Two years ago we spent 3 weeks in Srinigar, Kashmir. Based on a houseboat in Lake Dal, it was just heaven. Totally unspoilt and away from the hustle and bustle of the tourist trails of mainstram India. The locals ,were really friendly and helpful in pointing us in the right direction to reach the beautiful areas of the mountains.
The houseboat had 6 bedrooms all en-suite and we had our own cook and cleaner living right next door, as we were the only ones on board for 3 weeks we were spoilt rotten.
Days were spent being taken by Shikara (boat) along the miles of natural waterways and through the floating gardens around the lake. We hired jeeps to take us into the hills trecking and trout fishing.
This had to be one of the most memerable and peaceful holidays ever. We are now planning to return later this year to join in the wedding celebrations of a friend that we made there. The wedding will go on for over 2 weeks so should be great fun.

Lake Dal used to be a very popular tourist destination but over the last few years because of lack of visitors due to the border conflict a lot of the houseboat owners have gone out of business (The Foreign Office is still advising against travel to most of rural Kashmir)I would love to return to this area of India and now that things have quitened down somewhat it may be a possibility.
I went to Khajuraho on one of my visits and remember it as being a place with the temples set in quiet peaceful areas, though no doubt there have been lots of new tourist hotels for people wanting to see the famous carvings. Varanesi is a place of pilgrimage on the Ganges and it's fascinating to see life early in the morning along the river.
My last trip to India ten years ago was to the south, stayed in Kerala, sailed on the backwaters, ate fabulous tiger prawns in Cochin visited Karnataka and saw the Palaces of Mysore and spent a few days in Ooty in the Nilgiri hills. I would recommend any of these places to people wanting to see more than beaches though the beaches of Kerala are lovely.
I expect to go back one of these days there are lots of places I would like to see but there are so many other places in the world that I want to visit.

Coorg County (Kodagu) in Karnataka is a magical place, well worth visiting Only yeterday in the Guardians travel section, the well known travel writer,Dervla Murphy, named it as the place she'd like to be. The region is about five hours by road from Bangalore and three from Mysore and a visit to it can be combined with one to these two cities
It's a hilly region with a distinct people, also in the late 40s, India granted land to Tibetan refugees, aroun the Bylakuppe area, and there they have established a little piece of Tibet, including large Monasteries. Coffee and spices are the main crop grown in this little visited part of India
We visited a large Elephant camp, totally unspoiled, we were the only visitors, so we had dozens of elephants all to ourselves. Also in the region is Nagerhole National Park, which has lodges you can stay in. They provide transport and guides. You see all sorts of wildlife, hundreds of wild elephants and the occasional tiger. The Kabini River flows through the park and if you visit around March onwards, as the dry season really sets in, you can see them all, when they come out of the jungle to graze on the grassy plain, and drink on the riverbank
The area is within easy reach of Goa and a few days visiting will be well worth the effort
On our trip we went from Goa to Bangalore by overnight sleeper, picked up our guide and car there, toured the city and overnighted there, the next day we travelled on to the Coorg region, and stayed overnight in a eco hotel, the next night was spent in Nagerhole Park lodges and the last night in Mysore. We then got a train early afternoon from Mangalore, arriving late evening back in Goa Alan

I'm just realising how little I know about India. Its time I did more reading up about it.
Kashmir
our tour company we went with for the Golden Triangle can take us there- I'm just not sure if it would be advisable just now
Alan
sounds fascinating and it would be totally different from the city tour we did

I couldnt agree more with all of the above.......India is vast and diverse and we too loved Kashmir and stayed with a local family (friends)2 years ago, there it was amazing, (yes and we did the houseboat to ourselves too!!) it was wonderful, but there was a big military presence and this can be intimidating not only to us Europeans but to locals too,but Kashmir was wonderful, amazing, another world, we had no power much of the time and ate (superb home cooked food) on the floor with our friends with no utensils..........or furniture to speak of, but it really grounded us the whole experience,I shall treasure the memories for a long time to come as it was just such a different experience, we went just about everywhere (were taken) and trekked on pones in the snow and sleighed down mountains, enjoyed sunshine,, it was something else, and yes I have always loved Delhi, its madness, sounds smells, wealth and poverty all side by side but what an atmosphere!! and Nepal we went overland to Varanasi , the holy city, (another unbelievable world apart from anywhere I have been ... worth a few days to tour,,quite an experience)and then on to Nepal travelling everywhere and doing safaris by jeep and elephant!! and I planned the whole trip quite easily, it was great, but we did it 'local' style, trains (yes, Gramps I agree great way to travel in india!!)buses elephant (haha) well we did in Chitwan National park!! We are going to Kerala this year so was interested in above comments. also want to see Menali and Amritsar and Pondicherry ...and ... and ... and so it goes on!! its a vast and wonderful country a lifetime experience...
chilly

I don't know if I can be as adventurous as you Chilly My big problem though is that I have to stick with set holidays and these do not tie in with the best times to go to India I'm afraid. (October- we managed 2 weeks this time but OH also has a set rota and its not often we have a clear fortnight then ) It may some time before we can explore in any depth but we will do it some day!
Keep the experiences coming everyone

Hi
Just returned from Barfoot at Havelock in the Andaman Islands and would thoroughly recommend this lovely and unspoliled resort
Regards
Doug

Doug
can you tell us more? What made you pick there? Was it for diving?

Hi Fiona
We are Maldives fans really but also look for other similarish places for our November break prior to going to the Maldives in February/March. We read at Barfoot in the Telelgraph or some such paper liked the idea of it booked and went from there.I must say as departure time drew near we had some reservations after emailing the resort and being told we would transfer from Port Blair by dunghi a fairly primitive and not particularly large boat devoid of shade or toilet facility for a journey of some 3 1/2 hours or longer in bad weather. In fact if you look at the web site you'll see it's not recommended for poor sailors or the elderly (I'm the latter my partner the former). Anyway I emailed back and they then said they would supply the crew which we found fairly hilarious as we weren't expecting sail it ourselves. We also suggested that we may prefer transfer by motor launch which although not that large according the picture at least had shade and a toilet (it still took the same time). It turned out that this was being renovated so they then said we would transfer by ferry also 3 1/2 hours.As it now seemed that what I thought was a joint decision about where we going now appeared to have been mine alone!! So you can appreciate I had a few sleepless nights while my imagination ran riot.
Anyway the day finally dawned and the taxi took us to LHR to fly Gulfair business class to Bahrain a couple of hours stopover then on to Chennai(Madras) arriving about 4 in the morning local time. We just couldn't believe how busy the place was and the huge number of people on the streets as looked for internal airport to pick up the Jet Air flight to Port Blair which was not leaving until 09.50 although we theoretically couldn't book in until 09.00 they took our baggage and booked us in and escorted us to the lounge where we stayed until our flight was called after being able to shower and freshen up.Had a nice flight to Port Blair arriving at 2.00 there we had to fill another entry form which we were supposed to carry at all times. The Indian Government are very sensitive about these islands and movement is restricted, it's also a military base Port Blair is a military airport so that doesn't help.Anyway we finally got away and were picked up by Barfoot reps and driven to their office to wait as the ferry didn't leave until 2.30. It was a hair raising ride through very dodgy roads full of jeeps and scooters cows and goats there we can across another English honeymoon couple that had apparently been on our planes. In due course we were taken off to the harbour to struggle aboard the ferry which had been pensioned off from the Greek Islands 30 years ago we had first class seats which turned out to be in bowels of the ship on some tatty plastic ex bus seats. We spent the journey on deck!! When we arrived it was dark one of the problems of India is they have the same time zone for a huge country so where we were it gets dark about 5 o'clock. We then had a bumpy & again hair raising 3/4 hours drive in a jeep to Barfoot. From then on it was wonderful the accomodation is of a good standard without doubt head and shoulders above the rest and on by far the better side of the island very beautiful and set a few metres back in the forest from the long white sand beach. We didn't go for diving there's good snorkelling a little farther down the beach at Neils Cove where mostly not more than six people on it.There were three wonderful sea eagles living in the area. Elelphants pass us on their way home and the forest is also home to wild boar.By western standards the holiday is cheap (certainly compared to the Maldives) but nationals would find it expensive particularly compared to other places on the Island. There was yoga and trips by canoe through the mangrove forest snorkelling trips to other bays and also Neil Island although landing is now forbidden.If anyone wants to know more I will be pleased to help
Regards
Doug

Doug
that sounds a fascinating trip- certainly different

We flew into India to holiday for a month; the only thing we booked in advance was a hotel in Delhi for two nights (arrival) and one in Calcutta for two nights (departure).

We had not planned anything and did not have a clue what to do or see we just had our guidebook. On the second day we booked a car and driver for 15 days (£40 pounds a day that included fuel and hotels.)

We visited, Jhunjhunu, Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Ranakpur, Udaipur, Pushkar, Jaipur and Agra.
Then we left our car and driver and started using the train system to Varanasi, Darjeeling and Calcutta.

I wish had had more time to tell you the details, it was a blast from a derailed train to the police turning up when we were trying to buy a pack of 10 cigarettes and the stall holder was trying to sell us an open pack of 9.

This holiday will go down as one of my best, full of mad things happening in a totally disorganised nice way.

please tell us more- I, for one, would love to hear

i went to India in January, we started at delhi, then went to Jaipur then udipur then Ranthambore, where i got to see tigers in the wild which was amazing. we continued on to Agra and then back to delhi.

it is an amazing place, thats for sure.

Ola

sounds like a great trip- what were your highlights?