Destination Spotlight: Incredible India

March 30, 2015 | By Linda Smith

Andavo Travel advisor, Linda N Smith, inside the Amber Fort on her trip to India.

I just returned from a trip to India where I visited Delhi, Agra and Jaipur – together referred to as the Golden Triangle. Delhi is the capital city of India and it’s divided into two parts – Old Delhi and New Delhi – and is a mixture of the old world with the new. Agra is the home of India’s most famous monument and one of the Seven Wonders of the World, the Taj Mahal. It’s a must-see destination on anyone’s trip. And then we visited India’s desert capital, Jaipur, referred to as the Pink City because of the pink walls and buildings of the old city.

The colorful women of Jaipur, India

India is a really a diverse country. There are modern buildings mixed in with palaces, forts and temples. Colorfully-dressed woman in beautiful saris, camels pulling carts, and the craziest drivers I have ever seen. I would never drive in this country and recommend that if you go there to hire a driver or go with a group. It seems there are no rules on the road and cars, bikes, and green and yellow tuk tuks (auto-type rickshaws) dart in and out of traffic honking their horns constantly. Once you get out of the major cities, the roads aren’t the greatest either.

The Taj Mahal

When you go to India I would also recommend staying in first class hotels. They have a lot of beautiful palaces that have been converted into hotels and in Agra they have built several new hotels that just opened in the past few months to accommodate travelers coming to the Taj Mahal.

The slogan “Incredible India” is really true. I loved the country, the people, and the many wonderful UNESCO sites there are to see. January through March is a great time to visit this area of the world, as in April and May it starts to get hot, and then the rainy season will arrive.

Incredible architecture in one of India’s forts.