Options for traveling within India for a 21-day period
Renting a car in India was not as expensive as I had originally imgined. I thought the overall price was fairly reasonable. After flying into Dehli on April 1, I decided to rent a car directly from the airport inorder to limit travel around the city. For $709.94, I was able to rent a car from April 1, to April 22. The car would be returned at the end of the trip in the same place it was picked up. It is a manual transmission Suzuki Swift. It is a small compact car, and was the cheapest option. The price includes the taxes, fees, and insurance. The travel book I purchased from Amazon mentioned that traffic in major cities can be extreme, and that it can sometimes take hours to get from one place to another in cities.
There are many mass transit options within India. Obviously domestic flights are an option, but going with the theme of the class, I tried to stick to the cheapest options. India offers sleeper busses. These are coaches that have beds on them, they are very cheap, but they are also very slow. The two trips I decied on were Dehli to Mumbai, and then Mumbai to Bangalore. Trip one, from Dehli to Mumbai on April 3, has a total time of 28 hours and 10 minutes. It would cost 1400INR which equates to a little less than $19 in US currency. Trip two from Mumbai to Bangalore would take place on April 9 and would take just over 15 hours. It costs slightly more at 2500INR, around $33. The problem I ran into was finding a way to get from Bangalore back to Dehli not via cab. I found a train that runs routinely between the two cities for 760INR, which equates to just a smidge over ten dollars. This would be the day before I would fly home, on April 21. According to my travel book, trains are relativley simple but the stations can be hectic.
Another option would be domestic flights as mentioned before, but that is quite expensive, especalliy on top of flying back and forth from India to the United States. One popular option if you are staying inside of cities are rickshaws. These are little cabs that are hooked up to a bicycle. Locals often drive these around to make quick money. They often go for about 100 rupees per ride, a little over one dollar for each trip. Another option are cabs. The are tolled via KM driven and can be costly over time. Airport secruity is a hassle just like any other American airport. I learned through my travel book that there are two diffrent lines for men and women inside airports. Men are patted down and screened in the open, and women are taken into private rooms.
Ground cost = $709.94
Bus cost 1 ($19) + Bus cost 2 ($33) + Train ($11) = Total $63
The total cost of traveling within India for a three week period is $772.94. I used Fodor's Travel: Essential India to add onto my readings to complete this assingment.
Submitted by Reggie Wortman on March 13, and edited on March 28.