All the trips to India from the travel agencies are too expensive? They only offer tours in Rajasthan for travel groups? I would rather not travel in a travel group? If that is the case, your only option is to pick a destination yourself and book all elements yourself. Here some of my ideas and suggestions how to do it.
Choosing a Place of Interest: Less is More
India is a huge country and you can really only move very slowly. The best thing is to pick a place you like and do everything you are interested in around that area. Traveling to too many different places is exhausting and quite often not even doable. One thing for sure: less is more. Choose one or two corners of the country, stay there and better come back some other time for further travelling elsewhere.
Booking: Leave Some Space, Even No Bookings at All Is Possible
We Germans like to make plans. I fact, we prefer to have everything planed and ready before we start for our holiday trip. But India is a good opportunity to be less rigid, less uptight and more easygoing. You can, at least partly travel with advance booking at all. It’s entirely normal to walk into any hotel, ask for a room and even let them show you the room first. You can then decide to stay or leave, that is fine for everyone. The only time this does not work is in very high (or peak) season, for example Goa around Christmas/New Year’s. Any other time, there is always vacancy; you always find a place to stay. I have found the best and cheapest hotels that way. I recommend only doing some booking when you arrive very early or very late, when you are too tired after arrival or when you really want to stay at a certain hotel.
Domestic Flights and Airports
You can book all domestic flights online, it’s very simple. Usually cost little money and are working quite alright (Spicejet, Indigo, Air Asia, Air India).
Airports in India are largely organizes like any other airport worldwide. They have restaurants, cafés and shopping. It’s all working but fine but there are some characteristics and special rules.
Online Booking: Makemytrip and Yatra
The big booking portals (booking.com, hrs.com) are of course always an option. But there are some Indian websites that are quite often cheaper and have more offers (makemytrip.com, yatra.com). I do all my booking on these two websites. I got some great discounts several times and can only say positive things about these two booking portals. Everything has always worked.
Driving a Car in India: Better Refrain From That
Driving yourself in India is for sure not a good idea. You quite simply cannot do it, it’s not possible. Traffic is too thick and to chaotic. Whoever likes to be independent can think about renting a driver and a car. Drivers are waiting at the airport for tourists to take them around for several days. It’s not quite cheap; you need to calculate around 120 Euro for 3 days. But it’s very convenient, less stressful because you don’t have to wait for the bus and the local driver can take you around, show you sights and landmarks. In the mountains of the North, I definitely recommend a driver; only locals can handle these kinds of streets.
Public Transportation: Rikschas and Busses
India is largely with no Subway or Underground Railroad system (cannot be compared to everything we have in Europe or the US). In some cities, a lot is happening (Pune, Delhi), in Delhi for example some construction work for a metro (an elevated railway) is done. Mumbai has trains for commuters from North to South. Yet, those are exceptions. Don’t expect to find local public transport.
Rickshaws are always an option for short distances. You should do that at least once while you are in India. The best thing is to fix a price in advance, try to find some agreement with the driver and you avoid trouble afterwards. Rickshaws in India are everywhere, sometime you even find a few bicycle rickshaws. But most are motorizes vehicles and drive around at least acceptable speed. Even though they make these loud engine roaring noises. In the night, the bus is safe. Single travelers should take the bus in the night.
Busses can be found everywhere and are very cheap. There are city busses but also cross-country busses. Busses have very different standards, the best ones have an Air Conditioning (“AC”), below that every kind of bus exists. In some cases, a bus can be very crowded, overly crowded. Sometimes people are standing in the door, on the bumper or sit on the roof. For long cross-country rides, there are Sleeper Busses that are quite convenient and not expensive at all.
Book Trains for Longer Distances in Advance
Trains go everywhere but are sometimes fully booked. Book your trains tickets in advance (see booking portal previous paragraph). Very long train rides (for example from Delhi to Mumbai in 20 hours, 1500 km) have never been my thing. I would prefer to fly. The smaller local trains are fun though. You can sit in the open door and look outside. That creates a feeling of freedom and liberty that you cannot have like that in Germany. But you still are not moving fast. The trains from Mumbai (North Mumbai to South Mumbai) are a commuter’s route and incredibly crowded. There are womens’ compartment and compartments for everyone.
Things You Will be Experiencing in India:
- It’s loud! All vehicles honk all the time. Indians are also rather loud. It’s not something to achieve to be quiet. Loud is joy of life, loud is good, loud is normal. I always need ear plugs for the night, to me the most important utensil in India.
- It’s dirty! Trash is everywhere, littering is common. No matter where you are, you just drop your litter and like that, dirt is everywhere.
- It’s hot! Anywhere off the mountains, India is hot. Indians go home on midday or stay in the shade. A long lunch break is common. But as compensation, everyone is awake early in the morning and late in the evening. Never underestimate how hot it is. That means, drink enough water, bring sun glasses and sun screen and walk slowly and patiently.
- Indians don’t wait in a line. They push and jostle past each other. Waiting patiently until it is your turn is uncommon and nobody does it. There are also separate lines and counters for ladies. At first, I thought that’s unnecessary. But that’s not the case. It’s very inconvenient to stand in a line tightly and squeezed in between several male Indians. Ladies lines are much better in that context.
If all of that sound too negative for you, it’s not. These are just some things you need to know. Reason to come to India can be found here.