To find out more about Kate’s India adventure, visit her in our Uckfield branch or call 01825 760488
I travelled to northern India with Travelsphere/Just You, an escorted touring company that has itineraries all around the world. Group sizes can vary from as little as 15 to a maximum of 45. They use local guides who are incredibly knowledgeable and enthusiastic about their country. The Just You brand is for solo travellers.
We departed from Heathrow where there was an airport rep to help us with any questions regarding checking in for our Virgin Atlantic direct flight to Delhi. Flying in economy was comfortable and the food was good, a curry to get us ready for India!
Delhi was hot and humid but a 45-minute transfer found us at the fabulous ITC Maurya Hotel. The city is not somewhere you would walk so the hotel was perfectly fine for seeing the sights.
We spent the day seeing the main sights:
Jama Masjid
Raj Ghat Gandhi’s final resting place it was his birthday on the day of our visiting 2nd October, this is a national holiday where no alcohol is served for 24 hours.
Gurdwara Bangla Sahib, one of the most important Sikh places of worship.
The UNESCO world heritage site of Qutb Minar built between 1199 and 1220 is in Delhi’s oldest fortified city.
A hairy rickshaw ride around part of the city allowed us to experience the excitement of the city traffic!
Finally we visited the Salaam Ballack Trust which helps get the children of Delhi off the streets. They offer city tours which are led by the children it has helped, providing them with food, shelter and an education.
We moved onto Agra by train, a morning service saw us depart at 8.10am and 2 hours later after a wonderful service which included a newspaper and small breakfast served at our seat we were in the city.
We were immediately taken to Agra Fort, not only a beautiful collection of buildings, this offered us the first glimpse of the Taj Mahal in the distance sitting majestically on the meandering river.
The afternoon found us at last going to see one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. It did not disappoint a truly awe-inspiring sight and such detail on the building which you do not realise from pictures. Seeing this as the sun was setting gave us a magical view.
A 5-hour drive and after a stop at a fantastic organic roadside restaurant, which uses all their own produce for lunch, saw us arrive in Ranthambore.
Game drives start early in the morning, the park is split into zones to spread the vehicles out and these are allocated when the guides arrive. You cannot choose your zone, nor does it determine how likely you are to tigers as they territorial so in all zones.
How lucky we were to see a tigress called Sultana within half an hour of entering the park. She was hungry and on the hunt for food, so we were able to track and keep for the whole of our morning session.
The afternoon although no tigers we were seen, we saw an abundance of wildlife, deer, egrets, kingfishers, antelope, crocodiles and then just as the sun was about to set a rarely seen nocturnal sloth bear came through the trees, scraping termite mounds for food. It was then a race to exit the park for our strict 6pm departure time, guides will be fined if they are not out of the park in time.
Another early start and we were off to our last stop, the pink city Jaipur. This city was beautiful, a cross section of the new and the old.
A tour of the Pink Palace, with stunning architecture and history it is beautiful and intricately decorated you cannot fail to be wowed. A lot of work is going to restore the buildings as well, which is evident with most we visited.
Lastly the Amber Fort, just outside the city and set high on a hill. Walking around you are transported back 100’s of years of how life was like in the Mughal empire.
Elephants are still used to transport tourists to the entrance, but ethically Travelsphere/ Just You will not use this method and instead we travelled by 4x4s.
My Top tips for India
You can get an Indian plug adaptor, but I found lots of hotels had English plug sockets or you could use a European plug adaptor which you are more likely to own.
Travel between October to May to avoid the very hot humid weather and monsoons.
Most hotels offer a selection of Indian and European dishes, not all curries are fiery hot. Dishes were labelled and clearly stated if vegetarian.
You can only get Indian Rupees upon arrival, ask for lower denomination notes so you have cash for tips.
Never accept the first price, haggling is expected, regardless of where you are shopping!