Getting Around India

India has added another 13 countries to the already allowed 13 countries to the visa on arrival progamme. Hopefully they would add more

http://medicoanthropologist.blogspot.com/2012/01/visa-on-arrival-india.html

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I have been to many places in India and have used trains, planes, and automobiles with drivers. Trains are great for overnight travel. Once I had to use a train because a protest blocked the roads. The road block was in a small town along the way. As a tip, we could only get 3 rd class tickets at the station but was able to upgrade for a small fee by seeing the conductor when the train arrived.

Planes are great for long distance, also when time is short when I took a plane from Aurangabad to Mumbai to connect to my flight home.

Automobile with driver is a great way to travel in India and I executively traveled that way in Rajasthan and some other parts of India. It is not too expensive but you do have to be careful as we did have some problems with one of the agencies.

We also had several great "off-the-beaten path " experiences traveling by car.
Examples:
The driver knew of a girl college outside of Mandawa which is subsidies by an (Aisa) Indian American.
As we drove through Punjab for our next dentations, we stop and started to talk to some friendly local people. They invaded us into there home. This was an unexpected and wonderful experience.

For all your train queries and ticket booking for trains all over India visit www.irctc.co.in the official website of Indian Railways and book your ticket online.You can check availability,fare,route practically anything you want.Just opt for e-ticket and take a print of the ticket and that's it.Earthflyer Sampark Kranti Train No 2650 is one you missed.

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I had a history teacher in collage that stated with the railroad made by the British, India got more out of the British rule the Britain ever got out of India. The railroad is still there and after travelling the country I have a hard time imagining India without it.

As overnight trains is a perfect transport for the long-distances in India. I like to give this advice as I travelled on a day to day basis and this poses some difficulties in acquiring tickets as there is so much corruption and the travel agents/cabdrivers/ticket officers have underhand agreements about kickbacks/commissions.

So my tip is that if you can purges your tickets in advance and plan your route and duration as much as possible from home you might avoided wasting a large part of your vacation on all the haggling and harassment and even save a good deal of money.

You can reserve and buy via. The website. DO BOOK IN GOOD TIME! Or you might not get a conformation. If you don’t get a conformation you will first get information 4 hours before the train departure if your waiting list ticket can be used. Otherwise you have to buy a regular ticket and hope for a possible upgrade.

http://www.irctc.co.in/

Feb/Mar is an excellant time to visit North India. Its spring time and the weather conditions are just right.
My recommendation for covering the 4 cities should be in 2 stages like this
1) Delhi-Agra-Jaipur-Delhi and
2) Delhi-Varanasi
For covering Delhi, Agra and Jaipur, you may plan to take a rental vehicle with driver on hire from Delhi. The rates are reasonable (roughly Rs 2000/- per day, all inclusive). All these three places can be covered in a week. Alternatively you may wish to try travelling by train. From Delhi to Agra, there are very good trains available (Taj Express, Shatabdi Express etc). All these trains start from New Delhi Station early in the morning and the journey time is 2-3 hrs. You can buy the tickets online from Indian Railways website (http://www.irctc.co.in/). You will need to register in the website if you want to book tickets. It is good to book at least a month in advance. From Agra, you may visit Jaipur by road. Lot of buses and taxis are available. You can ask your hotel in Agra to book for you in advance. From Jaipur to New Delhi, again, you may wish to take a train and book in advance using the above mentioned website.
For Varanasi, I will suggest you book a flight using one of these webistes
Indian Airlines
Spicejet
Jet Airways or
http://travel.indiatimes.com/ovt/faces/ovt/travelIndex.jsp.
Alternatively, you may take a night train (sould not take more than 10-12 hours) which are very comfortable. This train option is also highly recommended. Again, you will need to book through the Train booking website which I mentioned earlier.
For Delhi-Varanasi flight booking, you may wish to book at leat 2-3 months in advance.

Enjoy your trip
BK

For train tickets, no need to visit cleartrip.com. or any other travel related website. Just visit this website www.irctc.co.in, which belongs to Indian Railways. You need to register first. Another useful site is http://www.indianrail.gov.in/, which provides all info on trains in India. International credit cards are acceptable on this site. Just a fortnight back I made a booking for my wife using an international credit card (amex)
For hotel booking, I have used Indian website Travelguru.com, but presently they are not accepting International credit card. But you can certainly go for the popular hotel booking websites like
http://www.asiahotels.com/
http://www.asiatravel.com/index.html
http://www.agoda.com/
They are reliable and accept all credit cards
Hope this helps
BK

India is well connected by public transport.However,delays and lack of proper information could sometimes be frustrating.However,we find that it is improving gradually and hope fully we will get there one day!
Air transport
Most major cities and some of the minor ones are connected by air.
India has many airlines,Indian is the public sector one while some of the private ones are -- Deccan Airlines,Spice Jet,Indigo,Go air(budget airlines)Kingfisher,Paramount,Jet airways(non-budget.
Most of the times planes are on time,however weather could sometimes be a detterent like anywhere else.
Rail
Most major cities and also minor towns are well connected by rail transport.If money is not an issue,travel by first class;a/c 2 tier or a/c 3 tier class.The bedding is provided by the railways if it is an overnight journey in these classes.The second class is not so comfortable and you have to carry your own bedding if you require.
Tickets can be bought online from this site-- www.irctc.com(you may need to register,which is free)
Information regarding trains can be got from this site -- www.indiarail.com
Local trains
Some of the cities have a good train system within the city.For eg. the metro in Delhi and Kolkatta;local trains in Bombay;some parts of Hyderabad;some parts of Chennai.You would get a time table at any one of the stations in these cities.
Bus
Most towns, and of course all the cities have a good bus transport with good frequency in important routes.
There are inter state and inter city buses,which could be budget or luxury.Any local travel agent or the respective bus station would have a time table.
Cars
You could rent cars from Hertz agency found in most major cities.There are sign boards guiding travelers on highways.You could get a road map in any leading book shop in the cities.
Motorbikes
Some tourists even buy a motorbike/moped for the time that they are here and put on sale while leaving!
Cycles
Cities like Pondicherry and Goa are ideal for cycling.Towns like Mathura and Brindavan could be ideally covered if staying for a long time by cycle.However highways are not the place for travel by two wheelers.Avoid it if as far as possible.
Just be mentally prepared for reasonable delays(occassionally unreasonable!),other wise it is a pleasure to travel in India.Most Indians are helpful and if help is asked would not shy away from rendering it.

Trains are the main way to travel around india. It is advisable to book your ticket a few days before the planned departure.
You have to go to the reservation office. There you fill in a reservation form, you'll need to fill in your name, sex, age, trainnumber, trainname,date ,seat preference and the get on and get off point of your trip.
Then que at the desk; Sometimes they have a special desk for tourist (and also freedomfighters); If your ticket is confirmed your coach and berthnumber is on the ticket. Your ticket can also be wait listed. Then you have to go to the train half an hour before departure and find the tt-man (I think he's called). If you can't find him try asking one of the paramilitarys they helped us out in Varanasi.
There is also the possibility to book your tickets through the internet; But only for confirmed tickets;