India has been on my bucket list since forever, as a childhood family friend I had grew up here and I needed to see a puzzle piece that made him that amazing man that he was. And…it’s definitely a country that has left its imprint on me. We spent 3 weeks travelling from Delhi to Kochi, starting with a group tour around the Golden Triangle to ease ourselves in, then using sleeper trains to travel the rest of the way.
How would I rate India? Honestly, it’s not my favourite country I’ve been to – a solid 5 out of 10. BUT I have to clarify that I’m a highly sensitive person, I got sensory overwhelm very easily and I knew going into India that it would be a lot for me to deal with. It is the true testament of wishing to experience a different culture, and whilst at points it was difficult, I am so glad I went and I would urge everyone to visit India at some point if you can (and to get outside of the golden triangle region).
On this note as well, I travelled through India with my boyfriend and I still felt uncomfortable at times as a female. I am aware of cultural differences and gender norms being part of this, but it was my first true experience of being completely disregarded by most locals due to being a woman. Even if my name was on the hotel booking, or I handed the money over for something, the response or the change was always given to my partner, which got quite tedious at times. I salute all women who travel this country solo, and these were just my experiences and I don’t want this to discourage anyone from seeing the beauty of this country.
Before I get into the itinerary, I want to discuss the budget. Something to mention is that we found it difficult to find hostels in some places so be cautious that you may need to pay for private rooms at points along the journey.
If you need help keeping track of your pennies whilst travelling, we track our budget using the free version of TravelSpend which is so easy to use, and helps us make sure we aren’t overspending!
The budget:
For 21 days, excluding international flights, we spent around £752 (~£35.80 a day) which was inclusive of:
£150 on a 5-day golden triangle tour
£122 on trains, and a flight from Goa to Kochi as the trains were sold out
£115 on food
£97 on accommodation – a mix of hostels and hotels/homestays
£83 on activities – such as entrances to temples, palaces, a cooking class, tuktuk tours etc
£82 on a visa (~$98) and ATM fees
£100 on various other purchases (coffee, laundry, additional costs from the tour that I couldn’t be bothered to enter individually to my budget tracking app..etc)
Please note: for booking trains, we couldn’t get 12Go to work so had to use a local app that required an Indian number and Indian address. Our tour guide allowed us to use his address but you could potentially use a hotel address to get this to work. There is a small fee for international users when you sign up, about £1. Make sure you book train tickets a few weeks in advance as well as they can sell out.
Now diving into the itinerary, we arrived 1st October and the weather was hot the whole time with minimal rain so ideal. I’d definitely recommend avoiding the peak summer of India because I fear you will not survive. 😂
Days 1 to 5: Golden Triangle tour
We knew that India was going to be an overwhelming place for us, and we were initially going to do a group tour across India. However, we’d just spent a ton of money (😭) doing a group tour through Botswana and Namibia so it was in our best interests to save a bit of money.
We compromised on a 5 day tour around the golden triangle region of the country to help us ease into the culture, especially as the golden triangle is known to be the busiest region of the country.
This tour takes you from Delhi to Delhi, stopping in Agra and Jaipur along the way, showing you the main sights – Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, Humayan’s Tomb, Amber Fort, Jaipur City Palace, among many other places.
The last day of the tour takes you back to Delhi with no extra activities, but we decided to end the tour on Day 4 so that we could stay in Jaipur for another night before travelling further south. For our second night in Jaipur, we stayed at Pink Nest. Our guide was really friendly and helpful with sorting our ongoing travel, as we were really struggling to figure out how to book a train! 🥲
We stayed in some really nice hotels as well and had some great tour guides to learn the history of the many monuments we saw, but there is a strong tipping culture in India so here is what we gave as a recommendation if you complete the same tour:
₹500 to each daily tour guide (3 in total)
₹1500 to the driver who was with us from day 1 through to 5
Days 5 to 6: Bundi
One of our favourite stops in India, it was purely because of how amazing our accommodation was. We booked into Haveli Elephant Stables around 9pm and the family that runs this place were immediately welcoming, providing us tea and dinner, cooked spectularly.
The rooms are built into the old elephant stables linked to Bundi Fort Palace, which you can get an incredible view of at night with all the lights shining on it. ✨
We only stayed for one night, but the family made us want to stay for longer. They shared all the stories of previous travellers they had stay with them, allowed us to write a message in a book saved for all guests to leave a note, and the wife is a registered tour guide, and so she took us Around in the morning before our next train.
Days 6 to 9: Udaipur
Udaipur was one of the most beautiful places we visited in India and definitely isn’t to be missed, with incredible palaces to view and it’s variety of lakes you can sit and view over.
Our key highlights here were the City Palace (₹400), Ahar Museum and cenotaphs, as well as Jagdish temple. We also visited the Monsoon Palace (₹569 + ₹120 for transport up the hill to the palace) which gave a great view over the town and its surrounding mountains, but the palace itself didn’t blow me away – but maybe I was spoilt by all the great sites we’d already seen on our trip!
Whilst in Udaipur, we stayed at Turtle Hostel which was a perfect location for reaching the main highlights of the city but being a bit of a quiet area. The hostel was good and the breakfast there was delicious, although quite quiet so I’d not recommend this if you are a solo backpacker looking for a more social vibe.
Days 9 to 12: Mumbai
The first major city since Delhi, and wow what a load for the senses! 😂
Despite the feast that my ears and nose got from this city, I actually really enjoyed it here. It has some incredible parts of their history that you can go see, and for once it was actually nice to see some other tourists as we didn’t really see any others that rest of our trip.
Particular highlights are:
The Gateway of India
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (a museum and gallery – with some stunning works of art, and the grounds were just nice to stroll through and slow down for a second)
Kala Ghoda
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus
We also did a street food tour to build up our confidence that we wouldn’t get Delhi belly. 🤒 The guide was really friendly and encouraging for trying new food, but we’d recommend going with a very empty stomach as you eat sooo much!!
Now, in terms of accommodation, we had drama… we were originally meant to stay at Locomo Hostel – we saw great reviews, it was well-priced and all seemed well. Until we arrived. We arrived about 8am after a sleeper train, and the front door was locked…I’m tired, hungry and just want to drop my bag off so I can relax. When someone eventually answers the door in their pajamas after knocking for 10 minutes, still yawning as if they’d just woken up, they immediately turned us away saying they were closed and that we couldn’t even come inside the building. After some heated back and forth, it turns out the hostel had lost all power and water the night before and hadn’t communicated anything to us to say we couldn’t arrive. There was no discussion of getting us moved to another hostel, we had to fight to be let in the building just so we could find another place to stay. Once we were in, the staff member was nowhere to be found. It wasn’t until an hour later once we’d booked another place ourselves that we received a call from the hostel to check where we were going to stay.
Anyway, in our attempt to book elsewhere, we stayed at Bed and Breakfast Colaba and it definitely all worked out for the best. We were now staying in a better location, where the staff were amazing and so friendly and I would highly recommend this accommodation.
This definitely wasn’t an ideal start to Mumbai, but we figured it out in the end and enjoyed our time there.
Days 12 to 15: Goa
Goa was not like I expected. I’d heard great things about it, but on arrival I was fairly disappointed. Maybe we were in the wrong location, or maybe it just wasn’t for us as I’ve discovered we don’t tend to follow the crowd in how we like our holidays.
Because of this, I also won’t recommend our accommodation – Relax Holiday Home – because it just wasn’t good. The room was ok, the food was ok, but the staff were not very helpful and overall the place was very very quiet. However, if you are keen on getting out of the main tourist areas then you could stay here and it’s right next to the Madgaon Train Station.
The main places we went to view here were Colva Beach, which was quite nice with some cute restaurants along the beach stretch, a large but quiet market street leading to it. Within Madgaon we also went to the Municipal Gardens and Our Lady of Grace Church.
Maybe do some better research on where to stay in Goa than what we did. 😂
Days 15 to 19: Kochi
Our final stop, flying in from Goa as all the trains were booked, this was one of our favourite spots on this India trip.
There are a few things you can do here:
We did a tuktuk tour round the town to see the main highlights at once, and these are easy to find – you can just look on any corner and there is someone offering a tour. This cost us ₹200 each and covered all the essential sights in the area, from Mattencherry Palace to the outdoor Laundrette, and I think you could go to many more. They sell their tours as ₹100 an hour per person so you could see more and go further for a decent price. We saw the Chinese fishing nets which were quite cool to see along the coast.
Aside from this, we also did a backwaters tour for a full day excursion but you can also extend this for a multi-day tour along the waters. We really enjoyed this, as a relaxed outdoor excursion to appreciate the beauty of the area and witness the rural style of living that goes on here. The lunch was also delicious!
Whilst in Kochi, we stayed at TagUndNacht Homestay which was in an ideal location in Kochi, and the host was incredibly friendly. Providing us a great breakfast every morning, and staying up till late to let us check in.
The round up:
Overall, I enjoyed our time in India but it was definitely a lot to process and I learnt a lot of lessons about how to plan going somewhere new on this trip. Whilst it’s not one of my favourite countries, there is a lot to enjoy and learn here so I truly believe everyone should go once in their lifetime. If I returned to India, I would spend more time in the mountains in the North as well as visit Varanasi, a place I’ve heard about constantly since my first trip. I would also try to schedule a tiger safari, which was something I really wanted to do after spending 2 months doing safaris in Africa but it wasn’t meant to be on this trip.
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