Prearranged Tours or Arranging in India

Can anyone tell me if it would be worth our while to arrange day trips at our hotels in India (A/C car/driver, English speaking) rather than booking a full tour from home. We are planning on doing Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Jodphur and Udaipur. We were thinking of flying to Jodphur and Udaipur. Will it be cheaper if we book from our hotels in Delhi etc or from home. Also, how do we get from Agra to Jaipur? Train? Does anyone know the cost for the trains.

Prearranged Tours or Arranging in India

If you are definitely flying to Jodhpur and from Jodhpur to Udaipur, there%26#39;s not much point booking a full Rajasthan tour with car and driver.

Sounds to me like you%26#39;d be better off getting tuk tuks, taxis or hire cars from your hotel for the day when you%26#39;re in Jodhpur and Udaipur.

You can get from Agra to Jaipur by train, but if you want to visit Fatehpur Sikri, take a car.

Prearranged Tours or Arranging in India

hi ssz

first of all i wud suggest u arrange it here in india if cost is a concern. Secondly land in Delhi, do Delhi and fly directly to udaipur and while coming back do jodhpur-jaipur-agra in car. coz on ur last day u dont want to be in jodhpur or udaipur (u might miss ur international flight if something gets messed up)...instead if u r close to delhi like in agra u have 2-3 modes of traasnport to get back to delhi

cheers

This is helpful, thank you. What about flying? We were thinking of flying from Delhi to Agra, Agra to Jaipur etc. Will we miss much in between that we cannot easily drive to while in the major cities? It will save us time and the fares are very cheap.

Hi ssz

Flying routes like Delhi-Agra or Agra-Jaipur, i guess u won%26#39;t miss much. But being an ardent fan of Rajasthan myself, i won%26#39;t fly anywhere in rajasthan. Maybe if i were u, i wud do delhi fly directly to udaipur (as i said earlier), then a car ride to jodhpur, then again a car ride to jaipur(jodhpur to jaipur car ride cud be avoided if u r short on time but dont miss udaipur to jodhpur). From jaipur to agra and from agra to delhi u cud do flights, as thrs nothing much to see and the roads aren%26#39;t heavenly either(for the time being ;-)).

As for booking flights, the earlier the better. Which means don%26#39;t wait to get to India to book them, do it from home. While comparing prices, ask for a complete quote including all taxes etc, coz in the name of these taxes a lot of money is added to your so called cheap ticket.

Thank you vibrantholidays. Can you tell me how long the distance in a car would be between Jaipur to Jodhpur and Jodphur to Udaipur. We are planning on flying from Udaipur to Mumbai at the end of the Golden Triangle and Rajasthan. We are limited with time but want to see each of these places. Also, as mentioned above, is it easy to find a reputable driver who can take us around in each of these places for day tours?

Hi ssz

Jaipur to Jodhpur - 333 kms

Jodhpur to Udaipur - 266 kms

U may use this link to find distances:

www.mapsofindia.com/distance/index.html

As for finding drivers, if u are staying in good hotels with fairly good reputation then they will arrange nice drivers for u gladly (coz there own reputation is at stake)...

As for paying up, most cities have a standard fare structure for intra-city travel, its either:

1. 4 hrs (40 kms) @ Rs 400

2. 8 hrs (80 kms) @ Rs 800

Cheers

I agree with vibrant, it makes sense to do Delhi - Udaipur by flight and the rest of Rajasthan by road.

Agra - Delhi in my opinion is still best done by road, because the flight connections are few (only kingfisher, one flight a day), and you don%26#39;t save much time compared to driving. By the time you get to the airport, check in, fly, land, collect bags etc, and then get another taxi to the international airport, you begin to think it would have been easier to get into a car and do a point-to-point transfer. Besides I hate all those security screenings and nonsense.

Ah I just saw that you want to go to Mumbai. In that case, you fly Agra - Mumbai, with a brief stop in Delhi.

Actually - on second thoughts - I%26#39;d do it like this:

Delhi - Agra - road

Agra - Jaipur - road

Jaipur - Jodhpur - road

Jodhpur - Udaipur - road

Udaipur - Mumbai - flight

- Deepa