Travelling For The First Time To India, Follow These Tips

Incredible, colossal, bamboozling, diverse, multicultural, interesting, chaotic, exuberance, squalid yet generous- few words to describe India. These words are here to give you an insight into what you will find in India. India is beyond these words. Traveling across India, you will find many wonders that will amaze you to the core, something beyond your imagination.

Travelers coming from a totally different environment for the first time to India may find it overwhelming and daunting but don’t worry. If you follow some of these travel tips and tricks, you can have a seamless and enjoyable trip to India.

Let’s take a look at some of these travel tips for first-time travelers to India.

Keep yourself cool and calm
When you are traveling to India, you need a lot of patience in yourself. You need to learn to keep yourself cool and calm. In India, you will come across many people who will test your patience, but you need to maintain your anger, be polite with them. When they see a foreigner, they may try to strike a conversation with you, get to know, may ask some personal questions and all, but don’t get offended by this. In India, people don’t follow the word personal space that well, this is because people here are raised in joint families and believe in sharing. Indians are very delighted to see a foreigner, some will keep staring at you, some may ask to take photos with you but what they don’t know is that it can make you feel uncomfortable. But don’t worry, take a deep breath, put a smile on your face and carry forward with your itinerary.

Stay healthy

When you are traveling to India, you are bound to taste the diverse cuisine of India but be careful with it. You don’t want to get ill by eating something unhealthy. Avoid drinking tap water and things made in it. Avoid eating street food unless they are made in hygienic conditions like workers using sanitized gloves, using mineral water. When buying water bottles, keep in mind that it is sealed. Till the time you are in India, be vegetarian. You will find a lot of vegetarian options compared to non-vegetarian, go with them. An important tip, when you are traveling in the countryside, you will find people eating with their hands and not with spoons. Try eating with your hands. Keep hand sanitizer, anti-bacterial wipes with you to clean your hands after you eat. Also, make sure to carry with yourself your medicine box which has all the medicines you may need.

Learn the basic Indian etiquettes and manners
1. Dress up according to Indians:

Indians have a quite conservative mind when it comes to dressing especially for women. Avoid wearing short and open clothes. You can wear knee length frocks, jeans, trousers, etc. Basically, anything and everything which covers you up is fine in India.

2. Respect elders: Giving respect to elders is a big thing in India. You will find people respecting their elders and even the younger people around them. So when you go to India, always respect the person you are talking to irrespective of their age and gender.

3. Know the temples:

Wearing slippers or shoes in a temple or any religious place in India is a big NO, so remove them along with your socks (at safe side) at the entrance of the temples. Also, there are some temples where only men’s are allowed, some have the proper attire to wear. Get to know which temple you are going and what is allowed and what is prohibited there.

4. Check out the gender-specific places: In India, you will find some places reserved only for women such as, in public transport, some seats are reserved, and you will find only women queues, in trial rooms separate for both the genders. Make sure you follow these rules.

Stay away from the crowds

India is a country with an enormous population. So you ought to have some places, especially the metropolitan and big cities more crowded than the others. So avoid going to such places. You can spend 2-3 day trip to these cities and more time in the countryside (small towns and villages). The city’s hustle bustle is fun when there is a festival going on but other than that it can be very tiring for you.

Choose the best route
India is such a big country that one cannot travel across the country at once. You need to plan your trip very carefully and in advance. Don’t be in a hurry to go to a new place, spend a few days at a single place and explore it fully and then travel to a new destination. You can plan your itinerary after researching the places which fall under a similar category can be done together. Like if you wish to go on a spiritual trip, you can go to places like Varanasi, Allahabad, Ayodhya, Haridwar, Rishikesh together in North, in South to temples like Meenakshi Temple, Tirupathi, etc. If you are a fan of adventures and trekking, go to tourist’s spots in the Himalayas, in North-East. You can cover Agra, Delhi, Jaipur, Jodhpur and nearby places together.

So, first, make your choice what you wish to see and plan accordingly.