A North India Trip – Part 1

Planning the trip

This is one unique trip well planned, organized, coordinated by ourselves. Unique coz we were 2 groups starting from 2 different locations and got to meet and proceed for a trip. Well planned coz we did not have any one else in our destinations to guide us or make arrangements for stay or travel. We carefully distributed data collection and consolidated it after our study. All stay and travel were either arranged through internet and later on through telephonic confirmation. Of course all this would not have been not possible few years back, definitely a lot of progress has happened and hence has facilitated the travel without anyone's help in these cities.

Now where do I start...May be from preparatory stages itself, this will help many to plan ahead for a trip. To begin with we had 2 groups one from Chennai and another from Bangalore. There were aspects on what's the best possible means, which all places we should not miss, how many days we can afford leave for, what more we can add in given time, last but not least budget. Given the constraint that all of us are working, taking more than weeks holiday was out of question. Also a week is good enough time to relax and rejuvenate oneself.

Next was a poll on places to visit. Taj Mahal and Vaishno Devi were under must see for us...Based on other polls, distance and feasibility we decided to explore Amritsar too. To top it all, we were 2 lovely couple exploring north ,cant help but visit a hill station..!! We checked out options..and Patnitop was finalized based on few blogs/reviews. All this we decided considering minimal waste of time in travel, making best use of time in sightseeing, considering fatigue after a days trip, as well as having rest after Vaishno Devi visit.

Having decided the places to visit, next was to check out options to travel without exceeding budget. We checked out flight options and fortunately we had a Bangalore and Chennai flights landing at Delhi around same time (harldy 10 mins away). So we decided our first meeting point will be Delhi airport.

Our final trip plan was like this: Chennai/Bangalore – Delhi – Jammu – Katra(Vaishnodevi) – Patnitop – Jammu – Amritsar – Delhi