Posted: 11/14/22 | November 14th, 2022

I’ve never been to India. I know. Crazy, right? It’s not that I don’t want to go but life has just unchangingly gotten in the way. However, India is a place a lot of people visit and, since I can’t write well-nigh it, I want to bring in someone who can: my friend Mariellen Ward. She’d a travel writer who has been going to India since 2005 and runs the website Breathedreamgo. We’ve known each other since 2010. Today, she’s going to share some tips on how to visit India for first-time visitors.

I will never forget my first time visiting India. My first car trip in Delhi felt like a roller-coaster ride. Cars and trucks of every size, overloaded bicycles and motorcycles, and plane the occasional bullock cart, seemed to be coming at me from every direction. No one was paying any sustentation to lanes or the rules of the road. Vehicles were driving the wrong way. I couldn’t make sense of what was happening.

I had heard well-nigh the “sensory overload” travelers finger in India, and now I was experiencing it. It was heady and nerve-wracking in equal measure. And just a taste of things to come.

I spent six months crisscrossing the subcontinent on my first trip, when in 2005 and was often overwhelmed by the huge crowds, the foreign traditions, the perplexing bureaucracy, the mind-boggling complexity, and the bewildering culture shock.

These things combined make India a challenging — though very heady and rewarding —destination.

However, if you read and follow these travel tips for first-time visitors, they could help smooth out some of the increasingly disorienting bumps.

1. Slow down

It takes time and some know-how to successfully navigate in India. This is not a place for hurried travel. Don’t try and see as much as you can; that is not the right approach. It’s tiring to travel in India, and the object should be to wits it, not to trammels things off a list.

As a unstipulated rule, for every two weeks you are in India, pick one region. For a one-month trip, just pick two regions — say, two weeks in Rajasthan and two weeks in Kerala. You can plane sit in one place and still not miss anything. No matter what, if you are in India, you will wits India.

2. Adjust your attitude

Let yourself fully wits India. There’s a quote from the movie The Weightier Exotic Marigold Hotel that sums it up: “India hits you like a wave. If you resist, you will be knocked down. But if you swoop into it, you will be alright.”

Likewise, winnow that things will not go as planned. Cultivate the philosophy that things happen the way they are supposed to, not the way they are planned. This vein can lead to the most marvelous adventures.

3. Be shielding who you trust

Having said that it’s a good idea to be open, a healthy level of skepticism moreover comes in really handy in India. There are many con men there, expressly in the travel and hospitality sector. They have a sixth sense for first-time visitors and will try and take advantage.

So, learn the prices by asking locals and other travelers surpassing negotiating with auto-rickshaw drivers and market vendors. Don’t believe drivers — or random people you come wideness at airports, train stations, and tourist attractions — who tell you things such as your hotel burned down, or the train you want was canceled.

Often, an opportunity to make money off of you will spur creative tactics, and some of these scams can hands reservation you off guard. Once, I was looking for a new iPhone specimen and the vendor showed me one and told me it was made by Apple. But a tropical squint revealed four spelling mistakes in one short sentence engraved inside the case.

4. Practice unscratched travel

India has a reputation as a daunting travel destination, expressly for women. However, I have spent many years in India as a sexuality solo traveler, and though I have been uncomfortable, I have never felt really unsafe or threatened. Reported crimes versus tourists are relatively rare, but harassment, staring, pickpocketing, and getting ripped off are common.

There are moreover segmented reports of women stuff molested, expressly in busy, crowded places. Follow vital precautions and unscratched travel strategies, and use worldwide sense in India.

Here are several safety travel tips (please read my top tips for women traveling in India for increasingly details):

• Buy a local SIM vellum so that you can make local calls and stay in touch.
• Research thoughtfully where you want to go, ensuring it is an zone frequented by other travelers, with good infrastructure and hotels.
• Plan your travel so you don’t victorious late at night; travel during daylight hours only.
• Be shielding when posting to social media, so that you are not revealing your current location.
• Stay zestful to your surroundings, and alimony a tropical eye on your handbag and luggage.
• Keep the Tourist Helpline number handy and undeniability if you need any assistance: 1-800-111363.

5. Try a small group tour

For your first time in India, try taking a small group or custom tour to help you get your feet wet. My company, India for Beginners, was founded to help women travel safely and well in India. We offer a few small group tours, but we specialize in creating custom tours and providing a upper level of personal service, such as meeting travelers at the airport and assigning a tour manager who is misogynist 24/7. We hold your hand in India!

6. Take the train

Taking a train in India is a unconfined wits and should not be missed. However, you need some vital knowledge well-nigh the classes and the trains. You may not want to swoop into sleeper matriculation or unstipulated matriculation immediately; I would recommend 2AC (second matriculation with air conditioning) or CC (chair car). Or plane 1AC (first matriculation with air conditioning) or EC (executive chair car).

Shatabdi and Rajdhani trains are among the weightier in India, so try and typesetting one of these. Overnight trains can be a problem considering they don’t wipe the toilets at night, so alimony that in mind when you book.

7. Eat the food

India is one of the world’s unconfined culinary destinations, and first-time visitors should not shy yonder from trying all the succulent cuisine on offer, plane street food. Some of the famous Indian items you shouldn’t miss are masala chai, sweet lassi, biryani, pakoras, dosas, and sweets such as gulab jamun and kheer.

It’s nonflexible to stave getting sick in India, though, considering you never know when a tainted item will navigate your plate. It could be at a street stall or a five-star restaurant. However, you can reduce the chances of getting sick by pursuit these vital rules:

• Drink filtered or bottled water only.
• Watch for undistilled water in ice or sauces.
• Avoid salad and other raw supplies unless you can peel it (such as an orange or banana).
• Eat only supplies that is freshly cooked.
• Look for rented stalls and restaurants with upper turnover.

8. Get a local SIM card

Everything in India runs on WhatsApp, one-time password (OTP) verification, and text messages. Considering of this, you need a local number. To do so, get a local SIM at the airport when you arrive. Still, you may have trouble paying for things online with a foreign credit card, as India requires OTP verification, and getting registered with Indian Railways so you buy train tickets online is nearly impossible.

9. Remember where you are

India is waffly fast but is still a traditional society. It’s weightier to learn well-nigh its cultures and etiquette and err on the side of caution.

For example, unless you’re on the waterfront in Goa, it’s wise to wear modest suit in India. Long, loose, and flowing are key for dressing for the climate and the culture.

It’s moreover weightier to be very respectful, expressly with regard to the myriad religions. And be enlightened that genders relate differently in India, and overfriendliness can be misconstrued. Be polite, but with strangers, and expressly those working in the hospitality sector, it’s usually weightier to dial when effusive friendliness.

10. Follow the seasons

Weather and the season matter in India. It’s incredibly hot scrutinizingly everywhere in May and June, the monsoon season is July to August, and it’s surprisingly unprepossessed in north India in winter, December to February. Do some research and find out the best places to visit in India by season.

So, when it’s unprepossessed in north India, throne lanugo to tropical Kerala or Goa and hit the beach. In the heat of summer, trammels out Ladakh, a upper desert plateau that sometimes seems otherworldly. Note: Fall is festival season, so you can wits Durga Puja in Kolkata, Diwali in Jaipur, or the Camel Fair in Pushkar.

11. Visit attractions in the morning

As a rule, tourist destinations in India are not rented in the morning. Indians often don’t start early, so if you want to go somewhere touristy or crowded, go early (also the coolest time of day). For example, if you are planning to see the Taj Mahal, stay overnight in Agra and go at sunrise; when the gates open, the line will be mostly foreigners. Crowds of Indian tourists will roll up a few hours later.

(However, this rule does not wield to shopping. Stores, and plane restaurants, tend not to unshut until 10 or plane 11 am. Urban Indians tend to do everything late. Breakfast and lunch are late, and dinner can be very late indeed.)

12. Throne into the countryside

Most first-time travelers to India tend to diamond their itineraries virtually cities. They land in Delhi or Mumbai and throne to places like Jaipur, Udaipur, Rishikesh, and Cochin. Make an effort to see the wilderness: the jungles, deserts, and mountains. India is home to increasingly than 50 tiger reserves, several biodiversity hot spots (such as the Western Ghats and the Sundarbans), the world’s 20th largest desert (the Thar Desert), and the highest mountain range on earth (the Himalayas).

You can go trekking in the mountains, take a tiger safari, visit one of the many national parks, zany out overnight on a sand dune in Rajasthan, or take a wend trip on the Brahmaputra River.

And don’t forget the rural areas. Most Indians still live in villages. It’s really worthwhile to meander through the quaint villages of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, or Uttarakhand.

***

India is not an easy place to travel. It’s not a relaxing vacation destination. It is, though, an wits — often a life-changing experience. Start by doing research, read books well-nigh India, watch movies well-nigh the country, learn well-nigh the cultures and various destinations, and get ready for a transformative travel experience.

Like many surpassing you — from The Beatles to Steve Jobs to Elizabeth Gilbert — you may just fall in love with the place. As writer Rumer Godden said, “Once you have felt the pebbles of India, you will never be self-ruling of it.”

Mariellen Ward fell in love with India, with travel, and with travel blogging on her first trip to the country in 2005. She has spent increasingly than seven years of the last 18 in India, and now lives there. Though Canadian by birth, Mariellen considers India to be her “soul culture.” With her travel blog, Breathedreamgo, she tries to encourage and help other sexuality travelers to go without their dreams. And her custom tour company, India for Beginners, is defended to helping women travel safely and well in India.

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