Trip to Taj Mahal between Christmas and NY.

Hi again,

We wil be staying in Candolim between December 21st and Jan 5th and would love to fit in a trip to the Taj Mahal at some point during our stay. As it will be the festive season and undoubtably busy, i was wondering if anyone could offer any advice on the better option.... booking the trip as soon as possible or simply leaving it to book when we arrive?

Thanks again everyone,

Sarah x

Trip to Taj Mahal between Christmas and NY.

This is peak season for airflights in India so you may find it pretty expensive to do it at this time of year.

We looked to do it in December last year but these prices put us off.

Get in touch with www.daytrippergoa.com and ask Eddie, the owner, as he is the best person to ask.

Trip to Taj Mahal between Christmas and NY.

It depends on how your international flights are booked - ideally you should fly internationally into Delhi or out of Delhi, and visit the Taj Mahal either at the beginning or at the end. That saves you the cost of additional domestic flights.

If you are booked into Goa through some route other than Delhi, then I recommend you fly on Jan 2 to Delhi. That way you will be spared all the incredibly high prices (and additional forced dinner supplements).

I suspect the cheapest tour operators for the Taj Mahal are Delhi based, although I am not sure. There are several posts in the Delhi forums recommending car rental companies. You can also book train tickets to Agra in advance. If you are on a very tight budget there is a company called Panicker Travels which does day trips to Agra by bus from Delhi, the cost is something like Rs 800 for the day. You could look up their website, they have online booking.

Take some warm clothing if you do get to the Taj. The temp was 4 deg c at 8 am when we were there on Jan 4 some years ago. Gets up to about 21 deg later in day.