Hotels

We received info about hotels for our stay. We've been very satisfied with hotels and ships for each Grand Circle/OAT trip we've taken. Looks like this trip has very nice accommodations.

We arrive late at night/early morning in New Delhi.We can "sleep in" the first morning, but I'm sure I'll be up and ready for the day with breakfast at the hotel. Nothing scheduled until afternoon. Welcome dinner that evening is at a local restaurant for the 16 members of the group and our program director. There will be "home hosted" dinner with a middle class family our last night in New Delhi. (I recently found out that the Middle Class of India is larger than the entire population of the United States.That's a lot of people!)

After a day-long ride (stops and lunch along the way), we'll arrive at our next the Park Prime (hotel) in Jaipur for the next three nights. According to what I've read, it's in a good location for the places we'll visit in that area. Interesting that Jaipur is known as the "Pink City." This is because the buildings are sandstone. Many places to see in the area, including the observatory built in the 18th century that has giant sundials that are accurate to two-tenths of a second. (Works for me!)

When we leave Jaipur, we'll travel for about 5 hours (on bumpy roads) to the Ranthambore National Park. It is knows for its tiger conservation program. We're staying two nights at the Nahargarh Hotel, near the Park. Looks amazing. Of course I'll take lots of pictures while we're there, both of the hotel and during our game viewing in the Park.

The next day, we travel over another bumpy road and jeep ride ("over rugged terrain"), we'll arrive at the OAT Village Camp for a 1-night stay.There are 14 air-cooled, tent-roof cottages (with veranda and private bath) on the site, with a view of the Aravali Mountains.Dinner will be prepared by the camp cook, using fresh locally grown organic ingredients.
I'm looking forward to that meal.

We'll travel for a long time on our way to Agra. From past experience, I'm sure there will be stops along the way. We're staying at the Jaypee Palace Hotel for the next two nights. This will be a wonderful place to stay during our visit to the Taj Mahal. We'll have a chance to see sunrise at the Taj Mahal. (We hoped to see sunrise at Angkor Wat but never did. Light came but no sun.)

We'll travel for a long day via train and bus on a bumpy road (I wonder if there are roads that aren't bumpy.) arriving to spend one night at the Radisson Jass Hotel in Khajuraho.Dinner and breakfast the next morning will be at the hotel. Will be good to relax after a long day of travel.


The next day, we'll spend time visiting sites and then take a flight to Varanasi and a two night stay at the Radisson Varanasi. The lobby area looks beautiful. We'll spend time on a boat, taking a cruise on the Ganges to look at everyday life in this very holy city. People do "everything" in the river (washing clothes, taking ritual dips, etc.) with no concern for the cleanliness (or lack of). We'll have our "farewell dinner" here before departing the next day.

Our last day will be spent partly in Varanasi and later, after an afternoon flight to Delhi, in Gurgaon at the Park Premier Hotel. We arrive at the airport at 4 PM. With the time it will take to get our luggage and the drive to the hotel, we probably won't arrive there until dinnertime. Dinner is "on our own" so will eat something light. Will probably take a nap and shower before we have to go back to the airport for our 2:30 AM flight to Heathrow.

Only 28 days until we leave!