India Travel Guide: How to Plan a First Trip

Almost every account of a first trip to India describes the same arc. A difficult first forty-eight hours. A moment somewhere around day four when the noise stops registering as noise. And then, quite suddenly, a country that will not let you be a passive observer of it.

The difficulty is real and worth naming rather than romanticising. India is loud, crowded, hot for much of the year, and relentlessly interactive in a way that Europe and East Asia are not. Nobody will leave you alone to look at things. This is exhausting for the first few days and it is also, once you stop resisting it, the reason people go back.

What is less often said is how much of that first-week difficulty is self-inflicted. It comes from itineraries built as though India were a country rather than a subcontinent — Delhi to Jaipur to Varanasi to Kerala to Goa in fourteen days, four overnight journeys, a different climate every third morning. That trip is hard in a way that has nothing to do with India and everything to do with the plan.

This guide is about making the decisions that prevent that: how long you need, which single region to choose, what the paperwork actually requires, and what things cost.

The short version

Entry and paperwork

Most visitors now apply through India's e-Tourist Visa system rather than at a consulate. It is straightforward if you attend to a few specifics that catch people out.

• Three durations: 30 days, one year, and five years. The one-year and five-year versions allow multiple entries with a maximum stay of 180 days in a calendar year.
• Fees vary by nationality. The 30-day visa is commonly around US $10 to $25, with the one-year at $40 and the five-year at $80 — but several countries pay reciprocal rates that are considerably higher. The exact figure appears in the portal before payment. A bank transaction charge is added on top, and fees are non-refundable whether or not the visa is granted.
• Apply between 4 and 120 days ahead, depending on the visa type. Processing is commonly around three working days, but do not plan on it.
• Your passport needs six months' validity from arrival and at least two blank pages.
• The e-Visa is valid only at designated airports and seaports — around 30 airports and a handful of ports. You cannot enter overland on an e-Visa. If you are crossing from Nepal by road, you need a conventional paper visa.
• The e-Visa is non-extendable and non-convertible. Plan your dates accordingly.
• There is also an e-Arrival Card to complete online shortly before you fly. It is free and separate from the visa.

Pakistani passport holders and travellers of Pakistani origin are not eligible for the e-Visa and must apply for a conventional visa through an Indian Mission.

When to go

India spans from the Himalaya to the tropics, and the single national answer — October to March — hides genuine regional variation.

Two things follow. The Himalaya and the plains are almost exactly out of phase — Ladakh is only accessible in the months when Rajasthan is unbearable. And the monsoon is not a wall: it arrives in bands, it is dramatic and often beautiful, and it halves both crowds and prices in the south. Travelling Kerala in August is a legitimate choice, not a mistake.

Choose one region

This is the decision that determines the trip. India is roughly the size of the European Union and no more homogeneous. Four regions suit a first visit, and each supports two to three weeks on its own.

The Golden Triangle and Rajasthan — Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, then Jodhpur, Udaipur and Jaisalmer. Forts, palaces, desert, the densest concentration of famous sights in the country, and the best rail and road infrastructure. Also the most touristed, with the hard-sell that comes with it. The default first trip, deservedly.

Kerala and the south-west — backwaters, tea hills, Kochi, temple towns and a coastline. Considerably gentler than the north: quieter, greener, more literate, easier to travel independently. The right choice for anyone unsure about the intensity.

Himalayan India — Ladakh, Himachal, Uttarakhand or Sikkim. High, cold, Buddhist in parts, and slower. Summer only. A completely different country from the plains.

Tamil Nadu and the deep south — the great living temple complexes at Madurai, Thanjavur and Chidambaram, plus Pondicherry and the Coromandel coast. The least visited of the four by international travellers, and the strongest for architecture.

Combining two of these means several hours of flying or a very long train, and it is worth it only on a three-week-plus trip.

Getting around

Trains are the right answer for most journeys under twelve hours and a genuine experience in their own right. The classes confuse newcomers, so briefly: AC 2-tier is the sweet spot for foreign travellers — curtained berths, bedding provided, air conditioning. AC 3-tier is the same with an extra bunk and less space. Sleeper class is non-air-conditioned, very cheap, and fine in winter. Chair car works for daytime runs.

Book through the official IRCTC system, and book early: popular routes sell out weeks ahead, and the quota system means that "sold out" is not always final. A Tatkal quota opens one day before departure, and a small foreign tourist quota exists on many trains and is released through designated booking offices.

Domestic flights are inexpensive and frequent, and for Delhi to Kochi or Kolkata to Leh they are the only sane option. Buses fill the gaps where trains do not go, particularly in the hills. Ride-hailing apps work well in cities and remove the entire rickshaw negotiation from your day.

What it costs

India remains one of the least expensive countries in the world to travel well in, and the range between the bottom and the top is enormous.

The line to watch is monument entry. India operates a two-tier ticketing system, and the foreign-visitor rate at major sites is often ten to twenty times the Indian rate. It is entirely legal and entirely normal, and at a dozen sites across a three-week trip it becomes a real number.

Eating, and the thing everyone asks about

Indian food is not one cuisine and the regional differences are larger than those between Italy and Sweden. Punjabi cooking is wheat-based, dairy-rich and tandoor-heavy. Bengali food is fish, mustard and a distinct sweet tradition. South Indian cooking is rice, coconut, tamarind and fermentation. Gujarati is vegetarian and slightly sweet. The idea of ordering "a curry" dissolves within a week.

On stomach trouble, which is the question every first-timer asks: it is common, it is usually mild, and it is largely manageable.

• Drink bottled or filtered water only, and check that seals are intact. Refill from filtered dispensers where hotels provide them.
• Eat where there is turnover. A busy street stall cooking to order is safer than a quiet restaurant reheating a buffet.
• Hot food is safer than cold, cooked safer than raw, and peel-it-yourself fruit is always fine.
• Be cautious with ice, salads and cut fruit in the first week while your system adjusts.
• Vegetarian food is everywhere and excellent — India has the largest vegetarian culinary tradition on earth, and it is not a compromise.

Culture and etiquette

• Dress modestly, especially outside major cities and at religious sites. Shoulders and knees covered for everyone. Women may want a scarf for temples and rural travel.
• Remove shoes at temples, mosques, gurdwaras and often in homes and shops. Socks are usually acceptable; check.
• Use your right hand for eating, giving and receiving. The left is considered unclean.
• Public affection between couples is uncommon and attracts attention.
• Photograph people only with permission, and expect to be photographed yourself — being asked for a selfie by a family is friendly, not a scam.
• Bargaining is normal in markets and with rickshaws, and abnormal in shops with fixed prices. It should be good-humoured rather than adversarial.

Safety, proportionately

India is not dangerous in the way that headlines suggest, and it is also a country where a degree of active management makes the trip much better.

The realistic risks are road traffic, which is by a wide margin the most likely thing to hurt a visitor, heat between April and June, and scams rather than violent crime. Common ones: the rickshaw driver whose meter is broken, the "your hotel has closed" diversion to a commission-paying alternative, the unsolicited guide at a monument, and the gem or carpet export scheme. All are financial rather than physical, and all are avoidable by pre-booking transport, confirming your accommodation directly, and being comfortable saying no repeatedly.

Women travelling in India should read a more detailed treatment than a paragraph can offer, and our forthcoming India safety guide covers it properly. In summary: harassment ranges from persistent staring to occasional groping in crowds, most travellers have an uneventful trip, and the measures that help are consistent — conservative dress, pre-booked airport transfers, avoiding arriving after dark, women-only train compartments and metro carriages where they exist, and being willing to make a scene, which works.

Where to stay

The heritage haveli is India's distinctive accommodation and worth prioritising over a chain hotel of the same price. Converted merchant houses and minor palaces, mostly in Rajasthan, they are frequently family-run, invariably better looking than anything modern, and often no more expensive.

Homestays in Kerala and the Himalayan states are the other category that changes a trip. Meals are usually included and cooked by the household, which is how most travellers end up eating the best food of the trip.

UNESCO sites, and which are worth the detour

India has more than forty inscribed World Heritage properties — among the highest counts of any country — and they are wildly uneven in how much they reward a visit.

Hampi is the one most first trips miss and should not. A day's travel from Bangalore or Goa, it is a landscape of granite boulders scattered with the ruins of a fifteenth-century imperial capital, and it is possible to spend three days there without seeing a coach party.

Photography

India is generous to photographers and demanding about manners.

The light is best in the first ninety minutes and last hour, which in the winter months is a civilised 7am rather than a punishing one. Cities are at their most photogenic during those windows — Varanasi's ghats at dawn, Jodhpur's blue city from Mehrangarh's ramparts in late afternoon, Jaisalmer's fort walls at sunset.

The rules that matter: ask before photographing people, and accept a refusal without negotiating. Many temples prohibit photography inside the sanctum, and this is enforced. Photographing at ghats during cremations is prohibited and deeply offensive. And expect to be photographed yourself constantly — a family asking for a photograph with you is friendly and worth ten seconds.

Travelling with children, solo, and with limited mobility

With children, India is more manageable than its reputation but demands a shorter list. Halve the monuments, add a wildlife park or a train journey as an event in itself, and use hotels with pools as recovery points. Food is the main constraint: plain rice, dosa, curd and paratha are universally available and universally safe. Nappy-changing facilities are rare; bring what you need.

Solo, India is straightforward for men and requires more planning for women. Solo travellers of either gender find company easily — India is an intensely social country and being alone is treated as a problem to be solved on your behalf. Our first solo trip guide covers the general case.

With limited mobility, India is difficult and honestly so. Pavements are inconsistent or absent, historic sites involve steps almost without exception, and step-free public transport is rare outside the Delhi metro. The practical approach is a private car with a driver for the whole trip — which is affordable in India in a way it is not elsewhere — plus accepting that several major sites will be partly inaccessible. Newer museums and the Delhi metro are markedly better.

Packing

Suggested route: three weeks in the north

1. Days 1–3 — Delhi. Old Delhi, Humayun's Tomb, Lodhi Gardens. Adjust before travelling.
2. Days 4–5 — Agra. The Taj Mahal at dawn, Agra Fort, and Fatehpur Sikri on the way out.
3. Days 6–8 — Jaipur. Amber Fort early, the old city on foot, Jantar Mantar.
4. Days 9–11 — Jodhpur. Mehrangarh, which is arguably the finest fort in India, and the blue city below it.
5. Days 12–14 — Jaisalmer. The living fort and a night in the desert.
6. Days 15–18 — Udaipur. Lakes, palaces and the slowest pace of the trip.
7. Days 19–21 — Back to Delhi. Or fly onward to Kerala if you have added a week.

Official resources

• Indian e-Visa portal — the only official application site.
• Incredible India — the Ministry of Tourism's official information service.
• IRCTC — official rail booking and timetables.
• Archaeological Survey of India — ticketing and opening hours at protected monuments.
• UNESCO World Heritage: India — the country's inscribed properties.

The thing worth knowing before you go

India will not proceed at the pace of your itinerary. Trains run late. A ten-kilometre transfer takes an hour. A shopkeeper wants to talk. A wedding procession closes the road. Travellers who treat these as failures spend three weeks frustrated; travellers who build slack into every day find that the interruptions are the trip.

Plan half of what you think you can manage. The other half will arrive without being scheduled.

Pick one region. Give it three weeks. Book the trains early and leave the afternoons empty.