Our 9-Stop 🗺️ West-Coast India Travel Plan
We found ourselves four months out from a departure date, staring at a spreadsheet with the intensity of a bomb squad technician. Choosing the best dates and flights for a long-haul trip to the tropics involves more than making a swift selection five minutes before heading to the airport.
In fact, we treat it like a military operation (minus the fitness and the uniforms). When we hunt for the best travel opportunities—be it the Seychelles, India, or the Caribbean—we start our travel plan well in advance.
Highlights
- From Ruins to Rickshaws 🗺️
- The Route 📍 Our 3-Week Breakdown
- Our Travel Plan 💸 Budget
- Useful Accessories for the Tropics
- The World’s Top 100 Airlines
- All Hotel Options in Mumbai
- Checkout our Related Articles
- Things We Carry on the Plane
✈️ The Great Airline Beauty Pageant
The major cost of most trips to the tropics is the airfare, a reality that can make your bank account weep. The secret to snagging the cheapest fares on the best airlines is to start searching several months before the trip. We’ve found that flexibility is our best weapon; we’re essentially the contortionists of the travel world when it comes to dates.
Initially, we toyed with several promising itineraries:
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The Caribbean: A relocation cruise back to Europe (we liked the idea of being human cargo).
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The Seychelles: A confusing route from Rome returning to Paris.
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South Africa: Via Dublin (because why not add more Guinness to the mix?).
We researched each primary destination in search of the best flights.
When we say “best” we don’t necessarily mean the cheapest. We have standards, after all 🧐
While Air Seychelles offered some deals, we knew we’d get exactly what we paid for. We checked the World’s Top 100 Airlines and discovered that Air Seychelles didn’t even make the list. For a long-haul flight, we want an airline in the top 20, or ideally, the top 5.
This was how we stumbled upon what looked like a great deal: traveling to India with Turkish Airlines. At the time, they sat higher in the rankings than Emirates. We decided they were good enough for us, even if they’ve shuffled down the rankings a spot or two since then.
The Grand Itinerary 🗺️ From Ruins to Rickshaws
After we tried every possible date and city combination on the Turkish Airlines website—an activity that consumed more of our lives than we care to admit—we assembled a rich itinerary for our India travel plan.
Our final itinerary looked like this:
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Rome to Istanbul
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Istanbul to Mumbai
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Mumbai to Edinburgh
Our itinerary included 9 cities, 2 continents and 2 very full rucksacks. We planned to spend the bulk of our time in India, but managed to squeeze in three short city stays in Rome, Istanbul, and Edinburgh.
We paid just €457 per ticket. Once we booked that flight four months out, the trip became a reality. The schedule provided the framework; everything else had to bow to its logic.
Always be Planning…
Recreational travel can mean so much more than just the actual time spent travelling. Before the trip there is the anticipation, the preparation and the expectation. After the trip there is reaction, reflection, compilation and analysis. Over the years, we’ve probably spent as much time planning and recording our adventures as the time spent experiencing our trips.
Although sometimes frustrating, we enjoy these other aspects of our travels. The planning stage is really educational, so we don’t regret the trips we’ve planned which never (…as yet) came to fruition.
Flights, then More Flights
Our itinerary with Turkish Airlines meant we would be flying into and out of Mumbai Airport. We would therefore have 22 days in India starting and ending in Mumbai. On previous trips to India, we have visited the Rajastan area, and Chennai (Madras) down the east coast to Trivandrum.
On this trip we wanted to discover the west coast, between Mumbai and southern Kerala.
This is quite a distance to cover in just 22 days (3,400 km there and back again). We therefore decided to take a couple of internal flights to reduce the amount of time required to travel overland, which in India can be described as “eventful” at best and “soul-crushing” at worst..
We booked a domestic flight from Mumbai to Trivandrum, scheduled to depart around 6 hours after our arrival in Mumbai. This had several advantages: Firstly, we wouldn’t have to experience Mumbai twice (on our way in and on our way out)… And, in retrospect, experiencing Mumbai just the once is more than enough.
This also meant we’d get directly to our southern-most destination. From there, it would be (…simply?) a question of travelling slowly back up the coast, through Kerala, Karnatica and Goa to Mumbai.
We booked the domestic flight online with Jet Airways – which was one of the more popular Indian domestic airlines (certainly more popular than Indian Airways, although later Jet Airways went bankrupt).
Of course, we were taking a risk that our Turkish Airlines flight wouldn’t be delayed by more than 6 hours. It’s all a trade-off really: We booked early with Jet Airways to get the flight at a decent price – in our case, 4,043 rupees (€54) per person. Wait until you arrive and flights will either be fully booked or will cost twice as much.
The Route 📍 Our 3-Week Breakdown
Once we landed in Trivandrum, we planned to take a taxi to Kovalam. From there, we would use buses and trains to creep north toward Goa. We pre-booked another flight from Goa back to Mumbai two days before our international flight home. We didn’t want to leave anything to chance at the end.
| Stop | Destination | Duration | Vibe |
| 1 | Rome | 2 Nights | Pizza & Pedestrians |
| 2 | Istanbul | 2 Nights | Minarets & Leather |
| 3 | Kovalam | 3 Nights | Lighthouse & Languor |
| 4 | Varkala | 4 Nights | Cliffs & Curries |
| 5 | Kochi | 3 Nights | History & Nets |
| 6 | South Goa | 7 Nights | Beaches & Bliss |
| 7 | Mumbai | 2 Nights | Pure Unadulterated Chaos |
| 8 | Edinburgh | 3 Nights | Deep-fried Everything |
Stop 1 🍝 Rome
Rome was the starting point for our flights with Turkish Airlines. For us, this is a bonus destination to begin our holiday. We planned to spend 2 nights in Rome. Time enough to eat our body weight in pasta and pretend we understood the history of the Roman Forum.
We budgeted €300 for this section of our trip, including guesthouse, meals and transfers (€150 per day).
The Roman Forum – 1st stop before India
Stop 2 🕌 Istanbul
Since our Turkish Airlines flight stopped in Istanbul, we planned to spend 2 nights in Sultanahmet in the city center. Time for sight-seeing and, more importantly, go shopping (we’d need some warm leather coats when we hit Edinburgh in March, and Istanbul is the place to find them).
We budgeted €200 for this section of our trip, including guesthouse, meals and transfers (€100 per day), but excluding the leather-jacket-fund.
Blue Mosque & Hagia Sophia, Istanbul
Istanbul to Mumbai 😵💫
Since we were not planning to visit Mumbai city until our trip back out, we booked a domestic flight connection from Mumbai to Kovalam (Trivandrum airport). This flight was leaving a few hours after our Turkish Airlines flight was due to arrive.
We were winging it a bit here, assuming that our Turkish Airlines flight wouldn’t be delayed by more than 6 hours.
Gateway of India & Taj Mahal Hotel
Stop 3 🌴 Kovalam, Kerala
Once in Kovalam, we planned to spend 3 nights in an inexpensive but well-recommended guesthouse near the beach.
Our budget here, as with all our destinations in India apart from Mumbai, was €50 per day. Of this, we planned to limit our guesthouse costs to maximum €24 per night.
Stop 4 🦅 Varkala
Continuing the beach theme…
From Kovalam, we planned to move 55 km up the coast for a 4-night stay in Varkala (still in Kerala). We would be applying the same €50 per day budget here. After this we should be well-acclimatised and sufficiently relaxed.
We would probably travel up to Varkala using the local buses.
Varkala Backwater Rivers
Stop 5 🍵 Kochin
From Varkala, we would take either buses or a train to travel the 169 kms up to Kochi. In Fort Kochi, we expected more of a cultural experience, and could possibly try one of the backwater trips. For accommodation, we booked a guesthouse in Fort Kochi for 3 nights.
After that we had a gap in our schedule of 3 days. During this time, we planned to work our way northwards 733 kms up to Canacona in Goa. We already tried booking trains online, without success (most were fully booked 6 weeks before departure!). This was likely to be the ‘messy’ part of our trip: We’d just have to stay patient and be flexible with whatever options presented themselves.
A bit of adventure never hurt anyone, right?
Fort Kochi Spice Shops
Stop 6 🐄 Canacona, Goa
Assuming all went well with our travel arrangements, we’d arrive in South Goa at the start of our third week in India. Here, we’d be staying on Palolem beach, Canacona for the first few days.
We chose South Goa because of its reputation as a peaceful laid-back area, unlike some of the beaches in North Goa. Again, the budget remained at €50 per day. We just hoped there would be reasonable access to ATM machines in these areas.
Canacona, Palolem Beach
Stop 7 🧘 Agonda
Our second and final location in Goa was Agonda, just 12 kms north of Canacona, and reputedly one of the best beaches in India. This being the case, we planned to stay 4 nights here in a quiet guesthouse.
This would be our last taste of the easy life, before the culture shock that would surely be waiting for us in Mumbai.
India Travel Plan – Agonda Beach, Goa
Stop 8 🏛️ Mumbai
Agonda is only 60 kms from Vasco Da Gama airport, where we had pre-booked a flight back up to Mumbai. Our reasoning was that by this time we would have had enough of the local transport on buses and trains.
We were also running out of time, and overland travel in India is subject to long delays or cancellations, as well as being uncomfortable and tedious. It’s 625 kms between Agonda and Mumbai (10 hours by car), with the best of the sightseeing already behind us.
We pre-booked a hotel in the Fort area of Mumbai, with a pickup from the airport. Our plan was to stay just 2 nights so we could visit the Fort area, and maybe do a little shopping before leaving.
The Chaos that is Mumbai
Stop 9 🥃 Edinburgh
The last part of our trip would provide quite a contrast to everything that had gone before. With a change in temperature of around 25°, we’d be spending our last few days in Edinburgh, courtesy of Turkish Airlines.
We would be needing the leathers bought in Istanbul, plus every other item of warm clothing we carried with us.
We budgeted €450 for these last 3 days, including hotel, meals and transfers (€150 per day).
See our articles on Edinburgh.
The Beauty of Scotland: Edinburgh Castle
India Travel Plan 💸 Our Budget
Our budget (over 31 days) was divided into 3 areas, based on two people sharing::
♦ International flights.
♦ Domestic flights and trains
♦ Daily cash allowance for everything else (including accommodation)
International Flights: We booked 2 flights from Malta (our home base) to Rome with Ryanair for €54. Our Turkish Airlines flights (Rome – Istanbul – Mumbai – Edinburgh) cost us €914. Our return flights from Edinburgh to Malta (again with Ryanair) cost €130.
Domestic Flights and Trains: Four weeks before departure we went to the Jet Airways website and booked 2 domestic one-way flights: Mumbai to Trivandrum (8,086 rupees for 2 seats – €112) and Goa to Mumbai (5,112 rupees for 2 seats – €74). We also had to count on 2 train journeys: Varkala to Kochin (approximately 1,750 rupees for 2 seats – €24) and Kochin to Goa (approximately 5,085 rupees for 2 seats – €71). Train fares depend on which class is booked: More on this here.
Daily Cash Allowance: Four to five weeks before departure we went online and booked some of the guesthouses in the places we had decided to visit. Our daily cash budget, including accommodation, was €150 per day in Rome (2 days), €100 per day in Istanbul (2 days), €50 per day in India (23 days), and €150 per day in Edinburgh (3 days).
We therefore calculated our combined cash requirement as €2,100 for 30 days (€1,050 per person).
The estimated budget for our entire trip came to a total of €3,479. The only other cost not accounted for was our holiday insurance (€109). Adding this in makes a grand total of €3,588 (€1,794 per person).
How Our Plan Played Out
This, then, was our plan. Quite an eclectic mix of destinations and cultures. Our itinerary was pretty well worked out, with some flexibility around halfway through. We traveled from February through to the middle of March, covering just over 20,000 kms.
So how did we actually get on?
Check out our related articles. We discovered plenty of useful and current information on the practicalities of travelling around India: Guesthouse recommendations, places to avoid, overland travel tips and some great places to eat.
It was a bumpy ride, but well worth the admission price.
If you enjoyed our India Travel Plan, check out our other Tropical Travel Plans. You may also like:
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