Ladyromford and I are planning on visiting India for our 10th anniversary in March and we thought we'd do the Golden Triangle (Delhi, Agra and Jaipur), so I thought I'd see if any of you well travelled types have been and have any tips:
Should we book an all in package or would you recommend any hotels, tours etc? Better to travel by car or rail between Delhi, Agra and Jaipur? How long to spend in each place?
That sort of thing. We're looking at about 10-14 days total.
Any help appreciated, cheers.
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Haggle, but not too much if you can afford it. You are always going to pay over the odds.
Rail travel is an experience in itself...I would always go by train...but I am a Charlton fan.
The only advice i can offer is don't buy any food from the small streetside vendors only eat at restaurant 's
Enjoy your trip
I never recommend all in packages but that's just me as I like to be independent. It depends on your comfort levels and experience with travelling. India is a very hectic and confusing country and it can be hard work and stressful especially outside the major tourist places. That's ok with more time but for only a couple of weeks and an anniversary holiday is it worth the extra hassle and stress to you?
Expect most people to try and rip you off constantly, especially rickshaw drivers, but don't let it get to you.
I found travelling by coach was quite good and well priced but make sure to check exactly where the drop off point is. Some companies say a town/city but in reality you're actually dropped of in a different area on the outskirts. Think Easy Jet and London Southend airport.
As Wheresmeticket said a train journey is a must. Seeing people closing up their houses/shops so the train can get by is a novel sight. But just remember that India is huge and the trains are old so what looks like a short journey on a map may be 16 hours. Check journey times thoroughly first. Also I could never really figure out the rules about purchasing tickets. Sometimes the better class tickets are only put on sale a day or two before the journey, other times they were available earlier. But don't just turn up at the station last minute and buy a ticket unless you want to end up in cattle class. Which I did and whilst it was fun being laughed at by the locals the novelty wore off after several hours of discomfort and heat. Would have been more bearable if I could have understood what the pretty Indian lady who decided to talk to me for most of the journey had been saying but hey ho.
Delhi has appalling air pollution so if you can think if somewhere else to go, go to the somewhere else instead. Goa, although it is very touristy, the far south and the far north, but I think you can't go to Kashmir, are all better bets than Delhi.
Trains are an experience, the roads and driving were terrible (this was 15 years ago)
Absolutely bonkers on the roads out there
Unless you have your heart set on Taj Mahal at sunrise, you can do Agra in a full day trip by train (or car) from Delhi. You'll have time to visit the mausoleum and Agra Fort.
Of course as you've got 10-14 days, you easily have time to stay overnight and sightsee at a more relaxed pace.
I work for a tour operator in London specialising in Asia holidays, so feel free to DM me if you've got any other questions. Can put you in touch with one of my colleagues who creates tailor made India trips.
On Indian roads might is right, except for cows. I still have a bad leg from being run off the road on a motorbike. A truck was coming towards me on a narrowish road, so I steered over towards the side but there still wasnt enough room. Hit the broken up gravel at the side at around 30mph and slid on my knee for a few yards. Rode back to the lodge I was staying at where they sloshed purple iodine on the grazes and cuts that ran all up my leg. I screamed.
(A cow regularly walked into a cafe I used to use and try to muscle into the cooking area...They flapped tea-towels at it til it gave up and left). Happy days.
Our trip was organised and I'm glad it was. We only stayed in top-line hotels and either had a car with driver or flew between cities.
It was a great trip but Mrs cafcfan ended up with food posioning and on a drip in our hotel room. I guess this sort of thing is inevitable when you have frogs living happily in hotel swimming pools.
Inevitably, (it always happens to me) most of the sites including the Taj Mahal came with the added bonus of scaffolding, making photography especially difficult. But it does mean I have a nice little piece of original Taj Mahal marble in my telephone table!
When I went there were import restrictions in place. So you couldn't get a coca-cola, you had to have a local campa-cola instead. The local version of seven-up was called thro-up. Totally accurate branding that.
I still can't get over the sight of people just squatting down and having a dump by the side of the road (but eventually I managed to persuade Mrs cafcfan to stop doing that).
Great trip but hard work.
Do not eat salad even in posh hotels. Veggie street food is a must as long as it has a long queue of locals. Don't buy booze from cheap places it is little more than wood alcohol.