Kerala with stoppover

[romft123]

Looking at firming up our late Dec----2 month upcoming trip to India.

Flying into the south first we think. Farthest south seems to be TRV airport. But no direct so have a stoppover.....where did you stoppover? Is it worth breaking the journey down into say, a day or so in the Mid east. Bahrain/AD/Dub etc, then onwards.....

Thought a few days there then head up to maybe the beaches further north?

Backwaters boat trips. I know there are a few around Kochi, are they our best bet....a night or two maybe, before we head up to Goa by Train for a week maybe around Colva ish....

Then its maybe/sort off.....Mumbai....Udaipur.....Jodhpur.....Jasailmer.....Buses but mainly trains hopefully. Then somehow up to Amritsar to see the golden temple etc...is it worth the huge detour????....Train to Dehli....Agra.....Lucknow......Varanasi.......Then somehow up to near Darjeeling for the toy train, back down and into Kolkata and fly home.

2 months ish........Thoughts

[Elderly]

It’s seven years since I went to South India ( I’ve not been North ) so I don’t remember details but we flew into COK and did a 3 or 4 day backwater trip whilst in Kerela; there were just 4 of us, and the crew were very accommodating, and the food was excellent.
Instead of Goa, whilst down south we went to Tamil Nadu, and there were some spectacular places such as Madurai.

[Cupid-stunt]

There are internal flights that are inexpensive so getting to places should be possible without too much time wastage.
The golden triangle is great so you've hit the right spots.
Jophpur was brilliant when i went manamany moons ago. Got the overnight train to Delhi - and you can get to Amritsar from there if you want ot avoid a flight.

As for stopover, perhaps a couple of days in Abu Dhabi on the return?

[Shiv_P]

A lot of close by places to visit that you can do as well e.g. Maldives on a higher budget, or Sri Lanka.

[jhiker]

You may well need an agent ‘on the ground’ for train bookings. Both Cleartrip and IRCTC have made it very difficult to book trains from overseas recently.
Are you aware of ‘Indiamike’ - great source of information.
https://www.indiamike.com/

[romft123]

TY so far. I have read in several places to book the train journies early! Buses between places are perhaps easy on the day or maybe 2 days b4 the journey...ie Between Jodhpur and Jaisalmer and back.

Is Amritsar worth the huge detour just to really see the Golden temple and watch the Pakistanis and Indian border guards stomp around?

Maldives etc ....No. SLanka, No.

[Freakuk]

I was in Kerala in March, but on a cycling holiday.

We flew into Bangalore (Bangaluru now) and did a few tours/sightseeing before we were picked up for our tour.

Mysuru is worth a visit also, it has the 2nd most popular tourist attraction in India (the palace) after the Taj Mahal.

If in Kerala Fort Kochin is quite touristy, it's lovely and you can see the historic influences, we arrived by ferry which was an experience being on a bicycle.

Also, Varkala is worth a visit (we ended our tour here), quite a trendy beach town, not quite Goa a little bit low key but plenty of shops/bars/restaurants etc.

[romft123]

Freakuk said:

I was in Kerala in March, but on a cycling holiday.

We flew into Bangalore (Bangaluru now) and did a few tours/sightseeing before we were picked up for our tour.

Mysuru is worth a visit also, it has the 2nd most popular tourist attraction in India (the palace) after the Taj Mahal.

If in Kerala Fort Kochin is quite touristy, it's lovely and you can see the historic influences, we arrived by ferry which was an experience being on a bicycle.

Also, Varkala is worth a visit (we ended our tour here), quite a trendy beach town, not quite Goa a little bit low key but plenty of shops/bars/restaurants etc.

heard about Varkala. Hence whu we thought flying into the south south would be better than Kochi. Been to Goa twice, 1 south Colva , 2nd Nth Calangute but that was 1990!