Do I need a visa to visit India?

Most travelers need a visa, and the e-visa system at indianvisaonline.gov.in is the easiest route for tourism — apply five to seven days before travel, upload a passport photo, and receive an electronic visa good for 30 days, one year, or five years. Arrive with a printed copy. Nationals of a handful of countries including Nepal and Bhutan enter without a visa.

Is India safe for solo female travelers?

Yes with precautions — many women travel India solo every year and have extraordinary trips, but it takes more situational awareness than most destinations. Stick to well-reviewed hotels, avoid walking alone after dark in quieter areas, use Uber or Ola rather than street auto-rickshaws at night, and dress modestly with shoulders and knees covered. Kerala, Rajasthan's main tourist towns, and Himachal are generally considered the most comfortable regions to start in.

Will I get sick from the food or water?

You might have a stomach upset in the first week — nearly everyone does — but severe illness is avoidable. Drink only sealed bottled or filtered water, skip ice in smaller restaurants, eat at places with high turnover, and start your trip with cooked vegetarian food before working up to street snacks. Carry oral rehydration salts and a course of antibiotics from home in case something hits harder.

How many days do I need for a first trip?

Two weeks minimum to visit one region properly. The classic first-timer route is the Golden Triangle of Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur over six or seven days, then Udaipur and Jodhpur for another five, finishing with a couple of days back in Delhi. Trying to add Kerala or Ladakh in the same trip usually means rushing both — better to save the south or the Himalayas for a second visit.

Is tap water safe to drink in India?

No — do not drink tap water anywhere in India, including at mid-range hotels. Buy sealed bottled water, check that the seal is intact, or use a SteriPEN or filter bottle. Brush your teeth with bottled water for the first week until your stomach adjusts. Most restaurants serve filtered water that is generally fine at reputable establishments, but ask if you are unsure.

TravelCharted

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India

Asia

A subcontinent of staggering diversity, India holds ancient temples, Mughal monuments, Himalayan peaks, and tropical backwaters within one kaleidoscopic whole.

Capital: New Delhi
Population: 1.43B
Currency: INR
Languages: Hindi, English

Overview

A subcontinent rather than a country, India holds Himalayan peaks, tropical backwaters, Mughal mausoleums, and more languages than the European Union — and it asks you to take it on its own terms. Travelers come for the Taj Mahal, dawn on the ghats of Varanasi, Rajasthan's fort-capped cities, and food that shifts every two hundred kilometers down the road. Your first morning will overwhelm you. The honking, the crowds, the way the street itself seems to be a shared living room where cows, auto-rickshaws, marigold sellers, and small fires all occupy the same square of pavement — none of it is a problem you can solve, and by day three you stop trying. What replaces the noise is a kind of attention. You learn to read the scale of things: the way a single cup of chai at six in the morning can reorder your whole day, how a stranger's small kindness on a crowded train is the actual texture of the country. India rewards travelers who come with time. Two weeks is the minimum to visit one region properly — the Golden Triangle and a stretch of Rajasthan, or Kerala's backwaters and the hill stations above, or Ladakh in summer — and trying to cover two distant regions in a single trip usually means you experience neither. Pack light cotton clothes that cover shoulders and knees, carry a good stomach and a loose schedule, and expect the country to rearrange your assumptions.

Things to Do

Taj Mahal in Agra

Shah Jahan's marble mausoleum for his wife Mumtaz Mahal is the single building that lives up to every photograph you have ever seen of it. Go at sunrise — gates open at dawn and the first hour is when the light crosses the inlaid pietra dura and the crowds have not yet filled the main platform. Stay in Agra the night before rather than doing it as a Delhi day trip; the drive back on the Yamuna Expressway is a hard way to end an experience that deserves an evening to settle.

Varanasi's Ganges ghats at dawn

The holiest city on the Ganges is also the oldest continuously inhabited city on earth, and a pre-sunrise boat ride past the bathing ghats is the clearest window into living Hindu practice you will find. Book a small rowboat rather than a motor launch, push off from Assi Ghat at around five-thirty, and let the boatman drift you north past Dashashwamedh. Evening brings the Ganga Aarti — a choreographed fire ceremony worth staying another night for.

Jaipur's Amber Fort and Hawa Mahal

The pink city is Rajasthan's easiest-to-reach capital and a natural gateway for first-time visitors. Amber Fort sits on a ridge outside town in honey-colored sandstone — go early and walk up rather than taking a jeep, so you arrive with the first light on the mirror work of the Sheesh Mahal. Back in the city center, the Hawa Mahal's honeycomb facade was built for palace women to watch street processions unseen, and a ten-minute stop across the road is all it needs.

Kerala backwater houseboat cruise

Three hundred miles of interconnected canals, lagoons, and rivers thread the rice-growing country of central Kerala, and a converted rice barge is the way to sleep on them. Overnight cruises leave from Alleppey and move slowly past coconut groves and stilt-fishing villages; the food on board — karimeen fish curry, red rice, coconut chutney — is often the best meal of the trip. One night is enough, two is better, and skip the day cruise.

Rajasthan's Udaipur Lake Palace and Jodhpur blue city

Udaipur's white marble palace floating in the middle of Lake Pichola is now a hotel, and drinks on the terrace at sunset are available to non-guests via a boat transfer from the city palace jetty. Three hours north, Jodhpur's old city spreads below the Mehrangarh Fort as a sea of indigo-washed houses — climb the fort first thing in the morning and then get lost in the lanes below, ending up at Shahi Samosa for the best lunch in Rajasthan.

Goa's beaches and Portuguese churches

Four hundred and fifty years of Portuguese rule left Goa with whitewashed churches, Latin-inflected Konkani cuisine, and a quite different rhythm from the rest of the country. The north beaches around Anjuna and Vagator are busy and youthful; Palolem and Agonda in the south are calmer with thatched beach huts you can book for the week. Pair the coast with a day in Old Goa's Basilica of Bom Jesus and a lunch of pork vindaloo at a village canteen.

Hampi's boulder-strewn temple ruins

The former capital of the Vijayanagara empire sat on a landscape of improbable granite boulders in northern Karnataka, and the temple complexes that survive — Virupaksha, Vittala with its stone chariot, the Hemakuta hill group — are spread across an area you can explore for days by bicycle or moped. Sunrise from Matanga Hill over the entire ruin-field is the defining memory most travelers leave with. Stay in Hampi village on the south bank, or across the river in the palm-shaded guesthouses of Virupapur Gaddi.

Ladakh's high-altitude monasteries

The high desert of Ladakh sits at 3,500 meters in the western Himalayas and opens fully only from June through September, when the mountain roads from Manali and Srinagar clear. Base in Leh for a few days to acclimatize, then visit Thiksey at dawn for morning prayers, Hemis for its monastery frescoes, and the moonscape of Lamayuru on the drive toward Kargil. The light up here is unlike anywhere else in the country — thin, hard, and unforgivingly clear.

When to Go

October through March is the prime window for most of the country — cool dry weather across the northern plains, Rajasthan, and the south, and the only reasonable time for the Golden Triangle. December and January can be genuinely cold in Delhi and Agra, with morning fog that delays flights, so pack layers. Kerala and the southern coast are best from December to February. Ladakh and the high Himalayas flip the calendar: June through September is the only season they open. Avoid May's pre-monsoon heat and the July–August monsoon unless you specifically want green landscapes in the Western Ghats.

Getting Around

Trains are the backbone of long-distance travel and one of the great experiences of the country — book AC2 or AC3 class a month ahead on the IRCTC site for overnight routes, and the Vande Bharat or Shatabdi services for daytime intercity hops. Domestic flights on IndiGo and Air India are cheap and have made Ladakh, the northeast, and the far south realistic in a two-week trip. In cities, Uber and Ola work well everywhere they operate; elsewhere, negotiate auto-rickshaw fares before you get in, or ask your hotel for a reasonable rate. Renting a car yourself is not advisable — hire a car with driver instead, which usually runs 3,000–4,500 rupees a day with fuel.

Cost & Currency

India uses the rupee (INR), and it remains one of the cheapest countries to travel well in. Mid-range hotels in Delhi, Jaipur, or Udaipur run 3,000–6,000 rupees a night ($35–$70); a thali lunch at a local restaurant is 150–400 rupees, and a beer at a tourist cafe 250–500. Heritage hotels and Taj-group palaces can run 15,000 rupees and up — worth it once or twice for the experience. ATMs are everywhere and most accept foreign cards; carry a few thousand rupees in small notes for auto-rickshaws, tips, and temple donations. UPI and card payments dominate in cities, but cash still rules in rural areas. Tipping 10% at sit-down restaurants and 50–100 rupees to drivers at day's end is standard.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a visa to visit India?: Most travelers need a visa, and the e-visa system at indianvisaonline.gov.in is the easiest route for tourism — apply five to seven days before travel, upload a passport photo, and receive an electronic visa good for 30 days, one year, or five years. Arrive with a printed copy. Nationals of a handful of countries including Nepal and Bhutan enter without a visa.
Is India safe for solo female travelers?: Yes with precautions — many women travel India solo every year and have extraordinary trips, but it takes more situational awareness than most destinations. Stick to well-reviewed hotels, avoid walking alone after dark in quieter areas, use Uber or Ola rather than street auto-rickshaws at night, and dress modestly with shoulders and knees covered. Kerala, Rajasthan's main tourist towns, and Himachal are generally considered the most comfortable regions to start in.
Will I get sick from the food or water?: You might have a stomach upset in the first week — nearly everyone does — but severe illness is avoidable. Drink only sealed bottled or filtered water, skip ice in smaller restaurants, eat at places with high turnover, and start your trip with cooked vegetarian food before working up to street snacks. Carry oral rehydration salts and a course of antibiotics from home in case something hits harder.
How many days do I need for a first trip?: Two weeks minimum to visit one region properly. The classic first-timer route is the Golden Triangle of Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur over six or seven days, then Udaipur and Jodhpur for another five, finishing with a couple of days back in Delhi. Trying to add Kerala or Ladakh in the same trip usually means rushing both — better to save the south or the Himalayas for a second visit.
Is tap water safe to drink in India?: No — do not drink tap water anywhere in India, including at mid-range hotels. Buy sealed bottled water, check that the seal is intact, or use a SteriPEN or filter bottle. Brush your teeth with bottled water for the first week until your stomach adjusts. Most restaurants serve filtered water that is generally fine at reputable establishments, but ask if you are unsure.