Traveller's Tales: Advise for travellers in India

Heed our handy tips on safe travel in India. You may read about travel warnings, health, what to wear, travel with kids, travel with pets, local weather, local government, medical information and traffic information in the area.Also, you might want to read our Delhi city guide, and Mumbai/Bombay city guide.

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V Bull	15 May 2005
Stayed at Ramada Raj Park Chennai - Chennai (Madras), India.
Don't hire a car in Chennai unless you have a driver with it, the traffic is mad. If there is an inch of space on the road, someone will claim it and rules of the road do not exist, unless its 'first come first served!'
S Dorn	06 April 2005
Stayed at Umaid Bhawan Jaipur, Hotel - Jaipur, India.
Jaipur is a great place and a must visit for anyone going to India. It is worth taking a tour as there is many sights to see. I organised a tour through the RTDC, which can be booked at a couple of RTDC offices and RTDC hotels. It only cost 100 rupees for a half day tour and 150 rupees for a full day tour, both with an english speaking guide. I found a great vegetarian restaurant called "The Parantha Hut' in the new city, which served clean and very tasty food (I went back several times).
D Flynn	16 September 2004
Stayed at Jaypee Palace Hotel, Agra - Agra, India.
Beware the prepaid taxis! We got one from the train station to the hotel and the driver offered to collect us the next morning, bring us on a tour of the sights - including an English Speaking guide - and return us to the hotel and ultimately to the train station at which point we would pay the agreed fee of Ruppees 650! Unfortunately though we couldn't understand the guide and really he used us as an opportunity to learn English! When collected to be brought back to the train station the guide met us in our hotel demanding we pay him for his services as a guide and demanding we visit more shops with him so that he could earn commission on the sales! Only after this, and subsequently meeting the driver did we cop that the job was a nixer and so we had major hassle trying to escape from both the guide and the driver!
S Taylor	14 April 2004
Stayed at Park New Delhi, The - New Delhi, India.
Delhi - interesting but frustrating city. Old Delhi worth a visit if you have the energy! Worth taking a rickshaw around the bazaars there. Beware of touts at all tourist sites. Some are good and worth the money many are worthless. The one we had at the Taj Mahal was not very good at all. The one we had at Fatehpur Sikri was very good. Worth the money. Don't hire one until you have listened to them for 5 mins or so and know if they know their stuff. The guide at the National Museum in Delhi was very good and would not accept any money for his tour. Good Indian restaurant in Sheraton Hotel. Go to Agra by train. The 6.30am express executive class is great, a big surprise with breakfast and a newspaper.
P Mahon	16 December 2003
Stayed at Amar, Hotel - Agra, India.
Agra is not a place for beginners. The whole town seems to be out to get the tourists and if it weren't for the Taj Mahal I would recommend avoiding it. Our first experience was walking to a restaurant at 10:30pm and being followed constantly by rickshaw drivers who wouldn't accept that we preferred to walk. When we found the restaurant closed we gave in and took a rickshaw downtown. He refused to stop at a Pizza place we saw saying it was closed when obviously it wasn't and took us to a restaurant of his choice. The prices were so inflated (especially considering that it was a grimy, empty place) that it was ridiculous. We stood up to leave and the owner said "ok we'll give you a 30% discount". We said forget it and he said how about 50%, but we decided to leave and finally forced the driver to take us back to the pizza place we originally saw which was open. Getting from A to B was always a struggle with drivers who were always ducking into carpet or handicraft places so that we could "just look not buy". The hard sell was so overwhelming and omnipresent that the effect was a desire to buy nothing and to just get the hell out of there. The Taj Mahal however is superb, the most beautiful building I have ever seen and probably worth the aggravation of the town.
B S. loeding	29 January 2003
Stayed at Le Meridien New Delhi - New Delhi, India.
Hire a driver for at least one day. If you like the driver, ask him to drive you down to Agra for one day. Don't go to the shops the driver recommends--they will pay him 30 percent, which is added to your purchase price.
M Das	21 September 2002
Stayed at Hilton Towers Mumbai - Mumbai (Bombay), India.
Mumbai is definitely an exciting city - but as a female on my own, I didn't feel very safe going out in the evening.
N Forrester	21 September 2002
Stayed at Midland, Hotel - Mumbai (Bombay), India.
The train near the station is not safe for women at night. If you have to take the train and are foreign you might be most comfortable in first class where it is not crowded. I recommend going to a restaurant near Indian Gateway called Leopold's because it serves good food with large portions... western and eastern...
C Chao yang	15 May 2002
Stayed at Royal Highness - Ahmedabad, India.
Old ahm is relative dangerous place, too old.
D Dihal	08 May 2002
Stayed at Agra Ashok, Hotel - Agra, India.
The place visited was very pretty. Taj is the prettiest thing I every seen. The resturant slide your credit card then came to tell you that you have a decline card. One evening I went to this resturant next the hotel. After eating, I tried to pay by credit card. I tried two cards and my companion tried two cards. I was told all four card decline. I told me credit card where I will travelling, so that they would not get alarm when they see all these foreign charges. I have a high credit limit on my cards, so does my companion. But I later learn the Indians tactics, they want cash, Instead of tell me stories, they should ask for cash, I would have pay with cash. The food was delicious and cheap. But playing games is too much.