A tour to India is about exploring the wealth of nature and history besides carrying snapshots of precious moments that add to your pleasant memories. At the same time, you must also count upon a few expenses that you can’t evade. Since, there are many places in India that can be visited on a pocket friendly budget, while there are others curated for luxury experience. That’s one reason why you need to work on an initial budget before being ecstatic. Also, India has such a varied landscape. It gets really difficult to decide where all to visit. If this is the first time you are going to visit India, here’s a great list of places to visit in India for starters. And you want some more inspirations, here’s an interesting list of books set in India to further fuel your wanderlust and help you pick destinations within India.
Once you have zeroed down on the places, plan for a minimum of 2 weeks Itinerary covering India, since less than this will not do justice. Next, consider a few important budgeting steps before you set out on your tour. Here we list some for you.
Table of Contents
Compare transportation methods
There are a few tourist hotspots that prove to be expensive in terms of transportation cost. Like, you may need to board a plane or rent a car or book your seat on a cruise ship. So that you will be the last person to face any hassle while you’re on vacation. And return empty handed. You must determine the cost of renting cars, boarding a plane or traveling in a ship depending on your requirement. You must remember that traveling by air is often more expensive although it saves much time. So, you ought to choose your transportation options according to your budget.
Even after you’ve reached your destination, you may need to spend a good amount over local transportation both to and fro. You may even need to set some money aside for sight-seeing purposes. So, you’ll need to do some research on the cost of local transportation within and around your destination in advance. You may check the rates by calling any car rental agency that operates over your chosen vacation spot or you may check the rates online.
Consider lodging expenses on your tour to India
Lodging cost is another important factor that you need to consider in advance. You must determine your exact needs when it comes to lodging options as they tend to vary both in terms of quality and cost. You’re likely to come across a wide range of resorts and hotels if your destination invites large masses of tourists. You must choose a hotel that’s closer to your place of attraction and within the vicinity of all modes of transport. You’ll end up saving much in terms of travel costs.
Count the cost of meals on your tour to India
You must create a budget for your meals and that includes meals while you’re on the move. The cost of food items may vary between different places, so you must do your research on the local foods and their costs. You may choose to book a room with a hotel that has a kitchenette attached to it. It would certainly help you save much if you can manage to buy raw stuff from the local market and do a bit of cooking.
Determine the cost of sightseeing on your tour to India
If you’re traveling to a far off place, it’s natural for you to visit a few nearby sights of tourist interest. Many of these trips take a number of costs into account e.g. admittance, transportation etc. Try doing some research on your sight-seeing options. Take into account all costs pertaining to a visit to your favorite tourist spot. You must include them in your budget. It might help you save more when you opt for package tour options. These packages often include visiting the best sites and prove to be very cost-efficient.
It’s truly a nice idea for you to develop some comprehensive budget on traveling before your tour to India. You may consider the tourist reviews that you come across in search engines like Yelp and Google. By doing your research, you’re bound to get a fair idea of quality and quantity for your specific budget when you set out on a tour to India. This is truly important when you need to consider all daily expenses that you ought to fend for during your tour to India.
These days, you’re likely to come across a few websites that tend to provide you with great discounts on flight and hotel booking. You may choose to compare all Ixigo coupons on hotel stays and flight bookings and find out the best options. Also, use some of these proven tricks to book cheap flights. It will be of great help if you work towards setting aside some money every month prior to your visit. Also, if you are planning to tour India, you might want to checkout how to get a tourist visa for India specifically from USA on arrival. It’s always good to be prepared with all your documents for a hassle free travel.
PS: This is a guest post by Sheena. Sheena has her presence felt across a number of online fashion blogs and beauty magazines. She has thrown much light upon the latest trends and has brought forward attires that are in vogue. Her followers would never give up sharing her posts on buying fashion accessories.
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Great set of budget tips. I generally do not follow a budget while heading out on a trip and i feel very guilty at the end. Will keep your mentioned points in mind.
Thank you
I always plan thoroughly before I travel anywhere; I’ll do tons of research to make sure I budget for the things I really want to do on my trip. Your post was a useful reminder on what every traveler should keep in mind. I’d love to see an update of this post, with a bit more detail re actual costs or at least an estimate of daily expenditure. Thanks for sharing!
It’s difficult to provide an actual budget as there are loads of options available in India suiting all budget range. We can provide an example, however, for a particular destination and the minimum budget in which we think it can be done
I haven’t been to India and I’m really planning to visit. This is truly a big help for me and for those that are planning to visit India on budget. I like how you include all the necessary information. Your photos are really stunning. Thank you so much for sharing this with us.
Thanks a lot Samangka
These are really good tips. I have been thinking of visiting Goa because it has a lot of beautiful beaches and delicious local cuisine. I would probably need to bring a lot because I want to do so much. The hotels are probably expensive too but maybe there are budget hotels.
There are budget hotels and then there are homestays and holiday rentals in abundance that are much cost effective. Go through airbnb , I am sure you will find something suitable in your budget
Great tips 🙂 Especially in a place like India, where you can get really cheap to luxury prices for everything from accommodation to food, setting a budget can help. Also reviews help in deciding whether it’s worth splurging or not.
Absolutely right. We always check reviews, even if it’s a place we have been invited to
Holds true for most places. Very useful tips for any one headed to any part of the world. It really helps you plan better!
Thanks a lot Ami!
While I like the idea of the article I think an opportunity is lost here. Since it already talked about setting a budget, it would have been helpful if the actual cost of stuff was included here just to give us, the readers, an idea on how to go about setting the budget when going to India. For example, how much do you think a budget should be for a solo traveler or a couple in a 3D2N trip in Goa? Unfortunately, none was given, and it was all just pretty general.
It’s very difficult to give one generic estimate because India is a place where you can find accommodation for as cheap as a few hundred Indian rupees and it can go up to thousands of Indian rupees per night. Also, it will depend on the kind of sites you want to visit or what all you would want to do. For example, to quote back from your example, a 3D2N trip in Goa can be done in Indian Rupees 5000 also, and it can be done in Indian Rupees 5 lakhs also. So, it’s about setting your budget and then you can look for options in that range, flexing it a bit
In my opinion, this blog will appeal to the domestic as well as foreign tourists. However, a few tips on how to do bargaining while shopping in India would have been a great help!
(Ambuj Saxena)
thanks for the tip Ambuj, will include that in the next edit
This is true. Before my trip to India, I also laid out almost every thing according to budget. Except that I was not able to book my train tickets from Mumbai to Jaipur (for some reason, the website won’t work in Manila). In Mumbai, my hotel helped me with the booking although the price was a surprise to the budget plan.
Oh..that’s bad Joan. You might have booked at the end moment and thus got a ‘tatkal’ ticket and the pricing of that immediate ticket is almost double the normal pricing.
Great tips! Spent two weeks India but I need to go back and see more of this fascinating country.
Great to know that. Hope you will have many more wonderful tips to India. There is so much to explore here.
Thanks for pointing out that you should always know what your holidays will cost. I can’t imagine how many people might have shown up without any clue! Of course if people are foolish enough to travel without doing research, I think they probably get what they have coming, don’t you think?
I have a little different perspective. Sometimes people are constrained by time. So what happens, they book a packaged tour at the end moment and sometimes pay even three four times what it would actually cost, because they have no clue about the cost. If they plan a little ahead and set a budget aside, they will be able to save so much
this is great because I think so many people assume that India is so cheap (which it can be) that they just overlook their budget but then when they return its like “whammo!” when they see how much they spent.
When we were in India for a month in January, we loved it and found it so cost effective but every now and again we would over spend on something stupid just because we didn’t pay attention.
Great tips Neha
Thanks Eric! You are right. The range of options – be it accommodation or travel – vary a lot in India. So depending on how much one is ready to spend, everyone will find something.
These are all really important things to consider! Thank you!
Great post. Doing you’re research before you go is important and also another fun aspect of travel. I love finding out as much as I can before I set foot on a plane.
You are right Kevin
Factoring in travel expenses and comparing one mode to another is super important. Thank you for the helpful reminder.
Thanks Jon. You are so right
India has always been on my bucket list and I have been hesitant to travel there. Thanks for the detailed information, will keep this for future use!
Oh..if you have any hesitations, feel free to talk to me, I will be able to help you for sure.
Thank you for sharing these tips, because I tend to live a spontaneous lifestyle and not consider everything!
Thanks. Glad you find it useful
I totally agree with setting out a budget before a major trip. Sometimes it can be really tedious to do, but pays off in the end. I also think it is a really good idea to bring extra than exactly what you’ve budgeted for. Just in case. 🙂
Absolutely agree with you. Thats even more important to do when you are traveling from abroad. Because it might happen your bank website won’t be functional or your ATM / Credit card won’t work for some reason
Thorough research and budgeting are very essential since it’s for an out of the country tour. Good thing is it can be applied to anywhere you want to go.
Thats so true
Working on the budget before you set out on your travels is very important. It becomes more important when you want to travel to a country like India with its vast area and range of things to do and visit. You have provided some valuable directions on how to proceed here.
Thanks Sandy N Vyjay! It’s indeed very important to set out a budget before heading for a trip