What to know before travelling to India

India is the more difficult country to travel in. The two things are inseparable, the chaos and the payoff are the same thing. But there are a significant number of things that would have saved me time, money, and one genuinely baffling hour outside an Agra hotel if I’d known them before I
arrived.

This is the list I’d have wanted. Fifteen things to know before travelling to India, written from actual experience rather than a guidebook.

Why India needs its own briefing

Most experienced travellers have a set of assumptions that work reasonably well across South-East Asia, South America, even parts of the Middle East. India tests all of them. The gap between expectation and reality is wider here than almost anywhere else, and it catches people who’ve travelled extensively before.

That’s not a criticism. It’s a calibration. India operates on its own logic, and once you understand that logic, the trip becomes dramatically easier. The people who struggle most are usually those who
arrive expecting the friction to be temporary,  a first-day thing that smooths out once you find your feet. Some of it does. Some of it is just India.

The sixteen points below are roughly in the order you’ll encounter them. Be sure to read number 16, especially if you are or are travelling with women.

This matters more than the hotel point, in some ways. We travelled  partly in the off-season and found that many restaurants, guesthouses,  and attractions by the coast had inconsistent information across Google Maps, their own websites, and third-party booking platforms,  sometimes all showing different statuses simultaneously.

For anything you’re making a specific trip to visit, confirm by phone or message the day before. This applies to monuments (which sometimes close for government functions or maintenance with very little notice), guided tours, and restaurant reservations. The ten minutes it takes to call ahead has saved a wasted journey more than once.

This applies to almost every cash-heavy travel destination, but it’s particularly accurate in India. Drivers, street food vendors, market sellers, temple donation boxes, and tipping situations all run on small notes, and getting change for a ₹500 or ₹2,000 note from a tuk-tuk driver or a chai stall is genuinely difficult.

Aim to keep a float of: ₹10, ₹20, ₹50, and ₹100 notes in a separate pocket from your main wallet. Break large notes whenever you have a legitimate opportunity, like at  a supermarket, hotel, larger restaurant. ATMs often dispense ₹500 notes by default, which compounds the problem.

Delhi gets a lot of bad press, some of which is deserved and some of which is outdated. The city is large, loud, and fast, but it’s also navigable once you understand its rhythm.

The areas most likely to feel overwhelming to a first-time visitor are Old Delhi (Chandni Chowk, the spice market, Jama Masjid) and the busier market areas on weekend evenings. These are also some of the most interesting places to spend time,  the chaos is the point. Going in the morning, before noon, changes the experience significantly.

New Delhi (the areas around Connaught Place, Lodhi Colony, Hauz Khas) has a completely different pace. Green, relatively calm, good food, and a useful base to recover from the more intense parts of the city.

What to do: If Delhi is your entry point and you’re not used to high-density urban environments, give yourself a full day in the calmer parts of the city before heading into Old Delhi. Arrive in Old Delhi by 8am if you want to move freely.

India’s streets range from polished marble temple courtyards (where you’ll be barefoot anyway) to unpaved lanes that become muddy in the wet season and dusty in the dry.

Bring comfortable, closed-toe walking shoes that you genuinely don’t mind destroying. Sandals work in some contexts but leave your feet exposed to dust and, in monsoon season, considerably worse things. Many temples and religious sites require shoes to be removed at the entrance,
simple slip-ons make this less annoying, but make sure they have enough support for a day of walking on uneven surfaces.

Train travel is the best way to cover distance in India: cheap, extensive, and an experience in itself. It is also, for a first-timer, genuinely confusing in ways that guidebooks tend to understate.

A few things that aren’t obvious:

Platform assignments change. Your ticket will have a platform number. Check it again when you arrive. Check it again 20 minutes before departure. Platforms can change at short notice, and
there’s no guarantee of an announcement in English.

Your coach position matters. Indian trains are long, sometimes 24 carriages and your specific carriage (printed on your ticket) won’t be in the middle. Small screens on the platform show the
coach order. Find your carriage marker on the platform before the train arrives; don’t try to find it once 800 people are also trying to board.

Booking classes. For tourists, the most commonly used classes are 3A (three-tier air-conditioned sleeper, reasonable comfort, lockable berths), 2A (two-tier, more space, more privacy), and CC (air-conditioned chair car for daytime journeys). Avoid unreserved class (UR) unless you’re experienced,  it’s exactly what it sounds like.

Book on IRCTC. The Indian Railways’ own platform (irctc.co.in)
is the official booking route. Foreign tourists need to create an account with a valid passport. There’s also a tourist quota on most major routes that keeps some seats back for same-day or short-notice
booking, which is useful if you’re travelling without a fixed itinerary.

What to do: Download the NTES (National Train Enquiry System) app for real-time platform and delay information. If you’re confused on the platform, find a conductor or a station master, they can check your carriage assignment on the spot.

Road travel in India is fast, assertive, and unpredictable. Drivers
overtake on bends, sound their horns more or less continuously, and
treat the road markings as advisory. This is standard across the country
and most drivers are genuinely skilled at it — the accident rate is not
as bad as the noise level suggests.

But if you have any history of motion sickness, mountain roads (Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Ladakh, parts of Rajasthan) will test you. Long bus journeys in particular,  the vehicles are often not new, the roads are often not smooth. Take tablets before you need them rather
than after.

Front seats help. Keeping your eyes on the road ahead helps. Avoiding heavy meals before a long road journey helps.

India uses a mix of socket types — primarily Type C (European  two-pin) and Type D (the large round three-pin that’s specific to India and a handful of other countries). In parts of North India, you may encounter only Type D, which nothing from a UK or European plug collection will fit without an adapter.

Buy a universal travel adapter before you leave home. Don’t assume your hotel will have one. Power cuts and voltage fluctuations are more common than in Western Europe,  a surge-protected multi-plug is worth having if you’re travelling with expensive camera equipment or multiple
devices.

Hiring a licensed guide at major monuments is genuinely worthwhile, the context they provide at a site like Fatehpur Sikri or the Red Fort transforms the visit. But it helps to go in with clear eyes about how the guide economy operates.

Licensed guides earn commission from shops, restaurants, and businesses they steer you towards. This is standard practice and largely accepted on all sides. The issue arises when the shopping stop takes longer than the actual monument, or when the guide’s interpretation of your interests is “would you like to see my friend’s carpet shop.”

Be specific upfront about what you want and what you don’t. “I’m not interested in stopping at any shops” is a complete sentence. Most guides will respect it; some won’t, and you should be prepared to be firm about it.

Guides hired through your hotel concierge or through official government tourist offices are generally more accountable than those who approach you at the entrance to a site.

Many drivers are reluctant to travel late at night or early in the morning, especially for long distances, due to safety concerns like poor highway visibility, heavy truck traffic, animals on the road or dense seasonal fog. Plan accordingly and book in advance if you have an early flight or train; relying on a trusted hotel car service or a pre-booked, reputable intercity transport provider ensures you won’t be left stranded on the curb when you have a strict departure deadline to meet.

If you’re considering India as your first independent trip in Asia, it’s worth being honest about what that involves. The navigation complexity, the accommodation variance, the transport system, and the general level of sensory intensity are all higher than most other
popular backpacking routes in the region.

Countries like Thailand, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, and Nepal offer a gentler introduction to independent travel in Asia while sharing some of the same appeal: affordability, incredible food, extraordinary
landscapes, and genuine cultural richness. Coming to those first and then India gives better experience.

The solo backpacker social scene that exists across South-East Asia (guesthouses, party hostels, banana pancake trails) is largely absent in India. You’ll meet people, but the infrastructure that funnels backpackers together in Thailand simply doesn’t exist in the same way.

This isn’t a reason not to go. It’s a reason to go prepared.

This is probably the most important point on this list, and the one most travel articles handle most carefully. It’s worth being direct about.

In North India in particular, certain races and appearances draw a very high level of attention from local men, staring, requests for photos, and in some cases being followed. On Reddit and various travel forums, solo female travellers have described the experience as feeling like being a zoo exhibit, which is an uncomfortable but not inaccurate description of what some people report.

This is not universal, and it varies enormously by region. South India, Goa, Rajasthan’s tourist circuit, and urban areas with significant international tourism tend to be more relaxed. Rural North
India and some parts of Delhi’s older areas are where this is most concentrated.

Practical guidance:

• Dress modestly in temples, religious sites, and rural areas,  covered shoulders and legs is the baseline. This is practical, not a critique.
• “No, thank you” said firmly and without extended eye contact is more effective than an explanation.
• Travelling with even one other person, male or female  can change the dynamic.
• If a photo request feels persistent or uncomfortable, a flat refusal is fine. You don’t owe anyone a photo of yourself.
• The staring rarely escalates beyond staring. But it can be exhausting over a long trip, and it’s worth knowing about before you arrive rather than experiencing it without context.

Women travelling alone report wildly different experiences in India,  from incredibly warm hospitality to genuine discomfort. Doing specific research for your planned regions, and reading recent accounts from solo female travellers (the r/solotravel subreddit is a good source), will
give you a more accurate picture than any single article can.

India rewards those who research the specific regions they’re visiting rather than treating the country as a uniform destination. North and South India are more different from each other than many European countries are from their neighbours, and what’s true for Delhi isn’t necessarily true for Kerala.

A few genuinely useful resources:

• The r/indiatravel and r/solotravel subreddits have current,
  experience-based advice that tends to be more accurate than dated
  guidebooks.
• The IRCTC website (irctc.co.in) for train bookings,  create your account well before you travel, as the verification process can take a day or two.
• India’s e-visa system (indianvisaonline.gov.in) is straightforward for most nationalities; apply at least two weeks before departure.

If you’re drawn to India as a photography destination specifically, the light in Rajasthan during October and November is some of the best available anywhere, and the colour and cultural density of the Golden Triangle (Delhi, Agra, Jaipur) gives photographers a lot to work with in a compact circuit.