Jodhpur - then make a decision.

Oct 5th, 2009, 10:05	#10
Hal . . . _ _ _ . . . Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Toronto Posts: 2,303	If you are worried about being overwhelmed on arrival, it may be best to head west. Varanasi is fairly intense from what I hear.

Oct 5th, 2009, 11:34	#11
dfoldena Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Chicago, USA Posts: 4	Thanks everyone. I think we will head out west after arriving. If you had an extra day to spend in Jaisalmer or Jodhpur, which would it be? The Delhi-Jaisalmer train arrives at 1100 in Jaisalmer, and we plan to catch a camel out to the desert at 1500. The camel is due back into Jaisalmer the next day at 1200. The Jaisalmer to Jodhpur train leaves that night at 2315. The way we have it now, we would just spend the rest of the day (1200 to 2315) in Jaisalmer before leaving. We are thinking of spending another day in Jaisalmer. However, if we do this, we will only have one full day in Jodhpur. Otherwise, we could spend the extra day in Jodhpur. Unfortunately, if we spend an extra day in both, our itinerary would have us visiting the Taj Mahal on a Friday, which doesn't work. Thus, between Jaisalmer and Jodhpur, which deserves an extra day? Naturally, I expect all this planning to be fouled by any number of unforeseen circumstances, but it is nice to have an ideal. Thanks again for all your help.

Oct 5th, 2009, 15:21	#12
Aishah She-who-must-be-obeyed! Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Jaisalmer Posts: 7,629	dfoldena - don't bargain on the train arriving at 11.00 and your getting the camel at 3.00 p.m.! Today for instance the train is arriving around 1.15 p.m. Still you have all tee'd up then you can do what you want. And I'm sure your safari people will wait for you anyway. Naturally I am biased and will have to say, spend that day in Jaisalmer. Just wandering the back streets is pleasant here! Instead of rushing about from sight to sight you will have more time to enjoy them. Jodhpur can be seen easily in a day - the Fort, Mandore Gardens and Umaid Bhawan palace are really the main points I think.