India and Nepal Tour

One flight in the middle

Varanasi to Kathmandu, about an hour and a quarter, and it is the only international flight inside the trip. Buddha Air and Nepal Airlines fly it, and it is what makes a Ganges-then-Himalaya itinerary work without doubling back through Delhi.

Day 8, and the flight that fixes it

Khajuraho to Varanasi is about nine hours by road. A forty-minute flight covers the same ground and costs $90 to $140. We keep the day as the company sells it because that is the price you are quoted, and we will book the flight for anybody who asks. Decide at booking rather than at breakfast in Khajuraho.

The land borders, if you prefer them

Sunauli near Bhairahawa for Varanasi and Lucknow, Raxaul near Birgunj for Patna and Bodhgaya, and Kakarbhitta in the east for Darjeeling. All three issue Nepali visas on arrival and all three accept the Indian e-Visa. All three also take a full day and considerably longer than the map suggests.

Getting to Delhi and home from Kathmandu

This trip is one way, so book an open-jaw ticket: into Delhi and out of Kathmandu. It usually costs the same as a return to either and it saves a wasted day. If your airline will not do it, Kathmandu to Delhi is an hour forty-five and there are several a day.

How much of this is driving

About 1,300 km across eight days in India, in a private air-conditioned car with a driver who stays with you throughout. Indian highways are better than their reputation and slower than their signposts. Nothing here is a bad road; there is simply a lot of it.

11 nights, and what each one is

Heat, hot water, power and signal

Air conditioning

In every Indian hotel and in the car. In October to March you will barely use it, which is the argument for those months.

Heating

Patchy in India and often absent in Kathmandu. Delhi in January is genuinely cold indoors and hotels are built for the summer.

Hot shower

Every night, everywhere. Nothing about this trip is rough.

Wifi

In every hotel, and Indian mobile data is fast and absurdly cheap. Nothing is blocked in either country.

Phone signal

Airtel or Jio in India, Ncell or NTC in Nepal. An Indian SIM needs your passport and takes twenty minutes; the guide can sort it on day 2.

Water

Bottled water in the car, included. Tap water is not drinkable in either country.

Laundry

Same-day in most hotels, charged by the piece, and cheap.

Single rooms

Available every night at a supplement. Unlike our treks, nothing here is twin-share by necessity.

If you eat differently

Twelve weeks, and what to do in each of them

Written for somebody who walks a bit and does not train. If you already run or cycle regularly, start at the eight-week block. Nothing here needs a gym.

1. 1

   Eight weeks out

   See a travel clinic

   Typhoid, hepatitis A and tetanus are the standard recommendations for India, and rabies is worth discussing. None of it is mandatory and all of it is easier eight weeks out than two.

2. 2

   Four weeks out

   Apply for the e-Visa

   Two to five days to process and it can be filed up to 120 days ahead, so there is no reason to leave it. Use indianvisaonline.gov.in and nothing else. The photograph fails more applications than anything else: white background, square, no glasses.

3. 3

   Two weeks out

   Walk a bit, and break in shoes

   This is not a fitness trip and you will still be on your feet three hours a day on stone. Comfortable shoes you have already worn are worth more than any amount of training.

4. 4

   The week before

   Decide about day 8

   Nine hours in a car or a forty-minute flight for $90 to $140. It is the single decision on this trip that most changes how the second half feels, and it is better made now than at breakfast in Khajuraho.

Who travels with you

In India, one driver for the whole eight days and a different local guide in each city. That is deliberate rather than cost-cutting: a Delhi guide who knows Mughal architecture is not the person to explain Khajuraho's sculpture or the cremation rites at Manikarnika, and a single escort across five cities would be reciting somebody else's notes by day 6. In Nepal, one of our own Kathmandu guides for the last three days.

The driver matters more than you expect

He is the only person with you for the whole Indian half, he will do about 1,300 km, and he is the one who knows where the clean toilet is between Orchha and Khajuraho. He is not a guide and does not pretend to be. He is also paid, insured and given his own room and board by us rather than left to sleep in the car, which is not universal in this trade.

Tipping

Customary and expected. About $100 to $160 per traveller across the trip: roughly half to the driver at the end of the Indian leg, the rest split between the city guides as you go and the Kathmandu guide at the end.

Varanasi is not a photo opportunity

The burning ghats at Manikarnika and Harishchandra are working cremation grounds where families are grieving in public. Photography there is forbidden, and it is enforced by people who have every right to. Watch from the boat or from a distance, put the camera away, and ignore anybody who offers to take you closer for a donation, which is a well-established scam that also happens to be indecent.

The touts, and what actually works

Around the Taj, Amer Fort and the Varanasi ghats you will be approached constantly. Your guide handles it and the only thing that works from you is a flat, unembarrassed no without eye contact or explanation. Being English about it, hesitating politely, is read as an opening. This is not rudeness; it is the local register.

Photographing people

Ask. In both countries most people will say yes and enjoy it, and a sadhu on the ghats who poses will want paying, which is a transaction rather than an imposition and is worth agreeing beforehand. Do not photograph anybody bathing, praying or mourning.

Where the money goes

The Indian half is spent on Indian hotels, an Indian driver and Indian city guides, arranged by our own long-standing partner in Delhi rather than a chain. Monument fees go to the Archaeological Survey of India and, in Nepal, to the trusts that maintain Bhaktapur and Patan, which is where your NPR 1,800 at Bhaktapur is actually going.

How to start

Write to us or send a message on WhatsApp with your dates and how many of you there are. Nothing is owed at that stage, and this is the most flexible itinerary we sell: it can gain or lose days almost anywhere.

The deposit

Thirty per cent to hold your dates, and the balance on arrival. Unusually for us, that balance is settled in Delhi at the start rather than in Kathmandu, because the Indian half is where the money is spent.

What we need

A passport copy and your India e-Visa approval when it comes through. We do not apply for the Indian visa on your behalf: it is a straightforward online form and the agencies that offer to do it charge three or four times the fee. We will tell you exactly what to fill in.

Book an open-jaw flight

Into Delhi, out of Kathmandu. It usually costs the same as a return into either city and it saves you a wasted day and a fare flying back to where you started.

If you cancel

More than 30 days out, the deposit transfers to any other date or trip we run, with no time limit. Inside 30 days it is retained, because the hotels and the internal flight are booked by then. If we cancel for any reason other than weather, you get everything back.

How far ahead

Two weeks is comfortable and a week is possible, which makes this the easiest thing in our catalogue to book late: no permits, no restricted areas, no mountain flights. The exceptions are Holi and Diwali, which fall on single dates and book out months ahead.