Dec 06 2008

Booking A Car + Driver

The idea of booking a taxi (car and a driver) for a few days or weeks seem quite strange to someone in England. Once when I missed the last bus home from the local town it cost 20 pounds to travel the six miles, so how much would hiring a driver for a couple of weeks cost?

With the help of Indiamike.com I gathered together a list of reputable companies and eventually decided which ones to contact.

Aided by information provided by Namaste India Tours, I'd done my homework first, knew my exact route, when/where I'd arrive, what sort of hotels I preferred and what sort of vehicle was most suitable.

So a couple of emails to a few companies and I had quotes for the cost of the travel. All of the operators offer a travel+hotels option where you say which class of hotel you prefer and they come up with a list of suggestions. Some of them don't define the actual hotel you'll be in and that was fine with us, after all we've got a driver to take us wherever we want, so as long as the hotel is okay, we'll be fine.

The best thing about this service (from any of the operators we got quotes from) is that you pay absolutely nothing up-front, you just have to pay before the trip actually commences. Some don't even worry about this, you pay part way through your tour.

For those cynics out there, the cost of the trip includes wages, food and accomodation for the driver, he doesn't sleep in the car!

And the cost of all this:

  • 10 nights hotel, 10 days touring around including petrol/parking/taxes/driver: about £800
  • That's for all of us, not one of us. The hotels all have air-con, some have pools, some don't.

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Nov 11 2008

My Best Friend Mike Helps Plan the Plan

I was lucky enough to never have needed an imaginary friend when I was growing up but things have changed.

On most days I spend hours a day with 'Mike', have done since September and plan to for some time yet. We converse, he helps me, I help him, he shows me his photos and he rarely can't answer my questions about trains, forts, towns, malaria and wildlife.

Who is 'Mike'? Well actually it's a website - hey I'm a bit geeky, you didn't expect it to be a person did you? - named www.indiamike.com. Started by a guy called - go on have a guess - Mike, earlier this decade, it is now the hub for over 40,000 members, their questions/answers, their photos and their journals.

If you're thinking of going to India or you've already been, you'll enjoy IndiaMike and if you're looking for me there, I'm called OceanTragic...it's a long story.

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Nov 06 2008

Step 3: How Do You Want To Travel Around?

In true Kev fashion, step 3 started at the same time as step 2, which of course was well before step 1. But hey, that's the first rule of project management isn't it: define your deadline and work backwards.

So just how do you travel around in India? I think you can break this down to three types of people:

  1. The Trophy Hunter. Typically really want to go somewhere to add it to their list and have photos of it. Travel in planes, want to see the sights but don't want to integrate with the locals whatsoever. Absolutely can't stay anywhere without a swimming pool or a Michelin chef. Trains are no problem as long as there's silver service and a pianist.
  2. The Integrators: Typically want to 'feel' the place they're going to. Eat where the locals eat, travel like the locals and perhaps try to speak like the locals.
  3. Me (and many others): Typically wanting to be an Integrator but a little scared about what might happen and certainly without the money of the Trophy Hunter.

For me, planes are out unless absolutely necessary and as it works out, for this trip, they're not.

I'm prepared to travel on a train, but first class, second class or third class, but I'm not ready for sleeper class yet. For more information see: http://www.seat61.com/India.htm.

Trains are probably the cheapest way to get around in India but it's no good if the train times don't suit or there's no station near where you're going.

How about taxis? Hiring a taxi from place to place is a good idea but you've always got to pay the driver for a round-trip as he's got to get back home. But the cost of labour is cheap in India so it is an ideal place for hiring a car+driver for whatever time.

The decision was made: we'll travel by car+driver to start with and once we're a bit more confident we'll take the train. Out of the air we plucked the time when we'd switch to trains as 12 days in, halfway through our trip.

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Nov 01 2008

Step 2: Where Do You Want To Go?

If truth be told, step 2 started way before step 1. If  it didn't how would you ever know where to fly to? When I mean way before, step 2 probably started 12 months before the trip start date, step 1 was some six months later.

Picking a region of India is difficult but for first time travellers it oftens falls to either Goa, Kerala or Rajasthan. I certainly don't class myself as a traveller and I've been to all three first-timer options but that was back in 1996 and 1997 and now...I'll be travelling with kids in tow.

Although I'd seen Jaipur, Agra and Delhi before - and Jane had done Udaipur, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer in 1989 - we decided that Rajasthan would be the destination. We worked out that 25 days was the most that a family with a part-time teacher could get away for at Easter time and we set about deciding which places to see.

The list of places is shown on the Where In The World page and it leaves us with only one regret: Jaisalmer isn't on the list. Unfortunately there's only so much time available and although we could have easily fitted in Jaisalmer we would have had to skimp on other places and travel further. With the kids we decided that we'd keep the travelling down to an acceptable number of hours (4 or 5) a day.

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Oct 01 2008

Step 1: Booking the flights

Once I know roughly where I want to go the first step when planning a trip is generally to book the flight.

We decided on going to Rajasthan, therefore it made sense to fly into and out of Delhi.

After looking at the prices of flights in July 2008 for March 2009, it seemed the cheapest and best option was to fly Finnair from Heathrow to Delhi via Helsinki. Cheap, yes, but 14 hours with a delay in between. The direct routes were much more expensive although only took 8/9 hours.

Once we returned from 2008's holiday it was time to look at booking the flights. Luckily both Virgin and British Airways had a sale on, 25% off, bringing their price down to a hundred pounds more than Finnair. The timing of flights on British Airways didn't really suit us, whereas Virgin fly out at 10pm and return at 5pm effectively meaning one extra day in India for the same price and time off work/school. 

 

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