Anonymous wrote:Which is best? Looking at a group tour in November. is that a good time to go?

Yes. Great time to go if you can be away from polluted big cities. And yes, absolutely go with a tour and spend some money to go to upscale places.

It is a huge country and lots of amazing places. You should not do it on a shoestring budget and like the poorest of poors. Because as an Indian, even I don't do it. I also book in the best hotels, best cars with drivers, security and luxury travel.

DO NOT GO CHEAP.

We like Banyan Tours.

Anonymous wrote:India is the number one place I have traveled where I would highly recommend a guide.

Same. Only place I've used guides and was glad I did.

Minimize your time in Delhi and add a few days in Ranthambore National Park. Seeing tigers in the wild was an absolutely incredible experience. And I would agree with everyone above - get a private guide and driver. It’s an overwhelming place but stunningly beautiful.

OP here...we are going to Delhi Jaipur and Agra.
thanks for the insights

Where are you going, OP?

India is the number one place I have traveled where I would highly recommend a guide.

While India isn’t easy to travel around its hospitality industry is exceptional. If you are staying at luxury hotels in all of your destinations you will be fine doing the trip without a tour operator. The concierge will go above and beyond helping you figure out transportation and tourist activities.

I am Indian American and go every few years. I have traveled to lots of other places without a guide but for India I would definitely use one. Group tour or a your company that plans it for you and has a driver etc in each city. Accomodations are easy to book online and flights as well. It's really the car)driver at each location. (Personally that is what I do - I book everything else online but have family figure out our transportation at each spot.)

I've been to Delhi in Nov, it's good in terms of weather and cheaper for travel from here than Dec/Xmas. Air quality for a few days didn't seem like a huge deal to me.

We did not do a group tour, but did a tour arranged by an Indian travel company. We had our own driver, and in each location we had a guide as well -- both of our drivers (one drove us all over Northern India and the other took over when we reached Delhi) and all of our guides but one were great. The guide who was not good hardly showed us anything but took us to shops where they put pressure on us to buy things we had no intention of buying. I complained to the tour company and they immediately made it right and it did not happen again (I try not to be a complainer, but we weren't wanting to deal with that again, so I did complain.) I think some of that is inevitable if you travel in India. This was a few years ago. It was a good enough experience that we would like to go back and tour the south, and would definitely book with the same company again.

November should be generally good weather, though agree with PP about Delhi air. We just came back from a two week trip with kids and highly recommend having at least a car and driver lined up. We used local guides and they were only ok, I felt like I could have done better with chatGPT itineraries and scripted tours. Next time I would hire guides through an international travel agency.

India is huge, depends on where you're going.

I lived in New Delhi for several years as an expat. Air quality in Delhi is horrendous at that time of year (yes its bad year round but it's especially worse going into winter). You won't understand just how terrible it is until you've been there, trust me.

I am female and I traveled all around India, many times solo. I never once was harassed by men and never felt unsafe. You have to watch out for scams and touts, but that's par for the course in India. Know how to say no. The "harassment" that I got was people asking to take photos with me.

That said, India isn't easy travel. I'm okay with it but I also had the help of other expats to 'teach' me how to travel there (I had never been outside the USA until I lived in India).

Use guides, though they could be local.

You do not want, women especially, to be wandering around cities unescorted. They would be subject to hostile stares (at a minimum), and unsafe after dark.

Which is best? Looking at a group tour in November. is that a good time to go?