We're travelling independently which has enabled us to select our own pace and spend at least two nights at most destinations to avoid some of the stresses associated with overly busy schedules. We're visiting parts of India we've not had the chance to explore before and doing it at quite a leisurely pace (or that's the plan anyway).
David isn't an early morning person and we've taken this into account when planning our journeys. We don't enjoy staying in glossy 5* Business hotels and always try to find alternative accommodation - previously in India we've stayed in a luxury Treehouse, homestays on coffee/tea plantations, thatched bungalows and rice barges to name a few. I spent a lot of time researching accommodation this time so hope the rooms live up to expectations!
NORTH (RAJASTHAN) 5 - 17 JANUARY
We're flying to Bombay (Mumbai) on an overnight flight arriving on Saturday 6 January at 1115 hours and then taking an internal flight to Udaipur, where we'll spend two nights
From Udaipur we travel to Pali, Rajasthan where we'll stay in a 300 year old Heritage Palace (Chanoud Garh) which has been in the same family for 25 generations. Its quite rural which suits us perfectly and we're looking forward to exploring the local village. We'll stay here for 3 nights after which we should have properly recharged our batteries I think
From Chanoud Garh we will visit Bera Safari Lodge. Bera is known as the Leopards & Shepherds region. This is a description I recently read: Bera is a small town with a considerable number of leopards but very few tourists. Most of the residents of the village are Rabaries (shepherds) and genuine culture flourishes here and so does the environment. I'm hoping that we'll get some good photo opportunities as we are spending 3 nights here.
Jodhpur is our next port of call and we're staying at a Heritage Guest house which has a rooftop terrace affording fabulous views of the town - our main reason for selecting this accommodation. Its centrally located so we're looking forward to exploring Jodhpur on foot. We have 3 nights booked here.
This is a basic guide to where we're going and how many nights we're spending at each location.
SOUTH 17 - 27 JANUARY
On Weds 17th January we will leave the North to fly South. Its going to mean a day of travelling/hanging around airports but hey ho! We fly from Jodhpur to Mumbai, have a 4 hour stop over then get a flight to Cochin where we will stay overnight.
Whilst in the South, we'll be looked after by Joshy who is a lovely driver we met on an organised tour a couple of years ago and booked to drive us again on our last visit in 2017. He's very happy to work privately for us which is great as he knows what sort of things we like to see/do and he's happy to stop for Chai breaks or photo opportunities at the drop of a hat. He's from Cochin, speaks excellent English and is very knowledgeable about life and culture in India.
We'll spend 9 nights in the South and during that time will visit Madurai, Chettinad, Tanjore, Pondicherry and Chidambaram which are all in Tamil Nadu state.
We then travel to Chennai (formerly Madras) the capital of Tamil Nadu where we will have a couple of days to explore the town before flying back to the UK on 27 January.
Phew!!
PS: I hope you will follow our journey and comment on the Blog Posts. To avoid Spam posts I've set the Comments to appear after approval.
As we won't always have access to the internet don't worry if you post comments and they don't appear immediately, I'll approve them whenever I'm online but that may mean delays of hours (or days) sometimes.
Suex
David isn't an early morning person and we've taken this into account when planning our journeys. We don't enjoy staying in glossy 5* Business hotels and always try to find alternative accommodation - previously in India we've stayed in a luxury Treehouse, homestays on coffee/tea plantations, thatched bungalows and rice barges to name a few. I spent a lot of time researching accommodation this time so hope the rooms live up to expectations!
NORTH (RAJASTHAN) 5 - 17 JANUARY
We're flying to Bombay (Mumbai) on an overnight flight arriving on Saturday 6 January at 1115 hours and then taking an internal flight to Udaipur, where we'll spend two nights
From Udaipur we travel to Pali, Rajasthan where we'll stay in a 300 year old Heritage Palace (Chanoud Garh) which has been in the same family for 25 generations. Its quite rural which suits us perfectly and we're looking forward to exploring the local village. We'll stay here for 3 nights after which we should have properly recharged our batteries I think
From Chanoud Garh we will visit Bera Safari Lodge. Bera is known as the Leopards & Shepherds region. This is a description I recently read: Bera is a small town with a considerable number of leopards but very few tourists. Most of the residents of the village are Rabaries (shepherds) and genuine culture flourishes here and so does the environment. I'm hoping that we'll get some good photo opportunities as we are spending 3 nights here.
Jodhpur is our next port of call and we're staying at a Heritage Guest house which has a rooftop terrace affording fabulous views of the town - our main reason for selecting this accommodation. Its centrally located so we're looking forward to exploring Jodhpur on foot. We have 3 nights booked here.
This is a basic guide to where we're going and how many nights we're spending at each location.
SOUTH 17 - 27 JANUARY
On Weds 17th January we will leave the North to fly South. Its going to mean a day of travelling/hanging around airports but hey ho! We fly from Jodhpur to Mumbai, have a 4 hour stop over then get a flight to Cochin where we will stay overnight.
Whilst in the South, we'll be looked after by Joshy who is a lovely driver we met on an organised tour a couple of years ago and booked to drive us again on our last visit in 2017. He's very happy to work privately for us which is great as he knows what sort of things we like to see/do and he's happy to stop for Chai breaks or photo opportunities at the drop of a hat. He's from Cochin, speaks excellent English and is very knowledgeable about life and culture in India.
We'll spend 9 nights in the South and during that time will visit Madurai, Chettinad, Tanjore, Pondicherry and Chidambaram which are all in Tamil Nadu state.
We then travel to Chennai (formerly Madras) the capital of Tamil Nadu where we will have a couple of days to explore the town before flying back to the UK on 27 January.
Phew!!
PS: I hope you will follow our journey and comment on the Blog Posts. To avoid Spam posts I've set the Comments to appear after approval.
As we won't always have access to the internet don't worry if you post comments and they don't appear immediately, I'll approve them whenever I'm online but that may mean delays of hours (or days) sometimes.
Suex
Sounds like a wonderful trip!!! --have safe, healthy and adventurous days inIndia :)
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