accommodation in Rajasthan

Hi, my friend and I both in our 50%26#39;s, and travelling with our daughters are planning to do our trip of a lifetime to Rajasthan in November.

Unfortuately we are on a limited budget and have taken quite a while to save for this trip.

we are hoping to arrange it ourselves, but would love some help with good, clean not very expensive accommodation please.

We plan on travelling on trains and buses.

We don%26#39;t mind backpackers that welcome the older travellers, or probably guest houses would be preferable.

We just want it to be clean, friendly and at a minimal rate for that kind of accom.

The places we are looking at are Delhi, Agra, Pushkar, maybe a tent if they are not too expensive, Udaipur, preferably with a view, and we are willing to pay a bit more to have a view. Jaipur and Jodphur, also Bikaneer.

We just do not want to stay in these posh hotels that all the tour operators keep throwing at us.

Hoping to hear some feed back. Many thanks, Beau

PS If anyone has any suggestion of getting to New Delhi From Australia, they would be much appreciated to. Cheers and happy travels

accommodation in Rajasthan

Dear Beau7... Better for you top search this site and recommendations already made. If you need specific advice, post to a specific forum, say Jaipur for advice on Jaipur hotel. Also specify the budget you are looking for. There are dorms for Rs 200 a night. You wouldnt be wanting to stay with your daughter in such places. TripAdvisor works best for -

- people who read existing posts through specific searches

- follow advice given by people who have a record of giving good advice

Happy browsing!!

accommodation in Rajasthan

Thankyou so much foryour good advice.

I was thinking afterwards, I should maybe write it in each towns forum. I shall do this, and I will start to read trip advisers advice on these things. Would yoiube able to tell me what a good INR price would be for a comfortable clean room, that is very basic, but clean. We really have no idea how many rupees it would be around about.

Thankyou again for your very quick reply. Kind Regards, Beau

india is a great place for budget travellers so you may not have too much of a problem if you plan carefully.

good clean rooms can be had for 400 to 600 rupees also in most of these rajasthan cities you mentioned.some places you may even get rooms for 300 rs but thats in the off season from april to september.

for tents you will have to take permission to pitch them. we do have some expensive tents accomodation in some cities in rajasthan and their rates vary from 1500n to 5000rs depending on the facility provided.

use the forums here, internet and sites like

www.hostelworld.com

www.travel-library.com/india/jaipur

to plan your trip and do prior bookings as you will be travelling in peak tourist season.

hapy travels

I would recommend you go with Rs 1000 to Rs 1500 per night. Youll get pretty good hotels in this budget, e.g. Arya Niwas in Jaipur - www.aryaniwas.com

Getting from Australia to New Delhi? Keep watching Jetstar. Every now and then they do something crazy, lke the Sydney-Kuala Lumpur flights they had a few months ago for $AUD34 each way (plus taxes, of course).One you%26#39;re out of Australia -- in Singapore or Kuala Lumpur -- you have lots of posibilities to get into India on the cheap, but maybe not directly to Delhi (most go to Chennai or Kochi). Air India Express and Jet Airways are two cheapies that go from Kuala Lumpur, but we have saved ourselves some money by organising our own overland transport from KL to Singapore and then flying to Bangalore with Tiger Airways. They also do Chennai for a few dollars more, and that would probably be the best for you, since from Chennai you can get to Delhi for around 500 to 1000 rupees with one of the many internal budget airlines which India has: GoAir, Spicejet, Air Deccan, Jetlite.... there%26#39;s a list, and links, at attitudetravel.com/lowcostairlines/asia/byco…

We grabbed cheap fares as they came up, and were left with a schedule that gives us a bit of mucking around.... nonetheless, we can get from Sydney to Bangalore and back for around $AUD625 plus whatever it costs by bus from KL to Singapore, and then on to Delhi by air for around $AUD80 (about half that if we took the train, but we%26#39;re tight for time). But you have to be prepared to do a bit of hunting on the internet, and that means also going not when you want to go but when the airline has the fares you want (we had to choose August-September -- not the best time, but, hopefully, not the worst -- to get those fares).

We last went to India in October-November 2004, and it was without a doubt the best holiday we ever had in our lives. While we saw much of the sub-continent, from Leh in the north to Bangalore in the south-east, from Jaisalmer in the west to Kochi in the south-west, we thought that Rajasthan was easily the most exciting part of India, and I applaud your decision to choose it for your first trip. You certainly don%26#39;t need a tour operator to book your hotels for you; we did everything ourselves, but, of course, we had a lot of help: from the good people on Tripadvisor and Lonely Planet Thorntree, and especially from the people at www.indiamike.com. Don%26#39;t do anything without familiarising yourself with that site. It will absorb you for months, but you will learn everything you need to know about where to stay, how to get there, and what to see.

It was with their help that we found the Hotel Sheela at Agra. It%26#39;s fifty metres from the entrance gate/ticket booth to the Taj Mahal, so you can get up at 5:20 in the morning, shower, and walk out the gate and there you are, at 5:45, first in line. The Taj opens at 6 a.m. (beware! closed Fridays!) and you will be in there when the sun comes up, which is a GREAT way to see the Taj. When you come out, at 8 a.m., you will be aghast at the queues at the ticket office, and as you return to the Sheela for breakfast (knowing that many of the visitors to the Taj for that day are still at their hotel waiting for the shuttle bus to begin their day), you will bless them for building exactly where they did. And, what%26#39;s more, it%26#39;s a budget establishment... back then a double room with private bath (can%26#39;t remember if it was air-con) cost us 450 rupees.

We also found the Haveli Guest House at Jodhpur. This one is so good that there are now several copycat guest houses there with the same name, so when you find their site on the internet, check the photograph so you know you%26#39;re being delivered to the right place. The Haveli is in the old town, opposite a well, and it has an amazing view from the front windows of the great fort.

WE also found the wonderful Shahi Palace Hotel at Jaisalmer. This was our favourite place in five weeks in India... the town AND the guest house. I note that you haven%26#39;t listed Jaisalmer as part of your preferred cities, but if you read some of the reports on indiamike, you may feel inclined to change your mind. When we go back, this year, we land in Bangalore, which is a long way from Jaisalmer... but we have already made up our minds that whatever else happens, we MUST get back to Jaisalmer and we MUST, again, stay with Dev and Bapu at the Shahi Palace. And we MUST take another one of Setan%26#39;s camel safaris.

I can%26#39;t help you with budget accommodation in Jaipur.... we found, from Tripadvisor, a terrific place which just happened, at that time, to be vastly underpriced on its own website, and we ended up getting a suite for 800 rupees... the bathroom alone was bigger than some of the bedrooms we stayed in. However, shortly after our visit, this hotel got wise and more than doubled its price. So there%26#39;s no point in even telling you its name. We won%26#39;t be staying there this time... we firmly believe that travel money is best spent on sightseeing, not lazing around a pool.

Udaipur is full of interesting places to stay, and we wanted a place near the palace. Well, when we picked the Khumba (or Kumbha, I think) Palace Guest House (which is run by a Dutch woman and her Indian husband... their meals are an amazing blend of traditional Indian and northern European) we certainly got our wish... their back wall is actually the wall of the palace! Of course, that means there%26#39;s no view of the palace (all you see are the old stones, but you can lean against them in the Kumbha Palace%26#39;s garden, if you want); the hotel itself faces the other way. It%26#39;s a great budget place to stay, however.

Can%26#39;t tell you anything about accommodation in Bikaner, as we missed it last time (we plan ro catch up on it this year). If you stay at Shahi Palace in Jaisalmer, however, I would imagine they would be able to recommend a place at Bikaner... and they may even be able to negotiate some good rates on your behalf. They are the kind of people who will do this for you... they are not just in it for the money. Lovely people.... but, then, that%26#39;s true of so many of the people we met in Rajasthan, and Jaisalmer seemed to have the pick of the crop.

You haven%26#39;t listed Varanasi or Bundi. Of course, Varanasi is a bit of a hike from Rajasthan, but it%26#39;s an amazing place and should not be missed. And Bundi is so marvellous that, on this coming trip (which I am planning right now), we came upon a diilemma: should we take our kids to Agra and show them the Taj, or leave Agra out and have a day and a half in Bundi (time wouldn%26#39;t allow both)? It took us no more than three minutes to decide: the Taj is pretty, but Bundi is great! Rudyard Kipling wrote affectionately about it, and, if I recall, there is a place in town where he used to stay. If you go there, you%26#39;ll see why. And here%26#39;s a tip: there are both daily and overnight buses between Bundi and Udaipur, which may solve the problem of visiting Udaipur, which (in 2004, anyway) was not particularly well-served by trains (it was on its own narrow gauge, so the fast inter-city trains had to bypass it).

Apart from Jaipur, which was a fluke, we never stayed at a posh hotel; our choices ranged from 100 rupees a night (in Hampi) to a top of 938 rupees (in expensive Mumbai).With train travel we did overnight in 3AC sleepers whenever possible... we booked most of the tickets after we arrived, and always asked for SL and SU seats in class 3AC, as these, we found out, are almost like going up a class (to 2AC)without paying the premium. At no time did we ever have an uncomfortable night, we had no trouble with bedbugs or cockroaches, and we didn%26#39;t get sick from the food, which we bought from either roadside stalls or from restaurants where we saw a lot of locals eating. Maybe we were lucky... and I know of many people who hate India and hate Rajasthan (whose towns usually have open sewers running down the street where the footpath ought to be) most of all. I guess it depends on your attitude. You need to meet India Half-way... it%26#39;s not New York, it%26#39;s not London.... it%26#39;s not even Coolum Beach. What it is, is wonderful, and totally unlike any other place on earth.

Have a great trip!

Hi, this is just a quick note, I shall write again and thankyou once more.

Your advice was excellent, We cannot thankyou enough.

As I said when I have digested it and taken notes etc., I shall be back in touch with you.

Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou.

Beau