So happy that the blog posts have helped you. Night buses in rajasthan is the way to go – or private taxi if you have the budget. the trains are good to but sometimes the stations are outside of town a bit.

Hello Rachel!! I have been reading your blog and literally opened every link on it.
We will be travelling to India end of July and all of August. I know its hot and sticky but well survive. I’m a little puzzled on transport because we always drive everywhere we go.. the best experience and absolutely the easiest compared to all the comments we read was Thailand, even Bangkok wasn’t so bad. This being said, I understand in India we should take trains or buses. We were then opting for night buses all over Rajasthan to save precious day time. Do you have any suggestions? Arriving always around 4/5 in the morning how do we then get to our hotel? Are rickshaws around or are Jaisalmer and other cities okay to walk from one place to an other? We are just stuck on this.. the route will inevitably keep changing I guess. If you have any other tips please do share.
Ash

I am so glad people like you take the time to document all your tacit knowledge – it has been an enormous help to me and I am more than grateful.

My family and I are booked to do a month trip to India Over December and January (with two children age 10 & 12) and I have two questions. From the UK I have booked some of my train journeys (involving lots of frustrating hours work) but I’ve had to book us on WL (wait list number 6,7,8,&9) for the Jaisalmer to Delhi trip for early January. Do you have any idea what the chances are of us getting on the train? I have opted for the VIKALP choice just in case things get tight as we are due to fly back to the UK on Jan 8th.

Also, we are booked to stay in Rathambore for Christmas Eve (also my daughter’s birthday) and Christmas Day which is a major treat. I am stuck how then to travel to Ajmer on December 27 and after from Ajmer to Jodhpur. From your earlier posts it seems that a bus might be a good option. My concern is finding that we are suddenly stuck somewhere unable to travel onwards. Do you think we will be able to just book a bus when we are in Ranthambore (or Jaipur) to Ajmer even in December at Christmas and consequently not to sweat sorting that leg of the journey out?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Suzanne

Hey Ruta! There is no bad way to travel – even 5 star with a driver you can see the “real India” don’t worry. But buses are slow and add a lot of time into a two week itinerary. I suggest getting a driver just from point A to B at a travel agencry as you go rather than hiring someone to be with you the whole time. There are agencies in all those places who will charge like 5,000 and under for a one way driver ($100 or less)

Yep! All days of the week.

Anyway, reading through the article is making me nervous. Hahah…

Maybe I should take the train?

How do you book trains online?

Or do I go for the buses?

I hope you’re doing great! I think this blog could be updated, e-travel has got far better in India, and I think both redbus and cleartrip (yes, our taste matches) give you excellent choices for bus travel, without agent involvement.

Btw I’m an Indian, who shifted to Dublin a few months back, and I love to travel. I just came back to India for a few days, and even now I’m travelling. I keep reading through some of your blogs as a lurker, just because its sometimes amusing to see things from another eye. Sometimes it makes for a grim perspective, sometimes it makes for a fun one.

In fact, there are two friends I met in Dublin via couchsurfing, who have been backpacking across Europe, and are now flying to India. Hoping to travel with them in their first week here, and make sure they aren’t overwhelmed. Its a very different deal to backpack in Europe vs India – I don’t think much prepares you for it, but they are fantastic girls. I’m going to have to book sleeper tickets for two of my friends, before I go back to work to take them from Jaipur to Rishikesh, and just wanted to make sure it’d be fine. :-)

Btw, they had a career in nursing in America too, before they left their job and decided to backpack across the world. Kinda like you :-)

Caitlin, 3rd class on the train is general seating so you don’t want that. You want 2nd class or 1st class.. then you have sleeper class on trains which is where you can lay down still but it’s no AC, no blankets/pillows, and less nice area of train.. then 3rd class is general seating you can’t lay down and you don’t get a seat assignment. you could have to stand. on a bus though sleeper seats either mean in a volvo seats that recline, or in a regular sleeper bus they are beds.

No, and it is quite cold on these.

I want to travel from goa to gujrat. I am thinking to opt for AC sleeper. But, can i control temperature of ac at my allocated seat?

I never used a particular company… paulo i know is good… but you can look on redbus.in and just choose any volvo for leaning back A/C seats or a proper sleeper which won’t be A/C but has beds. when you book in an agent office they usually don’t even tell you the company they just say where the bus will be! there are too many companies :)

Hi Florencio, yep that sounds about right to me – taxi will definitely be faster but yes it will be a lot more than train or bus, although in India may still seem affordable depending on what currency you travel with.

I will be going to Chennai, Puducherry and Velankanni in February 2017. I have been researching the routes and was surprised to find out that it takes about 4-5 hours for bus or train to travel the distance of 150 kilometers (for instance, Puducherry to Velankanni). Is this really the case? Is there a faster way? Going by taxi or rented car is faster according to my research but I’ll be traveling on a tight budget, so I would prefer to take buses or trains.
Hope you can help. Thanks!