How to do a grand tour of India

How much of India can you see on one trip? The answer, if you plump for a 17 day ‘Grand Tour’, a 23 day luxury tour or even a 37 day tour, is a lot. These ‘see them all’ trips take in some must-dos: usually around the Golden Triangle and then on to southern India’s western coast at Kerala.

“For first timers the obvious two regions most would have heard of are Golden Triangle with Rajasthan and Kerala,” says Sanjay.

If you’ve got a bit more time, Sanjay recommends giving yourself a bit of a runway to Rajasthan, exploring the more relaxed parts of the state of Himanchal Pradesh before heading to hectic Delhi and the rest of the Golden Triangle. “Start in Amritsar which is a less overwhelming arrival place then Delhi,” he recommends, seeing more of the state before you hit the more touristy Agra, Jaipur, Jodhpur and Udaipur.

“If you have the valuable commodity of time, you can have a two, three or even four-layered adventure,” says Sanjay, “I mean starting with the north-west states, then head to Rajasthan before moving to South India and finally spending three or four days at the end in my favourite city: Mumbai!”

You don’t have to start with the Golden Triangle, of course. Our traveller Lesley Somerville tore up the rule book for their first trip to India and planned an ambitious itinerary across South India. “Think carefully and realistically about what you want to do and see,” they advised in their review, “And factor in travelling from one place to another via very slow Indian roads – or use trains which in our experience were efficient and much faster.”

Tours that pack it in in a short space of time often use internal flights: linking north and south India by flying between Delhi and Trivandrum, Mumbai, or Goa. If you have more time, make use of India’s rail network, especially overnight trains: Delhi to Varanasi, Varanasi to Agra, Mumbai to Udaipur or Goa, Mysore to Madurai or Hampi.

The trains can be your best bet: you can travel all the way from Kolkata to Amritsar by train, crossing northern India from the Pakistan border to the border with Bangladesh: “An extraordinary opportunity to travel across India exploring so many different cities,” said our traveller Catherine Harriss.

However, travel can be slow. “Bear in mind that travelling 100km in India take a lot more time than in the UK – but it is exciting!” says our traveller Bernard Eddleston, who toured Karnataka and Kerala.

Not all roads are good in the country, and the more you distance you cover, the more tiring it can be. “Be wary of the road distances in India,” says our traveller John Aperghis who went across South India. “We probably covered too many miles and the children really got bored after multiple six hour journeys.”

The benefit of long overland tours is that you get to see some major highlights. Experts design the itinerary, and they know what’s possible each day without giving yourself fort fatigue among Rajasthan’s cities or travel sickness on long transfers.

Long journeys can be more fun if you’ve joined a small group. “There was lots of travelling so limited relaxation time,” says Victoria Dyer, a traveller on our South India overland tour. “Though even in in the minibus you could chat with others and watch the fascinating world go by.”

There are problems with trying to see it all, not least some of the language that gets used to promote it. After all, ‘grand tours’ of Europe to gain a classical education were originally the preserve of upper class 18^th-century European and American men. The idea that you ‘do’ a destination – blitzing through, so you don’t need to return – riding on the same trains that were introduced by British imperialist predecessors – has its faults.

Instead of going too far, cover less, don’t rush, and go deep instead. “The best approach is to travel slowly,” says Sanjay. “Use local transport like trains, boats, rickshaws, and bikes (which we often do), and stay in more offbeat locations and boutique homestays where you can have a more meaningful interaction.” He advises travellers who are convinced they want to rush around and see it all. “We need to offer the best advice and that sometimes involves tempering a guest's enthusiasm for doing too much in a shorter amount of time.” Instead, Sanjay suggests slowing down, and instead opting for a third or fourth night in a destination from time to time, to settle in.

“Two nights then moving on was sometimes a bit rushed,” says our traveller Madeline Rose, who went on a tailor made 30-day ‘grand tour’. Instead, she wondered whether she should have opted for longer: “More three night stays – but then we would have seen less.” It remains a trade-off – after all, time and budget remain a consideration for most.

Our tours are designed with built in rest days, free afternoons, and opportunities for more local experiences that will make you feel like you’re stopping and staying, not passing through – like homestays, an afternoon spent with a local charity, or a workshop where you can immerse yourself end to end in a cooking or crafting process.

Alternatively, volunteer for deeper immersion. Volunteering opportunities aren’t grand tours, but they are often a granular look at an area of the country – the slum area around Fort Kochi, Kerala or tribal groups in the hills in Tamil Nadu. “We encourage our volunteers to come for a minimum for a month,” says Phillida Purvis MBE, co-founder of the PLENTI Project, who offer volunteer placements in the Nilgiri Mountains on projects that support underserved tribal groups. “It takes time to understand what is going on.”